Chris Shanahan: Wine review – Mada, Eden Road

Mada Murrumbateman Shiraz 2019 $40
Edgar’s Inn’s blackboard offered Mada Hilltops Shiraz 2019. Yes please, we thought, pizza and local red. Delicious, mouth-watering wine. Medium bodied, floral, sweet fruited, spicey and savoury, with fine, silky tannins. Beautiful red, lighter, finer, less robust than we’d anticipated from Hilltops region in the hot 2019 vintage. Winemaker Hamish Young explains why. Blackboard mistake he says. It’s not from Hilltops, but from cooler Murrumbateman, to the south, within the Canberra District – hence the lighter more savoury style. He sourced fruit from two vineyards: Neil McGregor’s, north-east of Murrumbateman village, and Will Bruce’s, to the south east of the village.

Winemaking: Whole bunches, including stems, comprise 40–50% of the ferment and add subtly to the aroma and flavour and significantly to the wine’s smooth texture. Maturation in a mix of older and new French oak adds depth to the palate.

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Two Tumba chardonnays

Tumbarumba region’s dedicated wine-grape growing began in the early 1980s. For much of the early years, largely through the influence of Southcorp Wines (now absorbed into Treasury Wine Estates) and BRL Hardy (absorbed into Accolade Wines), the bulk of the district’s chardonnay and pinot noir produced high-quality sparkling wine.

However, the big companies, and later an army of smaller makers, also saw the potential for table wine. Tumbarumba chardonnay in particular excelled and, indeed, in most years dominates the chardonnay classes at the annual Canberra and Region Wine Show.

Tumbarumba’s significantly cooler climate than Canberra or Hilltops – its wine-making neighbours in the high country of southern New South Wales high country – produces intensely flavoured, finely textured chardonnays. Mada and Eden Road versions are fine examples of the regional style.

Mada Tumbarumba Chardonnay 2019 $40
Winemaker Hamish Young sourced grapes from the Johansen Family vineyard, established 1994. He hand-picked the fruit and took it to Nick O’Leary’s winery at Hall, in the Canberra District wine region. There he loaded the whole bunches (that is, stems still attached) and pressed the juice to French oak barrels and concrete vessels for a spontaneous fermentation by ambient yeasts. Fermentation with grape solids, partial malo-lactic fermentation and a little lees stirring post-ferment, added texture and flavours to the wine. The result is a pale coloured chardonnay, with intense grapefruit-like varietal flavour. The mouth-watering palate combines that intense fruit flavour with lees-derived texture and natural acidity. This is an exceptionally high quality, bright and beautiful chardonnay – a joy to drink.

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Eden Road The Long Road Tumbarumba Chardonnay 2017 $25
We enjoyed this ahead of Mada shiraz at Edgar’s Inn, Ainslie, ACT. Winemaker Celine Rousseau made it at Eden Road Winery, Murrumbateman, using Tumbarumba grapes picked over a range of dates in March 2017. Whole bunch pressed and fermented in French oak barrels (20% new) using a selected yeast strain. More than three years after vintage the wine tastes deliciously fresh and vibrant. The varietal flavour is reminiscent of just-ripe nectarine. The barrel and yeast-lees influence come through in a rich texture and subtle vanilla-like flavours. It offers outstanding drinking at a modest price for a wine of this calibre.

Red more or buy Eden Road The Long Road Chardonnay 2017