Flowering interest in hops

11 April 2007BeerChris Shanahan

Canberra brewer Richard Watkins says that if you can appreciate the difference between dried and fresh coriander, then you can understand why fresh hops flowers have an advantage over the pelletised version in brewing.

Hops is the brewer’s only spice in most beers and plays a crucial role — through its aroma, flavour and bitterness — in countering the sweetness of malted barley, beer’s seminal component.
Richard has just returned from a trip to Tasmania where he learned that small brewers don’t have to rely on mainland middlemen to source hops.

He says he’s found an independent hops grower on the upper Derwent with the capacity to produce small quantities to order of classic hops varieties including Saaz, Goldings, Hallertau, Fuggles, Amarillo and Chinook – and even selective crosses thereof.

Richard says that hops flowers dried to about eight per cent moisture content can be stored from one hops season to the next in good condition

Wine review — Cumulus, Fox Creek & Eileen Hardy

8 April 2007Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Cumulus Wine Climbing Orange Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 $19.99
At last year’s Orange District wine show judges James Halliday, Celine Rousseau and I pushed this wine to the top of the cabernet class – meaning a trophy as well as a gold medal. Away from the sip-and-spit pressure of a wine show and six months on, the wine still looks good. It has well-defined varietal aroma and flavour with typically firm, drying tannins. And there’s a richness to the mid palate that’s often lacking in cabernets from inland regions. My only quibble is that the tannins are a wee bit tough – something you won’t notice over a good steak. Great value.

Fox Creek McLaren Vale Short Row Shiraz 2004 $28
As the 2004 vintage approached, one winemaker told me of the ‘wall of fruit’ awaiting harvest. He had misgivings because big crops sometimes mean lower quality. There was much crop thinning in an effort to concentrate flavour. But even then most areas enjoyed a big harvest. With the dust long settled on what is now generally seen as a terrific vintage, we can enjoy wines like this generous, soft, Fox Creek Shiraz. It’s sourced mainly from the ‘Short Row’ block near the winery, they say, and expresses the Vale’s generous flavours, soft tannins and appealing, savoury edge. See www.foxcreekwines.com

Eileen Hardy Chardonnay 2005 $50 to $55
Hardy’s flagship white parallels Australia’s chardonnay history. It began in 1986 as a fairly big, short-lived, oaky white sourced from Padthaway, at the time probably the coolest region growing appreciable volumes of chardonnay. It was typical of wines of the time and one of the leading examples, too. Eileen’s sourcing followed the best chardonnay plantings, heading further south and to higher altitudes in the ensuing years to mature as a fine, potentially long-lived style this decade. The current release, a Tumbarumba-Tasmania blend, has — in its intense, delicious fruit flavours, complex barrel-related complexities and taut structure – more than an echo of the great French white Burgundies on which it is modelled.

Beer review — Schloss, Wernesgrüner & Cooper’s

4 April 2007Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Schloss Pils 330ml 6-pack $11.99. Wernesgrüner Pils 335ml 6-pack $11.99
These Aldi imports sit squarely in the German Pilsen-style mould – bright, light golden lagers with dry finish and pronounced hop bitterness. The Schloss is a little darker in colour and not as stunningly fresh as the Wernesgrüner. Both offer outstanding value for money and were purchased at Aldi, Holt.

Cooper’s Extra Stout 375ml about $3.30
The recent cool nights prompted a visit to this warming old friend — a beautifully fresh and balanced beer. It’s deeply coloured, with persistent, creamy tan-coloured foam and opulent, malty, fruity, roast coffee aroma and flavours – finishing dry and refreshingly bitter. It’s bottle conditioned and therefore carries a natural yeast sediment.

No small beer for Aldi founders

4 April 2007BeerChris Shanahan

Wikipedia says that Germany’s wealthiest men, Theo and Karl Albrecht, retired founders of Aldi supermarkets, earn an estimated 1.5 billion Euro a year from their 5000 outlets.

And their winning formula – small groupings of popular household items at low prices – includes a couple of treats for Aussie beer drinkers.

Buying in large volume and selling direct to consumers allows Aldi to offer two very good German beers – Schloss Pils and Wernesgrüner Pils — at prices that must annoy the hell out of the big brewers and rival importers.

$40 a slab for the Schloss Pils pits it squarely against big volume locally brewed premiums and the German imports of Coles and Woolies, and below the price of fair-dinkum boutique products.

This creates a conundrum for craft brewers. They simply cannot compete on price even if they win on individuality.

But for those seeking a cold drink on a hot day, who can argue?

Wine review — Grant Burge, Ravensworth & Lillydale

1 April 2007Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Grant Burge Barossa Valley Meshach Shiraz 2002 $100
Grant Burge’s flagship red comes from several southern Barossa vineyards — including a section of Grant’s Filsell vineyard, planted in the 1920s. Although finessed in recent years – partly through the use of finer French oak in conjunction with more assertive American oak – it remains an extraordinarily concentrated red, built for the long haul. It’s certainly earned its stripes amongst the country’s elite wines, even if writer opinion currently favours cooler climate styles. At the release tasting Burge previewed his sensational Shadrach Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 – a blend from Coryton Park in the Eden Valley and Barossa floor. It’s a sensational wine due for release in few years.

Ravensworth Canberra District Sangiovese 2006 about $22
This is an incredibly good follow up to Bryan and Jocelyn Martin’s 2005 vintage – winner of a gold medal and trophy at last year’s regional show. Bryan says he fermented both vintages on viognier skins — a little trick, he believes, that helps to brighten and stabilise colour and smooth the texture. But this is mere seasoning to a delicious wine that captures the spirit of Italy’s ubiquitous sangiovese grape. There’s a Aussie-style bright, inviting and fruity dimension to Ravensworth. But the medium body and savoury, persistent tannins that follow are Italian, and the real point of difference in a wine that ought to blossom over the never next five or six years. See www.ravensworthwines.com.au

Lillydale Estate Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2005 $16 to $20
Judges voted this mid-priced chardonnay as best chardonnay, best white wine and best table wine of Canberra’s 2006 National Wine Show of Australia. Encountered again recently it remains in the fine-boned, oak-fermented, oak-matured style that’ve now pretty well replaced the fat and overtly oak styles that dominated the market two decades ago. Delicious, melon-like varietal chardonnay flavour is the key to the wine’s great appeal. But a matrix of aromas and flavours derived from barrel fermentation and maturation on yeast lees adds subtly to the drinking pleasure. And that’s further enhanced by its silky texture and great freshness.

Barossa 2007 vintage blighted by frost, drought

28 March 2007WineChris Shanahan

Well known Barossa winemaker Grant Burge passed through Canberra this week, promoting Meshach, his flagship red, and commenting on the most extraordinary vintage in living memory.

‘I’ve never seen anything like it’, he said. ‘Reds are down in volume by seventy per cent and whites by thirty five per cent. It’s the vintage from hell’.

Burge believes that Australia’s vintage could be as low as 1.1 million tonnes, well down on industry mid-vintage estimates of around 1.3 million tonnes. He believes this is because initial reports extrapolated on yields from hot, earlier ripening regions that were not as hard hit by frost and drought as cooler, later ripening areas.

Burge believes that the sudden shortage will drive prices up and has already affected vigneron behaviour. Normally by this stage of vintage larger makers would have begun to sell off bulk wine not required for brand commitments.

But in 2007, he says, this is not happening, meaning virtually no current-vintage bulk-wine market. Everyone is hanging on to everything they have and many makers are desperately short of some varieties.

It seems that 2007 will be a year of great financial pain for many growers and winemakers. The abrupt change from surplus to shortage hits in different ways. Growers – some of whom may also be winemakers – are faced with all the costs of a normal season but little income to offset the costs.

And winemakers — whether self-reliant in grapes, partially reliant or totally dependent on contract fruit – face the dilemma of under utilised equipment and a big gap in stock for the years ahead.

Burge, for example, says that his Illapara winery, in the main street of Tanunda, Barossa Valley, processed 4.5 thousand tonnes last year but will see only two thousand tonnes in 2007. He believes that some larger producers have been even harder hit with some wineries reportedly falling tens of thousands of tonnes short of capacity.

After three vintages at around two million tonnes, the sudden wrenching shift from top to second gear, at 1.1 million tonnes, will jolt the industry and flow on to drinkers through firmer pricing.

Reportedly, surplus bulk wine from previous vintages is being dispersed rapidly. And because it is not being replaced, pressure on supplies and, hence, prices, will probably be fairly quick in some sectors of the market.

If there’s a serious shortage at the cheap end of the market, it’s quite likely that producers and large retailers will do as they have in the past and turn to imports to make up the shortfall.

For a middle-sized premium producer like Burge, though, that’s not an option. Grant says that the large vintages of 2005 and 2006 provide something of a buffer. Good stocks of reds from those vintages can be managed to at least partly offset the losses of 2007, and white volumes are down but not disastrously so.

And what’s quality like in the Barossa in 2007? Again, Burge says he’s never seen anything like it. Red grapes, hard as bullets, seem to be all skin and no flesh. What this means is inky black wines (colour pigments are all in the skins) packed with tannins. They’re not attractive at present, says Burge, and he doesn’t know whether they’ll soften with time or stay as they are.

Perhaps that’s good reason for us to stock up, at historically low prices, on the excellent 2004, 2005 and 2006 vintages now in the market.

Beer review — Matilda Bay and Wig & Pen

28 March 2007Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Matilda Bay Bohemian Pilsner 345ml about $3
Matilda Bay brews this golden lager in the traditional Czech Pilsen style — with heaps of hops of the very aromatic and succulently bitter Saaz variety. This sets the tone from start to finish – from the pungent, resiny aroma to the lingering, ultra-bitter finish. It’s a beer drinker’s beer.

Wig & Pen Summer Dark Star Lager middy $4.20
The Wig’s latest, charismatic seasonal specialty looks dark and brooding like a warming winter ale – an impression furthered by the rich, dark-chocolate aroma. Though the dark chocolate flavour fills the palate, it’s foiled by the most refreshing, assertive and delicious hops bitterness that turns winter to summer in a few sips.

Bring back the beer randall

28 March 2007BeerChris Shanahan

Canberra’s Wig & Pen brewpub can’t long stay out of the beer news. Highly distinctive specialties come and go with the seasons. While it’s a little later for one of the two summer brews — the raspberry flavoured lambic-style Rich’s Summer Frenzy ran out recently — the delicious Summer Dark reviewed below remains on tap.

And with the hops harvest in full swing brewer Richard Watkins plans to bring back the randall – a sealed glass container filled with fresh hops flowers — that sits on the bar as specially-brewed ale flows through it en route to the taps.

In their brief contact with the beer the flowers infuse it with an exciting, bracing aroma and aftertaste. Last year’s highly successful brew was a brown ale with a rich, creamy texture designed to match the piquancy of the fresh hops.

Watch this space for a review of the 2007 ale when it hits the bar.

Wine review — Penfolds Bin 128, Bin 28, Bin 389 & Bin 407

25 March 2007Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Penfolds Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz 2004 & 2005 $15.75-$27
With prices spiralling to new lows – as little as $15.75 for Bins 128, 138 and 28 — the new-vintage Penfolds reds present a great buying opportunity. A personal favourite from the release is the 2004 Bin 128, a French-oak-matured shiraz from the Coonawarra region. The sample bottle blossomed for days after opening – revealing rich, delicious cool-climate berry flavours with typical Penfolds’ layered texture, of which fine, grippy tannins are a major component. The wine has an elegance, too, and I suspect that this will become more apparent as the years roll by. The co-released plumper, more tannic 2005 needs time and is upstaged by the better 2004 wine.

Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz 2004 $15.75-$27
Penfolds’ decision to screw cap seal Bin 28 2004 but not all of the other Bin reds sends a confusing message to drinkers. If, as we’re told, it’s the best seal for sturdy reds with long cellaring potential, why pussy foot around with a gradual roll out, culminating, one of the winemakers tells me, with Grange from the 2006 vintage? Fortunately Bin 28 2004 rises above the equivocal marketing stance and delivers big on traditional Penfolds’ values: flavour, harmony, cellarability and complexity. It offers the bigger flavour and structure of warm-grown shiraz with the unique Penfolds tannin thumbprint. This is a very good vintage.

Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 2004 $32.45-$45, Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 $22.45-$35
Since the first vintage in 1990 Bin 407 has been textbook cabernet sauvignon – a wine that smells, tastes and feels (in its assertive, slightly austere, tannic structure) like nothing but cabernet. The 2004 maintains this variety-defining style. It’s the ideal steak wine. Bin 389, too, leads with cabernet aroma and structure – a wine of immense power and depth. Tasted alongside the pure-cabernet Bin 407, the role of shiraz in the Bin 389 blend becomes apparent, providing an earthy note to the nose and fullness to the palate. The combination is striking in a wine built, unequivocally, for the cellar.

A great brand confuses

21 March 2007WineChris Shanahan

It’s been a field day for wine drinkers. But Australia’s benchmark red-wine brand, I believe, has never seen such grim times. Caught in a three-way pincer of wine glut, fierce retail competition and a parent company seemingly desperate for sales, Penfolds annual ‘Bin’ wine release hit new lows in 2007.

Retail prices slumped to unprecedented levels for the range as a whole. And what appears to me as indecisive marketing under successive ownerships sent a confusing message on the relative merits of cork and screw cap seals.

Penfolds winemakers favoured screw caps from early in the decade following a successful maturation trial with the 1996 Bin 389. But a piecemeal rollout means that of the current releases, Bin 138 Barossa Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre 2005, Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz 2005, Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz 2004 and Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 have screw caps and Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz 2004 and Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 2004 have corks.

From a consumer perspective, in the short term anyway, things couldn’t be better. With Penfolds reds at fire-sale prices why not fill the boot and drive home with a smile on your face?

But why are the Penfolds prices at their lowest in a decade? Competition and glut play a role. But the malaise in parent company Fosters wine division is probably the key. With a reported ten per cent slide in wine sales in the first half of 2006-07, it’s quite plausible that Fosters are using the annual Penfolds release to bring sales home in the second half, though they tell me that that’s not the case.

It’s the ideal fire-sale brand as retailers invariably offer Penfolds at or near cost on release. And it’s the most significant wine release of the year because of the large volumes and big dollars involved.

But it’s also one in which retailers don’t want to be caught out. In release week in early March, The Canberra Times carried three press ads for the new Penfolds reds in one edition: Woolworths-owned Dan Murphy announced the release without posting prices, adding that it wouldn’t be undercut. Coles-Group-owned Vintage Cellars stuck its head above the trenches offering Bins 128, 138 and 28 at around $22 – only to have it lopped off by 1st Choice (another Coles Group brand) at around $18.

The following week, Dan Murphy cut the price to less than $16 – territory that hadn’t been approached, as far as I can recall, since the 1990s. Then last weekend, Sydney-based independent Kemeny’s chopped again — to $15.80.

What that meant, given Coles and Woolies ‘we-won’t-be-undercut’ pledge, was a new market-wide price that was more than $2 a bottle below last year’s floor.

Confusingly, Fosters have released two vintages of Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz – 2004 and 2005. The rationale for doing this, says the press release, is that ‘The Penfolds winemaking team believe the style of the Bin 128 is enhanced by an earlier release’. But that’s at odds with winemaker Peter Gago’s tasting note: ‘this wine needs time” – a view confirmed by my own tasting.

The confusing messages emerging from the current Penfolds release – why am I worth less this year than last? Am I to be cork or screw cap sealed? At what age should I be released? – could not come at a worse time for Australia’s wine industry.

With the price per litre of exported wine in serious decline, we need to build premium brands, not degrade the ones we have.

Whether justified or not, confusing messages, even little ones, about brands creates doubts about quality. And that’s something Australia’s wine industry cannot afford with an icon like Penfolds.

We can only hope that Fosters comes to grips with its wine portfolio. On a brighter note, the new Penfolds releases – Bins 28, 128, 138, 389 and 407 – do stack up on quality. You can read my reviews of the range on this website.