Wining and dining at Two Hills Vineyard

Since a long time I wanted to show you again some more pictures from our vineyard. Two Hills Vineyard in Glenburn, Victoria, is such a marvelous place. Maybe I am getting homesick. Normally we visit in July/August but this year we are planning to go to Germany, Spain and Portugal.

Our vineyard from the East (first Merlot, than Pinot Noir)

The table set on the grass

With visiting friends….

….and more visiting friends.

Delicacies from our dams: yabbies, an Australian kind of crayfish

Row spacing and trellis systems in Germany

While traveling in Germany last year, I took quite a few photos of vineyards and the way vines were grown there. While visiting the Ahr, Rhine, Mosel and Saar I notices that row spacing and trellising could showed a wide variety of different spaces and systems.

This slope on the Ahr shows “planting with the slope” and planting “parallel to the slope”, and also the width between rows shows variations.

Here (photo above from the Ahr) sticks have been put between the individual vines in order to make it easier to move in the vineyards and to prevent stones and earth to be washed down the rows. Every vine has its own individual post and no wires are required. One finds this system also along the Mosel and the Saar.

Individual vines and the post after pruning (Saar)

After pruning, two canes are bound to the post on the individual post system. I wonder if spur pruning can be applied to it too?

Usually movable fruit wires, as we have them in Australia (VSP = vertical shoot positioning), are not a feature of these trellis systems. This is not surprising. On the steep slopes of the Mosel, Ahr and Rhine rivers moving fruit wires would be suicidal.

In my own vineyard in Glenburn, we use a simple VSP-trellis system. The move of the fruit wires is usually not a difficult job, especially along the gentle slopes as we have them. However, when the rows are long, the wire gets heavier and heavier the longer the day lasts.

Three fixed wires on vines in Olewig, Trier/Mosel

One finds also more and more metal posts, here also with three wires (Olewig)

In some of the locations, even if they are steep, caterpillar tractors are used to work the land. These tractors are small but still need narrow rows between the vines in order to operate.

Below, two rows have been planted close to each other (and no vehicle can work between them), but the next rows a planted at a wider distance so that the caterpillar tractor can be used.

Even cabbage is grown between the rows (Olewig/Trier, Mosel)

In my blog entry titled “Along the Mosel River”, of September 12th, 2007 I showed some of the elevators used on steep slopes to carry material up and down the vineyard. Have a look and check it out; it’s an interesting system, one can observe on many steep vineyard slopes on the Mosel.

Chain of Ponds, Adelaide Hills, Australia

I found another treasure in our local duty free shop a Chain of Ponds ‘1999 Grave’s Gate Shiraz’, from McLaren Vale in South Australia. The homepage of Chain of Ponds (www.chainofponds.com.au), located in the Adelaide Hills, claims that they are “Australia’s “most highly awarded boutique vineyard”. After studying the page I have the feeling that for my taste, they are already much too big to qualify for such a label, but I am easy on that.

Of course their origins (in 1985) were small but they have grown over the years in a sizable business.
I just managed to get the bottle in the last year of the drinking time frame: best drinking 2003 to 2008, it says somewhere.

The wine background is given as follows:

Frost at the commencement of the 1999 growing season wiped out Chain of Ponds estate plantings of Shiraz, hence the sourcing of fruit from McLaren Vale for this wine.

In 2001 James Halliday gave a rating of 90 out of 100 point. The wine comes from the River Series, sold for A$ 18 per bottle. I payed US $ 18.20 for it, which seems to be quite reasonable. The wine could be described as follows:

<”Deep, bright red-purple; clean, fresh juicy/berry fruit on the bouquet is followed by luscious and sweet berry fruit on the palate. Neither the oak, nor the extract, nor the alcohol (13.5°) have been overdone”.

The winemaker is Neville Falkenberg. The 1999 wine must have been made by his predecessor since Neville has been with Chain of Ponds for only the last five years. The Adelaide Hills is a premier cool climate region of South Australia, only about a 20 minutes drive from the capital Adelaide. I love Adelaide not just because my wife originates from there, and recommend it for any visit to Australia. It’s a must, seriously.

Apart from this series, Chains of Ponds has a Premium Range segment. It also produces wines from Kangaroo Island grapes. Its Italian Varietals come from the Adelaide Hills (Nebbiolo, Sangiovese and Pinot Grigio). The low cost segment is called Novello Range (A$ 14/bottle). I have not been to the place but the homepage shows beautiful pictures. Another place to check out.

Miranda - Sam Miranda

After posting my recent blog entry on “Cool Climate Wines” I had second thoughts as regards the accuracy of my assessment. I thought about the label issues, than visited the Sam Miranda website again (www.sammiranda.com.au).

There I learned that Sam Miranda had sold the family business (Miranda Wines) to McGuigan Simeon in October 2003. And then things fell into place. Of course the bottle I had bought must have come from McGuigan Simeon (www.mswl.com.au). When I visited their website today I found the Miranda brand and learned that they also source fruit from the King Valley.

So the bottle of Miranda I had the other day came from McGuigan Simeon and not from Sam Miranda of King Valley.

However, I can maintain my general assessment.

1. Wines from the cool climate King Valley Wine Region are excellent and worth trying.

2. The “High Country” Cabernet Sauvignon from Miranda (McGuigan Simeon) was a good buy.

and

3. I will visit the Sam Miranda cellar door next time we are in Glenburn. That’s for sure.

Shakespeare in the Vines - Sevenhill Cellars

Ever since my friend Neville Rowe became general manager of Sevenhill Cellars in the Clare Valley I have followed this interesting enterprise though the internet.

The Clare Valley is one of Australia’s oldest and most famous wine regions, about 120 km north of Adelaide, South Australia. Sevenhill Cellars is located south of the small country town of Clare which gave the valley its name (along the B 82).

The vineyards and the cellar are owned by the Jesuits (Society of Jesus) (www.sevenhillcellars.com.au) who migrated to Australia (from Austria) in 1848 so seek a more peaceful life. In 1851 they established Sevenhill Cellars. It is the oldest winery in the Clare Valley and the largest producer of sacramental wine in Australia. Watch out for the ‘St. Aloysius Riesling 2005′ , their flagship wine (ranked 34th in the “Top 100 Rieslings” of the 2005 Sydney Royal Wine Show) but also try some of their fortified wines - Liqueur Tokay, Verdelho and Frontignac or the ‘Jesuit Fine Old Tawny’. Hope this is enticing enough for Riesling lovers to check it out.

Originally the place was called “Open ranges” but the Jesuit settlers called it “Sevenhill” reminiscent of the seven hills of Rome. The intention was to make the place a centre of Catholicism in this part of Australia and to produce sacramental wines. Today, they also produce table wines for the laicist consumers.

Every year a Shakespeare play is put on at Sevenhill, called “Shakespeare in the Vines”. If you are around today, you are lucky because the romantic comedy “Twelfth Night” is shown on Friday 22 and Saturday 23, February. The ticket costs 35 A$ only. I am sure you will have a stunning night and the opportunity to choose from a variety of excellent wines.

The play is divided into five acts. It is actually quite complicated for me to give you a short account. I would like to refer you to http://absoluteshakespeare.com where you can read details about the story line and the characters.

I only want to mention that one of the most beautiful songs Shakespeare ever wrote can be found in this play. It goes as follows:

Come away, come away, death,
And in sad cypress let me be laid;
Fly away, fly away, breath;
I am slain by a fair cruel maid.
My shroud of white, stuck all with yew,
O prepare it;
My part of death no one so true
Did share it.
Not a flower, not a flower sweet,
On my black coffin let there be strown;
Not a friend, not a friend greet
My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown:
A thousand thousand sighs to save,
Lay me, O, where
Sad true lover never find my grave,
To weep there!”

Thumbs up for Sevenhill Cellars

Neville Rowe, general manager, Sevenhill Cellars

Address:
Sevenhill Cellars
Box 13 Sevenhill SA 5453
Ph.: (0 8843 4222
e-mail: info@sevenhillcellars.com.au

Hanging Rock China Success

In today’s Daily Wine News electronic newsletter I read about the huge success of Hanging Rock wines in China (www.hangingrock.com.au). When we visited the winery in July last year, Andrew, who manned the cellar door at the time, told us about this venture. At that time the order was out but the wine was still in Hanging Rock’s storage. We tasted the Hanging Rock Shiraz wines at that occasion (see my blog entry from September 2007), discussed wine tastes around the world, how they could differ and how difficult the Chinese wine market was.

Hanging Rock winery, Macedon Ranges Wine Region, Victoria

I am delighted to hear therefore that everything went according to the plan. The Daily Wine News cited John Ellis, CEO and chief winemaker of Hanging Rock as follows:

“We believe that this is probably the largest premium wine order ever sold into China by a small Australian producer. Apart from the sheer size, the complexity was mind boggling. We had 5 variations of wine type and vintage plus two bottle sizes, spread across four importers to be identified on their particular selections of the five wines. All in all we had to produce and translate into Mandarin, 36 different back labels. In the process we learnt that there are several ways to write ‘Hanging Rock’ in Mandarin.”

Congratulations John! Great stuff.

Hanging Rock vineyard, in the background the “hanging rock” Photo taken in July 2007

This success is great news for all the small family-owned businesses around Australia. It shows again that also difficult markets can be cracked by boutique vineyards. Hopefully the Olympics will have an additional effect on exports to China and further stimulate the wine industry. Given that stocks of Australian wines are down, the 2008 vintage promising regarding quality but maybe down on volume, we might even expect a price rise for grape prices.

Giant Steps - Innocent Bystander

As promised ealier, here is my log entry about Giant Steps which is also known as Innocent Bystander. It is the most amazing new winery in the Yarra Valley. Wines under the Giant Steps label were released in 2001. But the new winery building was only opened in 2006.

It already earned very favourable critiques and the wines of course won quite a few awards and medals. A select Yarra Valley red wine tasting (all reds except Pinot Noir) late last year - by Gourmet Traveller Wine Magazine, December/January edition - (http://gourmettravellerwie.com.au), for instance, ranked the ‘2006 Giant Steps Miller Vineyard Shiraz’ (92 points) and its 2005 Giant Steps Harry’s Monster’ a blend of Cabernet Sav., Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc (89 points) quite highly.

Actually Giant Steps - Innocent Bystander is not only a winery but also a restaurant, café, bakery, meeting place, etc. in the heart of Healesville, the charming rural town about an hour away north east of Melbourne. Phil and Allison Sexton, the owners, deserve great praise for having the courage to establish such an enterprise, the merging of an industrial work place like a winery with the inviting hospitality necessary for a café-bistro.

I had the opportunity to visit it twice during our recent Christmas vacation and had a great time there. First of all, its the only place I could find where I was able to surf the internet wireless with my laptop. Great. Second, the food is very delicious (people seem to love the pizzas) and so are the wines.

The modern interior leaves space for tranquility as well as play. We loved, what Germans call, a “kicker”, a kind of table soccer-machine, which invites for exciting competitions. For me the wireless internet access was such a bonus. Nowhere else could I update my blog in Healesville more easily.

Any time of the day is good to visit. You can have breakfast there from 10h onwards (many young mothers with their babies came) and enjoy the open atmosphere or you might opt for a meal or a drink later in the day. We came for breakfast. The coffee was delicious and the cakes were a culinary delight. But I also tried a ‘2007 Innocent Bystander Pinot Gris’, a very young and refreshing wine, with hints of citrus, dried pear and apple aromas, crisp on the palate with a dry finish.

Prices are reasonable given the location (Yarra Valley and Healesville). The wines under the Innocent Bystander label (sourced mostly from contract vineyards in the vicinity) for instance Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Noir or Shiraz Viognier sell for 20 A$/bottle. Trophy winners of the Giant Steps label are a bit more expensive (30 - 45 A$/bottle). The grapes for these wines come from single vineyard sites in the Yarra Valley either owned by the Sexton’s themselves or from long-term contracted growers. The winery and its wine maker, Steve Flamsteed, are proud of its new ’sweat’ wine creation, a ‘2007 Innocent Bystander Pink Moscato’ (375 ml).

The entrance of Giant Steps - Innocent Bystander

The architecture of the place is also stunning. Its housed in an modern-industrial type of building. Its been designed by architect Martyn Hook of Iredale Pedersen Hook. The building consists of a steel structure with blends of wooden slates. There are also a lot of concrete walls. The substantial complex located at the thoroughfare of the small country town is a perfect blend of functionality with hospitality.

The side view of Giant Steps: winery side from the parking lot

The name! Of course, I forgot. It comes from the John Coltrane jazz album and stands for the ‘giant step’ the owners took in selling their successful vineyards in Margaret River, Western Australia and moving to the Yarra Valley in Victoria to start all over again.

Hope you have a chance to check this place out.

Address:
Giant Steps - Innocent Bystander
336 Maroondah Highway,
Healesville, Victoria
Ph.: 03-59626111

Coriole Vineyards - McLaren Vale, South Australia

Why do I write about Coriole Vineyards (www.coriole.com)? First of all because I visited this most beautiful winery in the McLaren Vale some years ago. Second, I had found a rather negative review of one of its wines recently.

A “wine rally cum-wine-tasting” last year in Germany, found that the ‘Coriole 2004 Contour 4, Sangiovese Shiraz’ tasted musty and stale, reminiscent of cough syrup (see: http://myexperience4u.blogspot.com and http://hausmannskost.blogg.de).

The very same wine (though the 2005 vintage), however, was listed among the Top 100 at the Sydney International Wine Competition. Well, either the tasters must have picked the’ odd bottle’ or the wine did just not meet the German taste. However that may be, it stimulated my curiosity. Therefore, if I can lay my hands on a bottle here in Jakarta, I will try this wine.

Our visit of Coriole Vineyards happend some years ago. We had visited South Australia to meet some of Margit’s old friends from university days. Sylvan (Elhay) took us on a beautiful drive to McLaren Vale, the wine region less than an hour away from the state capital Adelaide (about 35 km).

Coriole Cellar Door

For me it was the very first visit of this well known wine region. Sylvan was driving, therefore we could taste a few wines and drink some as well. First, we went to see d’Arenberg (more in a separate blog entry later) were we tasted some of their Grenache blend (among others ‘The Stump Jump Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre’) and bought also a bottle of fortified.

Then we went on to Coriole Vineyards. Sylvan had played at the winery some time ago (I think it was some jazz in the vineyard). The Coriole Vineyard was established by the Lloyd family in 1967. The oldest parcels date back to about 1919/1920. The old house and barn were built around 1860. They have a slate roof and slate slab floors typical for that period.

The views from the winery and the vineyards are spectacular. It is surrounded by a most beautiful cottage garden dating from the 1860’s. there is also an olive grove. On a clear day one can see the ocean in a distance. Due to the influence of the sea, frost and droughts rarely occur. The climate is Mediterranean with hot dry summers and a long ripening period with warm days and cool nights. Winter rains provide between 560 and 700 mm precipitation per year.

The Coriole garden restaurant

We were hungry and ordered a (very tasty) vintners lunch, as you can see from the picture below. We drank the flagship of Coriole Vineyards, a ‘Chenin Blanc’. The first Chenin Blanc was planted in 1977. The wine has a fresh and aromatic style with a bouquet of grapefruit, melon, passionfruit and other tropical flavours. The 2004 vintage benefited from a long ripening period after a cool spring and a wet winter. The grapes were harvested in near perfect conditions. As far as I remember, we did enjoy the wine very much, which also applied to the whole visit.

Later Sylvan took us to the house to meet Mark Lloyd and Libby Raupach, the owners of the place. We had a great chat in a relaxed atmosphere. Coriole Vineyards and McLaren Vale in general are definitely worth a visit.

The vintners lunch at Coriole

Address:
Coriole Vineyards
Mclaren vale,
South Australia
Ph: +61 8 83238305

Grape Grazing in the Yarra Valley

Yesterday marked the start of the 21st Yarra Valley Grape Grazing Festival. Until 18th February various festival events are going to take place in different locations around the Yarra Valley.

For program details please visit www.grapegrazing.com.au.

Today for instance a Tempranillo and Tapas event is being organised at Sutherland Estate (www.sutherlandestate.com.au). I wrote about this vineyard before, beautifully located. You should taste their Tempranillo wine (released only recently) but also their other reds (Shiraz). On a hot day, the whites and the rose make the right drink.

Spectacular views from Sutherland cellar door

If you are in for live Motown music you have to go to Yering Farm (www.yeringfarmwines.com). Alan Johns and his crew will serve you their hand-crafted and award-winning wines. Try the premium Yering Farm Wines series, especially the award winning 2003 Chardonnay.

Charming rustic cellar door at Yering Farm

Today you can participate in a picnic for the palate (On the Palate Summer Festival) at Healesville Racecourse where about 15 wineries show their finest wines and were you can enjoy regional food (www.onthepalate.com.au). The lawns of the local country race track are a fabulous spot for a picnic under old oak trees. You can meet the wine makers there and the chefs of some of the best local restaurants will offer you their food.

If you are in the vicinity check it out. If you plan to visit Victoria in the near and not so near future make it your destination.

Trivento - Wine from Argentina

You might remember that the other day in Kuala Lumpur I could not taste the wine on the menu, a ‘2005 Trivento Golden Reserve Malbec’ of the Maredo Restaurant because it was sold out.

Guess what? I found the brand in Vin +, a small wine shop in Kemang, Jakarta. I bought one bottle only to try it out.

The Trivento 2005 Golden Reserve Malbec

You might wonder about the results?

Today I went again and bought a whole case of it. It is a most delicious wine and retails for about 235,000 Indonesian Rupiah which is equivalent to about 17 € or 28 A$.

It is a deep, red, ruby wine with a wonderful nose displaying aromas of mint, cherries and chocolate. The wine was matured in new French oak for a year and was aged for another year in the bottle before its release. Its a pity that Malbec has this short, dry finish but the aromas compensate you for that. However, for non-Malbec lovers there are Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon wines on offer as well.

Moreover, I also bought from the Trivento product range a ‘2006 Reserve Chardonnay’, a ‘2006 Tribu Torrontes’ and a ‘2005 Reserve Malbec’. More about these wines later.

Trivento Bodegas Y Vinedos (www.banfivintners.com) was founded in 1996 and is located in Mendoza, Argentina. Most of its vineyards are to be found on high altitude in the best zones of Mendoza (up to 1100 meters above sea level). Trivento Vineyards possess a modern winery with a capaity of about 27 million litres of wine. It has all the modern equipment used nowadays to make wine. The winery is surrounded by about 10 ha of vineyards.

Tomas Larrain holding a degree in agriclutural economics from the Catholic University of Chile is the general manager and Federico Galdeano, a native of Mendoza with extensive experience in the Napa Valley/California and Tuscany/Italy, is the wine maker.

By the way I now found out that the rumour - that the Argentineans drink their best wines themselves and export only the rest - is false. They do export some of their good wines!