Monthly Archives: April 2015

Canberra’s Wig and Pen settles in at Llewelyn Hall

Canberra’s Wig and Pen brewpub re-opened on 12 January, even as workers finished off the brewing area. For the re-opening, owner Lachie McOmish served beers brewed before the original outlet closed on 30 October 2014 and held in cold storage.

Shortly after opening, brewing commenced at the new Llewellyn Hall site. At the same time, Tom Lillicrap headed off for post-doctoral studies, handing brewing responsibilities to Frazer Brown and assistant, Alan Ball.

From a drinker’s perspective, the Wig came through the move and brewing changes unscathed. The stock held in storage remained remarkably fresh for the opening. And the new beers brewed on site since then retain the Wig’s benchmark quality, with subtle tweaks introduced by Brown.

A preview of his coming imperial brown ale, aptly named King of the North, point to an inventive future at one of Canberra’s most congenial, civilised watering holes.

Wig and Pen Duck a l’Orange $7 half-pint
This is a variant on the Wig’s popular Duckmaloi Irish Red Ale. On its way from keg to tap, the rich, malty ale percolates through a glass cylinder (the “hopinator”) loaded with fresh orange peel and cinnamon. The appealing, pungent–fruity aroma turns to a teasing, tart, delicious orange hit on a sumptuous, mildly bitter palate.

Wig and Pen Backnow Extra Special Bitter $7 half-pint
For a time the Wig’s staff responded “not now” to requests for its sold-out Extra Special Bitter. But it’s back now and true to the English cask-conditioned, hand-pumped style: round, soft and warming on the palate with a lingering, balanced hops bitterness – the right beer for a cold winter’s night.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 28 and 29 April in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times

Wine review – Turkey Flat, Stefano Lubiana, Mitchell, Vin Vale by Shingleback and Penfolds

Turkey Flat Mataro 2014 $32
Turkey Flat vineyard, Barossa Valley, South Australia

In Spain, where it originated, this late ripening variety is known as monastrell. The French call it mourvedre. In the Barossa most winemakers know it as mataro, though mourvedre gets a nod at times. And at Turkey Flat, writes owner Christie Schulz, “We originally referred to [it] as mataro and for unknown reasons we changed to mourvedre. After several years of customers struggling with the pronunciation we have decided to revert to mataro”. The name rolls off the tongue as easily as the 2014 slips down the throat. It’s a big, jolly wine, bulging with juicy, ripe fruit flavours, with undertones of spice and earth. Fine but firm tannins complete a seductive, unique and complete red.

Stefano Lubiana Estate Chardonnay $48
Lubiana vineyard, Granton, Derwent Valley, Tasmania

In their sheer luscious drinkability, Lubiana wines reflect the loving care lavished on them by Steve and Monique Lubiana. Their latest chardonnay, from the small 2012 vintage, seamlessly combines the intense grapefruit- and nectarine-like varietal flavours of cool-grown chardonnay with the textural richness derived from spontaneous fermentation and maturation in oak barrels. Once you start drinking this wine, you simply can’t stop. The unique vineyard site, surrounded on three sides by water, lies at around 43-degrees south, just a short drive from Hobart. The Lubianas converted to organic management some years back and now follow biodynamic principles in the vineyard and winemaking. But I think it’s the loving care that really makes the difference.

Mitchell Sevenhill Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 $24.70–$27
Mitchell vineyard, Sevenhill, Clare Valley, South Australia

In a sea of soft, drink-now shiraz, high quality cabernet sauvignon stands out for its mouth-gripping tannins. It’s not a wine to drink on its own, but with high-protein food, preferably roasted or grilled beef or lamb. Protein tames the tannins, which purr across the palate, marrying with the juicy meat and wine flavours. Even after eight years, Mitchell’s elegant wine retains cabernet’s signature tannins, sufficiently tamed to enjoy with succulent red meat. It’s a lean, taut, though flavoursome style far removed from the fleshier cabernets we see from, say, Langhorne Creek.

Vin Vale by Shingleback Shiraz 2013 $13–$15
Davey Estate vineyard, Friends and Neighbours vineyard, McLaren Vale, South Australia

Vin Vale is a label exclusive to Coles. They offer it in their Liquorland, Vintage Cellars and 1st Choice outlets and, at the time of writing, Vintage Cellars at $12.99 (case price) was undercutting 1st Choice’s $13.30. Down the road, archrival Woolworths offered its equivalent Red Knot Shiraz 2013, from the same producer, at an even cheaper $12.40 as part of a six-bottle buy. From a drinker’s viewpoint, it’s a hoot to see the big guys competing away at least part of the bigger profits exclusive labels are meant to deliver. Vin Vale and Red Knot offer the rich, fruity-savoury delights of McLaren Vale shiraz at a fair price.

Mitchell Riesling 2014 $19–$22
Mitchell vineyard, Watervale, Clare Valley, South Australia

Jane and Andrew Mitchell offer a unique take on riesling, well removed from the majority of styles found on retail shelves. Andrew says, “This is our ‘natural’ wine”, fermented spontaneously to complete dryness with ambient yeasts and with no acid adjustment – a rare achievement in the warm Clare Valley. The spontaneous ferment, and several months’ maturation on spent yeast cells, mutes some of riesling’s aromatic high notes while leaving the intense, citrusy varietal flavour intact. The process also adds a deliciously rich texture to the wine. The result: a rounded mouth-caressing riesling with concentrated flavours and crisp, bone-dry finish.

Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz 2013 $35.20–$40
Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale Clare Valley and Langhorne Creek, South Australia

Bin 28, first made in 1959 from shiraz grown in Penfolds’ Kalimna vineyard in the north-western Barossa, is today a multi-region South Australian blend. While it’s less burly and chunky as a young wine than its forebears, it remains a rich, ripe and satisfying expression of warm-grown shiraz. The 2013 vintage offers particularly lovely, supple fruit flavours, reminiscent of ripe, black, cherries. It’s loaded with ripe, soft tannins which add savoury notes and a satisfying chewy texture. Our bottle remained drinkable for a week after opening, suggesting very good cellaring prospect.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 28 and 29 April 2015 in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times.

 

Wine review – Mitchell, Hay Shed Hill and Turkey Flat

Mitchell Clare Valley McNicol Riesling 2007 $35–$48
Jane and Andrew Mitchell’s McNicol riesling comes from a high-altitude Clare Valley vineyard. They write, “[it] has never been irrigated and neither herbicides nor pesticides have been used”. They say the vines “work for a living, rather than having it all handed to them” and as a result produce wine that is “simply too powerful to be released in its youth and needs time in the cellar”. The McNicol could well be the most beautiful riesling you ever try: stunningly fresh at eight years, amazingly powerful and varietal, yet mellowed by time, and with a long life still ahead.

Hay Shed Hill Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2014 $18.05–$20
Many Margaret River producers ferment and mature some or all of the components of this signature regional blend in oak barrels. The practice lends body, backbone and texture (and sometimes oak flavours) to their wines. At Hay Shed Hill winemaker Michael Kerrigan opts for a more riesling-like approach, aimed at capturing the pure varietal fruit characters of the two varieties. Fermentation of the finest cut of juice in steel tanks at low temperatures delivers a strikingly pure wine, with pungent varietal character, reminiscent of torn pea shells and fresh-mown grass.

Turkey Flat Butchers Block Shiraz Grenache Mataro 2013 $19
Turkey Flat is one of the Barossa’s must-visit vineyards, with rows of gnarled old vines planted in 1847 and a range of beautifully made estate-grown wines. Butchers Block (owner Christie Schulz’s entry-level red) combines the valley’s three signature red varieties ­­shiraz, grenache and mataro. The proportions vary each season and in 2013 shiraz leads at 48 per cent, followed by grenache (28 per cent) and mataro (24 per cent). They’ve been making this blend for a while now, so it’s a highly polished, harmonious blend presenting the lovely, sweet ripeness of the warm 2013 vintage. Fragrant, gentle, juicy, spicy and soft, it’ll put a smile on any face.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 26 April 2015 in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times.

Wine review – Penfolds, Andrew Thomas Wines, Tyrrell’s and Sapling Yard

Penfolds Bin 150 Marananga Shiraz 2012 $71.30–$80
Marananga, Barossa Valley, South Australia

Penfolds’ largely undiscovered Bin 150 demonstrates the power of shiraz grown in Marananga – a Barossa sub-region long favoured by Penfolds’ red wine makers and sometimes referred to as “Grange country”. The fifth vintage of Bin 150, from the mild 2012 season, combines rich, ripe black-cherry-like fruit flavours with deep, delicious savoury characters. Firm, fine tannins cut through the fruit, adding a satisfying textural dimension to a big but remarkably harmonious shiraz built for long-term cellaring.

Thomas Wines Elenay Shiraz 2013 $45
Lower Hunter Valley, NSW

On 18 April, Hunter winemaker Andrew Thomas released six Hunter shirazes from the highly rated 2013 vintage. The range includes several single-vineyard wines and this blend, which we tasted alongside a Tyrrell shiraz from the same vintage. Elenay’s power, ripeness and savouriness, with a lick of oak, contrasted with the more restrained Tyrrell style. We enjoyed both styles, slightly favouring the lighter Tyrrell wine, while really savouring the meatier Elenay. Thomas says the blend comprises “a few amazing barrels that are, for various reasons, ultimately left out of the single vineyard wines. “With tongue in cheek, we affectionately refer to these leftover barrels as the ‘lips’ and ‘arseholes’”, he adds.

Tyrrell’s Semillon 2014 $17–$24
Lower Hunter Valley, NSW

Tyrrell’s recently introduced three wines – chardonnay, semillon and shiraz – under a new “Hunter Valley” label. They’re drink-now expressions of its three regional specialties, priced well below the company’s flagship Vat series equivalents (Vat 47 chardonnay, Vat 1 semillon and Vat 9 shiraz). The semillon, at a modest 11.5 per-cent alcohol, displays typical regional–varietal flavours of citrus and lemongrass on a light, bone-dry palate. Where the Vat 1 generally requires years for the flavour to develop, the new release offers its fruit right now. It’s a very good version of an idiosyncratic wine style that grows on you the more you drink it.

Sapling Yard Shiraz 2013 $25
Four Winds vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW

In 2008 Carla Rodeghiero and husband Andrew Bennett planted Sapling Yard vineyard, 25 kilometres north of Braidwood. By this time, Carla, a clinical research associate, had completed her wine science degree at Charles Sturt University. While the couple wait for their vineyard to mature, Carla sources fruit from other growers and makes wine from a shed at Sapling vineyard. “I’m a garagiste”, she says. Her 2013 shiraz looked good in a masked tasting last September and impressed again recently. It’s a lighter style, with varietal flavours of red berries and pepper. Sweet mid-palate fruit and soft, easy tannins give it great drink-now appeal. Available at saplingyard.com.au, Plonk and Ainslie Cellars.

Sapling Yard Riesling 2014 $20
Ironbark vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW

Carla Rodeghiero bought riesling grapes from the tiny Ironbark vineyard at Murrumbateman and made the wine at her won vineyard, Sapling Yard, 25 kilometres north of Braidwood. She hopes to introduce wines from Sapling Yard vineyard in the near future, but meanwhile sources fruit for her label from Canberra and Tumbarumba. The riesling shows citrus-like varietal flavours on a fresh, crisp, light-bodied palate. Available at saplingyard.com.au, Plonk and Ainslie Cellars.

Penfolds Bin 51 Riesling 2014 $27.55–$30
Eden Valley, South Australia

Penfolds introduced Bin 51 in 1999, but the company’s riesling-making history stretches back many decades, and interweaves with other companies in the Treasury Wine Estates group. Like so many 2014 rieslings, Bin 51 offers a mouthful of ripe, varietal flavour rather than the austerity often seen in youngsters. A racy backbone of acidity adds even more vivacity to the fruit and provides a fresh, zingy, dry finish. All that freshness and fruit means good drinking now, but the wine now has a good cellaring record.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 21 and 22 April 2015 in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times

Wine review – Tyrrell’s and Chrismont

Tyrrell’s Hunter Valley Chardonnay 2014 $18.50–$24
Tyrrell’s new Hunter Valley range – comprising chardonnay, semillon and shiraz – gives us high quality regional specialties at keen prices. They’re already being discounted to $18.50, well below the recommended price of $24 a bottle. The first chardonnay in the range, from the excellent 2014 vintage, offers the Hunter’s generous, round varietal flavours of citrus and melon. Fermentation and maturation in French oak barriques on spent yeast cells gives the wine a pleasing textural richness and subtle spicy, nutty flavours that enhance the fruit. It all adds up to a sophisticated, easy drinking chardonnay.

Tyrrell’s Hunter Valley Shiraz 2013 $18.50–$24
Releasing his new Hunter Valley range, Bruce Tyrrell asked how important region is when Australians make wine-buying decisions. He said, “A study by Wine Intelligence found that 55 per cent of Australian wine drinkers choose region to be the number one influencer” when they decide what to buy. The same study pointed to the Hunter Valley, with three million visitors a year, as the number one region for awareness. Perhaps there’s a Sydney bias in the survey. But who cares as 2013 shiraz really captures the idiosyncratic Hunter style: limpid and medium bodied with sweet cut with savoury, spicy flavours, finishing dry and soft.

Chrismont La Zona King Valley Barbera 2012 $26
Although we associate barbera with Piedmont, it apparently bears little relationship to other long-established varieties in the region. This suggests it may be a relative newcomer to the area, say Jancis Robinson and Jose Vouillamoz in Wine Grapes. Meanwhile, the variety adapted readily to Australian conditions, including in Arnie Pizzini’s Chrismont vineyard in Victoria’s King Valley. Like the Italian originals, Pizzini’s shows the variety’s striking purple-rimmed colour. The flavour, reminiscent of summer berries, comes wrapped in earthy, savoury tannins and cut through with a pleasantly tart acidity – another distinctive barbera trait.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 18 and 19 April 2015 in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times

Wine review – Loire Valley, Peter Lehmann and Port Phillip Estate

Loire Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2013 (Aldi) $7.99
Before Marlborough upstaged it, France’s Loire Valley sat at the centre of the sauvignon universe. Montana wines planted Marlborough’s first sauvignon in 1973 and, as far as I can ascertain, its initial export to Australia was the 1979 vintage. However, the style struggled until David Hohnen’s Cloudy Bay arrived in the late eighties, though it took another decade before it really took off. Aldi imports an attractive Loire Valley version, strangely enough labelled simple by its region and variety – with no brand. Who can argue though, as this is a tasty, lean, crisp varietal. It’s different from the Kiwi versions and cheap as chips at $7.99.

Peter Lehmann Barossa Portrait Shiraz 2013 $11.95–$18
Late last year Casella Family Brands, best known for its hugely successful Yellow Tail brand, acquired Peter Lehmann Wines from Swiss Hess Group and minority shareholders, including Peter Lehmann’s widow Margaret Lehmann. The new owners will have one Barossa vintage under their belts now, so it won’t be too long before we taste their wares – though there’s little reason to expect we’ll see any difference. Meanwhile, the delicious, fruity, Portrait shiraz, from the warm and ripe 2013 vintage offers lovely drinking at a decent price. The wine’s all about ripe, juicy Barossa shiraz flavours with typically soft tannin.

Port Phillip Estate Salasso Rose 2014 $24
Like sauvignon blanc, rose shows it best when it’s fresh from the vine, with fruit in overdrive. Port Phillip Estate’s latest takes that vibrant, fresh fruitiness – in this instance the juicy flavours and softness of shiraz – then adds a slick and slippery texture that boosts the overall exuberance and juicy pleasure of the palate. Fermentation with wild yeasts in a mix of old oak barrels and concrete tanks, followed by maturation on the spent yeast cells, accounts for much of the texture. The latest vintage impressed a bunch of die-hard red-wine drinkers at a recent tasting.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 4 April 2015 in goodfood.com.au and 5 April in the Canberra Times

Wine review – Yalumba, Brown Brothers, Lark Hill, Brokenwood, AC Byrne and Second Left

Yalumba The Octavius Barossa Old Vine Shiraz 2009 $85–$112
Barossa and Eden Valleys, South Australia

Yalumba made its first Octavius in the outstanding 1990 vintage. Named for and matured in 100-litre oak octaves, coopered at Yalumba, it quickly earned the sobriquet “oaktavius”. However, Yalumba’s winemakers soon adapted to the high oak-to-wine ratio inherent in using such small barrels. Later vintages maintain a distinctive oak stamp, but in an harmonious, symbiotic way. The just-released 2009 vintage captures the power of Barossa Valley shiraz, tempered by fruit from the cooler, adjoining Eden Valley – in beautiful harmony with the oak, which seems to lift and magnify the fruit flavours. At six years it looks and tastes young and should evolve beautifully for decades to come. This is a wine of rare dimension and beauty.

Brown Brothers Ten Acres Shiraz 2012 $25–$30
Brown Brothers vineyard, Heathcote, Victoria

Yalumba Octavius, today’s wine of the week, and Brown Brothers Ten Acres, demonstrate two very different points on Australia’s remarkable shiraz spectrum. The power and richness of Octavius contrasts with the medium body, lighter colour, gentle fragrance and elegance of Ten Acres. They’re both made of shiraz. They’re utterly different in style. But both provide great drinking pleasure. Ten Acres appeals for its pure, sweet berry flavours, spice, and fine-grained tannins that all sit so lightly and tastily on the palate.

Lark Hill Viognier 2014 $25
Dark Horse vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW

In August 2011 Lark Hill’s Carpenter family purchased the 3.6-hectare Dark Horse vineyard at Murrumbateman. The purchase secured supplies of shiraz and viognier, varieties they are unable to ripen on the high, cool Lark Hill vineyard on the Lake George escarpment. While some of the viognier goes into a shiraz–viognier blend, the Carpenters make an attractive, fairly full-bodied dry white from the variety. The 2014 vintage, partly oak fermented, provides soft and gentle drinking – a round, smooth wine, with subtle apricot- and ginger-like varietal flavour and slightly viscous texture. People either love or loathe this distinctive wine style.

Brokenwood Latara Vineyard Semillon 2009 $55
Latara vineyard, lower Hunter Valley, NSW

Brokenwood’s lovely, maturing Latara vineyard semillon demonstrates the staying power of this distinctive style and the great benefit to drinkers of the screw cap. The fate of older cork-sealed wines rests on the individual cork in every bottle. Will the cork taint the wine? Will oxygen break the cork barrier and degrade the wine? You never know until you open the bottle. And if there’s low-live oxidation and you have only one bottle you may never know the wine could’ve been much better. Our screw-capped Latara still showed a glowing, green-tinted lemon colour and great vitality and freshness. Yet the richer flavours of bottle age gently swelled the mid-palate of this lemongrass-like, glorious six year old.

AC Byrne Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2014 $9.99
Margaret River, Western Australia

Recent analysis of Australian retailing suggests Aldi’s continued growth will like force significantly lower margins on Woolworths and Coles. We’ll all welcome lower prices of course. And we can glimpse in the quality-to-price ratio of the two Aldi brands reviewed today, just what the bigger players are up against. AC Byrne semillon sauvignon blanc sits comfortably around the bronze medal mark – a rating earned in several wine shows. The rating indicates a fault free wine displaying all the main characteristics of its category. In this case a bright, fresh, medium-bodied dry white with the grassy, herbal and citrus tang of this classic Western Australian blend.

Second Left Cabernet Merlot 2013 $8.99
Eden Valley, South Australia

The Eden Valley sits on the Mount Lofty Ranges, immediately north of the Adelaide Hills. It forms the eastern boundary of the slightly warmer Barossa Valley. Together, the two regions form the Barossa Zone. In general reds from the cooler Eden Valley are a little more elegant and refined than their Barossa counterparts. Aldi’s foray into Eden produced this fragrant, medium-bodied, deliciously fruity cabernet–merlot blend of fine tannins and elegant structure. It’s significantly better than you’d expect for nine bucks – exactly the perception Aldi wants us to have.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 31 March 2015 in goodfood.com.au and 1 April 2015 in the Canberra Times

2015: Canberra’s big, beautiful vintage

One of Canberra’s earliest, biggest, shortest and potentially most beautiful vintages peaked in late March. By month’s end, only a rump of cooler, higher vineyards, late-ripening varieties and grapes destined for dessert wines remained to be picked.

Late on Saturday 21 March, Murrumbateman winemaker Ken Helm rang the old cellar-door bell, signalling vintage end. He’d just harvested the usually late-ripening cabernet sauvignon. “It’s the earliest vintage in my 39 years here. It’s also our biggest crush, and the winery’s full”, said Helm.

Helm believes 2015, “has outdone even 2013. It ticked every box and is the best across all varieties. If we get a better vintage than this, I’ll be very, very surprised. It’s a cracker”.

Like other winemakers in the area, Helm struggled to process an unending stream of fruit. “Our biggest problem was tanks”, he said. But daughter Stephanie and husband Ben Osborne, owners of nearby Yass Valley Wines, helped with the overflow.

Hall’s Allan Pankhurst completed harvest the same day as Helm, bringing in tempranillo and sangiovese a couple of weeks earlier than usual. Christine Pankhurst said, “everything was ripening at the same time this year, so everyone’s been stretched”.

In most vintages, a gap in ripening times for different varieties gives winemakers time to clear fermenters between batches. But, says Allan Pankhurst, the compressed vintage filled cellars to overflowing – and a few neighbours borrowed half-tonne grape bins for their ferments.

Pankhurst rates 2015 “a bit better than 2013”, with high quality across the board and, for him, “tempranillo and pinot noir the standouts”.

He says, “We knew it would be an early vintage because flowering and veraison [the point where grapes begin to soften and ripen] were both two weeks early. We also expected a compact vintage because the late ripeners, sangiovese and tempranillo, went through veraison at the same time as the earlier ripening varieties”.

But the season produced its nervous moments. At Lerida Estate, Lake George, Jim Lumbers described going, “From despair to ecstasy. Rain and warm weather in January set up conditions for bunch rot. But the rain stopped and the weather slowly got sunnier and sunnier. Despite forecasts of rain, the weather remained clear”.

Despite good yields and high fruit quality, the vintage became something of an ordeal, said Lumbers, when everything ripened at once. He said, “We’ve had very late nights, our capacity has been stretched but coping. We’ve been picking and processing every day with no breaks”.

By 21 March, most of Lerida’s fruit was in the vat. Lumbers expected to pick cabernet franc on 23 and 24 March, shiraz in the first week of April and pinot gris for dessert wine around mid-April.

Lumbers expected the 2015 harvest to equal that of 2008, the biggest on record to date. Quality, too, is very good, especially the “dramatic, wonderful, clean” merlot and “spectacular” cabernet franc.

At Mount Majura wines, Frank van de Loo reported an early vintage with overall crops a little above estimates. Chardonnay came in lower than expected, but riesling yielded around nine tonnes to the hectare, well over the targeted yield of seven tonnes.

The compact harvest meant a frantic time in the winery, said van de Loo. While the whites, pinot noir, cabernet franc and merlot had all been harvested by 21 March, tempranillo and shiraz picking was to begin on 22 March and progress according to ripeness.

Van de Loo notes great colour and flavours resulting from the mild season, and a good balance of sugar and acidity.

Good volumes allow for a little staff experimentation, said van de Loo. The cellar-door crew crushed pinot gris on 21 March. Towards the end of fermentation, they’ll add a little red wine, then bottle the blend and allow it to complete fermentation – creating a naturally carbonated rose.

With a big pinot noir crop on hand, van de Loo is conducting a trial, based on Tasmanian research. He’ll produce a control pinot using traditional techniques, including extended maceration on skins. In a trial batch, to be compared with the traditional one, the skins will be cut, thus reducing the maceration time required to extract colour, tannin and flavour. The reduced maceration time should, in theory at least, reduce the extraction of hard tannins from the seeds, resulting in a smoother wine.

At Four Winds Vineyard, Murrumbateman, winemaker Bill Crowe praised, “The best fruit I’ve seen in the four years I’ve been here. It’s looking fantastic. Shiraz looks better than ever and it’s very clean. Riesling is as good as ever”. He added, “It’s a heavier crop than standard, despite dropping fruit”. (Winemakers often cut fruit from the vine to encourage complete ripening of the remainder).

Crowe expected all varieties to be in the winery by 20 March, with the exception of sangiovese, due for harvest between early and mid April. He anticipated crushing 57 tonnes this year (up from 10 tonnes four years ago), enabled by a crowd-funded winery expansion, “which we’ve maxed out once already, with more to come this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday [18–20 March]”.

Neil McGregor of Yarrh Wines, Murrumbateman, observed high quality and bigger volumes across all varieties. Sangiovese set a large crop and required fruit thinning around Christmas. But the other varieties ripened large crops with no need for thinning.

For Yarrh it’s a good year to double production of riesling and shiraz for its own label, reduce its push into exports and ramp up sale of fruit to other growers. “The big makers are buying as the fruit is fantastic”, said McGregor.

At Brindabella Hills, Hall, Roger Harris notes a “most amazing vintage. It arrived several weeks early, creating havoc organising picking. Vintage came all of a sudden, and it all ripened together. It was tight in the winery but we had just enough room for the last few pickings.

At 21 March, only small batches of grenache, cabernet franc and whites for dessert wine remained in Brindabella’s vineyard.

Graeme Shaw of Shaw Vineyards Estate, Murrumbateman, said he hadn’t seen shiraz better than the 50 tonnes harvested this year, nor had he seen better merlot. Shaw was due to harvest nine hectares of cabernet sauvignon on 25 and 26 March. Provided, the rain held off, Shaw anticipated very high quality. He called 2015 a disease-free year.

High up on the Lake George escarpment Lark Hill’s Sue Carpenter reported, “Spectacular fruit in both vineyards”. The Carpenters own the Lark Hill vineyard (Canberra’s highest, peaking at around 860 metres) and the warmer Dead Horse vineyard, Murrumbateman. Harvest had yet to commence in either vineyard, Carpenter said. So that’s a story for another day.

Nick O’Leary makes wine up on the escarpment, but sources most fruit from Murrumbateman, plus parcels from the old Westering vineyard, Lake George and Forest Hill, near Bungendore.

O’Leary described the vintage as excellent overall and probably, “The best red and white season combined that I’ve seen”. He processed 125 tonnes in a non-stop three weeks, up 40 per cent on normal. “Shiraz is some of the best I’ve seen”, he said.

Like other makers, O’Leary observed healthy, plump, juicy grapes, properly ripened, with no signs of shrivel. In turned this mean generally trouble-free, complete ferments. Healthy vine canopies, resulting from adequate ground moisture and mild temperatures accounts for much of this.

O’Leary is increasing production to satisfy growing demand for Canberra wines in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne. Trade support in Canberra is the best he’s ever seen, said O’Leary.

By 21 March, Collector Wines had everything in the vat. Winemaker Alex McKay said quality is outstanding and “this is most obvious in the reds, though there’s a lot of good riesling. The best vintage to date has been 2013. But 2015 is up there and may be better”.

McKay said for the first time many growers achieved big crops but not at the expense of quality. While very good weather conditions helped, he believes Canberra has experienced a general overall improvement in vineyard management, fruit handling and winemaking.

At Capital Wines, Murrumbateman, winemaker Andrew McEwin, “Used every fermentation vessel” in a compressed and early vintage. He observed healthy, well-swollen grapes with good flavours and excellent balance of sugar and acidity. Shiraz from his old vines and merlot in particular are outstanding, he said.

Bryan Martin makes wine at Clonakilla, Murrumbateman for both the Clonakilla and his own Ravensworth label. Vintage was nearing an end by 21 March, with cabernet sauvignon, grenache, a small amount of shiraz and a few bits and pieces to go.

Martin reported big volumes – sufficient to fill Clonakilla’s greatly expanded winery – and very high quality, healthy fruit across the varieties. He said Clonakilla was making much more riesling and sauvignon blanc this year to meet increasing demand.

We can also look forward to several quirky 2015 experimental wines from Martin – another story for another day.

Our final word on Canberra’s 2015 vintage comes from veteran winemaker, Greg Gallagher of Gallagher Wines, Murrumbateman, “I think this is the best vintage I’ve done in this district”.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published:

  • 25 March 2015 in goodfood.com.au
  • 1 April the Canberra Times Wine and Food Magazine