Winestate Magazine May - June 2018

Whoa were did that time go? Scary how time passes (particularly after viewing the above)! People often say in similar situations that it was a long time ago, yet it feels like yesterday. I have to agree. It does seem strange that what began in a tin shed at the back of the house in Adelaide’s Western suburbs would end up being Australasia’s oldest consumer wine magazine, 40 years later. So rather than listening and interviewing others which I have done many times before I thought it would be fun to interview myself. Here goes; What were your early memories of starting the magazine? After my initial years as manager of the SA Wine Information Bureau I went out on my own and designed the first wine appreciation course for…

EXPLORING ALTERNATIVE POTENTIAL COULD the runaway success of prosecco in Australia inspire our winemakers to produce more alternate forms of sparkling wines? Dan Chaffey Hartwig, of Chaffey Bros. Wine Co., thinks so. He says the widespread acceptance of the prosecco grape gave him the confidence to explore grape varieties other than the usual champagne grape suspects. And so his Chaffey Bros. 2017 Funkelpunkt (sparkling point) bubbly was born. The sparkling wine combines Eden Valley riesling with a smidge of gruner veltliner and gewurztraminer, and is made, like a number of proseccos, using the Charmat process. “I wanted to take the fun we see in riesling and sparkle it up a bit,” he told an international audience at Riesling DownUnder in Melbourne. “The chance to take riesling out of our own…

CHANGING TIMES WITH the 2018 vintage arriving a little earlier than expected, New Zealand wineries were sent scrambling to secure pickers and cellar hands, and clear winery space ahead of a suddenly looming harvest. Courtesy of the unusually warm, sunny weather across the country throughout most of November to January (the country’s hottest on record), most producers found themselves several weeks ahead of schedule. Quartz Reef in Central Otago kicked off its sparkling wine harvest a record-breaking three weeks earlier than its 30-year average. And in an echo of the previous season, the unusual weather patterns sent two tropical cyclones careering down the country, though mercifully for winegrowers this year’s pair arrived in early February, rather than March 2017’s more destructive interlopers. At the time of press, vintage 2018 is…

CENTRAL Otago is New Zealand’s highest profile wine region and its wines are in high demand across the globe. Despite having been established for only a relatively short time, its stellar reputation has been earned through its adventurous winemakers focusing on producing superlative pinot noir and making time to promote both the region and its wines. Things in Central move at breakneck speed and visitors can indulge in thrill-seeking sports such as jet boating, bungy jumping and fly boarding. The wine industry has moved at the same rapid pace. While there were only 135ha of vineyards in 1997, 20 years later there are over 1895ha, a whopping increase of 1300 per cent. Most of this is pinot noir, though riesling, chardonnay and pinot gris play a part, too. Not content…

CLASSIFICATIONS in Bordeaux can be challenging to get to grips with at the best of times. The Crus Bourgeois classification has been gently laying a new foundation over the past decade and is set to make a stronger presence on the market. Left bank Bordeaux north of the eponymous city has three classifications. The super-famous 1855 classification - around 60 properties, ranked in five groups according to quality/price. Apart from the odd anomaly, it’s basically the same list as in 1855. Lots of famous names; (very) expensive wines, many traded on the secondary market; the quintessence of Bordeaux, possibly. Unchanged. Unchanging. Roughly at the other end of the price spectrum there are Crus Artisan, some 44 small and medium-sized estates, many of them family owned and managed. It’s a term…

THE old saying we “eat with our eyes” can be equally applied to what we drink, and the appearance and colour of wine is of paramount importance in setting the scene to enjoy a good glass of wine. But we restrict our vocabulary down to only a few terms to describe the colour, and I’m guessing it is because smell and taste are more important. I can be guilty of underplaying the subject and if you attend one of my classes I can seem off-handish about colour. Primarily, this is because I’ve had many a long discussion with students in deciding if a wine is deep lemon or pale gold, so much so that we hardly get time to taste the stuff. What is more important is to look at…