About Me

Darby Higgs is a web author with an interest in wine and food. His major sites are at Vinodiversity and Albarino to Zinfandel

His lenses are an exploration of social  bookmarking/web 2.0 using some of his interests.

Tripe recipes

Many of us in the baby-boomer generation were introduced to this glorius food in the form of tripe and onions in white sauce. In fact this was the only way our mums knew how to cook it. Most of those who were forced to try it were turned off, and prob...

Copycat recipes for home cooked "restaurant meals"

Going out to McDonalds or to Burger King can be an expensive business, especially if you have a few kids with you. There is an alternative though.  You can make your favourite dishes yourself. You will be surprised how easy it is to cook great me...

Refillable wine bottles

If you are a regular, and thoughtful, wine drinker you realise that your habit will be causing the production, transport and disposal or reuse of tons of glass every year. Well maybe not tons, but lots. This lens helps you look at how you might reduce...

Women Wine Writers on the Web

Just a few short decades ago wine journalism was a male domain. Then along comes  a few pioneers like Jancis Robinson and the world turns. Here you will find a few of my favourite books, Blogs (coming) newsletters (coming) lenses and other bits an...

Albarino to Zinfandel : food pairing for new varietal wines

When planning a meal at home or just choosing a wine at a restaurant you inevitably come to the question "which wine goes with this food?" I like to turn this question around and ask What food goes with this wine? There are some general g...

New York State versus Affiliates

There is a legal wrangle going on at the moment between Amazon.com and New York State that has much wider implications for anybody who earns money from affiliate marketing anywhere. I live in Melbourne, Australia but I see this cause problems for my...

How to supercharge your lens

Getting links to your lens from outside Squidoo is an important part of  promoting your ideas or products. Here is a strategy you can use to leverage your efforts and those of the squidoo community to build traffic . The Squidoo world is still a...

Tannat: The Healthiest Wine Ever

It contains lots of straight-chain B-type oligomeric procyanidins (OPCs) that are great for your heart and arteries. Tannat is the red wine variety used in the Madiran appellation in South West France where heart disease is very low despite a diet ric...

Vintage 2007

One of the charms of wine is that every vintage is different, even every wine is different. True wine lovers (not wine snobs) look for differences. That's what makes wine such a wonderful thing to talk about, to taste and to enjoy. Well made wines will...

Wine Events in Australia

There's always another wine festival around the corner. Aussies are great lovers of all types of events, sporting, cultural but most of all festivals.  There are so many to choose from. Maybe you are planning a holiday in Australia and would lik...

Australian Wine Vintage 2008

Every vintage is different for grapegrowers and winemakers. Many problems beset the 2007 vintage in Australia, but the prospects for 2008 look better. Below you will find some news about how things are unfolding in 2008 in some of Australia's wine r...

Australian Organic Vineyards

Every year more and more Australian vineyards are switching over to organic practices.  Even those who are not seeking formal Organic Certification are adopting minimal intervention farming practices. At the same time consumers are looking for mo...

Make money from your hobby

Everybody knows something about something. And someone else wants to know that something as well. You can make money from your hobby. It's not rocket science. This is what you need to do * pinpoint what you know, * find out who else wants to know...

Prevent article piracy

Writing articles for the web is an effective way to bring more traffic to your site. You write the article, you include a link in the author's info box, you submit it to article distributors and it gets reproduced with a link back to your site. You...

Strange loops

The world according to Douglas R Hofstadter. What is a Strange Loop? Strangely Wikipedia defines strange loop in terms of Hofstadter   ...A strange loop arises when, by moving up or down through a hierarchical system, one finds oneself back where...

Riesling revival

This noble white wine variety is undergoing a renaissance. After decades of scorn by many wine lovers it is regaining the reputation it deserves.

Geoff Achison: The Best Guitarist Ever

Just listen to him. Acoustic or electric, solo or with his various Souldigger bands. Blues plus

Granite belt wine region

The Granite Belt Wine region in Southern Queensland is in a highland region where vineyards are typically at 800-1000m altitude. The winters are bracingly cold where sub-zero overnight temperatures are the norm. Summer days are hot but tempered by co...

Wine Art

Enjoying wine needs a good atmosphere. You can enhance the ambiance of a room with a few well chosen art pieces. This lens gives you a few options and ideas. How can you use them in your bar, dining room or cellar. Even my friend Marcello at right c...

My Wine Century

How many different wine varieties have you tried? It's amazing  how many varieties of grapes are used to make wine.  Five or ten thousand, depending on who you read, and that's not counting clones.  I find it a topic of never ending fas...

Retirement

A few people have said they enjoyed my Vinodiversity page on retirement.  I was surprised at the interest. So I decided to do a little web research on the topic and I was struck by how empowering the internet has been in empowering people, espec...

James Halliday Australian Wine Companion: The Best Wine-guide Ever

This guide is the most complete and authrative guide to Australian wine regions, wineries and wines with tasting notes of the best 5000 Australian wines.

Wine Tasting

Wine tasting actually involves four of our senses. We are interested in the color, the aroma and the flavor and feel of the wine in the mouth. The aim of any wine tasting session is to   evaluate the wine's quality and value determine if the wine...

Low Fat Recipe Secrets

Coming soon, some copycat recipes which will allow you to make meals similar to those at your favourite restaurants, but without the calories or the price tag!

Home Business Tools

The internet has opened enormous possibilities for home based business.  The choices are overwhelming, both for the beginner and the old hand alike.  This lens will give you some pointers, ideas and cautions; it's a jungle out there and you...

Gift baskets

We all love to give and receive gifts, but choosong something for a special person, or a special occasion can sometimes be a worry. This lens aims to inspire you to fine sOMETHING SPECIAL for you to give as a gift to give to SOMEONE SPECIAL.