Wednesday, May 30, 2007



The NZ Listener

This is my favourite NZ magazine and it seems to me the latest issue is filled with especially interesting pieces.

Lengthy book reviews by David Larsen (Jim Crace's The Pesthouse) and David Eggleton (Cultural Amnesia by Clive James), a nice tribute to Auckland Writers & Readers Festival director Jill Rawnsley, Joanne Black on Tintin, a great cover story on NZ art and heaps more.

But having said all that I must say that one does get sick and tired of Keith Stewart bleating on about screwcaps on wine bottles. Get over it Keith !

Along with virtually every wine consumer in New Zealand I love them - easy to open, easy to store, and best of all no more corked wine. I suspect Keith Stewart is past his use-by date, corked perhaps, and its time the Listener found a new wine correspondent.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm inclined to agree with you about Keith Stewart. Not only does he go on and on about screw caps, (get yourself into the 21st century Keith!),and wine competitions too for that matter,
but he has a handful of most favoured wine makers who get constantly written about - think Te Mata,Neudorf, Kumeu River, Dry River etc. Boring!
I reckon one of the problems with wine writers is that, unlike the rest of us, they don't have to pay for their wine,and I'm sure this influences their judgement.

Anonymous said...

Another most interesting thing in this new Listener is the Royal Society writing prize. Apparently Kim Hill is the judge. Where does she find the time for all she does?

Anonymous said...

Yes I agree about Kim, and I wonder too where Bill Manhire finds the time to do all that he manages. What great citizens they are.

Anonymous said...

"but he has a handful of most favoured wine makers who get constantly written about - think Te Mata,Neudorf, Kumeu River, Dry River etc. Boring!"

Id be happy to be "bored" by any of the above mentioned wineries!

Beattie's Book Blog said...

I was referring of course to his frequent mentioning of these wines being boring, not the wines themselves all of which I have in my cellar.