Notes from Australia : Note 6 The McLAren Vale and Hardy's of Reynella

We arrived into Adelaide after a short flight from Melbourne. I had a window seat and before being told not to use my camera (something to do with electronics!) I snapped some pretty sharp shots of both the Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale vineyards and downtown Adelaide. Welcome to Note 6 of my recent travels through the vineyards of Australia.

Superquinn Classic Collection Grows to 42

Superquinn Classic Range Recommendations

A while ago Superquinn launched an own label ‘Classic Collection’ range of wines. The idea was that these wines would represent classic grapes from classic wine regions at affordable prices. The range has now risen to 42 different wines. That’s impressive. I attended a tasting of the range recently and found wines that are well worth recommending. It should be noted that, due to volcano flight delays, the Chilean wines had not arrived for this tasting. I will bring these to your attention at a later date. At all times bear in mind the value offered here is very good indeed.

CLASSIC COLLECTION French Sauvignon Blanc – Very acceptable. Soft and not aggressive. Good patio wine. €7.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION White Bordeaux – A muted Sancerre style. Very French Again very acceptable. Rise above the patio to accompany a warmed salad with vinaigrette. €8.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION Muscadet Sur Lie – A bit ordinary. Pity. Finish is good though. Don’t drink on its own but throw it a steamed cod. €8.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION White Burgundy - No. Doesn’t work at all. Far better examples in the market. €10.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION Petit Chablis – I cannot stand this wine but I can see it attracting an audience. Very lean (bracing acidity) and very dry. €10.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION French Chardonnay – Confected and makie up style of wine. Can’t find any redeeming factors here. €7.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION Pinot Grigio delle Venezie – Not bad at all. True to variety with light pear and melon. €7.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION Soave – Almost there. A dull and flat style showing some almond and pear. I’d like to see more verve. €7.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION Australian Chardonnay – Won’t upset anyone. It’s a ‘big tank’ style of wine where simple primary fruits are important and nothing else matters! €8.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION Australian Semillon Sauvignon – I like this a lot. Good smokey background. Serious palate. No green leaves but a lot of good fruit. €8.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc – Very herbaceous green pea aromas and flavours. Just what the punter wants from NZ. €10.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION South Africa Chenin Blanc – Tiny fruit definition doesn’t lift this from being quite ordinary. €TBC

CLASSIC COLLECTION Colombard Chardonnay – This surprised me! I liked how it was made and what it is doing even though I dislike it myself! Fresh and fat fruit fills the palate. €7.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION Pinot Grigio Rosé delle Venezie – Rose petal water in a light and innocuous sense. No point to this wine. €7.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION French Shiraz Rosé – Love it. Rich pink leads to a rich and definite fruit full of dry intensity. Super summer recommendation. €7.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION USA Zinfandel Rosé – Superquinn buyer described this as “sweet as f***”, mmmm, right. Nothing wrong with the wine but it is very, very sweet! €7.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION Red Burgundy – All bit ordinary. Reasonably accurate though and better than quite a few of its kind already in the market. €12.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION Red Bordeaux – This is OK. Nothing to jump up and down about but then has anyone tried some of the branded Bordeaux’s (Mouton excepted) recently! €10.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION French Merlot – Merlot with a very big plummy colour! Seems to have been concentrated before being bottled! Punter won’t care. It’s juicy and goes down well. €7.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION French Shiraz – Grand. Acceptable. Errs on the soft side and tries too hard to be commercial. Otherwise its almost there and won’t disappoint a burger. €7.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION Cotes du Rhone 2008 – Not a big bouquet but a good palate; rich and plumy, well structured. Good stuff and can handle a steak. €7.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION Cotes du Rhone 2009 – I like this a lot. Lots of peppery fruit on the nose with good tannins and weight on the palate. Food wine and a definite for the barbie this year. €7.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION Valpolicella – Good cherry colour; a bit tough and lacks elegance with a stewed fruit at its heart. Don’t like the wine making here. €7.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION Valpolicella Ripasso – Cracker of a wine. Love everything about it. Best in tasting. Well defined, clean lines, holds itself on the plate with ripe and interesting fruit showing cherry tinges and ripeness all to lovely finish. Great value. €10.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION Montepulciano d’Abruzzo – Pretends to be big but really comes across as a bit of a bully with a lot of tough juice. €8.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION Chianti – Truly awful stab at making a chianti. Tough and smelly. €8.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION Australian Cabernet Merlot - This works and gives us a sweet and sour style ripe and rich fruit. Well structured and very commercial. Excellent reception wine. €8.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION Australian Shiraz – Boot polish and hot style. Doesn’t work at all. €8.00

CLASSIC COLLECTION South African Pinotage Shiraz – Good idea for blend. Accurate wine with good fruit and varietal definition. Palate has a green pepper edge to it that some won’t like. €TBC

CLASSIC COLLECTION USA Ruby Cabernet Shiraz – Peculiar wine. A mish mash of lots of very odd flavours. €7.00

Touchwine Success

Last Sunday John McDonnell of Wines of Australia ran a superb day of tag rugby and wine tasting in aid of Focus Ireland and the Hutt Street Centre for the homeless in Adelaide. Here are a few photos to show that fun was had all round and yes folks the sun can shine in Ireland too!

Lar Veal (sourgrapes blog spot) led the winning Tim Adams team out. Ah, looking confident Lar!

A Grant Burge of the Barossa team member pushing himself out there

At last...a real team...The Dipsos bravely led into battle by Conor Halpin (white centre) We wuz robbed!

With and without. John McDonnell with two members of his winning Wines of Australia Team

Winners all round.

Wine tasting from the winning cups!!

Bubble Brothers (l), John Wilson Irish Times (c) and Glenn Goodall winemaker at Xanadu WA

We'll be back. The Dipsos 'aint finished yet!

Stonewell Magic tasting in Dublin

Andrew Wigans Chief Winemaker at Peter Lehmann Wines at the Stonewell Shiraz Tasting in Dublin

Every now and then a humdinger of a tasting comes along. This was one of them. Four vintages of Peter Lehmann Reserve Rieslings and thirteen vintages of Peter Lehmann Stonewell Shiraz tasted at the Four Seasons Hotel Dublin with Lehmann's chief wine maker Andrew Wigans and Irish Distributors Coman Wines.

Andrew opened these wines and then followed the tasting with a spectacular lunch at which he showed off his Peter Lehmann 2001 Reserve Semillon and the oh so soft Peter Lehmann 1997 Eight Songs Shiraz.

Peter Lehmann Reserve Riesling
2003 Stelvin closure: Bright and alert with a fine developed bouquet showing light blue cheese and rich ripe citrus fruits. Finely tuned palate with tremendous succulent fruit edged by a talc like acidity. Acidity and structure are well balanced against the fruit and are not allowed to take over. Will age well.

2001 Stelvin closure: Well developed bouquet showing well; obvious and strong with varietal fruit to fore; lemon and lime with good depth of interesting fruit; good cheese, lime and mineral nose; lively palate. Back palate grows brilliantly in the mouth. Super structure throughout. Showing very young.

1997 Natural Cork: I could say its simply dull, flat and uninteresting but that would show a bias against this style of wine where a savoury lime element replaces strong varietal one. Wigans puts this dullness down to the cork closure and says he will never go back to one again.

1994 Natural Cork: Not as dull as 1997 but dulled nonetheless. Shows a developed varietal nose where there is very little cheese cum diesel but a lot of tertiary aged development. No vibrancy left in the wine.

Peter Lehmann Stonewell Shiraz.
All Natural Cork save the 2005 under Stelvin. It will be stelvin for our market all the way from here on in. Wood used was all American oak up to 1995; increasing amounts of French oak were introduced from '95 to '02; now it's about 90% French. In addition the wine prior to '98 spent up to two and a half years in oak, now its only 18 months. All Barossa fruit; 2009 has allowed Eden Valley/Barossa fruit into Stonewell for the first time.

1989: Magnum
Winner of Jimmy Watson trophy 1990. This put Peter Lehmann onto the map and he hasn't looked back since. Andrew Wigans has made all 31 vintages of the Stonewell Shiraz. This was his third. In fantastic condition and drinking with verve and enthusiasm. Impressively smooth and velvety with no end of charm and deeply seated rich fruits.

1990: looks good but seems dull on nose. Dull but smooth palate. Fine earthy character doesn't rescue it from seeming to be dropping away.

1991: Looks great and good lift on the nose of vibrant aged fruit. Quickly disappoints on the palate with a background of old soggy wood showing through a thinned out fruit.

1992: Ageing well. Fine mahogany. Smooth and rich with lots of developed aged character but no tainted age. Lots of good berry fruit left in this wine in a warming and interesting way.

1993 Rich browned pour leads to a wine showing too much all at the same time. All a bit clumsy and up front and far too tannic at the finish. Not aging well.

1994: Good looking wine and pours well; poor nose; soggy wood; fine big leiderhausen finish but mid palate is scary. Not good.
1995: Well browned tawny looking good. Fine peppered nose with a ripe fruit driven palate showing good smooth effects. Strong and interesting flashes throughout with a tannic structure that suggests excellent further ageing.

1996: (Andrew Wigans says this has shown well elsewhere this year). Poor wine here. Had an almost youthful appearance but then descended into a woody mess.

1998: Outstanding wine showing quite brilliantly. Looks good and rises with a tremendous lift of light pepper, liquorice and deeply ripened cherry notes; chocolate and herbs sit easily in a big palate with additions of ripe fig and strong fruity notes. Love the use of wood here which really does allow an amazing fruit to express itself to perfection.

John McDonnell of Wines of Australia and Brendan Dunne of Comans Wines discuss Stonewell Shiraz

1999: Muted on the bouquet which was a bit of surprise as the palate has a fabulous array of all the right 'pieces', It's almost a case of you name it and you'll find it. Nothing very expressive though. Its fast asleep, soft and inviting and so lacks oomph. Shows so well on the finish that I'd be more than happy to have a few bottles around in a few years time.

2002: First of the obviously young wines; lots of useful elements and few unusual ones. Super mouth feel, weight acid and tannin with a strong sense of 'Australia' about it with light mint and eucalypt character melded onto the darker nature of the grape. Winning wine that has it all and has been 'worked' very well at the winery. One to watch. (Andrew reports that this was the coolest vintage in Stonewell's history)

2004: Super young pour - you just know its going to hurt! Still closed on the nose; fine elements throughout, crunchy and chewy tannin; immense fruit married to delicate wood; acid and earth wine. Allow it to age.

2005: First Stonewell under Stelvin. Not as young as expected. Vibrant and lively fruit showing excellent pepper and dark fruit elements. Very big and full style wit immense depth. Wine to keep and a wine to drink! Is this, as some suggested (and one objected to), the result of the screwcap or is it a result of the vintage? Ah, the benefits of time. Let's wait and see.

Notes from Australia : Note 5 Yarra Valley with a Bang

As we drove up the tree lined and autumnal driveway of Domaine Chandon the thought formed in my head - wonder if they'd allow me to sabre a bottle? Welcome to Note 5 of my recent Australian trip where we had a wonderful tasting at Domaine Chandon and then a real eye opener at Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander.


Domaine Chandon is very pretty place. Don't mind the banks and then banks and then more banks of technical looking fermentation vessels. This is a true 'tank farm'. No, look at the view and the peaceful evening looking out onto the vineyards with a bottle of Chandon Prestige Cuvee 2002.....ah, but I'm running ahead of myself! We were greeted by enthusiastic winemaker, Glenn Thompson.

Glenn Thomson Chief Winemaker at Domaine Chandon

He brought us into the winery and basically told us that they are fabulously successful and just seem to keep expanding all of the time and the French really do leave them alone to get on with it and they now produce 8 million fizzing liters a a year and now have access to 2 million liters of reserve wines and hey you must compare our '97 vintage with our '07 one! And we did. Both the wines and the numbers are truly impressive. The wine formerly known as Green Point and now named as Domaine Chandon is memorable.

Then I mentioned the word Sabrage - call it sparkling courage. (Sabrage is the art of taking off the neck of a bottle of sparkling with a sabre - or something that looks and acts like a sabre!) Seconds later Glen was back with a bunch of bottles, safety glasses and yes folks a sabre! I knew the theory. It was time to go the whole way. One whack and Glenn had his neck off. Two whacks and mine was off - clean as a whistle.

My sabre Sir!

Wines tasted with Glenn also included Chandon Brut, Chandon Vintage Brut '06, Chandon Brut Rose, Chandon Prestige Cuvee 2002. The latter spent 7 years on its lees and showed an immense depth of fruit minerality, acidity and freshness! Not massive on autolysis, this is a flavour driven wine that attacks most of the senses all at the same time. Good wines, good surroundings and good people.




We drove on to the village of Healesville where Phil Sexton chose to build his Giant Steps winery. Yes, a winery in the town. What a great little winery. Winemaker Steve Flamstead explained how they designed and then built the winery from the ground up only a few years ago. Talk about Toys for the Boys! Look it up at the Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander.

Winery/Restaurant/ Playground

Phil Sexton is a young (well he still looks it!) and bright lad who had already completed a few careers before he built the Giant Steps winery in Healesville in 2006. (Pilot, brewer and winemaker owner at Devils Lair in WA to name a few). Its a quirky and very engaging place where there's as much attention given to the ambiance, food and gift shop as there is to the winery itself. The whole place is one big fun palace. To say this is a haven for passion is only beginning to describe the venture!

Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander Winery

Love the wine! Giant Steps may be a more serious proposition than Innocent Bystander but both are brilliantly made. (Ireland only sees the Innocent Label) Both Phil and Steve gave us a wide ranging tasting and then treated us to food and a stack of wine from the restaurant. I liked the way they showed us around the restaurant wine menu without favouring their own wines. This is a list of their favourite wines from all over Australia and this is a good place to show them off.

Phil Sexton and his Innocent Bystander

Wines tasted from the winery: a savoury Innocent Bystander Pinot Gris, a big wine fresh heart '09 Innocent Bystander Chardonnay, an outstanding Sexton Vineyard Giant Steps Chardonnay '08, a fantastically 'long' Tarraford Vineyard '08 Chardonnay, a very cool Arthurs Creek Vineyard '08 Chardonnay, an Innocent Bystander '08 Pinot Noir (this is GOOD), Tarraford Vineyard '08 Pinot Noir, my favourite wine the Gladysdale Pinot Noir '08 (extraordinary perfume), Sexton Vineyard '08 Pinot Noir ' Innocent bystander Shiraz, Harry's Monster 2008 (Bordeaux blend; brilliant style and not a monster at all!) and finally flavour and favour of the month the Innocent Bystander 2010 Moscato which is now being filled into kegs for pub use across Australia.

What a day and then we stayed at the Healesville Hotel. Shared bathrooms and more than a touch of granny's B&B. Nothing better before we headed back to the airport in the morning and on up to the Adelaide and The McLaren Vale.

Healesville

TouchWine This Sunday Be There

The wine trade is constantly harping on about not having any good value added product available to it. By this I mean good new ideas! Well, here's a great one.

Last year Wines of Australia brought an idea up from Adelaide whereby teams from the wine trade would compete against one another at a tag rugby event in aid of charity. The craic was mighty even though the weather was foul.

Touchwine Ireland 2010 takes place this Sunday at Monkstown Rugby Club/Pembroke Cricket Club in Sandymount.

What's on offer?
Well lots of fast and furious touch rugby to start (2pm - 4.30pm). 12 teams looking to win the crown from the 2009 winners Ely Wine Bars.
So will Ely Wine Bars retain their crown or will ex Ely employee Kevin Mc Mahon's Wild Goose Grill take the day?
Will the Wolf Blass Eagles soar over the Xanadus? Will the Tim Adams Terroirists scare off the Wine Dipsos? Hey that's my Team WE NEED MORE PLAYERS!!
Will the St Hallett Wild Ferments get stuck against Grant Burges Barons? Will Febvre Dead Arm Cassidy Wines?
Join us on the day to find out.

Wine makers joining us on the day:
Chester Osborn (d'Arenberg), Willie Lunn (Yering Station), Glenn Goodall (Xanadu Wines), Andrew Wigan (Peter Lehmann Wines)

Wine Tasting from 5pm
John Wilson (Irish Times) has selected his match day 22 wine team (Wilson's Wallaby Warriors).
With a powerful, robust pack, a zippy, elegant, racy back line and a versatile and an 'always have one in your fridge' subs bench,
it's a strong line up. Coach Wilson will be with us on the day to present his team for tasting.

Children’s Entertainment. from 4.30pm Face painting and Clown entertainment for the young to enjoy.

So we are building towards a great day. Players, friends, supporters, families and wine lovers are all welcome to join us.
The Cost…free (except for the bar–b-q), though donations for our two charities Focus Ireland and the Hutt Street Centre) will be encouraged.

Regionality - excellence or discrimination?

I have been asked to give a five minute presentation at the Australian Wine Fair at Croke Park in two weeks time. One of the topics I want to consider is the notion of regionality in an Australian context. Last night I was thinking around the concept and to be honest I can't make my mind up as to whether regionality promotes excellence or not! If it doesn't then what's the point?

Take Bordeaux v say the Sud de France. It's a fair comparison as Bordeaux encompasses many sub regional distinctions and yet it is often taken as a region in its own right. Regionality in a Bordeaux context can only have any meaning if the individual appellations are allowed to express themselves. Thus St Julien will be very different to Pomerol. But we only hold this distinction as being valid if and when we recognise individual wines of excellence. We don't base our analysis of regionality on the basis of mediocrity.

The same can be applied to the Sud de France. Compare say a Cabardes with a Roussillon. It doesn't work unless we recognise some great wines in each appellation. What we are doing in effect is rewarding excellence. A consequence of recognising regionality based on excellence is that we award regional distinction to many inferior wines. This has happened in Bordeaux for as long as I can remember. The same can be said for almost every major Appellation region in France.

So, we encourage Vin de Pays instead. That's OK if we do it from the beginning. But how many names in Bordeaux relish declassifying themselves? This is where the Sud de France may yet show how its done. Many regional distinctions have not yet been clarified. As these are being processed (by our palates as well as by the authorities!) many good wines are achieving recognition without a tight regionality attached to their name. This is good. Others are finding comfort within the AC system. This is also good.

What will be best of all however is that as excellence is rewarded and appellations such as Faugeres produce icon wines that reflect that excellence (and so define the Appellation) others will have the good sense to leave and plough their own furrow without the badge of the appellation attached to their labels. If they don't then all they will be doing is allowing the authorities to use AC regional distinction to discriminate against them in favour of their more illustrious neighbours.

Not sure if this applies to what's happening in Australia. Should be an interesting five minutes at Croke Park.

Notes from Australia : Note 4 The Yarra Valley

Sunrise over Melbourne

I only saw Melbourne for a short while. Mind you I did manage a good stroll through it at night and then a short jog along the river bank in the morning. It was short because -What Was I Thinking? - a calf muscle buckled. After arriving into Perth for one and half days and then moving across to Melbourne my poor old legs should have been in bed. As far as they were concerned it was still yesterday! Welcome to Note 3 of my recent travels through the vineyards of Australia.

The Yarra Valley in effect begins in Melbourne City or is it the other way around? The drive out of the city blends from suburb to farmland and on into vineyard. It's a fine drive and there's no doubt that cellar door sales are helped by having a city of four million on your doorstop.

All the talk in the Yarra is about the extreme bush fires they had a year ago. Evidence is everywhere. People died. Houses disappeared. The stories of what the sounds and sights of the fire were like are truly harrowing. Most vineyards were spared and aside from smoke taint for the year in question its now business as usual for the vineyards of the Yarra.

Our first port of call was at the de Bortoli. We were met by winemaker David Slingsby-Smith (call me Slingers mate..) he gave us a tour of the vineyards which are very, can I use the word, pretty.

David Slingsby-Smith. 'Slingers' in full flight.

They have fabulous aspects to their slopes which the wine making team is quite rightly anxious to exploit. In the recent past they have refaced vineyards so that they can exploit either morning or afternoon sunlight and heat according to grape variety. (de Bortoli is a huge player in other regions such as Brooklands and Griffith further into the Murray River basin. Every super market shelf is filled with their wines from inexpensive bag in the box wines from further north to single vineyard expression of individual terroirs in the Yarra.)

Fantastic Compost heaps at de Bertoli

Autumn at de Bertoli

We were treated to a fine tasting. There was a bizarre wine included under the Windy Peak brand labelled Nouveau Shiraz 2009. It's a maceration carbonique 100% whole bunch. Inky purple very young fruit style and immensely soft with endless fruit. Slingers reckons this is the perfect Spaghetti Bolognese wine! He might have a point. Was he then giving me clues to his takeaways when he decribed their Pinot Grigio Vat 11 '09 as a good 'curry wine'?

Windy Peak Shiraz Nouveau

I was impressed by the Pinot Noirs. Vat 10 '08 is quite serious and well developed; de Bortoli PN '08 was just superb - blood red with a rich tawny heart - excellent attack of true varietal fruit. This is out to impress and doesn't hurt the palate at all along the way.

Slingers then gave us a good intro to the intricacies of growing fruit in the Yarra. He was especially good at showing how 'picking windows' are getting very tight as more fruit is grown off the Yarra floor and on up the valley sides. de Bortoli has a good selection of grapes ranging from Cab Sauv to Shiraz to Chardonnay, Viognier etc etc but it was their Pinot Noir and Chardonnays that I was most impressed with.

Yering Station Yarra Valley

We were then whisked away to a most incredible view of the Yarra through the viewing windows of Yering Station's restaurant. It is panoramic. It's also a restaurant that's good enough to attract the helicopter set out of Melbourne for lunch time!

Views of the Yarra Valley from the Restaurant at Yering Station

Yering Station is part of the Rathbone Wine Group. (See back to Xanadu in the Margaret River). Willy Lunn Chief Wine maker met us for a super and wide ranging tasting which began perversely with Devaux Champagne from the Aube! Yering has a commercial, relationship with Devaux. He compared with his own recently disgorged sparkler. Both showed well. Then were treated to an impressive and inexpensive Little Yering Chardonnay '09. Put beside the Little Yering '08 Pinot Noir these are fantastic wines for the price. The problem is one of supply as these sell out quickly every year. Willy is adamant that he won't compromise quality simply to fill order books and so supply doesn't look like improving in the short term.

New and Old at Yering Sation

Yering Station Pinot Noir is really excellent. As Willy points out, "don't stress your PN or you'll get eucalypt and mint character....healthy low yield vineyard is essential....less oak in a cooler year....lots of wild yeast slow ferments....complexity and balance before obviousness....". He is a thoughtful and exact wine maker who thinks nothing of imparting loads and loads of good information. He finished the tasting with a Rathbone jewel from a sister estate - Mount Langhi 2005 Shiraz. Truly sublime.

Willy Lunn at Yering Station

Our next winery was further up the valley at Domaine Chandon. Anyone for Sparkling wine in a lazy evening sunshine. mmmmm I think I'll keep that for Note 4! Bring your sabre.

Notes from Australia. Note 3 Margaret River Diversity

When we pulled up in front of Vasse Felix something told me that this was going to be a special sort of visit. I didn't have any idea how special though. Welcome to Note 3 of my recent wanderings through the vineyards of Australia.

Vasse Felix is owned by a very wealthy family called the Holmes a Court out of South Africa. The art work in and around the winery is quite brilliant. The real genius for me however is behind the wine. Her name is Virginia Willcock. Virginia is a whirlwind. Her credentials are beyond reproach. This year she has been invited to give an Australia Chardonnay Master Class at the Landmark Australia Tutorial.

You have to run your hand through this to believe it. Sculpture at Vasse Felix

Virginia led us through the climate and soils of the Margaret River, and Vasse Felix in particular, emphasising time and again how unique the region is. In fact she is totally convinced that the area is now, "more regionally defined rather than generally as a country". She is also sure, that while it may have taken a long time to decide, this region is Cabernet Sauvignon country over and above a Shiraz one. Then she blew us away with the extreme quality of her Chardonnays!!

Virginia Willcock pushes her chardonnay musts to the limit in a search for "power but refreshing". She finds she is picking earlier, using up to 80% wild ferments regularly, stopping the malolactic ferment and using more and more solids in her barrels than ever before. This is rock n roll wine making and the results are spectacular. At the top end it's easy to be impressed by the Heytesbury labels (both 2007 and 2008 tasted) but check out the Vasse Felix 2009 Chardonnay - lovely mint and lime background to a baby pineapple bouquet / extra ripe palate / fantastic feel and touch from an immense structure and minerality / fills the palate with a truly explosive effect.

Virginia Willcock at Vasse Felix

Vasse Felix may have an understated label (actually I don't think it's good enough and indeed the story behind it is all a bit underwhelming and so what!!) but the winery is producing some of the most exciting wines found anywhere. Virginia's red wines (tasted '08 Cab Merlot; '07 Cab Sauv and the about to be released '07 Heytesbury, a Cab Sauv Malbec Petit Verdot blend - this is worth every penny) have a strong savoury herbal influence. She is not convinced that biodynamics is for her or for Vasse (Cullen is next door neighbour) but will work towards a sustained viticultural and pro biotic approach to her vineyards. Wines to watch and wines to follow especially when Virginia left us with a parting remark by saying that Vasse Felix's "Malbec vines are among the best ever found." Now that's worth watching.

It's a fun drive up to the gates of Voyager Estate. They have one of the biggest flagpoles I've ever seen! Shame the wind was blowing when we arrived. No flag..... Voyager is owned by a wealthy chap called Michael Wright - iron ore, farming, publishing etc. His restaurant and cellar door sales outlet are housed in a new and quite extraordinary building that's straight out of a Cape Dutch architectural manual. The gardens around it are beautiful. It's unnervingly like being in South Africa......

Voyager Estate Margaret River

We were treated to an extensive tasting of the Voyager range by long time Viticulturist and newly crowned Manager of Winemaking and Viticulture Steve James. Good tasting followed by a very fine meal in the restaurant. Voyager is a very serious and well organised operation. This is reflected in the wines. This is a range that I would like to import/distribute (I'm not in that any longer though!) I don't reckon I would ever be let down. (When I later met Cliff Royle who had recently left the Chief winemaker role in Voyager to pursue his dreams at Flametree he impressed me with what the, 'soon to be built', new Voyager winery will be like - very imp-ressive.)

Steve James puts us through our paces at Voyager Estate

Voyager has a super range of Estate wines above which sits the equally impressive single vintage VOC Collection. (VOC pays tribute to the Dutch East India Company and its ships which once sailed out of South Africa and is only available as a cellar door sale. Above this is a series of Reserve wines that are only released in the very best vintages. On top of all of this is very small range named Tom Price - a tribute to a pioneer of Western Australia's iron ore industry.

We tasted the Tom Price Cab Sauv '04 and the Tom Price SBS '05 and also a further ten wines covering of each of the other ranges. Through the whole tasting there was tremendous consistency and true varietal character. Steve James has been handed an extraordinary project that has long way to go before it matures. Amazing how good the wines are already.

Restaurant at Voyager Estate Margaret River

Success, however, doesn't always translate into prosperity! When we visited Xanadu we were reminded how money and wine don't always mix well. A very fit looking winemaker Glenn Goodall recounted many of the horror stories after the winery had been sold to a group of venture capitalists. They purchased a label and business that was producing icon wines that were respected the world over. (Xanadu was begun in 1977 by John and Eithne Lagan. The 'Lagan Vineyard' is reckoned to produce some of the finest fruit in the whole of Western Australia). Production was cranked up by many new vineyard plantings without any understanding of what makes a quality grape. Wine was made according to whatever formula came to hand that allowed quantities to increase. Sales were chased around the world by sharpening the pencils, in supermarket buyers offices, time and time again. The result was disastrous. Quality collapsed and sales dried up and the company went bust. A once mighty company based on the finest quality was ruined.

The Cows were out and about in Margaret River

Xanadu's had class!

Today Glenn Goodall can report a new Xanadu owned now by the quality conscious Rathbone Family - also own Wirra Wirra, Yering Station, Parker Coonawarra and Mount Langhi. Extensive tracts of inferior vineyards are being pulled out of the ground. Tanks of inferior wine have been emptied and the new owners have tasked him with restoring quality and pride to the Xanadu brand. He is succeeding.

Glenn Goodall of Xanadu

Glenn guided us through 10 of their current release wines. Each had a real wine making story behind it. Each wine showed strong primary fruit character with varying detail where oaking, wild yeast ferments and a strong attention to detail was apparent. Glen's Chardonnays are superb and have a Burgundian aspect to their character. His Xanadu Reserve 2008 Chardonnay is astonishing - Lagan vineyard fruit only; 100% wild yeast barrel ferment: immense intensity, balance and power. Glen reckons when they make it next he'll insist on picking the fruit at night time just so he can make it even better again! Both Shiraz wines were plummy and rich but my prize for the reds went to the Next of Kin Cabernet Sauvignon '08. (As it happens it was a Jimmy Watson finalist) It was extreme elegance in a bottle and great to see the Show Circuit reward elegance.

Watch out for Glenn at the Touchwine Charity Touch Rugby Festival in Dublin in two weeks time. He looks like he could out run anyone.

Next up in this series is the Yarra Valley. It was only a 3,000 kms flight from Perth!

Italian Wine Master Classes and Helen Coburn

For years the wine trade in Ireland has moaned that the Italians don't spend any time, effort or money promoting their wines in Ireland. Sure, we've had Borsa Vini, the Italian wine fair, but that's all about selling into the trade. Besides there's always a lot of wine at the fair that isn't here at all being promoted by suppliers hoping to pick up an agent. That's the business of wine. Wine promotion and marketing is a different beast altogether.

Recently the Italian Embassy through its marketing body ICE announced an education initiative for the trade that consisted of lectures on two consecutive mornings. These would be given in Dublin, Cork and Galway. Helen Coburn was chosen as lecturer based on her expertise in all things Italian wine oriented.

The Dublin courses have already taken place and Jean Smullen the coordinator of these events tells me that they were a resounding success with as many as sixty participants. Indeed it seems that the Cork and Galway events have already filled. (If only the wine press was as attentive - a very poor turn out at the press event this week! This led to a delayed start and then a need to rush through many of the forty wines in the presentation ..... Ireland needs to understand what a starting time means.)

I like a number 0f things about this initiative. One, while we must remember that this is a marketing exercise designed to increase sales of Italian wine it is also an educational initiative - something Irish wine distributors are quite simply pathetic at providing.

Two, we didn't feel the need to go outside of our own trade to provide an expert lecturer. I have long been a critic of our inability to promote ourselves as an independent and well educated trade. Too often we dip into the cheque book and bring the perceived big name over from the UK trade. Too often the big name doesn't have a clue about us and we get a peculiar slant based on UK buying habits which are often very different to our own.

Three, Helen doesn't hold back with the detail of her information. In fact, quite the opposite. I overheard an embassy official suggest that her presentation to the trade press was too long and too detailed. I disagree. We are not children and presented with a wealth of detail we can choose which parts are relevant and which are not. Please don't give us press releases and pretend that you are actually doing a good job.

I have been a committed fan of Italian wines for many years now. I am 'good' on Italy. I can give an unscripted and mean lecture on the wines of Italy and yet I learnt a load of good stuff from Helen - and this was the shortened version for the press. Helen kept saying, "sure you guys know all of the regions and the grapes but look I'll give them to you anyway"....No we don't and no they don't . We need to be given stuff like this again and again and again!! Besides, one of the great things about Italian wine is that it is a continual adventure.

And my favourite wine? mmmmm To be fair most of the wines showed style and grape very well. (That's what they were there for!) If only the wines I really, really liked weren't so damned expensive

Good Value (less than €20.00)

White

Soave Pieropan 2008 €17.99

L'Anfora Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi 2009 €12.50

Mastroberardino Greco di Tufo 2008 €17.99

Red

Elene Walch Lagrein 2008 €15.95

le Pupille Morellino di Scansano 2008 €19.99

Nero d'Avola Villa Torino 2007 €11.99

Mastroberdino Aglianico 2007 €17.99

Expensive but brilliant:

Pio Cesare Barolo 2004 €54.00

Banfi Brunello di Montalcino 2003 €48.00

Tancredi Donnafugata 2006 €34.99

Small gripes.

I can't agree with the press release for this event which opened, "With the demise of the wine board and with wine education funding virtually non-existant we feel that the time is now right for the generics to provide an education role." Generics have a marketing role to play and should not be our fall back educational facility! The wine trade should still have responsibility to an independent structure such the body formerly known as the Wine Board of Ireland. At the very least the trade has a responsibility to support independent wine education. Otherwise we will end up with a new generation of wine retailers and restaurateurs who may actually believe everything they read in a press release!!

We were asked (by the Ambassador no less - mind you when he heard the frosty reception his suggestion received he said he was only joking!) to make sure we used correct Italian pronounciations when reading Italian labels. Eh, yeah OK and I suppose the same applies in reverse? Like, don't ask for a pint of Guinness in Dublin unless you have the dialect clued in? 'Ri, givsa pine, bud,' should sound great with a Milanese accent!

Notes from Australia - Note 2 Margaret River excitement

The Margaret River in Western Australia has 96 wine producers and produces only 3% of Australia's wine. It can, however, boast that it is responsible for more than 20% of Australia's premium wines. That's worth shouting about. Welcome to Note 2, in a Series of 25, on my recent trip to the vineyards of Australia.

Australia has 2300 wine producers. 14 of these make 70% of all Australian wine. This makes the folk in Western Australia, and the Margaret River in particular, an interesting lot. On my second evening I had a fascinating meal with The Margaret River Wine Association's CEO Nick Power, Cliff Royle of Flametree Estate (late of Voyager Estate) and Stuart Watson of Woodlands Wines. We ate at Must in Margaret River. If you're in that neck of the woods its worth checking out both their immaculate aged beef and their pork which they source from none other than David Hohnen's (yes, of Cloudy Bay etc remember Cape Mentelle is just down the road) pig paddocks. (It's paddocks, not fields and its blocks, not sections of vineyards!)

Both Cliff and Stuart are passionate winemakers. They have a deep understanding of the wine making process and and offer an immense insight into local terroir and its effects on the grapes which they grow and work with. Woodlands and Stuart are both unashamedly Bordeaux fanatics. We were treated to their 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon. Well worth the praise and awards being lavished onto it as one of the top Cabernets in the whole of Australia. Have a look at the local geography/geology on the Woodlands website. Its a model of how a boutique winery can project itself.

Cliff left Voyager last year so that he could move forward with some winery equity behind him. He really can talk 'till the cows come home'. And it's all good! I have absolutely no doubt that Flametree will build on its recent successes and will soon become one of the finest small wineries in the world. He's that good. He impressed me with the fact that both Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon are already world class from the Margaret River and that red musts can take a lot of oxygen during the winemaking process out there. Nick on the other hand has to bring all of this good news to the rest of the world. He's always looking for good ideas - so if you have a proposal get in touch and tell him that Kev sent you!

One of the great lessons I learnt from the guys was the value of understanding local terroir. The Margaret River wine region has more than one distinct sub region (even though its little more than a 100 x 25kms in size) and it really does make difference where the grapes are grown - it matters a lot. So, if you see Willyabrup on the label as opposed to Wallcliffe treat them as you would Bourg or Blaye versus Pomerol or St Emilion!

Thought to take home with me: Regional Heroes will need to take into account their deputies - Sub Regional Heroes.

Earlier we had been treated to visits at Cullen, Vasse Felix, Voyager and Xanadu. What a day.

Cullen appeared under blue skies and the sight of Vanya Cullen up to her breeches in a very busy winery playing with an amazing new basket press. She took time out to explain her

biodynamic philosophy and even brought us into her vineyard to 'feel' the soils. (see photo). They looked good enough to eat - lucky worms. Cullen is at the very top end of Australian wines. It's a fine endorsement of biodynamic principles. The Cullen story however is very much a mother (Diana) and daughter (Vanya) one based in a vineyard begun by Dr Kevin Cullen a GP from Perth. Look it up at http://www.cullenwines.com.au/

Vanya has the ability to make big statements like we are, "bringing sustainability to the world and, "we are Guardians of the earth and its a beautiful thing to do..". Her wines make statements that are every bit as big and every bit as worthy and memorable.

We were brought through a series of wines which included SBB Mangan 2009, '09 SBS Cullen, '07 Kevin John Chardonnay, '07 Mangan and a tremendous Diana Madeline 2007. They are beautifully crafted wines and a living testament to both Kevin Cullen's vision and to Vanya's learned and natural expertise. Each wine has a palate feel and balance only found in great wine. Cullen is an extreme example of how tremendously satisfying the Margaret River region can be for wine making. The team at Cullen claim to do almost nothing to the wine whatsoever as they strive for minimal handling and true biodynamic principles!

Happy Tasting at Cullen

In Note 3 of this Series I'll complete my time in the Margaret River and show what we saw at Vasse Felix, Voyager and Xanadu.

Margaret River: a quaint frontier like town surrounded by scrubland (and I'm told fabulous beaches also; one of the chaps looking after the fantastic restaurant and cellar door sales at Cullen seemed to spend an inordinate amount of his free time surfing!) and home to some memorable wine making.