After resisting the temptation for years I finally hooked up to the internet and in a very short while I've become a great fan, not least of all due to the considerable wealth of wine-related resources available. Wine web sites abound, included among them are inter/national and regional pages, encyclopedias, libraries, tasting notes, wine sales, wine e-zines and chat groups. The list is endless and access is generally free.

The avid wine surfer can spend hours staring cross-eyed as megabytes of diverse information scroll across the screen. Much of this information is accurate, some is slightly flawed; a fraction is from the fifth astral plane. Consequently the wine surfer needs to be discerning, to separate the cask product from the top shelf that is. So, open a bottle, fire up the booze browser and I'll take you on a brief tour of tested wine sites.

First stop is the University of Pennsylvania, at www.upenn.edu/museum/wine/wineintro.html , for the history of wines of the Neolithic period, Egypt and Mesopotamia. Next, the internationalist can visit the Port Wine Institute at www.ivp.pt/uk/default.htm ; the Spanish Wine Page at www.jrnet.com/vino/index.html ; Californian wine at www.winetoday.com , and Bordeaux wine at www.vins-bordeaux.fr/civb/english/accueil.html . Two Australian sites worth a look are Tasmanian Wineries and Vineyards at www.42south.com/taswines , and Western Australia Wine at www.wawine.com.au .

For thousands of wine links try Wines Beers and Spirits of the Net at www.ryerson.ca/~dtudor/wine.htm ; TBM's Wine Links at www.bboxbbs.ch/home/tbm/index.htm , or Vine2wine at www.vine2wine.com . Take part in fairly serious wine discussion at the newsgroup, alt.food.wine or, to purchase web wine, have your credit card ready for the somewhat pricey real-time, on-line wine auction at www.ebay.com . And for books try the highly recommended BookFinder at www.bookfinder.com , in my opinion the only tool for seekers after hard to find wine books.

The Internet Guide to Wine and Frequently Asked Questions, at sbwines.silcom.com/usenet_winefaq, will solve your wine trivia problems, while Strat's Place offers general wine quotes and tasting notes at www.stratsplace.com . And lastly, for a good read of wine writing with attitude visit Wine X Magazine, at www.winexwired.com . For mainstream, well-written articles on wines of the world the Wine Spectator at www.winespectator.com/wine/spectator , is hard to beat.

Masterclass riesling

Highlight of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in March was the masterclass, "Riesling Renaissance", presented by German winemaker Dr Ernst Loosen. Dr Loosen presented for tasting a series of rieslings from his 200-year-old estate, a property which comprises a tiny 11.5 hectares of vineyards scattered over 15 kilometres along the river Mosel. His hand-made wines originate from ungrafted vines grown on steeply sloped, slaty soil, a difficult landscape which in Australia would hardly be considered worth planting.

Due to the region's very cool climate the ripening of grapes is a long and torturous affair. Consequently the finished wines, although late picked, are quite low in alcohol, only seven to eight and a half per cent in content. "How did you get the alcohol out?" asked a group of astonished Italian winemakers visiting the good doctor recently.

In these trying viticultural conditions some of Dr Loosen's wines are rare indeed. One, the wonderful Urziger Wurzgarten Beerenauslese 1995, began life as a 1000 litre cask of individually selected, shrivelled, botrytised grapes. After the grapes were pressed they were fermented for over six months on wild yeasts, producing in total a miserly 150 bottles. The result is a pale gold and viscous wine redolent of honey and spiced apple - a privilege to taste. Other wines at the Dr Loosen tasting, despite their low alcohol and delicacy, exhibited intense varietal flavours, and acidity skilfully balanced against high but non-intrusive levels of residual grape sugars.

Heard it on the E-vine

Jenny, who suffers from sulphur-induced allergy, asks if preservative free wines are available. Sulphur dioxide is a preservative used in winemaking, consequently most commercial reds, whites and sparklers contain sulphur in some quantity. One exception is the Hardys No Preservatives Added label which features both a cabernet sauvignon and a chardonnay. Another source of non-sulphured dry red and white is the Mudgee label, Botobolar, from organic winemaker Gil Wahlquist. It should be noted that preservative free wines are not designed for long-term cellaring and ought to be consumed within a couple of years of vintage. For information relating to American wineries supplying organic and sulphur free wines check out the Organic Wines site at wine.miningco.com/msub_organic.htm.

© Martin Field