Monthly Archives: November 2014

Gypsy brewers hit Sydney

12 November 2014BeerChris Shanahan

My Sydney spy, Mr Malty, rated “gypsy” brewers as the hot act of the recent Sydney Craft Beer Week (October 18–26).

These itinerant, or gypsy, brewers move from brewery to brewery taking up slack capacity, and making one-off beers, often in collaboration with the resident brewer.

For the craft beer week, a group of Sydney gypsies hosted the Gypsy Brewer Jamboree – billed as a craft beer bare-knuckle dustup, where two beers enter, one beer leaves.

The brewers gave a guiding tasting through eight beers in four tasting rounds.

Mr Malty checked out events throughout the week and apparently large numbers of enthusiasts packed the tastings – confirming the growing passion for craft beers.

Craft beer lovers attribute the gypsy beer phenomenon largely to Mikkel Borg Bjergso, creator of the now famous Mikkeller label, first produced in 2007.

11 November 2014 in goodfood.com.au
12 November 2014 in the Canberra Times

Wine review – Bilgavia Estate, Shottesbrooke and Mr Riggs

9 November 2014Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Bilgavia Estate Hunter Valley Shiraz 2013 $26
Leona and Phil Gunter’s shiraz comes from their vineyard in the Hunter’s Broke–Fordwich sub-region – a valley over from Pokolbin in the valley’s heartland. The Gunter’s bought the vineyard in 2011 and this is their first shiraz, made from just one tonne of grapes. Although the alcohol is a modest 12.5% per cent, this is a full-bodied style, featuring strong, earthy, spicy varietal flavours and pronounced charry and spicy flavours from maturation in oak barrels. Rustic tannins, combined with the earthy flavours, give this wine real appeal.

Shottesbrooke McLaren Vale Estate Series Shiraz 2012 $19–$20
Nick Holmes established Shottesbrooke in 1984 and today makes wine from estate-grown fruit. His 2012 delivers a lot of flavour at a realistic price. A bright and generous red reflecting the ripe, plummy, savouriness of McLaren Vale shiraz, it comes with a substantial load of tannins. These add to the savouriness of the wine and also give a firm, satisfying grip to the finish. The wine shows particular depth of fruit flavour and elegance of structure in this outstanding vintage.

Mr Riggs Watervale Riesling 2013 $20–$22
This gold-medal winning riesling is a collaboration between respected winemakers Ben Riggs and Kerri Thompson, using fruit from the Clare Valley’s Watervale sub-region. Riggs attributes the wine’s quality principally to the outstand grapes coming from the Watervale vineyard. He writes, “Hand pruning allows the best possible shaping and opening of the canopy, to maximise sunlight for growth and even ripening of the grapes”. Meticulous winemaking captured the delicacy and purity of those grapes in this exceptional rich, dry riesling.

Wine review – Tolpuddle, Langmeil, Bourke Street, Pikes, Four Winds and Hay Shed Hill

5 November 2014Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Tolpuddle Pinot Noir 2013 $75
Tolpuddle vineyard, Coal River Valley, Tasmania
In 2011 Adelaide-Hills-based Shaw and Smith bought the mature 20-hectare Tolpuddle vineyard, located in Tasmania’s Coal RiverValley. The new owners sell the majority of their fruit to other winemakers, but make small quantities of pinot noir and chardonnay for the new Tolpuddle label. In two recent tastings, the inaugural 2012 vintage appealed for its beautiful, juicy, pure varietal flavour and fine, velvety tannins. The just-released 2013 shows similar fruit flavours, albeit a little less fleshy at this stage. Pure, primary fruit flavours push through the fine, smooth tannins, but there’s savouriness and complexity here giving the wine the extra dimension of a first class pinot.

Langmeil Shiraz 2013$ 24.69–$29.50
Barossa Valley, South Australia
In 1996 Richard Lindner, Carl Lindner and Chris Bitter established Langmeil winery on the western edge of Tanunda, on the site of the former village of Langmeil. The boasts a small planting of venerable old vines, planted by Christian Auricht in the 1840s. The partners make a wine, The Freedom 1843 Shiraz, from these old vines. However, the main game is making rich, ripe reds from across the Barossa Valley floor. In the excellent 2012 vintage Valley Floor shiraz delivers particularly vibrant, intense, blackberry-like fruit flavours, held by typically soft and tender Barossa tannins.

Bourke Street Chardonnay 2011 $18.39–$22
Canberra District, NSW
Local winemakers Nick O’Leary (Nick O’Leary Wines) and Alex McKay (Collector Wines) jointly make the Bourke Street range, including this impressive chardonnay. Their website currently offers the fuller bodied 2010 vintage, but a friend brought the 2011 vintage along to a recent dinner in Moruya. The cold vintage shows in the wine’s comparatively low alcohol (12.5 per cent) and racy, grapefruit-like varietal flavour and acidity. Bottle age now adds body, and the usual barrel-related winemaking tricks season the wine with a touch of butterscotch and the struck-match character of sulphides at a very low but detectible level.

Pikes Eastside Shiraz 2012 $23.75–$25
Polish Hill River, Clare Valley, South Australia
Polish Hill River, a comparatively cool sub-region of South Australia’s Clare Valley, is perhaps best known for its intense, steely, long-lived rieslings. However, Pikes Eastside shiraz proves the region’s worth as a producer of full-bodied shiraz, too. The 2012 vintage appealed strongly in a recent tasting with its ripe fruit flavours and spicy, savoury character. Firm but rounded tannins give the wine the satisfying finish of a real red.

Four Winds Vineyard Riesling 2014 $22
Four Winds vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
Whether or not Canberra’s 2014 rieslings live up to the 2012s and 2013s remains to be seen. But they are very good indeed. Several, including Four Winds, would be extremely unlucky not to win gold medals at coming wine shows. The wine is impressively aromatic and purely varietal. The intensity of its flavour belies the mere 11.2 per cent alcohol. However, there’s a sting in the tail: while high acidity accentuates the flavour it also lends some austerity to the palate. This is quite in character for Canberra riesling and is easily resolved by giving the wine another 6–12 months in bottle. (Since writing this review, the wine has won a gold medal and ranked in the top three 2014 rieslings of the Melbourne show).

Hay Shed Hill Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 $25.65–$28
Willyabrup, Margaret River, Western Australia
This week’s toss up for “wine of the week” favoured the new Tasmanian wine over the older, well-established Western Australian. Mike Kerrigan’s wine reveals the glory of cabernet sauvignon in an exceptional Margaret River vintage. As rain and fungal disease ravished eastern Australian vineyards, the west enjoyed a warm, dry season culminating in the beautifully ripe, varietal berry flavours displayed in Hayshed Hill. An elegant wine, it shows deep, sweet flavours, firmly but gently held by cabernet’s authoritative tannins.

4 November 2014 in goodfood.com.au
5 November 2014 in the Canberra Times

Beer review – Asahi and Red Duck

5 November 2014Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Asahi Super Dry 330ml 6-pack $20
In 1987 Asahi paved the way for what became known as “dry” beers. Thankfully, they’re wet, of course, as “dry” simply means beer with all the sugar converted to alcohol. Now brewed in China, Asahi offers the full, malty body of mainstream lager, with a dry, smooth palate and moderate hops bitterness.

Red Duck Loch Ness Scottish Ale 500ml $9.60
A beer for a cold highland night, Loch Ness hits the palate with rich, warming, malty flavours and the bracing effect of alcohol (6.7 per cent). Maturation in a whisky cask gives the beer even more punch. The brewer attrributes the pleasantly bitter finish in the low-malt ale to caramelisation of the malt.

Saluting two old Aussie ales

5 November 2014BeerChris Shanahan

Overwhelmingly, Australians drink lager rather than ale – a phenomenon changing at the margins with the growth of craft beer and, of course, through the popular but still niche ales of Coopers.

Amazingly, though, two old NSW ales battle on and can be found on tap, as we were reminded during the recent Moruya jazz festival.

Black, rich and malty Tooheys Old, first brewed in 1869, still has its followers and provides a stark flavour contrast to the taste-alike lagers served alongside it. Pubs all serve it too cold. But we weren’t game to ask for warm beer in a Moruya pub.

Kent Old Brown (original made at Tooths Kent Brewery) comes a few shades lighter than Tooheys old and a touch dryer, while still offering delicious, warming malt flavours.

That both of these niche beers survived successive changes of ownership over the decades is truly amazing.

Wine review – Jacob’s Creek, Tolpuddle and Mount Majura

2 November 2014Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Jacob’s Creek Reserve Barossa Shiraz 2013 $10–$17
The price of Jacob’s Creek Reserve Barossa Shiraz varies widely. But even at full price it delivers rich, ripe, satisfying Barossa flavours. On discount it’s a great bargain. A group of us tasted it recently alongside several more expensive Australian shirazes and the commentary leaned more towards differences in style than relative quality. The wine has a vibrant, youthful colour and the aroma delivers ripe, young, varietal fruit flavours to match. The ripe, plummy palate shows a little shiraz spiciness, with subtle oak helping to flesh out the generous palate. Typically soft Barossa tannins add to its drink-now appeal.

Tolpuddle Vineyard Coal River Valley Chardonnay 2013 $65
In 2011, highly regarded Adelaide Hills winemaker, Shaw and Smith, acquired the mature, 20-hectare Tolpuddle vineyard in Tasmania’s Coal River Valley (20 minutes drive north east of Hobart). They joined a significant push into Tasmania by mainland winemakers searching for the very best pinot noir and chardonnay grapes. Their first release chardonnay, from the 2012 vintage, showed a combination of restraint, elegance and power on its release last year. And now the just-released 2013 shows similar class, albeit in a slightly more rounded and generous styles. The wines share wonderful underlying fruit flavours, intensified on the palate by a thrilling acidity.

Mount Majura Canberra District Riesling 2014 $27
Canberra riesling earned several big gongs during October. Four Winds Vineyard, Murrumbateman, won a gold medal for its 2014 vintage at the Melbourne show, where it ranked in the top three wines of its class. And at Canberra’s International Riesling Challenge, Mount Majura 2014 riesling won trophies as best dry riesling of the show and best Canberra district riesling. It follows broadly in the style of other Canberra 2014s tasted to date. The first impression of aromatic and delicious, full-throttle varietal flavour changes a little as the wine’s high acidity becomes apparent. The acidity makes the palate refreshing and works very well with food.

1 November 2014 in goodfood.com.au
2 November 2014 in the Canberra Times