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

Vintage 2014 seems a song of ice and fire for much of the Canberra region. Frost nipped vine buds in October and intense heat waves followed in January and February.

The frost affected many, though not all vineyards. While no one escaped the heat – growers with adequate water are faring better than those without. Those with inadequate supples struggle to keep vines, let alone crops, healthy; while others see promising, if reduced, crops ripening under protective leaf canopies.

“It gets down to who has ready access to water”, says Four Winds winemaker Bill Crowe. Crowe reckons Four Winds’ crop to be down by around 60 per cent, largely because of the October frost. But, says Crowe, “we have lots of water” and vineyard manager (and brother in law), John Collingwood, has maintained healthy canopies capable of ripening the reduced fruit load.

While vines generally shut down when temperatures climb to the high thirties, Crowe sees steady progress in veraison (where grapes change colour and soften) and ripening. “Riesling seems on track to ripen by early March”, he observes. “And veraison all but complete for the reds”.

However, he says they’ve already harvested sangiovese from Gundagai – fruit that normally ripens around Anzac day.

At Hall, Brindabella Hills Vineyard’s Roger Harris, echoes Crowe’s sentiment, “Right now dry is more of a problem than the heat. It’s the longest stretch of heat I’ve seen in my 30 years in Canberra. I started with a full dam, now it’s two-thirds depleted”.

Luckily, believes Harris, a lack of wind saved further vine stress. And a high water table coming into the vintage got the vines off to a good start. He adds, “If this heat had come at the end of a drought it could’ve been catastrophic”.

Nevertheless, Harris remains optimistic of harvesting healthy riesling, sauvignon blanc and shiraz, albeit in lower than average volumes.

His main vineyard suffered no frost losses, though a newer, one-hectare plot of sangiovese (with a little sauvignon blanc), at a slightly lower altitude, was badly affected. He attributes the smaller volumes to grape bunches not being as full as they should be, though rainfall could change that.

“Twenty millimetres would be good”, he chuckles hopefully. Then adds, “But that’s not promising as the tropical monsoons failed and that’s where our rain comes from”.

Despite the adverse conditions, Harris says ripening in riesling and sauvignon blanc, measured by sugar content, was exactly the same on 10 February 2014 as it was on 10 February 2013.

In Murrumbateman, new YouTube star, Ken Helm, assures readers no red wine was lost or damaged in the making of Plonk, episode 1, Murrumbateman (see youtube.com/user/roadtoplonk).

The October 2013 frost smashed Helm’s home block, wiping out 80 per cent of his riesling crop and 30 per cent of the cabernet sauvignon. The substantial riesling losses, however, allowed Helm to redirect scarce water from those vines to the survivors. These are carrying healthy fruit with no sunburn, says Helm, and he expects to make a reduced quantity of his Classic Dry, though none of his benchmark Helm Premium Riesling.

Helm now contacts riesling from Julia Cullen’s Tumbarumba vineyard as a backstop against local crop losses and with an eye to future expansion. He trialled the fruit successfully in 2013, releasing a small run of Helm Tumbarumba Riesling.  For similar reasons, Helm’s also sampling fruit from a vineyard between Cargo and Orange in the Central Ranges Zone.

Following this year’s crop losses Helm withdrew from a UK wine exhibition for lack of stock. He says grape sourcing from nearby regions will, over time, increase his ability to export wine.

Helm’s Murrumbateman neighbour (and fellow YouTube star), Eden Road’s Nick Spencer, grows mainly shiraz on what used to be the Doonkuna vineyard. He says it’s hard to assess the crop at present, though he feels more positive than he did a few weeks ago.

The vines looked tired, then, he says, but the leaf canopy remains healthy (largely because of good rainfall in recent vintages), giving him hope for ripening.

Frost struck Eden Road vineyard, knocking off 30–40 per cent of the shoots. But thanks to above average rainfall in 2011 and 2012, shoot numbers were high. So, despite the frost, the shiraz crop from the surviving shoots remains at an estimated six tonnes to the hectare – which is high in a dry, late ripening climate like Canberra’s.

Spencer planned to begin dropping about two tonnes a hectare off the vines from 11 February, leaving a modest four tonnes to the hectare to ripen. After the fruit thinning, he expects the grapes to race through veraison, which was about three quarters complete on 10 February.

He’s concerned with the inconsistency of ripening following a frost – as much as two weeks in a single vineyard. This, more than a reduced crop yield, becomes the main the issue for wine quality, he says. Following the event they marked frost-damaged sections of the vineyard, so these won’t be harvested.

Like Four Winds, Eden Road is already taking fruit from Gundagai. “It’s very ripe”, says Spencer, “and it looks good but inconsistent”. He’ll therefore be taking less volume than he could have.

Tumbarumba, source of Eden Road’s pinot noir and chardonnay, “Looks great”, says Spencer. “It has better rain, good water and it’s a little cooler”.

At Lark Hill, on the top of the Lake George Escarpment, Chris Carpenter, laments the dryness following little rainfall in winter and during the growing season. While the vines tend to shut down in the heat, he says, he’s seeing veraison in Lark Hill’s pinot and shiraz (in their Dark Horse vineyard, Murrumbateman).

Frost hit both vineyards, taking out half of the chardonnay at Lark Hill, half of the viognier at Dead Horse, 20 per cent of Lark Hill’s pinot noir and some of the Dead Horse shiraz. Because the frost hit late, when bunches had already formed, “the vines had little scope to recover”, says Carpenter.

Both vineyards are short of water, he says, and anticipates a small crop of very small berries with high skin to flesh ratios – meaning concentrated flavours and a challenge in the winery.

Down the hill a little, on the western foreshore of Lake George, Lerida Estate’s Jim Lumbers reports a slightly bigger than normal crop, comparable to 2009’s.  The vineyard avoided frost damage, while the two to its north reportedly were hit fairly hard.

After recent, wet, disease-riddled seasons, the dry and hot 2014 vintage has been free of disease. As well, says Lumbers, very deep soils, with significant water reserves, means healthy leaf canopies to ripen the crop. He says he considering selling grapes this year.

On Canberra’s northern edge, Mount Majura escaped the frost but suffered some minor late October hail damage.

Winemaker Frank van der Loo says that because the vineyard lies on limestone, with good ground water, the vines show little sign of stress. He says Mount Majura is on track for a good but not big harvest, largely because of small bunch sizes.

Just as a tree is best measured when it’s down, the only true measure of a vintage comes out of the bottle. Canberra’s wide weather swings, particularly notable in recent years, nearly always throws challenges and heartache at vignerons. But even in the toughest seasons – like cold, wet 2011 and hot, dry, frost-ravaged 2014 – our winemakers come up with many lovely wines, each indelibly stamped with the season that shaped it. Here’s to ice and fire in 2014.

A happy sequel
Between the writing and publishing of this story, Canberra vignerons received reviving rainfalls.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 19 February 2014 in the Canberra Times and goodfood.com.au

If I had to bet the house on one of the so-called “alternative” grape varieties it’d be Spain’s tempranillo. We crushed only about 3000 tonnes a year in Australia (equivalent to perhaps 225 thousand dozen bottles) – a mere splash compared to the more familiar varieties we grow.

In 2012, Australian vintners processed almost 380,00 tonnes of shiraz, 220,000 of cabernet sauvignon, 127,000 of merlot and almost 33,000 of pinot noir (much of it for bubbly). After that the volumes tail away, dropping sharply to 19,000 tonnes of petit verdot, 15,000 of grenache, 10,000 of ruby cabernet and 5,000 of mataro (aka mourvedre).

But the tiny tempranillo crush (2,818 tonnes according to the Winemakers Federation of Australia; 3,440 according to the ABS) reflects neither its geographic spread nor a growing fascination with it among vignerons and wine drinkers.

A web search of the variety turned up more than 100 Australia tempranillos (and blends) on offer from one retailer alone. And a 2012 ABS survey lists 341 tempranillo producers. The retailer list included wines from many regions in every state except Tasmania. But the ABS figures say even Tasmania crushed two tonnes in 2012 – just behind the ACT’s three tonnes and Queensland’s six tonnes.

Though widely dispersed – from Queensland’s Granite Belt in the north to Tasmania in the south, and from the Hunter in the east to Greater Perth in the west -– the majority of the plantings lie in warm continental climates rather than in milder coastal areas.

Tellingly, vineyards in the hot, dry climates along the Murray River in South Australia and Victoria, and the Murray and Murrumbidgee in NSW, account for one third of the 2012 tempranillo harvest. Significant plantings in these traditionally high-output, low-cost areas suggest tempranillo may already have begun its shift into the mainstream – or at least that growers in these areas, aided and abetted by winemakers, see it heading that way.

South Australia dominated production in 2012 (317ha, 1503 tonnes), followed by NSW (220ha, 1134 tonnes), Victoria (119ha, 520 tonnes) Western Australia (46ha, 272 tonnes), Queensland (6ha, 6 tonnes), ACT (2 ha, 3 tonnes) and Tasmania (2ha, 2 tonnes). Note, the ACT figure reflects only a small part of the Canberra region, located predominantly in NSW.

The Barossa holds the biggest planting for an individual region. Its 135ha produced a miserly 490 tonnes in 2012, a yield per hectare of just 3.6 tonnes. We could expect greater yields – perhaps double those of 2012 – in more favourable vintages. However, the Barossa can never hope to match South Australian Riverland’s almost 12 tonnes to the hectare.

Total Australian tempranillo plantings of around 700 hectares represents less than half a per cent of our 155,000 hectares of grape vines. So for us it truly is a niche or “alternative” variety. But in Spain it’s a different story.

In Wine Grapes (Robinson, Harding and Vouillamoz, Penguin 2012), Jancis Robinson writes, “Spain is the kingdom of tempranillo, a kingdom that extended to 206,988ha [greater than Australia’s total area under vine] in 2008, making it the most widely planted red variety. It is widely distributed across the country, albeit under a host of synonyms”.

Based on historical and DNA evidence, Wine grapes concludes tempranillo is a native of Spain, probably originating in two adjacent regions north west of Aragon – Logrono in La Rioja and Peralta in Navarra.

The vine fairly quickly found its way to Portugal, Italy, France and even to South America in the seventeenth century.

Spain’s tempranillo-based reds, particularly those from the cooler Rioja and Ribera del Duero regions, inspired our vignerons to try the variety in Australia, including Canberra

Mount Majura winemaker Frank van de Loo writes, “We believe it is a variety well suited to our site, with Canberra having high levels of climatic similarity to the leading Spanish regions Rioja and Ribera del Duero”.

In 2010, with other tempranillo producers, Van de loo introduced a series of TempraNeo workshops to study and promote the variety. The group held workshops again in 2011 and 2013.

Courtesy of van de Loo, I recently tasted the 2012 vintage wines from the workshop, and threw in the recently released Quarry Hill 2013 (Murrumbateman). The line up covered a spectrum of climates – Canberra, Barossa, Wrattonbully, Porepunkah (near Bright, Victoria), Heathcote, Alpine Valleys, Adelaide Hills and McLaren Vale.

The wines varied widely in style – from the medium bodied, spicy elegance of van de Loo’s Mount Majura 2012, to the confronting savouriness and puckering tannins of Don Lewis and Narelle King’s Tar and Roses 2012. And one outrider, Quarry Hill 2013, made by Alex McKay, revealed a contrasting, bright and fleshy face of the variety, bottled young and fresh.

Mount Majura Canberra District Tempranillo 2012 $42
Frank Van de Loo’s tenth vintage of the variety, rose to the top – appealing for its just-ripe cherry and plum varietal flavour, medium body, elegant structure and attractive spice and pepper notes. A day after the tasting we paired it deliciously with salmon in pastry with currants and ginger, cooked by Linda Peek. The other tempranillos would’ve overwhelmed this exceptional dish.

Quarry Hill Canberra District Tempranillo 2013 $18
Juicy and strawberry-musk fruit, buoyant and plush, with substantial tannins washing through. Pure, unadorned tempranillo fruit.

Running with Bulls Barossa Tempranillo 2012 $16–$22.95
Shows the Barossa’s ripe, generous fruit flavour and comparatively soft tannins, though somewhat firmer than in the region’s shiraz.

Running with Bulls Wrattonbully Tempranillo 2012 $16–$22.95
Same maker (Yalumba) as the Barossa wine, but fruit more fragrant and reminiscent of summer berries with elegant structure of fine but firm tannins.

Mayford Porepunkah Tempranillo 2012 $35
Savoury and acidic, with blueberry-like fruit buried deep down under layers of firm tannins.

Tar and Roses Heathcote–Alpine Valleys Tempranillo 2012 $24
Earthy, savoury and gamey, with powerful, mouth-drying tannins – a wine to enjoy with rare red meat or ultra savoury food.

La Linea Adelaide Hills Tempranillo 2012 $27
Medium bodied with sweet, cherry-like fruit, seasoned with spice and pepper and a solid wave of tannin washing across the palate.

Gemtree Luna Roja McLaren Vale Tempranillo 2012 $25
The fullest bodied of the wines, featuring ripe, black-cherry flavours on a round mid palate, cut through with rustic tannins.

More

www.tempraneo.com.au

Lind Peek’s recipe, Salmon in pastry with currants and ginger.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2013
First published 9 October 2013 in the Canberra Times and goodfood.com.au

This story of oysters and wine links France’s Languedoc coast to Bateman’s Bay, half a world away, and to Cowra, on the warm floor of the west-flowing Lachlan River.

The man joining the dots is Steve Feletti, owner of Moonlight Flat Oysters, Bateman’s Bay. His website borrows the language of wine – “Just like premium wines and cheeses oysters reflect their context of finish and provenance with a unique flavour profile”, it says. On the website, Feletti recommends wines that “balance the saline strength of our structured rock oyster brands” and “smoky finish end palate of the angasi”.

Feletti’s eclectic list includes a chardonnay from Orange, NSW, and a chardonnay, a gewürztraminer and a cortese (an Italian variety) from Victoria’s Yarra Valley, Mansfield and Mount Tallarook, respectively. The limited list suggests Feletti finds few wines that really do the trick with oysters.

But during a 2008 French tour, Feletti tasted picpoul de pinet with oysters farmed nearby on the Languedoc coast. “No single wine rang my bells up until this experience”, he says.

For the locals, however, the bells rang centuries ago, says Feletti. And today wine producers within the picpoul de pinet appellation promote their inexpensive, acidic young white under the slogan son terroir, c’est la mer (it’s territory is the sea) – with images of wine, oysters and the sea.

The picpoul de pinet appellation stretches from Pezenas, in the hinterland, southeast to Sete on the Mediterranean. The region’s white grape variety, officially piquepoul blanc, produces acidic, lemony, dry whites – its high acidity the key to a successful pairing with oysters.

But piquepoul blanc remains a small-scale specialty, with French plantings totalling just 1,455 hectares in 2009.

Two years after discovering piquepoul, Feletti asked French grape grower, Guy Bascou, for vine cuttings to take back to Australia. Bascou obliged, and after three years in quarantine, the cuttings arrived in Cowra, where Feletti owns a farm.

Shortly after, the local state member, minister for primary industries, Katrina Hodgkinson, planted what Feletti believes to be Australia’s first piquepoul vine.

Feletti intends to follow this symbolic planting with a commercial venture in August, establishing 1,000 vines on the O’Dea family’s nearby Windowrie vineyard. He expects Jason O’Dea to oversee the first vintage as early as 2015. We should then taste the first Australian piquepoul some months later, under the Borrowed Cuttings label.

Feletti hopes in future to establish vines on the south coast and, over time, establish piquepoul as “part of the oyster experience”, much as French vignerons and oyster farmers have done for centuries.  He agrees with one US description of the variety as “the default wine for oysters” as it forms a “backdrop, allowing the oyster to shine”, he says.

Feletti’s idea of oysters, though, may not be the same as those of us who belt down the coast for the weekend, picking up a hessian bag full from Batemans Bay, Tuross, Narooma or wherever.

He raises flat (angasi) and cupped (Sydney rock) oysters year round in the Clyde River, near Batemans Bay. He sells most, under his patented brands, including Claire de Lune, to restaurants– where they sell at around $7 each. Feletti says he finishes each brand differently in response to different markets.

They’re not in any Canberra restaurants. But where you do find them – for example at Sydney’s Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay – they’ll be shucked on demand by trained staff. And in the years ahead they’ll no doubt be served with Feletti’s piquepoul.

Feletti says he sells to 20–40 restaurants in long-term partnerships. He expects restaurants “to do something for my brand” and, in return, he provides staff training, as well as a year-round supply of succulent oysters. He also writes a regular newsletter and conducts master classes for consumers – all in the cause of better appreciation of live, shucked-on-demand oysters.

This is a far cry from popular consumption; or indeed of heroic efforts like those of Henry IV, who reputedly swallowed three hundred before dinner; or of a customer of Brillat-Savarin’s 32 dozen pre-dinner snack.

In my own experience, the strong seaside flavours of oysters overwhelm many wines. But I’ve found several up to the task over the years, each in it own way.  At a little café in the dunes of Cap Ferret (near Bordeaux), a tart, fairly neutral young Muscadet de Sevre et Maine, from the Loire Valley, refreshed the mouth but allowed the briny, oyster flavours to sing.

Years later in Bordeaux, a local, partially oak-fermented semillon sauvignon blanc blend sat happily with plump, juicy, ice-cold oysters.

On many occasions, young Chablis (cold climate French chardonnay) proved itself perhaps the most reliable of all oyster wines. Its high acidity, desert dryness and subtle flavour easily balanced the saline, iodine-like twang of the oyster. To date, this is my favourite oyster match up. Costco, Dan Murphy’s and First choice all offer inexpensive imports from the region.

And one Australian riesling remains in the memory – a success of wine, oyster, location and occasion. On a cold, rainy dusk at the Steingarten vineyard, Eden Valley, huddled under umbrellas, we slurped down fresh-shucked Coffin Bay oysters with wine from from the vineyard we stood in. Steingarten Riesling 2007’s brisk lime-like flavour simply replaced the traditional squeeze of lime.

Amanda Yallop, chief sommelier at Sydney’s outstanding Quay restaurant, leans more towards high acid, savoury-to-neutral whites. She says in the days when Quay offered oysters, she recommended aromatic young whites, including riesling, and also Champagne, which she sees as a classic match for its tangy, zesty finish.

Proprietor of Canberra’s Mezzalira and Italian and Sons restaurants, Pasquale Trimboli, says his customers moved away from dry white to prosecco – a fresh but neutral sparkler that offers a refreshing backdrop to the briny oyster flavour. Trimboli says it’s been 10 years since he offered pre-shucked oysters and currently offers Sydney rock oysters from Pambula. He rates Steve Feletti’s oysters, “the best I’ve ever tasted in Australia”. He hopes to offer them in future and has been in discussions with Feletti for some time. He says Feletti “is very fussy about storage and service”.

But matching wine with oysters isn’t a science and oysters, like personal taste, vary widely. Piquepoul can only add to the choice. Tim Stock’s Vinous Imports offers picpoul de Pinet from Chateau Petite Roubie, though he’s sold out at present. And Randall Pollard’s Heart and Soil Imports, Melbourne, currently offers Domaine de la Majone 2011 for $2 (phone 0408 432 456.

Steve Feletti offers Moonlight Flat oysters live by courier to Canberra customers.  Email info@moonlightflatoysters.com.au for details.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2013
First published 29 May 2013 in the Canberra Times and goodfood.com.au

Australia’s sparkling wine king, Ed Carr first put bubbles in wine in 1977.  Charged with sorting out “some issues with secondary fermentation”, Carr, a microbiologist, joined senior winemaker Pam Dunsford at Seaview’s Glenloth winery, Reynella.

“We got through, though I was straight out of uni”, recalls Carr. At the time, Dunsford made the base wines for Seaview “Champagne”, as it was then called. The wines were finished off by Norm Walker at Seaview’s sparkling cellars in the Adelaide suburb of Magill.

Today that division of labour seems as foreign as the grapes our sparkling makers used just a generation ago. The classic sparkling varieties, pinot noir and chardonnay, were little planted in Australia at the time. And our sparkling makers used neutral grape varieties. They intentionally created a blank canvas on which they painted the aromas, flavours and textures arising from bottle fermentation and maturation on spent yeast cells.

Carr recalls using muscadelle, chenin blanc and even a touch of grenache. “Pinot noir and chardonnay didn’t come onto our agenda until the late eighties”, he says. “But Seaview 1990 was a big year for us, our first pinot noir chardonnay”.  The fruit came from Wynns vineyards (also part of the Penfolds group) at Coonawarra and Padthaway.

By this time, Seaview had become part of the Penfolds Wine Group. In 1986 Carr relocated to the new sparkling wine cellars in the Barossa. The state-of-the-art facility had originally been planned as an underground cellar at Glenloth, but ultimately built above ground at Penfolds’ Nuriootpa site.

The fruit from Coonawarra and Padthaway, however, fell a long way short of ideal, largely because both regions were too warm. By this time, says Carr, fruit sourcing occupied his mind. And Seaview’s joining with the Penfolds group opened new opportunities.

A mid-1980s trip with fellow winemaker Rob Gibson opened Carr’s eyes to the potential of cooler growing areas. The pair swung through the Yarra Valley, where Chandon was just beginning, to high, cool sites in the Pyrenees and on to Tasmania.

In Tasmania they met with Julian Alcorso at Moorilla Estate, on the Derwent near Hobart, and Dr Andrew Pirie at Piper’s Brook, near Launceston. Though it would a decade before Carr sourced fruit from Tasmania, he decided on that trip, “this was the place to be”.

At about the same time, Seppelt became part of the Penfolds group, bringing Carr into contact with wines made by Warren Randall and Ian McKenzie from Tumbarumba, NSW, and Drumborg, southwestern Victoria.

The two regions made different styles, recalls Carr – those from young, highly cropped vines at Tumbarumba being less intense than those from mature vines in the very cold Drumborg region.

In 1994, Hardys recruited Carr as head of sparkling wine production. Carr says they lagged the other large wine companies in sparkling wine making at the time, despite runaway success with the Sir James brand.

The company wanted to make top sparkling wines and poured in the resources to achieve the goal. At about the same time as they hired Carr, they acquired a substantial Yarra Valley vineyard, near Gembrook.

The vineyard had been set up specifically for sparkling wine production by well-known viticulturist, David Paxton. It belonged to a syndicate of wine companies, including Hardys, and until 1994 sold fruit to the various shareholders.

However, from 1995, Hardys, now the sole owner, took all the fruit for its upmarket sparklers. In the same year they planted large areas of pinot noir along the Riverland to feed its big-volume, cheaper Omni brand.

And in 1995, Carr took his first small batches of Tasmanian fruit. He says, “I visited Tassie and let it be known we were after grapes and would see what turned up”. He spread the world largely through winemaker Steve Lubiana and viticultural consultant, Fred Peacock, owner of Bream Creek Vineyard.

Hardys paid good market prices, says Carr, and over the next few years the grape volumes and range of vineyards they sourced from grew rapidly. Table wines, particularly chardonnay and pinot came on the agenda, too.

In 2001 Hardys acquired the Bay of Fires winery and vineyard. Until then, Tasmanian contract wineries pressed, chilled and shipped juice to Carr in Adelaide. Following the acquisition, Bay of Fires made all of the group’s Tasmanian table wines on site and took over the pressing, chilling and shipping juice for sparkling wine production, which remains totally under Carr’s control at Tintara.

Carr says, “It took 10 to 15 years to get a picture” of what worked and where. Many sites can be managed for both table and sparkling wine production, he says. But for sparkling wine, sourcing moved south to include vineyards along the East Coast, near Swansea and Cranbrook, the Coal River Valley, and the Meadowbank vineyard, on the Derwent near New Norfolk, west of Hobart.

Winemaking follows traditional French techniques, including prolonged ageing on yeast lees in bottle following the secondary fermentation. This vital stage of sparkling production adds subtly to the aroma, flavour, structure and bubble size of sparkling wine.

Carr says when he began making top-shelf sparklers for Hardys, he aimed for four years’ maturation on yeast lees before release. But by holding museum stock for longer periods, he’s learned that the best wines, particularly those from Tasmania, develop beautifully with much longer maturation. This led to the release of a late disgorged product, matured on lees for 10 years.

Carr believes it’s difficult to separate the characters derived during yeast autolysis from aged varietal character and other winemaking inputs, such as maturation of base wines in oak barrels before the secondary fermentation. However, he says, “it’s the total mix that matters”.

As to the tiny bubbles in good sparkling wine, he says he doesn’t understand the cause chemically but it relates to surface tension and long maturation on yeast lees. He observes a clear pattern between bubble size and length of maturation.

Carr sees a clear distinction between the minerality of Tasmanian sparkling wine and the fruitier quality of mainland fruit – a quality making it well suited to great bottle ageing.

His style for both House of Arras, the flagship Tasmanian brand, and Bay of fires includes fermentation and maturation of components in oak barrels and full malolactic fermentation.

Future tweaking will include a little more reserve wine blended into the base wines and the influence of new plantings, yet to bear fruit.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2013
First published 16 January 2013 in The Canberra Times