Yearly Archives: 2007

Grape and grain together — Saltram Pepperjack Ale

Beer, Beer review

A few years back Saltram Barossa Valley winemaker Nigel Dolan rang his brewing mate Brad Rogers. Could they get together on a brewing project, Nigel wondered?

By mid 2006 they’d commenced trial brews at Matilda Bay’s Dandenong brewery. But there were some tricks to incorporating shiraz into beer making. And, admits Brad, ‘we buggered a few up of them up’ before hitting on the right formula.

In February this year the pair completed the first commercial batch of Saltram Pepperjack Ale – a fruity, pungently hoppy beer containing a good dollop of 2007 vintage Barossa shiraz juice, added as concentrate towards the end of the boil.

The concentrate accounted for about one third of the brew’s fermentable sugars and contributed subtly to its colour and crisp acidity.

Nigel believes that the natural grape acids account, in part, for the beer’s crispness and lifts the fruity notes contributed by Amarillo hops – an assertive component of the ale.

Saltram Pepperjack Handcrafted Ale 330ml 6-pack $17.99
There’s Barossa shiraz in the brew, but does it look or taste like wine? Apart from a faint redness to the hue and a slight acid tang on the palate, the answer’s no. But it’s a wonderfully fruity ale with a keynote of resinous, bitter, Amarillo hops and a truly dry, refreshing finish.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2007

Wine review — Helm & Teusner

Wine review

Helm Canberra District Classic Dry Riesling 2007 $25
A perverse season of drought and frost reduced Ken Helm’s 2007 crush by two thirds. There’ll be no Premium riesling (‘frost destroyed the crop’, writes Ken) and it was only an intense search around Murrumbateman that allowed Ken to make any riesling at all. And it’s a ripper — a winner of bronze, silver and gold medals in the Winewise, Cowra and Melbourne shows respectively. It has a brilliant, green-tinted, pale-lemon colour and tremendous volume of ripe varietal aroma and flavour – more than you usually see in riesling this young. But the flavour volume doesn’t come at the expense of fresh. This is as crisp and youthful as they come. Released in October.

Teusner Barossa Valley Joshua 2006 $24 & Avatar 2005 $30
Kym Teusner is one of the adventurous young Barossa makers mentioned in a recent column. He went straight from Uni to winemaking at Torbreck in 2001 and started making his own wines in 2002. Kym focuses on reds made from the Barossa’s time-proven specialties – shiraz, mourvedre (aka mataro) and grenache – sourced principally from around Ebenezer and Moppa at the northern end of the Valley. Joshua and Avatar are grenache-dominant blends – the former completely unoaked and offering a musky-savoury purity in a soft but still grippy red-wine frame.  Avatar brings the added dimension of oak maturation – an attractive charry note plus a greater buoyancy and all round velvety generosity on the palate.

Teusner Barossa Valley Albert 2005 $45
& The Riebke Ebenezer Road Shiraz 2006 $20
Kym Teusner owns no winery and no vineyard. Instead he sources grapes from ‘people I can have a drink with down the pub and do business with on a handshake. It’s all about a sense of community’, he says. Albert and The Riebke show two different faces of Barossa shiraz. The Riebke, from the Ebenezer sub-district, shows the fragrant, vibrant, purity of young shiraz. It’s plump and soft and approachable now, though by no means without a future. It’s a bargain. Albert shows the spicier, more serious side of shiraz, with a charry-oak note adding complexity to the aroma. It’s generous and layered in a big and tender Barossa way. See www.teusner.com.au

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2007

Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon 1998 — a report card

Wine, Wine review

You read the vintage hype, stash a few boxes away and now, a decade on, comes the moment of truth. Do your treasured 1998 Coonawarra cabernets measure up to the excitement surrounding the vintage?

It was a warmer than average season in the region, producing sturdier reds than usual. This prompted a 1998s-are-atypical critique, followed a year later by an I-told-you-so as the 1999s reverted to a more traditional regional elegance.

This was all reminiscent of the still running debate on the robust-1990 reds versus the elegant 1991s. No one likes a dry argument, of course, so two weeks back a group of us lined up fourteen 1998 Coonawarra cabernets taken from two comparable Canberra cellars. Here’s our report card.

The tasting revealed something of the vintage, the worth of cellaring, the merits of different winemaking approaches (especially in the use of oak), the effects of vineyard practice on wine quality and the at times surprising individual differences in perception of the same wine.

To remove bias we served the wines masked and made our initial judgement in silence for a period before opening the discussion. This parallels the wine show system where judges see only numbered glasses and score each wine without reference to the other judges.

Why the silence? Well, it’s so easy to be swayed by comments, especially coming from big shots in the game. So, it’s heads down, shut up and make your own call – there’s plenty of time to talk later.

And that’s what judges do after assessing a class of wines. They compare scores and decide on an aggregate for each wine – but not on those with a gold-medal score from any of the three judges.

This recognises that different palates taste different things. The judges now call for fresh glasses of all the potential gold medallists and reappraise them with refreshed palates. Some wines fall across the line for gold, others slip back to silver or bronze or no-medal scores.

In our more casual Coonawarra tasting, instead of doing the potential-gold re-taste we took the bottles to dinner afterwards for a little sip – always so much better than the sniff, sip, spit of a tasting.

While the report card below is my own, it takes into account, second impressions over dinner and some of the comments made by the other tasters.

For the record, the other judges were David Farmer, wine merchant, Bryan Martin, winemaker and wine judge, Peter Gill, restaurateur and caterer, Robert Forbes, long-term industry friend and Jennifer Graham, wine marketing and sales representative.

Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1998
A solid varietal expression looking young for its nine years, scored silver in my books, but didn’t receive universal support.

Koppamurra Cabernet Sauvignon 1998
This one’s a ring-in from Wrattonbully, just north and east of the Coonawarra boundary. Scored gold initially because of its exceptional fruit concentration but backed off after a few sips because of slight bitterness. Brian Croser (ex Petaluma) now owns this vineyard in his new Tapanappa venture.

Petaluma Coonawarra 1998
An elegant wine with years ahead of it. I placed it in the middle of the pack initially, but it looked better and better in the post-tasting sip – a very good sign. I suspect the bottle was slightly oxidised, probably a cork failing.

Redmans Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 1998
This was another of the elegant styles, quite mature to my taste, though rated very highly by Farmer. A lovely drink but I wouldn’t be keeping it much longer.

Rouge Homme Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 1998
The only cork-tainted wine in the line up. It was still clearly varietal but the colour suggested advanced age. Bring on the screw caps.

Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon 1998
A very powerful wine in all departments – masses of rich fruit with oak to match. I’m not a fan of the oak, but it drank well despite this and will live on for many, many years.

Mildara Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 1998
One of the weaker wines in the line up, scored middling at first, but it’s a little lean and has an unappealing menthol character noted by a few tasters. Pleasant enough but unlikely to go anywhere, so drink up.

Penley Phoenix Coonawarra 1998
A wine that shows proprietor Kym Tolley’s Penfolds training – big and solid in this line up, with rich, ripe cassis varietal flavour and layers of oak and tannin. Ready to drink now.

Sharefarmers Coonawarra 1998
This was Petaluma’s second Coonawarra label under Brian Croser and sourced from the once controversial Sharefarmers vineyard that now sits squarely inside the Coonawarra boundary. It’s lighter in colour than its peers and now past its best. Drink up.

Peppertree Coonawarra 1998
This was loved and hated within our small group – a big and buoyant wine with assertive oak. It appealed in the sniff and sip phase but looked a bit clumsy as a drink with dinner.

Wynns Coonawarra Estate John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon 1998
This was the youngest looking wine in the group on colour, aroma and flavour. It’s incredibly powerful and has years to go. But in this tasting, as it did in a line up three years ago, I found the oak just too dominant. This will age forever, and served with a nice slab of protein (beef or lamb) it’ll drink beautifully, but that oak won’t ever go away. Sue Hodder’s 2004 version is a superb refinement of the style.

Robertson’s Well 1998
Appealed at first, but faded quickly in the glass and ended up towards the bottom of the deck for me.
Parker Estate Coonawarra Terra Rossa 1998
To me this was one of the oldest-looking wines of the tasting, but appealing nevertheless because of the aged varietal flavours. Drink up.

Leconfield Coonawarra 1998
Syd Hamilton might turn in grave to taste this brown, fading wine. To me it was the weakest wine of the lot and well past its best. Fortunately, since the appointment of Paul Gordon as winemaker, Leconfield has come back strongly in recent years following improvements in the vineyard and winemaking.

We concluded that as a group the wines showed terrific varietal and regional character with great depth and full ripeness. Overall they were in excellent condition for their age and several should continue to age well. Farmer felt that some would’ve been better when younger and fruitier.

If you have 1998 Coonawarra’s in your cellar, it’s probably a good idea to begin drinking them now – but don’t rush unless you’ve got those in the fading category.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2007

Press release + Q&A — Foster’s and Kilikanoon agree Seppeltsfield sale

Press releases

Dear readers,

Foster’s has just announced the sale of the historic Barossa property, Seppeltsfield, home of one of the world’s great fortified wine cellars to a group of investors led by Kilikanoon Wines.

Reproduced below is Foster’s press release and a question and answer sheet issued by Nathan Waks, Managing Director of Kilikanoon Wines.

Foster’s press release:

27 August 2007

FOSTER’S AND KILIKANOON AGREE SEPPELTSFIELD SALE

Foster’s Group Limited (Foster’s) and Kilikanoon today agreed the sale of the Seppeltsfield site in South Australia’s Barossa Valley.

The sale includes the historic Seppeltsfield site, winery, vineyards and visitor facilities, the rights to the Para, Trafford, Old Trafford, Solero and Mt Rufus fortified wine brands and the majority of Seppelt fortified wine stock currently on site. Foster’s has granted Kilikanoon an exclusive license for the Seppeltsfield brand.

“The Seppeltsfield site is truly unique in the wine world, said Foster’s Chief Executive Officer, Trevor O’Hoy.“ Under Kilikanoon’s stewardship, this site will continue as one of the world’s great names in fortified wine and retain its place as a great South Australian tourism landmark.”

“Seppeltsfield houses the world’s greatest collection of fortified wines dating back to 1878 in an unbroken tradition. We are proud to become the next custodians of this priceless national treasure”, said Kilikanoon CEO, Nathan Waks. “We will work hard to ensure that Australia’s already fine reputation in this area is enhanced and to rejuvenate the Seppeltsfield Village over time through sympathetic wine-related redevelopment”

Foster’s retains the rights to the Seppelt brand for table and sparkling wine, which will continue be based at the Seppelt Great Western winery, purchased by Benno Seppelt in 1918. “

“We are committed to growing Seppelt and its reputation for Australia’s most awarded sparkling and regional wines, Mr O’Hoy said. “We are confident that under the Seppeltsfield name, a new and successful chapter in Australian fortified wine has begun.”

Under the sale agreement, Foster’s and Kilikanoon have entered long term lease and supply contracts over around 100 hectares of premium Shiraz and Grenache vines. In addition, Foster’s will continue to manage maturation stores and Kilikanoon will process grapes for both fortified and table wines for Foster’s at the site.

“Foster’s is to be congratulated for having the respect for tradition embodied by Seppeltsfield, as well as patience in the sale process to ensure that a suitable party was found to maintain, and further develop, that tradition”, said Kilikanoon Chairman, Bruce Baudinet. “We look forward to a close ongoing working relationship”

The transaction is due to be completed over coming months. Details of the sale agreement are confidential but not considered material to Foster’s.

Seppeltsfield (Barossa Valley)
The Seppeltsfield property was purchased by Joseph Seppelt in 1851 and is today dedicated to the production of premium fortified wines. Its blue stone cellars hold around 9 million litres of fortified wines including stocks of the now famous 100 year old Para Liqueur Vintage Tawny. The 185 hectare property includes the National Trust listed historic homestead and approximately 100 hectares of surrounding vineyards.

Kilikanoon
Kilikanoon is a premium boutique Australian wine maker based in South Australia’s Clare Valley. Rated as 5 stars by James Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion and considered as “one of Australia’s best-run wineries” by Robert Parker, Kilikanoon was founded by winemaker Kevin Mitchell in 1997. Kilikanoon now exports to 25 countries. Its flagship wines such as “Oracle” Shiraz have had considerable success in major international and Australian competitions.

Details of Transaction
The sale includes the Seppeltsfield winery, Cellar Door, approximately 100 hectares of surrounding vineyards, the majority of Seppelt fortified wine stocks currently on site, fortified brands names including Para, Solero, Trafford, Old Trafford, Mt Rufus and an exclusive license for the Seppeltsfield brand for fortified wine.

Foster’s will continue to retain ownership of key fortified wine stocks on site which will form the basis of Foster’s fortified wines portfolio moving forward. Wines such as Penfolds Great Grandfather and Grandfather will continue to be managed and matured at Seppeltsfield, marketed and sold by Foster’s.

Foster’s will also lease-back the Seppeltsfield vineyard and process the majority of fruit ensuring ongoing access to high grade Shiraz and Grenache varietals. The sale will be finalised in coming months, and at that time, the existing Foster’s Seppeltsfield Cellar Door will cease operations.

KILIKANOON QUESTION AND ANSWER

Seppeltsfield Q and A

Q. What is being sold?
A.  The sale includes the following:

  • The Seppeltsfield historic site with its magnificent suite of heritage-listed buildings dating back to the 1850s
  • The complete range of fortified brands and attendant stock currently sold under the Seppelt brand, including the unique Centenary Collection of Para Liqueur Tawny (Port), in an unbroken tradition dating back to 1878 when Benno Seppelt first decided to lay down a puncheon of his finest tawny port, to be left to mature for 100 years…
  • Two wineries on the site- a modern 12,000 tonne capacity winery and the revolutionary 1880s gravity-fed winery designed by Benno Seppelt, both of which we hope to make fully operational for the 2008 vintage
  • Approximately 100 hectares of prime vineyard in the heart of the Barossa Valley, planted to (old bush-vine) Grenache, Cabernet, Touriga, Palomino and including several Icon Shiraz blocks (Icon blocks are destined for the highest range of table wines made by the Foster’s Group such as Grange and RWT)

Q.  Who are the buyers?
A.  The Seppeltsfield Estate Trust will buy the assets. The owners of the Trust include Kilikanoon Wines, Janet Holmes aCourt, Greg Paramor and Kilikanoon’s major shareholders Nathan Waks and Bruce Baudinet.

Q What is their vision?
A. To revive the Seppeltsfield Village, based around the unique and irreplaceable fortified wine collection. Over time this will include sympathetic redevelopment and adaptive re-use of many of the Heritage Buildings in line with the Seppelt family’s original wide-ranging food and beverage interests.  The well- known  musical careers of Kilikanoon partners, violinist John Harding and cellist Nathan Waks will ensure that the arts take centre stage in the future with a Seppeltsfield Festival high on the agenda.

Q. What happens to the Seppelts Brand?
A. Foster’s will continue to own and develop the Seppelts brand, based in Victoria with its great range of still and sparkling table wines, whilst licensing the name Seppeltsfield exclusively to the new owners for the continuing production of the fortified wine collection.

Q. What happens to winemaker James Godfrey?
A. James will continue to make the fortified wines on site for both Seppeltsfield and Foster’s to ensure that the tradition and quality of the wines are maintained. The Seppeltsfield Trust will employ apprentice and junior winemakers to learn the specialist art of fortified winemaking from one of the world’s finest exponents.

Q. What about the Foster’s wines currently stored on site?
A. Foster’s and the new owners are committed to working cooperatively on many levels including the storage and maintenance of the ancient Solera barrel systems. Their joint aim is to make Seppeltsfield a world centre of excellence in fortified wine production. This will include the Seppeltsfield winery processing and maturing a significant proportion of the Foster’s group’s fortified wines.

Q What happens to the Icon Shiraz?
A. Foster’s will lease back and manage the entire vineyard, with Seppeltsfield acquiring a limited amount of fruit, mainly for the fortified range.

Quotes

Bruce Baudinet; Chairman (and partner) of the Kilikanoon group
“ Foster’s is to be congratulated for having the respect for tradition as embodied by Seppeltsfield as well as patience in the sale process to ensure that a suitable party was found to maintain and further develop that
tradition. ”

Nathan Waks; CEO (and partner) of the group
“Seppeltsfield houses the world’s greatest collection of fortified wines dating back to 1878. We are proud to become the next custodians of this priceless national treasure and will work hard to ensure that Australia’s already fine reputation in this area is enhanced”

Wine review — Collector, Kid You Not & Deakin Estate

Wine review

Collector Marked Tree Red Shiraz 2005 about $26
Collector Reserve Shiraz 2006 about $46
Former Hardy Kamberra winemaker, Alex McKay’s first two reds won’t harm the district’s reputation for shiraz. They’re both gold medallists, both sourced from Murrumbateman and both outstanding. Marked Tree Red, a blend from a couple of vineyards, shows the richness of the vintage with bright berry aromas and supple, juicy, varietal/peppery palate. Reserve, from a single block of old shiraz belonging to Andrew McEwin, seems a little less revealing in its aroma than Marked Tree – but shows its breeding in a palate of remarkable concentration and finesse. The wines will be released as soon as Alex’s licence comes through – probably in late September. Keep an eye on www.collectorwines.com.au — and don’t miss out.

Kid You Not Viognier Roussanne 2005 & Tempranillo Graciano 2005 $22
These new-look wines from a new generation of Browns of Milawa, continues the family’s tradition of innovation. The white combines two Rhône Valley varieties – powerful, viscous viognier and shy, tangy roussanne – to produce an attractive, rich but savoury style: essentially the roussanne tames the viognier. The red brings together low acid tempranillo and high acid graciano – both Spanish varieties. It’s a fragrant, medium bodied style with an attractive spiciness. Both offer an interesting and savoury alternative to the traditional Aussie ‘fruit bomb’ style. They’re ready to enjoy now and probably won’t benefit from ageing. Can be ordered at www.kidyounot.com.au

Deakin Estate Shiraz 2005 $10
Last week it was Oxford Landing Estate, this week Deakin Estate, another genuinely estate-based budget wine. Both are on the Murray, Oxford Landing in South Australia, Deakin Estate upstream at Red Cliffs, near Mildura, Victoria. This warm, well-watered environment produces healthy commercial crops. With modern vineyard management the vines yield fruit with good varietal flavour as well as sugar ripeness. With the economies of scale this means production of tasty, clean varietal wines at affordable prices – of the style that’ve driven our export sales to date. Deakin’s latest shiraz sits squarely in this mould, offering appealing plummy, varietal flavour at a fair price.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2007

Plastic set to take a slice of the glass wine bottle market

Wine

About half of the wine consumed in Australia reaches our dinner tables via a plastic container – the flexible bladder crammed inside chateau cardboard. But will we embrace the polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, plastic bottle so readily?

Not since the cask appeared more than thirty years ago have we embraced any non-glass packaging so enthusiastically.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the four-litre cask (known more aptly in other markets as bag-in-box) drove the humble two-litre glass flagon from our shelves. Today only cheap fortified wines come in flagons, although the diminutive ‘goon’ lives on as the twenty-something’s jargon for cheap wine.

Various cheap, strong, light and appealing alternatives to glass and casks have enjoyed niche but not mainstream success.

In the eighties we saw wine coolers packed in lunchbox-sized tetra packs boycotted by sections of the trade. Some retailers feared that the fruit-juice-like appearance might appeal to underage drinkers, or that children might even confuse it for juice.

We’ve since seen some attempts at packing wine in one-litre tetra packs. And several makers have enjoyed success with wine in cans – most notably Italy’s Rich Prosecco, touted by Paris Hilton.

But the successes are isolated and to date haven’t appealed to mainstream wine drinkers. However, environmental concerns about glass – particularly regarding its weight, high handling and transport costs and safety – mean that alternatives have to found.

As environmental concerns, backed by public policy, now dovetail with commercial cost-cutting needs, the number of alternatives is sure to grow. And PET plastic looks to be a strong favourite.

Like glass it’s strong, can be moulded into bottle shape, enjoys a long history as a drink container and is recyclable.

Unlike glass it’s comparatively light and won’t break into dangerous shards – which is good – but it’s not completely airtight, which is not so good.

Lightness is it’s overwhelming advantage over glass. Troy Hey of Foster’s says that a 750ml PET bottle weighs around 54 grams, compared to a glass bottle’s 400–700 grams.

That means a significant energy saving for every inch of a wine’s journey. The forklift carries 266–496 kilograms less in every pallet; each 1000-case shipping container weighs 4.1–7.7 tonnes less; and your car carries 4.1–7.7 kilograms less weight for every case taken home.

And the bottle even looks less bulky. On a visit to Foster’s Wolf Blass Barossa Winery in April, PET bottles on display looked small – 500ml I wondered? But no, said winemaker Chris Hatcher, these were 750ml bottles currently being exported to Canada.

At this stage, he said, they were being used for early-drinking wines only as slight air permeability meant a shorter shelf life than for the same wine in glass. Since most wine is drunk shortly after purchase, this perhaps makes the majority of wine a candidate for a PET bottle.

And will we wine drinkers accept the new packaging? A fair bit of evidence says that we will.

Indirectly, we’ve seen the dramatic take up of screw caps in the past decade. This can be viewed largely as a triumph of convenience over tradition – even if winemakers originally drove the change on quality grounds. The screw cap acceptance suggests that wine drinkers are not all that conservative.

More directly this decade PET bottles have rapidly replaced glass in the fast-growing single-serve market, dominated by those little 187ml bottles we drink on aircraft.

These have been particularly successful in the US where they were introduced under Fetzer’s Valley Oaks brand early in 2005 and followed in August the same year by Foster’s California based Stone Cellars by Beringer brand.

At the Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference early this month, Jamie O’Dell, Foster’s Managing Director Australia, Asia and Pacific, announced plans to launch the Wolf Blass Green Label wine range in PET bottles in the UK this month.

O’Dell said that the launch follows development work in Canada and that the key advantages of the bottles were lightness and quietness in transport, reduced potential to break and their safety for outside events.

Consumer research, he reported, suggests that people find the environmental message relevant (provided it’s backed by useful facts) and that they like the look of the packaging.

On a more practical level, Foster’s offered its popular Seppelt Fleur de Lys bubbly in PET bottles at Flemington during last year’s spring carnival. Its success means that punters at this year’s carnival will be offered Wolf Blass reds and whites from PET bottles.

While it’s a long shot to project retail success from crowd behaviour at the races, the forces driving the move to lighter, stronger packaging won’t go away. If anything, they’ll intensify.

If the PET bottle’s not much in our minds at present – nor even on retail shelves – my bet is that it’s poised to take a good slice of the market from glass bottles.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2007

Wine review — Yalumba, Thomas & Chrismont

Wine review

Yalumba Y Series Pinot Grigio 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 $11.95; Galway Vintage Shiraz 2005 $13.95
Yalumba’s on a roll with these mid-priced wines. They offer outstanding value and will almost certainly be discounted below the recommended prices given above. Pinot Grigio is a strong, distinctive expression of the variety with pear-like flavour, crispness and rich texture. Y Series Cabernet is a very youthful and solid varietal sourced from the Barossa Valley, Eden Valley and Langhorne Creek.  It’s made for early drinking but still captures the soul of cabernet. And Galway is simply a great bargain. It’s a beautifully fragrant, juicy shiraz with typically tender Barossa tannins. The depth of this wine reflects the outstanding vintage.

Thomas Hunter Valley The O.C. Semillon 2007 $20, Braemore Semillon 2007 $25
Former Tyrrell winemaker, Andrew Thomas, specialises in the Hunter’s two distinctive wine styles, shiraz and semillon. Thommo’s new releases express the character of two individual vineyards in the lower Hunter. The O.C. from a vineyard planted near Oakey Creek Road in 1999 is the riper, more forward style of the two. But at a still modest twelve per cent alcohol it has a delicious, fine, delicate, lemony freshness. Braemore, from the sandy flats of Hermitage Road, is even more taut with a lovely lemony/grassy edge. It’s an absolutely stunning, classic of the style. Screw-cap sealed it ought to age for decades. See www.thomaswines.com.au

Chrismont King Valley Petit Manseng 2006 $22
Petit manseng, a white variety grown in Jurancon, southern France, makes what Jancis Robinson calls ‘one of France’s unusually underrated treasures, Jurancon Moelleux’ – a seductively juicy, sweet, long-lived white. This dry King Valley version shows the yeast-lees influence and vanilla-like character of oak fermentation and maturation. But the full, vaguely pineapple-like fruit flavour carries these winemaker inputs comfortably. The result is a rich, fresh, oak-influenced dry white with a flavour all its own and worth trying. Arnold Pizzini’s Chrismont vineyard is located at Cheshunt in Victoria’s upper King Valley, opposite Pizzini Wines, belonging to Arnie’s cousin, Fred Pizzini.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2007

Vineyards underpin McKay’s new Collector label

People, Vineyard, Wine

Despite Hardy’s sudden departure from Canberra, its ten-year presence leaves a valuable legacy that’s bound to express itself in unsuspected ways.

Short of a miracle, the legacy probably won’t be the Kamberra or Meeting Place brands – the small volume face of Hardy’s Canberra involvement.

It’s more likely to come from the know-how of the staff that stayed behind – Alex McKay and Nick O’Leary — and the ingenuity of a score or so independent, former Hardy grape growers.

We’ll almost certainly see an increase in the numbers of wine brands, including this month the release of Alex McKay’s Collector label.

In a big statement for Canberra’s acknowledged specialty, McKay offers two gold-medal-winning shirazes from the Murrumbateman area – Collector The Marked Tree Road Shiraz 2005 (about $27) and Collector Reserve Shiraz 2006 (about $45).

This extraordinary debut is to a large extent a Hardy legacy – revealing the depth of Alex’s experience in the district and the quality of the grapes available.

But there’s a fair bit more to the story, much of it predating Hardy and going back to a time when Alex McKay, an undergraduate art history student, was whetting his taste for winemaking at Lake George Vineyard, under Dr Edgar Riek.

As Riek entered his second decade as a grape grower in the early eighties, Ron McKenzie established a vineyard on his property Mamre at Murrumbateman. Over a couple of seasons McKenzie planted a little under four hectares of chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, shiraz and what he thought was merlot (in fact it was cabernet franc).

In 1999 McKenzie sold the vineyard to Andrew McEwin, owner of the well-regarded Kyeema Estate label, and a buyer of part of McKenzie’s fruit crop since 1987.

McEwin recalls that when bought the vineyard, Hardy’s were already buying fruit from it. He recalls ‘Steve Pannell [chief winemaker] in raptures over the shiraz’ and believes that this may have been a key to their interest in the region.

As Andrew’s Kyeema shiraz from the vineyard was a regular gold-medal winner, Hardy’s excitement really just confirmed how good the fruit was – and put a price on it.

McEwin says that in every year but one Hardy’s paid a quality bonus when wine from the vineyard made the cut for the company’s top-shelf products. He believes that both chardonnay and shiraz reached the flagship ‘Eileen Hardy’ blends on at least one occasion.

Encouraged by the vineyard’s quality, Andrew recently expanded it by about 1.6 hectares – about half of that being struck from cuttings of the existing old shiraz vines and the other half planted to merlot and tempranillo.

At the same time he replaced the cabernet sauvignon with shiraz and retrellised the whole vineyard. What was ‘grow and sprawl’, said Andrew, is now the more controlled, and quality orientated, vertical shoot positioning system.

During the growing season shiraz receives particular attention, including shoot thinning and bunch thinning to control yields and maximise flavour.

Andrew says that as a contract maker for other grape growers he regularly sees what other vineyards produce. This, he says, confirms the quality of his own shiraz.

As winemaker at the large Hardy-owned Kamberra complex, McKay enjoyed even greater exposure to Canberra’s various shiraz vineyards than McEwin. As well, he participated in Hardy’s classification tastings across all varieties at company headquarters in Reynell, South Australia.

Coming from that broad – and very demanding perspective – McKay’s decision to make only shiraz for his new Collector label and to select McEwin’s vineyard as source of the ‘Reserve’ version – could, in a sense, be seen as Hardy’s collective learning on our region.

Talking to Alex McKay it’s clear that he views Clonakilla and McEwin as Canberra’s two best shiraz vineyards. Which just goes to show that even with the same inputs, all vineyards are not equal.

There is something special about the grapes – and hence the wine — from Andrew McEwin’s tiny, quarter-century old vineyard planted on a granitic saddle between two hills near Murrumbateman.

We’ve seen glimpses of it in Andrew’s Kyeema Wines over the years. But the winemaking experience that McKay brings reveals even more. I’ll review the two new Collector wines shortly.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2007

Beer review — Hunter Old & Schneider Weiss Hefe-Weizen

Beer review

Hunter Old 375ml $2.50
I suspect this dark, almost black ale is modelled on Tooheys Old, a popular brew in the coal mining communities of both the Hunter and Illawarra regions. Though the aroma and flavour are rich in molasses and roast-malt character, it’s a zesty, low-bitterness, easy-drinking, medium-bodied style.

Schneider Weisse Hefe-Weizen 500ml $5.99
This is a distinctive, dark-amber-coloured, bottle-conditioned wheat beer from Bavaria. It’s a delight to drink with its subtle, fruity/spicy notes and wheat beer’s defining light, tangy, grippiness. Had the bottle been a little fresher – a real problem with delicate imported styles – there’s have been another star in the rating.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2007

Berliner weisse — the working person’s Champagne

Beer

Beer offers some wacky and wonderful flavours like the sour taste of Belgian lambic or Germany’s even rarer Berliner weisse.

Any decent liquor store carries at least one lambic beer. But I’ve not seen Berliner weisse at all in Australia nor tasted any local attempts at brewing the style.  Even a search on Perth’s encyclopaedic internationalbeershop.com.au drew a blank.

I’ve come it across judging at the International Beer Awards and have tried it in several Berlin cafés. There it’s generally served with a dash of raspberry or woodruff syrup, giving an alarming red or green hue.

The sweetness of the syrup offsets the sourness of lactic acid, produced deliberately by the use of lactobacillus culture during fermentation.

As a top-fermented wheat beer it would have lighter body and higher acid than traditional beers even without the lactic element. The tart combination earned it the soubriquet arbeiter sekt – working man’s champagne.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2007