Monthly Archives: October 2009

Beer review — 3 Ravens and Rogue

7 October 2009Beer reviewChris Shanahan

3 Ravens 55 American Pale Ale 330ml $4.50
Apologies to Edgar Allan Poe – Once upon a midnight drear, I snapped the cap of this beaut beer, from the Ravens Brewing Co of Thornbury, Victoria: Dense white foam, typical of fresh, bottle-conditioned beer; high-toned, citrus-like hops aroma; opulent, malty, fruity palate cut with zesty, fresh, bitter hops.

Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar 650ml $16.50
I’m blockading an Aldi hazelnut chocolate addiction with Rogue’s idiosyncratic brew. It’s luxuriously malty and chocolaty with an echo of hazelnut, a lick of sweetness, a bitter hops twist and a care-banishing alcohol content of 6.2 per cent. It’s from Newport, Oregon, USA, and available from Plonk, Fyshwick.

Wig & Pen releases its first bottled beer

7 October 2009BeerChris Shanahan

Canberra’s Wig & Pen Pub Brewery recently released its first bottled beer, Kembrey Regional Ale, after sixteen years serving only draft beer, brewed on-premise.

It sounds simple enough. But in fact it’s a major step presenting significant risks because fresh beer is the best beer. The passage of time, and every step away from the fermentation vessel – including packaging, transportation, handling, storage, and service – increases the risk of spoilage. For tiny brewers like the Wig, the move from fermentation vessel to keg to tap to the customer’s glass is about as efficient and low risk as beer service gets.

Bottling beer is fraught with risks for small brewers, required the right equipment and meticulous attention to detail. Brewer Richard Watkins says that after much research he and owner Lachlan McOmish decided to work with the De the Bortoli family’s Red Angus brewery, Griffith.

Richard made and bottled Kembrey Ale in Griffith with Red Angus brewer, Neil Cameron.

It’s now available at the Wig & Pen for $4 a 330ml bottle, $19 a 6-pack and $68 for a case of 24. Richard says they’ll brew and bottle a few more batches before stepping up production and cautiously expanding distribution.

Lesson for Canberra winemakers — always put your best foot forward

7 October 2009WineChris Shanahan

A couple of weeks back well-known author James Halliday rated 13 Canberra wines among his top 100 in New South Wales. Buoyed by this, our local vignerons threw a dinner at the members’ dining room in old parliament house. The dinner paired flights of the Halliday 13, plus a ring-in from Hilltops, with food prepared by Janet Jeffs’ Ginger Catering – the ingredients coming from Canberra and surrounding regions.

Halliday’s top 13 unsurprisingly emphasised the strength of Canberra shiraz, which accounted for five of the thirteen wines. Surprisingly, until you enquire into conditions of entry, sauvignon blanc and blends (three wines) outscored riesling (two wines). And cabernet sauvignon, sangiovese and one dessert riesling earned one spot each on the elite list.

The glaring omission from the list is Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier 2008. On form it ought to have held number one spot in Canberra. And Halliday’s 97-point rating for it in his Australian Wine Companion 2010 should, in theory, put it as NSW’s top red, one point ahead of Collector Canberra District Reserve 2007 and Tulloch ‘Hector’ of Glen Elgin Limited Release Hunter Shiraz 2005.

The omission of so many of our top rieslings and the Clonakilla shiraz, though, gets back to quantity-based entry conditions, not skulduggery or inconsistency. It simply underlines the limitations of any rating system – and especially one endorsed, seemingly, by the NSW Government and the inherent pressure to spread the goodies around the regions.

While minimum quantity requirements ensure that drinkers have access to the winners, they skew the results for a small region like Canberra. The dinner would unquestionably haft lifted another few notches had we seen more riesling and our only (to date) red legend.

For Clonakilla’s Shiraz Viognier is to Canberra shiraz what Grange is to Penfolds – the halo over our region; the sizzle at our barbecue. And even if we make a handful of half decent sauvignon blancs and blends, they’re about knee high in quality and interest to our rieslings.

What this says to our vignerons is by all means harness third-party endorsement like Halliday’s, but don’t let it drive your agenda totally. You all know what out best wines are. So have the confidence to run with them. A showcase is just that; it shouldn’t hold any also-rans.

For the price of a dozen Clonakilla and the confidence to nudge the sauvignon blanc and blends aside with rieslings, we could’ve had a really stunning Canberra line up. Oh, and one last quibble, what was a shiraz from the Hilltops region doing in a Canberra line-up? It’s another beautiful Clonakilla wine anointed by Halliday, but it ain’t from Canberra.

A high point of the dinner was the grand setting – pre-dinner drinks in the members bar then an ‘oh, wow’ moment as the doors rolled back for us to surge into the members dining area.

We left the bar with a little sadness though, as only two of the five canapés had come our way and only one of the two rieslings. The Helm Classic 2008 is a favourite and we savoured it. But we would’ve loved another taste of the Wallaroo 2008, a delicious drop from Hall.

The well thought out menu produced a few gems: the simple pleasure of Gingerbread Bakery sourdough dunked in fresh, peppery, piquant Homeleigh Grove Olive Oil, from Hall (see www.homeleighgroveolives.com.au); and a mouth watering fricassee of Lake Bathurst rabbit, roasted root vegetables, Jerusalem artichokes and cardamom jus.

The latter came with three contrasting reds – the big, ripe, needs-more-bottle-age Lerida Estate Shiraz Viognier 2007; the sublimely elegant Clonakilla O’Riada Shiraz 2008 and the spicy, tangy Collector Reserve Shiraz 2007.

Another three shirazes followed, tastily matched with Wyntrade lamb shoulder (www.wyntradelamb.com.au) and smoked, semi-dried tomato and mushroom ragout: Capital Wines The Frontbencher Shiraz 2007, an outstanding medium bodied style with distinctive firm, tight, tannin structure and great cellaring future; the perfumed, sumptuous and soft Clonakilla Hilltop Shiraz 2008 (but why, oh why was it at this dinner?); and a fading Four Winds Vineyard Shiraz 2005.

The final course put three Small Cow Farm cheeses (Robertson, NSW – www.smallcowfarm.com) alongside the bright but savoury and dry Ravensworth Sangiovese 2008; the austere Yarrh Wines Cabernet Sauvignon 2006; and the marvellously intense, fine, brisk and sweet Lark Hill Auslese Riesling 2008, from our district’s highest vineyard.

From this and other tastings it’s clear that 2008 was a great vintage for Canberra for both red and white wines. And because they’re available in greater quantities than the frost devastated 2007s, they should be more easily accessible. The 2008 whites, released for the most part last year, are now running down, but the reds are just coming into the market and will be worth pursuing.

The connection between local wines and food, too, is strong. It’s a passionate theme for Janet Jeffs, but that’s a story for another day.

Wine review — Nick O’Leary, Lerida Estate and Capital Wines

4 October 2009Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Nick O’Leary Canberra District Riesling 2009 $24
Nick O’Leary Canberra District Shiraz 2008 $28
In Canberra recently, Wolf Blass sunk the boot into Hardys, suggesting they contributed nothing before departing the local wine scene. What Wolfie didn’t say was that Hardys won the ‘champion wine’ trophy (for shiraz) at the local show in both 2005 and 2006, generated the planting of some of our leading vineyards and left behind two accomplished winemakers, Alex McKay and Nick O’Leary. Hardy’s contribution was pivotal to the Canberra District we know today. And without Hardys we wouldn’t have young Nick O’Leary’s delicious, fine-boned shiraz, nor his beautiful, crisp, delicate, dry riesling. These are absolutely top-notch, fairly priced wines.

Lerida Estate Lake George Shiraz Viognier 2007 $38.50, Pinot Gris 2009 $28, Botrytis Pinot Gris 2008 375ml $24.50
Jim Lumbers and Anne Caine originally set their sights on pinot noir as Lerida’s flagship variety. But shiraz, in tandem with the white viognier, pretty quickly left pinot in its dust, demonstrating just how well suited it is to our district. The latest release, a gold medallist at the recent Canberra Regional Wine Show, sits at the bigger, riper end of the regional style at around fifteen per cent alcohol. But the deep, vibrant varietal fruit gobbles up the alcohol, leaving a juicy, elegant medium bodied red to enjoy over the next decade. The pinot gris is fine, dry and thickly textured; and the gold-medal-winning sticky is a dessert in itself.

Capital Wines Canberra District The Whip Riesling 2009 $18, The Senator Chardonnay 2008 $ 22
These are big-value offerings from Capital Wines, the joint venture between the Mooney and McEwin families – the Mooneys looking after viticulture and marketing while Andrew McEwin makes the wine. The delicate, intensely flavoured dry riesling (a gold medallist at the 2009 Canberra Regional Show) comes mainly from a Gundaroo vineyard planted to the Geisenheim clone by the Mooneys in 2001 and subsequently sold to the Lamberts. The chardonnay comes, smartly rebadged under the new venture, is one of a long line to come from the Kyeema Vineyard, Murrumbatemen. There are plenty of clever winemaking inputs, but the core flavour is intense, melon-like varietal fruit.