Mount Langi Ghiran Billi Billi Shiraz 2008 $14.25–$18 The Rathbone Wine Group owns some of Australia’s great regional brands – Yering Station Yarra Valley, Parker Coonawarra Estate, Xanadu Margaret River and Mount Langi Ghiran Grampians. Winemaker, Dan Buckle, and viticulturist, Damien Sheehan, look after production at the Langi Ghiran operation, producing the sensational “The Langi” shiraz and this budget blend from the Grampians, Swan Hill and Bendigo. It’s a clever blend, keeping the price down by using cheaper, warm-grown, grapes, but retaining the lovely savouriness and spiciness of the cooler regions. That savoury, spiciness cuts through a rich, fruity palate. Should drink well for three or four years.
Tim Smith Eden Valley Riesling 2011 $25 The first wine we’ve seen in the Eden Valley’s new proprietary bottle comes from Tim Smith, former Yalumba winemaker. Smith says the wine comes from a low-yielding vineyard, planted in 1922 at 450 metres above sea level. The cool, wet 2011 vintage presented huge challenges for grape growers with widespread crop loss and difficulties in ripening red varieties in some areas. However, we’re seeing some exciting whites with intense flavours, delicacy and higher than normal acidity. Smith’s is one of the good examples – an aromatic riesling, with just a touch of floral, but leaning more to lemon varietal character and rich but very delicate palate.
Barwang Hilltops Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $13.90–$19.99 Peter Robertson founded Barwang, the first vineyard near Young, in 1969 but sold the vineyards to McWilliams in 1989. McWilliams extended the plantings and over the years took the Barwang and Hilltops name to drinkers across the country. It’s an important brand for the region because of its reach. If the Hilltops winemaking high ground has been taken over by small makers like Clonakilla and Eden Road, Barwang continues to make really good wines at fair prices. Their 2009 cabernet is really stunning for a red under $20 ¬– packing in absolutely lovely, mulberry-like varietal flavour and retaining cabernet’s distinctive, firm structure.
Tim Gramp Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $21 Gramp Vineyard, Watervale, Clare Valley, South Australia I’m not sure how a wine this good at this price makes commercial sense. By my reckoning Tim Gramp’s yield of just .076 tonnes to the hectare implies production of just 57 dozen bottles from a hectare of vineyard. But let’s not argue. This is a brilliant, distinctive, drink-now (or over the next five years) cabernet. Fruit aroma pours from the glass – pure and sweet with varietal red berry, mint and herbal notes. These are reflected, too, on the terrifically lively, elegant palate, but coated in juicy, soft tannins, courtesy, says Gramp, of gentle basket pressing.
Grosset Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2011 $32 Clare Valley and Adelaide Hills, South Australia Cross-regional blending is alive and well in Australia – and makes perfect sense when you try Jeff Grosset’s latest release. It combines semillon from the warmer Clare Valley with sauvignon blanc from the higher, cooler, more southerly Adelaide Hills (both on the Mount Lofty Ranges). Semillon tempers the in-your-face fruitiness of sauvignon, adding body and depth to the palate. The focus remains on shimmering, fresh fruit, but more in the lemon-citrus spectrum, with brisk acidity.
Madfish Sideways Chardonnay 2010 $16.70–$22 Yallingup and Karridale, Margaret River, Western Australia Madfish, part of Jeff and Amy Burch’s Howard Park operation, presents amazingly good regional wines at fair prices. Their pure, vibrant chardonnay is loaded with white peach and melon-rind varietal flavour, backed by the rich texture and subtle complexity added by fermentation and maturation in older oak barrels. While richly flavoured the wine skips lightly over the palate. Amy Burch says she sourced the fruit from Margaret River’s Yallingup and Karridale sub-regions
Maximus Premium GSM Cadenzia 2009 $24.99 McLaren Vale, South Australia Roland and Shelley Short bought their McLaren Vale vineyard only recently. With the help of winemaker Tim Geddes and a few extra parcels of local grapes, they made this gold-medal-winning blend of grenache (50 per cent), shiraz (35 per cent) and mourvedre (15 per cent). It works particularly well as none of the components dominates. While the sometimes musk-like grenache boosts the aroma, it’s from start to finish a deep, earthy, savoury red with a fleshy, juicy mid-palate countering the abundant tannins. It’s available at Canberra Cellars and www.maximuswinesaustralia.com.au
Turkey Flat Grenache 2009 $25 Turkey Flat Vineyard, Tanunda, Barossa Valley, South Australia The Maximus wine reviewed today showcases grenache harmonising with shiraz and mourvedre. In Turkey Flat, grenache sings solo – hitting the musk and floral aromatic high notes of the vintage. On the palate, a piquant spiciness cuts through the sweet, fleshy fruitiness, with soft tannins completing the red wine tune. Turkey Flat owners Pete and Christie Schulz say they make the wines from low-yielding 90 year-old vines, pruned into a goblet shape. Have a look at them next time you’re in the Barossa.
Yering Station Pinot Noir 2010 $31.35–$38 Upper and lower Yarra Valley, Victoria Yering Station was planted to vines in 1838 by the Ryrie brothers, a branch of the family that set up first at Braidwood and Michelago. Today it’s part of the Rathbone Wine Group, alongside Mount Langi Ghiran Grampians, Parker Coonawarra Estate and Xanadu Margaret River. Yering Station 2010’s red-berry, savoury, subtly stalky varietal flavours underpin a lively, elegant pinot. It grows more interesting with every mouthful – a medium bodied, elegant wine with a fine but firm structure. It should evolve very well over time in the cellar.
Chablis (Michel Bouchard) 2009 $14.99 This is one of three French chardonnays we bought from Cosco recently – a direct import, along with other two, Chablis (William Fevre) 2009 $18.99 and Puligny-Montrachet (Louis Latour) 2008 $42.99, already reviewed in my Wednesday column. Like the other two, Michel Bouchard’s wine presents really good value as it offers the key characteristics of Chablis at a low price. Chablis, the northernmost and coolest outpost of Burgundy makes comparatively austere, bone-dry chardonnays noted for their minerality – and once described as like sucking pebbles. This one fits the template but also has some mid-palate texture, presumably from ageing on yeast lees.
Chapel Hill McLaren Vale Bush Vine Grenache 2009 $30 What a beautiful wine this is, capturing the rich, earthy flavours of old McLaren Vale bush vines (vines grown as individual bushes, without trellising) planted in 1926 and 1952. Winemakers Michael Fragos and Bryn Richards say the grapes were hand picked and the wines made in small batches in open fermenters “to facilitate a long, slow, gentle extraction”. Subsequent maturation in older French oak hogsheads further ameliorated the tannins. The result is a pure grenache featuring the buoyant fruit aroma and flavours of the vintage – with a background of spice and soft, earthy tannins. Rachel Steer looks after the venerable old vines.
Shaw Vineyard Estate Canberra District Shiraz 2009 $22 Shaw Vineyard Estate of Murrumbateman offers a rich cellar door experience – including food by Flint in the Vines and a range of colourful direct-import Italian ceramics. Several quality tiers of wine on offer include this “premium” shiraz at $22 – a fair enough price, though I wonder what “premium” means. It’s a fairly big, ripe shiraz in the Canberra context, with quite strong, deep fruit flavours pushing up through the also solid tannins and slightly hot affect of alcohol. It’s a style to drink over the next four or five years. The estate is owned and run by Graeme Shaw and family.
Alsace Riesling Grand Cru Schoenenburg 2008 (Dopff au Moulin) $24–$30 Schoenenbourg vineyard, Riquewihr, Alsace, France Approach this glorious Dopff wine with an open mind. Forget Australian riesling, or German. The floral, citrusy nose says riesling – but the accent’s unique, suggesting power and weight. The palate delivers this – intense flavour, subtly viscous texture and a seductive, sweet kiss (but not too sweet) of residual grape sugar, offset by harmonious, assertive acidity that attenuates the flavour and gives a lingering, fresh, dry finish. Its dessert-sweet cellar mate, Gewurztraminer Grand Cru Sporen 2008 ($26.40–$33) is of the same calibre. Imported by Dan Murphy.
Richard Meyman Wines Colebrook Road Pinot Noir 2010 $27–$35 Coal River Valley, Tasmania Richard Meyman buys selected batches of grapes and has wine made for his own label – much as Australia’s great earlier wine merchants did. In this case it’s pinot noir grown in the Coal River Valley, near Hobart, and made into wine at Frogmore Creek by Alain Rousseau. It’s a complete success – bright and medium coloured, with fragrant, musk and cherry varietal aroma, a faint stalky note and a delicate, juicy, soft, loveable palate. It’s available from Glebe Liquor, Annandale Cellars and at www.richardmeymanwines.com.au
Villa Maria Private Bin Pinot Noir 2009 $24.69–$30 Marlborough, New Zealand When I first visited New Zealand in 1984, George Fistonich, Villa Maria’s owner, produced some of the country’s best reds at his Vidal Winery, Hawkes Bay. Across all those year’s Fistonich’s wines maintained their quality edge, even after expanding south to Marlborough, where Sir George’s team now makes some of the region’s best value pinot noir. The new release offers generous but elegant, pinot flavours and structure at a fair price. The Cellar Selection 2009 ($38–$46) offers more intensity, tannic grip and longevity.
Chapel Hill Parson’s Nose Shiraz 2010 $15.20–$17 McLaren Vale, South Australia It’s deep and purple with an amazing pure, sweet, fruitiness – like crushed, ultra-ripe black cherries, seasoned with a lick of liquorice and bag of spices. On the palate, Parson’s Nose moves from fruitiness to “wineyness”, the deep, lush fruit pulsing up through the strong, firm tannins. Winemaker Michael Fragos says it’s all McLaren Vale and all matured in French oak. It’s a very good regional varietal, easy to drink now because of its plush fruitiness, but capable of developing savouriness with a year in bottle.
Mount Avoca Shiraz 2009 $25–$27 Pyrenees, Victoria Winemaker John Harris writes, “As we come off the back of the incredibly challenging 2011 vintage, where no reds at all were made from our estate vineyard, it is extremely pleasing to be able to release wines from one of the best red wine vintage in the last 10 years”. And to John, we say, it’s extremely pleasing to drink a wine of this calibre – buoyant and ripe, red-berryish with spice and a touch of black pepper, full but elegant palate and firm, savoury tannins. It’s a strong, distinctive wine built for the cellar.
Bella Riva Pinot Grigio Vermentino 2010 $15–$17 King Valley, Victoria The King Valley’s vines took off in the nineties as the area’s Italian-descended families turned their backs on tobacco growing – changing vices, so to speak. And two Italian winemaking families from Griffith, New South Wales, joined them – Miranda and De Bortoli. Among De Bortoli’s vines are pinot grigio, a mutant of pinot noir, and the Italian white variety, vermentino. De Bortoli’s low alcohol (12.5 per cent) blend of the two provides richly textured, pleasantly tart, savoury drinking, very much in the Italian style.
Lark Hill Canberra District Riesling 2011 $30 What sort of riesling do we get from Canberra’s highest, coolest vineyard in a wet, cool growing season? Probably the sort of riesling Lark Hill made in previous cool periods. It’s pale coloured and aromatic in a pure, minerally, lemon-citrus way. The minerality and lemon-citrus flavours come through, too, on a pure, scintillating palate of great delicacy. High acidity accentuates the fruit flavour. The Lark Hill website notes, “A cool summer and mild autumn resulted in a return to our normal long-term average heat summation, giving delicate flavours, vibrant acidity and a lower final alcohol”.
Tar and Roses Central Victoria Pinot Grigio 2011 $18 Pinot grigio (= grey) lives up to its name here, giving this “white” wine a pale grey-pink tint. It’s sourced from the Nagambie Lakes (74 per cent) and Strathbogie Ranges (26 per cent) and matured on yeast lees in older oak barrels for one month. This treatment accentuates the wine’s rich, smooth texture, an important element in wines made from this variety. It’s a little more perfumed than most pinot grigios, revealing a touch of pear-like character and even a hint of strawberry. The palate’s rich, soft and delicious – another very good wine from winemakers Don Lewis and Narelle King.
Campbells Rutherglen Tempranillo 2010 $18.90 The total volume of the Spanish red variety, tempranillo, remains small. But plantings are widespread and the variety performs well in a range of climates, including Canberra’s – notably at Mount Majura. It’s a niche variety that may well move mainstream in the long run as it offers the full, upfront fruit flavours Australian drinkers are used to, but with a difference. Campbell’s version is in the drink-me-now style, offering mouth-filling, vibrant blueberry like fruit flavours – quite distinct from, say, cabernet or shiraz. After the initial hit of fruit, quite firm, savoury tannins move in, adding to the savoury impact of the wine.
Chapel Hill Il Vescovo Tempranillo 2010 $20 McLaren Vale and Adelaide Hills, South Australia Today we review two tempranillos, each emphasising a different facet of this Spanish variety. Chapel Hill’s version, made by Bryn Richards, leads with fruit – big, joyous buckets of it, ripe and mulberry like, gushing from the glass, up your nose and down your throat. Delicious stuff. Then tempranillo’s tannins kick in, adding another dimension to the flavour, not to mention a firm, but not hard, savoury finish. This is happy, slurpy tempranillo to enjoy in the full glory of its youth.
Tar and Roses Tempranillo 2010 $24 Alpine Valleys and Heathcote, Victoria Winemaker Narelle King writes, “the exceptionally low yields in 2010 from our tempranillo vineyards has produced a wine of deep concentration and powerful varietal character showing rich, ripe raspberries with classic chalky tannins”. The wine’s power, tannin and concentration contrast with the juicy fruitiness of the Chapel Hill tempranillo reviewed today. Vibrant red-berry fruit flavours mollify the pervasive tannins. Together they make a distinctive, well-balanced wine, probably with some cellaring ability.
First Creek Winemaker’s Reserve Semillon 2010 $35 Hunter Valley, New South Wales Hunter Valley winemaker of the year, Liz Jackson, made this delicious, delicate semillon. It’s a really high quality example of the lower-Hunter style – low in alcohol (11.5 per cent), light bodied and delicate, with distinctive lemony and lemongrass flavours and even a hint of lanoline. It’s a style that gathers weight, texture and gravitas with extended cellaring. Indeed, at one year we detect first signs of maturing texture – though the best remains a decade off.
Stefano Lubiana Primavera Chardonnay 2010 $28–$30 Lubiana Vineyard, Derwent Valley, Tasmania Steve Lubiana writes the big 2010 vintage compensated for a 2009 vintage reduced by poor flowering and fruit set. And in a rare double at this latitude, he rates quality among the best in his 20 years on the property. It’s a wonderful example of modern Australian chardonnay – vibrant, subtle and refined, but with deep flavour, full body and rich, fine texture. The underlying varietal flavour of white peach and grapefruit reflect the cool growing climate – as does the taut, fresh acidity.
First Creek Winemaker’s Reserve Shiraz 2008 $42 Canberra District, New South Wales Several Hunter winemakers sniffed around Canberra for shiraz in 2008 – a disastrous year for the variety in their district. In this case the Silkman family’s First Creek and winemaker Liz Jackson struck gold. The wine’s at the bigger end of Canberra’s medium bodied style, combining really classy oak with vibrant, fresh, spicy fruit flavour. It’s a great example of oak and fruit working together. In this instance the oak seems to boost the fruit flavour, making the palate that little bit plumper and juicier.
Bowen Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $30 Bowen Estate Vineyard, Coonawarra, South Australia Doug and Joy Bowen established their 33-hectare vineyard in 1972. In recent years daughter Emma joined the family business, boosting the workforce and probably contributing to a lift in wine quality. The Bowen’s latest release shows the particularly aromatic fruit of the vintage – in this instance a pure mulberry-like varietal fragrance meshing perfectly with a sweet cedary note of oak. This sweet, cedary fruit-oak combination carries through to the rich, elegantly structured palate.
Rutherglen Estates Rutherglen Durif 2008 $19–$21.95 This is a comparatively tame expression of durif, a variety noted for its impenetrable colour, colossal tannins and high alcohol – endearing features to its die-hard fans. The estate’s marketing manager, Patrick Gehrig writes the wine, “is deliberately picked at varying levels of ripeness, not only to maximise the broad spectrum of flavours and aromas that the variety can display, but produce balanced, well structured and refined wine without the excessive alcohol levels which durif is often associated with”. It’s refreshing to find such a forthright and honest press release. It captures the essence of this big, warm, tannic but soft red.
Bowen Estate Coonawarra Shiraz 2009 $27.55–$30 There’s been some criticism of high alcohol in Australian red wines. It’s a complex subject, as even comparatively low-alcohol wines can appear hot and alcoholic, while in others like this beautiful Bowen Estate shiraz, high alcohol (15 per cent) simply disappears without trace into the sweet, ripe, supple fruit. It might be big, but it’s still graceful and elegant – a great joy to drink now and probably for a decade or more into the future. It seems even juicier and fruitier than the previous vintage. It’s made by father and daughter team Doug and Emma Bowen and at the bigger end of the current Coonawarra shiraz spectrum.
Jim Barry Clare Valley
Lodge Hill Riesling 2011 $16–$20
Watervale Riesling 2011 $13.99–$18
In a generally flat riesling market, Peter Barry reports a 40 per cent increase in riesling sales over the last year. He crows, too, about 2011, “as a wonderful vintage in Clare for riesling”. Now we can judge for ourselves in these two rieslings from the Barry family estate – one for the elevated Lodge Hill vineyard near Clare township, the other from the Florita vineyard at Watervale in the valley’s south. The Lodge Hill wine shows lemony varietal flavour, delicacy and length. The Watervale wine seems more minerally with some background lime-like flavours. Both impress for their delicacy and lively acidity – features of this cool vintage.
Stanton and Killeen Classic Muscat $40 (500ml) Rutherglen, Victoria Every so often this classic wine passes our lips and we fall in love with it all over again. It’s produced from the variety muscat a-petit-grains-rouge and fortified with spirit shortly after fermentation begins. This leaves a strong, sweet red wine that takes on a magic lusciousness over many years in barrel. “Classic” sits on the second rung of the age-based quality ladder, requiring 5–10 years barrel age and 200–280 grams per litre of residual grape sugar. Stanton and Killeen’s, average age 12 years in barrel, combines luscious, vivacious raisin like flavours with lovely patina of barrel age.
Louee Nullo Mountain Chardonnay 2010 $25 Louee Vineyard, Nullo Mountain, Rylstone, New South Wales Mudgee winemaker David Lowe made this unique wine from early-picked grapes grown at 1100 metres above sea level. At this altitude the grapes develop adequately ripe flavours at low sugar levels (as they do in, say, France’s very cool Champagne region). The result is a tasty, dry chardonnay at just 10.5 per cent alcohol. Lowe compares it in style to Chablis (Burgundy’s northernmost chardonnay outpost) – and there’s certainly an echo of this in the wine’s delicious, light, minerally flavour and bone dry finish. We might call it a Chablis style with Australian characteristics.
Stefano Lubiana Primavera Pinot Noir $27–$34 Lubiana Vineyard, Derwent Valley, Tasmania More and more we’re seeing Tasmania as Australia’s pinot-central, especially this special little site on the Derwent – next door to the equally promising Derwent Estate. Steve and Monique Lubiana producer several pinots on site – this early drinking style, the more substantial “Estate” ($45) and exquisite “Sasso” ($90). This year’s Primavera presents a seductive musk, spice and savoury aroma – characters that continue in the elegant, utterly delicious, finely structured palate. It drinks well now, but for all its upfront charm has the depth and structure to age for five or six years.
Barwang Shiraz 2009 $15.19–$20 Barwang Vineyard, Hilltops, New South Wales Barwang continues the style we’ve noted in other Hilltops shirazes from the 2009 vintage – aromatic, rich and fleshy with heaps of soft tannins. Farmer Peter Robertson planted the first vines on Barwang (and the region) in 1969 and by the late seventies occasionally drove his ute over to Canberra looking for customers. Even in those early days we could see the fruit quality. Robertson sold the vineyard to McWilliams in 1989, they expanded it to 100 hectares and now produce big volumes of amazingly good value reds like this.
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Riparosso 2009 (Illuminati) $11.99 Northern Abruzzi, Italy Dino Illuminati’s winery sits on a high ridge with stunning views east to the Adriatic and west to the Apennines. With his son Stefano, he specialises in rich, earthy reds made from the local variety, montepulciano – styles he’s restlessly polished and perfected in the vineyard and winery over a lifetime. He offers two entry-level reds – Riparosso 2009 at $11.99 and Ilico 2008 at $13.99 – imported by Dan Murphy. Riparosso is the earthier, firmer of the two – a great wine with roasted red meats; and Ilico offers similar rich flavours but with softer, rounder tannins.
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Colline Teramane Riserva Zanna (Illuminati) 2006 $39.99 Illuminati’s flagship red comes from the Zanna vineyard. Like the other Illuminati wines reviewed here, it’s made from the montepulciano grape. But it comes from the Colline Teramane zone and qualifies for Italy’s highest wine classification, Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Guarantita. At five years’ age, the colour’s remains a deep, vivid red and the aroma suggests black cherries, with herbs and spice. The palate’s juicy, deep and cut through with firm, savoury, drying tannins. This is a distinctive, thoroughly enjoyable red with a good cellaring life ahead. It’s imported by Woolworths and sold through Dan Murphy outlets.
Red Knot by Shingleback McLaren Vale Shiraz 2010 $9.40–$14.95 Shaw and Smith Adelaide Hills Shiraz 2009 $40 Brothers Kym and John Davey own and manage the 100-hectare Shingleback vineyard – a big enough operation to produce outstanding regional wines across a range of price points. Their entry-level Red Knot shiraz presents a bright and fruity face of the Vale, backed by savoury and earthy notes. It offers huge value, especially during periods of intense discounting. Shaw and Smith produces the Adelaide Hill’s benchmark shiraz – distinctly cool climate in its fine, elegant style. In 2009 the fruit seems particularly aromatic with a floral note boosting the vibrant red-berry character. There’s great flavour depth and an amazingly silky, smooth texture.
Tahbilk Nagambie Lakes Shiraz 2008 and Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 $16.15–$19.95 The Tahbilk property sits on an anabranch of Victoria’s Goulburn River – rich, gently undulating country, spotted with massive, ancient eucalypts. It’s been in the hands of the Purbrick family since early last century and for a great deal of that time was run by Eric Purbrick, grandfather of the current custodian, Alister Purbrick. The extensive vineyard plantings cover many eras – starting with a block of shiraz planted in 1862. Even in a hot year like 2008, this comparatively cool region produced limpid, elegant wines with the property’s signature backbone of firm tannins. These are delicious, tight, savoury wines, far removed from Australia’s generally “fruit bomb” style.
Tulloch Hunter Valley Semillon 2011 $16 Fresh from the vine comes this lovely example of the Hunter Valley’s idiosyncratic, love-it or hate-it semillon style. It’s a comparatively soft expression of the style and therefore suited for early drinking – unlike some of the more austere versions that show their honeyed, toasty best only after 10, 15 or even 20 years in the bottle. It hits the scales at a modest 11.3 per cent alcohol, making it a particularly good company with lunch. The flavours are lemony and lemongrass-like, particularly brisk and fresh, but soft and refreshing in this light-bodied style – ready to drink now or over the next two or three years.
Early in August, Lark Hill Winery bought an established 3.6-hectare vineyard at Murrumbateman. The purchase coincided with the release of Lark Hill Shiraz Viognier 2010 and Viognier 2011 (top drops today), both sourced from the vineyard.
Chris Carpenter commented, “We purchased the vineyard in order to secure our long-term supplies of these varieties, and have renamed it ‘Dark Horse Vineyard’. We will be converting this vineyard to biodynamic and organic farming this year”.
Carpenter says the vineyard comprises about 1.2 hectares each of shiraz and sangiovese, about 0.8 hectares of viognier, 0.4 hectares of marsanne and a small patch of roussanne (part of the Rhone Valley white family, along with marsanne and viognier).
The purchase increases the Carpenter’s vineyard holdings to about 10 hectares – the balancing being on their original vineyard, planted in 1978, on the Lake George escarpment, overlooking Bungendore. At 860 metres it’s Canberra’s highest, coolest vineyard.
Over the years David and Sue Carpenter pared back varieties that didn’t work on this cool site. As a result they now focus on the proven winners – riesling, chardonnay and pinot noir and, from 2006, Austria’s specialty white variety, gruner veltliner. By this time their son, Chris, had joined the business and shiraz had entrenched itself as Canberra’s standout variety.
The site being too cold for shiraz, the Carpenters sourced material from lower, warmer Murrumbateman for several years before taking the plunge and buying their own vineyard this month.
The vineyard was one of two blocks in the Ravensworth operation, associated with Bryan and Jocelyn Martin and other business associates over the years.
Martin says the Ravensworth name belonged originally to Brendan Ryan and an American partner.
Later, Michael Kirk, brother of Clonakilla’s Tim Kirk, bought Brendan Ryan’s section of the vineyard and converted Ravensworth from a partnership to a company, with Kirk and the Martins as shareholders. Kirk leased his section of the vineyard to the Martins.
In this month’s transactions, the Carpenters bought Kirk’s section of the vineyard and the Martins bought Kirk out of Ravensworth, to be become sole owners of the name as well as the other section of vineyard.
Martin says he planted the vineyards and knows every vine by name. But he’s relieved to be managing only one vineyard from now on. While the Carpenters vineyard includes the marsanne vines behind Ravensworth’s highly regarded dry white, Chris Carpenter says they will sell the fruit to Martin.
The Carpenters intend to convert the Murrumbatemen vineyard to certified biodynamic – an expensive process, expected to take about five years.
Chris Carpenter says they made no shiraz from the vineyard this year but expect to produce a shiraz viognier under the Dark Horse label in 2012. Lark Hill produced sangiovese from the site in 2007 and 2009 ¬ – the latter, still being offered at cellar door.
The Lark Hill Shiraz Viognier 2010 reviewed below came from the vineyard but had been bottled and labelled before the purchase, so doesn’t have the Dark Horse name on the label.
Lark Hill Canberra District Shiraz Viognier 2010 $40 Grown at Murrumbateman and made at Lark Hill, this wine combines shiraz and the white variety viognier (six per cent of the blend) fermented together. It’s a highly fragrant combination, inspired by the wines of Cote-Rotie in France’s northern Rhone Valley. In the 2010 vintage the floral, spicy and peppery aromas and flavours come with a marked savoury streak and quite firm tannins. That’s firm in a slinky, elegant, medium-bodied context. It builds in interest over time – always a good sign.
QR codes – smarties are onto them
Lark Hill introduced QR codes to their back labels with the release of their 2011 vintage whites – riesling, gruner veltliner and viognier.
QR stands for “quick response” code and refers to a little, square white-on-black pattern, readable by special scanners or smart phones. They’ve been a big deal in Japan for yonks and now seem certain to spread in Australia with the rapid uptake of smart phones – including Apple’s iPhone and other brands, such as Samsung Galaxy, using Google’s Android operating system.
Free scanning apps for the phones read QR codes, which can be encoded with a variety of data, including a link to a website. This is what the Carpenters use in their codes.
Chris Carpenter writes, “I believe we are the first Canberra wine to use QRs. Our aim is to provide what amounts to after-sales support for people – so if a bottle is picked up in a bottle shop, restaurant or similar, anyone with a smart phone can find out more about the wine including its RRP, reviews and our tasting notes.
We will be keeping these links as permanent pages on our website and continuing to add reviews and tasting notes as the wines age – so the QR codes should be useful even if somebody picks up a bottle in their cellar in 10 years (or 20!)”.
Using Bakodo (a free app) we zapped the Lark Hill codes on the Chateau Shanahan iPhone – and bingo, strait through to the detail on the website.
If you have a smart phone try scanning the QR code on Lark Hill Gruner Veltliner back label, pictured.
Lark Hill -- first Canberra winery to adopt a QR code
