Lonely Grape TV Episode #32 – Thorpe Wines

Posted on April 27, 2010 by Lonely Grape

I have been driving past Thorpe Wines many times over the last year and finally got to visit them. Check out my tasting of their Chardonnay and Shiraz.

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McLaren Vale Wines – Sabella Vineyards

Posted on April 24, 2010 by Lonely Grape

Well what a great few hours I had with Michael Petrucci – I found somebody who was just so passionate about McLaren Vale wine and could talk about it at least as much as I could.  What fun!

Sabella Vineyard

Sabella Vineyards started in 1975 and now have 110 acres under vine.  A number of years ago a decision was made to get Michael into the wine business via wine making.  Instead of rushing this move Michael went to school to learn wine marketing.  Straight away there was a understanding that selling wine was very different to selling grapes.  This understanding has been crucial to Sabella standing out from the pack and not just another grape grower trying to make and sell wine.

The packaging has a label that shows the Statue of Abundance – bit it looks a bit like the Statue of Liberty and gets recognition by this similarity.   All the wines produced have a point of difference to have the wines stand out from what can be a McLaren Vale wine lake.  They are about to release a Merlot under the Marilyn Merlot label and a Moscato is to be released later in the year.

To date wines have only been released every second year.  The reasoning for this is that they are making enough in these years to take 2 years to sell – so why make wine that they may not be able to sell and thus just build up their stocks.  Wine is still made but is sold to other wineries in the area.

Sabella Vineyards Vats

Sabella has another point of difference and it is probably their most interesting.  It is their Reserve Shiraz, and it is so different that the process used is patented.  Michael wanted to get the consumer involved in the winemaking process.  Yes, I can hear you already saying – How!  They add a sliver of oak into the wine which will impart a certain amount of oak flavor into the wine.  So where is the customer involvement – the consumer makes the decision when the wine has been subjected to enough oak.  If the wine is left to mature to the point the oak has had maximum extraction then the wine would need time to mature before being optimal to drink.  So again the consumer not only decides when the wine has had enough oak, the consumer also decides on the time the wine should be aged.  To ensure the wood does not come out of the bottle there is a plastic inset in the bottle neck.  On another occasion I have tasted the current release 2004 Reserve Shiraz and was not impressed with how “over oaked” the wine was – so I expect the wine has extracted the maximum amount of wood tannins etc into the wine and now the wine needs to be cellared for a few years for the wine to show it’s best.  I can now better understand the wine I tasted with the correct context.  The next Reserve Shiraz looks to be from the 2008 vintage.

Sabella Vineyards Barrel Store

Now for a review of the wines.  Also, check out my video tasting of 2 Sabella wines.

All wines were tasted at room temperature.

2009 Mother & Daughter Sauvignon Blanc

Straight way this was different – no strong smells of cut grass or the cats pee (which is good).  I was immediately surprised that the main aromas were a minerallity with just a slight herbaceousness.  The theme continued on the palate with minerallity on the back palate and continues with a good acid length.  The grapes for this wine come from 2 vineyards – the first on a higher location on sandy soils, and the second on a lower section on vineyard in heavy soils.  As one would expect these 2 different soil types and locations have different ripening characteristics.  For this wine the grapes are harvested at the same time and are co-fermented.  This methodology produces a wine with broad flavor profiles – particularly with the aim of a final alcohol level of 12.5%.  The minerallity and acidity lends itself to work well with seafood – maybe a paella.

2010 Sauvignon Blanc (Vat sample)

The aromas were reminiscent of the commercially available Banana Lollies with just a hint of passionfruit.  the banana lolly continued as a flavor (but not as strong as the aroma) combined with crisp green apples.

2009 Marilyn Merlot (barrel sample)

This wine is expected to be released later this year.  The aromas had some plum but the aromas and flavors were dominated by “Cherry Ripe” which would come from the oak treatment.  The flavors also had some vanilla (from American Oak) with soft tannins.  An easy drinking style but not the real softness that one normally gets with Merlot.  I can imagine drinking this with Pumpkin Gnocchi with a burnt butter and sage dressing.

2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

I did not get any obvious wood interaction on the nose – all fruit, mainly blackcurrent tones.  The flavors continue on the black fruits theme theme (blackcurrent and blackberry) with soft oak overtones and the softness continues right through to the lingering finish.

The soft finish is a conscience play and has been successful with the 2005 vintage of the wine winning the George Mackey Trophy in 2009 for the best Australian Export Wine and in doing so knocked the big producers off their perch (Penfolds have won this trophy for the previous 3 years).

2007 Shiraz

The aromas start with the typical berries you get with McLaren Vale, and end with what I can only describe as the smell of freshly cooked cinnamon donuts.  The cinnamon continues on the flavor profile and I suspect this comes from the cleaver use of oak and the various oak toasting combinations.  The flavors also include the usual plum characters your find in McLaren Vale Shiraz.  As with the Cabernet the tannins are soft and combine into a lingering experience.  Please bring on a steak with this one.

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Lonely Grape TV Episode #31 – Haselgrove Wines Shiraz

Posted on April 20, 2010 by Lonely Grape

Haselgrove’s new owners and direction are checked via 2 Shiraz wines. Their premium Shiraz and Sparkling Shiraz are tasted at my bar.

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McLaren Vale Wineries – J & J Vineyards

Posted on April 17, 2010 by Lonely Grape

J & J Vineyards comes from a 15 acre block beside Victor Harbor Road that was purchased by the current owners in 1980.  The use of the land at this time was for Ostrich farming, and there is a few small pens still on the property.  In the late 1980’s the bottom fell out of the Ostrich market and the prices demanded by growers was increasing – so grapes it was, and in 1998 the property was planted to Shiraz.  The grapes were sold until 2005 when a proportion of the grapes were made into wine.  The proportion of wine produced has increased as the grape price has decreased.  Currently the wine is made at Serafino’s facility under the direction of a contract winemaker.

Harvest at J & J Wines

The vineyard terroir ranges from sandy red loam over yellow clay, to light brown loam over limestone.  This allows some flexibility in variations of grape ripening and taste profiles from within their vineyard.  This has progressed to the point that in 2010 vintage there was a number of pickings to ensure optimum flavor from these different vineyard areas.  They are in the process of getting an Organic Certification.  No chemicals have been used since 2008 (only natural products used) and if the process is continued will be certified in 2012 as an organic producer.

J & J Wines Harvest Product

To date the wine produced under the J & J Vineyards label have been estate grown Shiraz.  To increase their exposure J & J Wines will be releasing a 2009 Premium Shiraz (the best individual barrels have been selected by the winemaker to have the best qualities and will have extended oak treatment) a Shiraz Cabernet and  Sauvignon Blanc Semillon blend which will fit into their business model of opening a cellar door outlet.

Check out J & J Vineyards Web Site and my video tasting of these wines.

Now about the wines:-

2008 J & J Vineyards  Limestone Block McLaren Vale Shiraz (A$19.90)

This dark coloured wine has aromas of stewed plums, with hints of vanilla & cedar from the oak (though not overpowering) chocolate and licorice.  The flavors continue with the plum theme with some extra dark fruits (blackcurrent, blackberry and a little cherry).  The tannins and acids are soft and do not attack the palate.

The wine screams steak.

2009 J & J Vineyards Limestone Block McLaren Vale Shiraz (to be released)

The wine has purple tinges and the aromas plus the flavors are dominated by cherries.  The flavors are bitter cherries and fresh plums combined with very soft tannins leading to a mid length palate.  As this is a lighter wine than above, I would consume this with pork

First thing here was wow – how different is this wine compared to the 2008 wine.  The cherry range of flavors tend to indicate less ripe fruit when compared to berries and plum characters.  After the 2008 vintage heat conditions, I suspect that when heat wave conditions were forecast in 2009 the fruit was picked at the start or before the heat wave conditions started, instead of optimum fruit flavor.  I stress that this I do not know this but it is something that I suspect.

I would also like to thank Troy from J & J Vineyards for providing the photos of the vineyard.

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Lonely Grape TV Episode #30 – Sabella Vineyards

Posted on April 13, 2010 by Lonely Grape

Here I am tasting a Cabernet and a Shiraz from Sabella – growers turned winemakers, but with a difference. I recommend you check these out!

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McLaren Vale Wines – Charlatan Wines

Posted on April 10, 2010 by Lonely Grape

It is sometimes amazing the people you meet when you go wine tasting and it makes you realise how small the wine industry can be.  A number of months ago, I went to the cellar door of Lloyd Brothers Winery & Olive Grove, to review the cellar door and their wines (see my review on Lloyd Brothers).  When I discussed that I was going to review the winery on my blog,  the person working at the cellar door was very interested in what I was doing and it turned out that I was talking to a small scale winemaker who was interested in getting a write up in my blog as well.  I was also interested as the wine Chad had available was a Sangiovese and had some positive reviews.

Within a whisker Chad had organised for me to taste his wine  to review and I was impressed with the wine (see my video review).  Also check out Charlatan Wines web site.

Instead of me rehashing Chad’s information regarding his wine making journey please see below his supplied information of his venture……..

“I think I have one of the many McLaren Vale small winery winemaker to thank for getting me out of the rainwater tank industry and into the wine industry; back in 2005, although I think about it a lot I haven’t ever been able to drop a bottle into him and say thanks! I was working as a Sales Manager in the not so glamorous rainwater tank industry, starting my sixth year during the 2005 vintage. I think I became bored and dreamt of greater things… or something. During the vintage of 2005, I saw winemaker after winemaker from the Vale come through the showroom gates to buy our fermenting tanks and tubs. Every single day with dirty, red stained hands (and lips), purple stained jeans and crimson-soaked shoes. Tired, dirty and usually pretty unshaven! But always, without a fail, with smiles on their faces.

Wow, I thought, maybe it was possible to work your ass off, and love what you do?

This winery was small…very small in fact. Housed in a shed in the main street of the Vale, I quickly realized there was no work for me here.  The winemaker showed me around, apologized for not being able to give me anything.  But he mentioned, almost as an afterthought, that I might try a place called Redheads Studio, to see if they could keep me busy until this bizarre curiosity for winemaking subsided.  I said thanks and headed in their direction.  My first impression of Redheads was a mixture of excitement, action and a fair bit of chaos.  Actually, mostly just chaos.  There were around a dozen people here and there, all working and talking (or yelling) in different accents.  There were grapes and juice and must and mess everywhere.  I was quickly in the action with a pitchfork and suddenly I was helping to fork several ton of grapes into a tiny, rickety crusher.  Red juice splashed onto my clean jeans; my inadequate sneakers quickly became sticky, wet and cold.

Once the day’s crushing was complete, the guys asked me to hand plunge several 2 ton tubs of fermenting grapes.  This is the moment the skin on my hands first became stained a nice shade of pinkish-red with red wine juice, and they would stay this color for the next 3 weeks.  I think this might have been the time that I realized, ‘this is for me’. The smells of carbon dioxide, alcohol and yeast, all the different aromas of the different ferments, and the feel of warm must on my hands.  And that same day I was able to get my hands on some unsold fruit which I agreed to buy (somehow, with no money) my first half a ton of shiraz from a local grower who had filled his contract to Hardy’s and still had a few rows left over.  We hand picked it ourselves the next Saturday and I don’t think I spent many nights that month away from Redheads, watching my first Shiraz grow and evolve…

I purchased a ton of Shiraz in 2006 and made a cracker of a fruit driven purple 2006 Shiraz.  I wish I had made more now – it’s long gone.  I got licensed.  In 2007, I had some beloved Grenache fruit lined up, only to have it stolen from under my nose.  So I made no wine in 2007, and I missed it.

Then, later in 2007 my girlfriend and I visited a fairly newish cellar door run by a local wine nut, after a 90 minutes tasting of some amazing wines, we were both inspired by his passion, his honest, enthusiastic love of the game.  The very next day, I applied to study Oenology at the University of Adelaide.  I got accepted; and quit my job in October.  Now I balance full time study, a tiny wine label and 3 part time jobs at at different McLaren Vale wineries! Only once have I failed to arrive at the right job on the right day… so far.

2008 it was the Sangiovese.  I was working at as a cellar hand during vintage at a local winery on the crusher and weighbridge during vintage watching the infamous 2008 March heat wave desiccate anything with an ounce of moisture. I was still hanging around at Redheads waiting for a delivery of Sangiovese to arrive – my new favorite variety. One balmy 35 degree night my Sangiovese came in, and it was fresh, turgid and juicy! So I doubled my buy and took just over 2 ton. Still, might I add, without any money.  The Sangiovese was fermented cool, we tried to keep it under 15 degrees and we did chill it right down to under 8 degrees once it hit 2 or 3 Baume. I think that was the key to the cherry characters being preserved even though the must was at 35 degrees at the start of ferment! We used mostly 3 and 4 year old oak, and one new barrel for 8 months trying to keep those tannins at bay, although I think they crept in there more than I would have liked. They actually seemed to develop in bottle.

In 2009 I scored some sensational Merlot, and I made a ton of Cab Franc as well which is looking superb. Both will be bottled soon.

So, in a LONG nutshell… that’s the background! The 2006 Shiraz scored 92 points and the Sangiovese 93 in Halliday 2010. Bronze at the MVWS, bronze at the Australian Alternative Wine show and a Hottest 100 showing for the Sangiovese as well.”

Thanks Chad  but I suppose I should talk about the wine!

Charlatan Sangiovese on the Beach

2008 Charlatan Sangiovese ($A15)

This wine is all about cherries, cherries and more cherries.  The aromas also have some clove action and ever so slight cedar oak, which works so well with the cherries.  The fresh cherry flavors are mid weight (not your usual McLaren Vale full bodied wines here) with just a hint of tannins on the back of the palate.  Great as a lighter option for Pizza or pork dishes.  This wine just sings summer drinking when you do not want a rose or a heavy bodied style, but still something refreshing all the same.

The wine is sold via a 6 pack from the web site.

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Lonely Grape TV Episode #29 – Haselgrove Chardonnay & Graham Stevens Wines Cleanskin

Posted on April 6, 2010 by Lonely Grape

It was such a nice day that this video was taken in my backyard. The tasting is of a Haselgrove Chardonnay and a red cleanskin from Graham Stevens Wines.

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McLaren Vale Wineries – Mollydooker Wines

Posted on April 3, 2010 by Lonely Grape

This article should be read in conjunction with my article on Mollydooker’s systems.

Mollydooker Crusher & Vineyard

The winery has a large number of 5 tonne open fermenters, which allow the winemakers flexibility in processing batches as small as 0.7 tonnes.  Thus blending and oak treatment regimes can be flexible.  These fermenters are all temperature controlled to allow a slow fermentation and thus maximize tannin extraction.  When the fermenting juice gets to about 3 degrees Baume they are transferred into oak for the remainder of the fermentation.  Barrels are purchased from 2 coppers and are only used in the system for 3 years and then sold to other wineries.  The wine is racked off the lees when Malolactic Acid fermentation has completed.

Mollydooker Small Fermenters

There is an emphasis on understanding the senses evaluation of the wine and not being slaves to the Laboratory analysis.  As I work in a winery Laboratory, I found this comment interesting.  The only final say the Laboratory has is the level of Sulphur Dioxide in the wine.

Mollydooker Barrel Shed

The winery is set up for red wine production with the Verdelho (called The Violinist and ~$A25) is made at Boars Rock Winery (on Tatachilla Road) and was not tasted as part of this winery visit.  They also made a Sparkling Shiraz called Goosebumps in 2006 and this wine is available for sale, however this style has been discontinued.

Apart from being smart viticulturalists and winemakers Sparky & Sarah are great at marketing.  Their wines get a real mixture of reviews – either the wines are absolutely loved or they are put up as examples of over extracted and over oaked wines.  On this basis I was really looking forward to this tasting so I could make up my own mind.  Despite all this the winery has been successful with sales to the North American market – even at the high prices shown below.  Thus if you determine success by being able to sell the wine that is made, then these guys are very successful.

Wine prices are from the current vintage being sold (combination of 2007 & 2008 wines).  The Mollydooker web site has more detail about the currently available vintage wines.

Shiraz Wines (in increasing order of Fruit Weight – see my other Mollydooker Winery article for an explanation of this unique system)

2009 The Boxer (~$A25)

This wine was rated at about 65% Fruit Weight.  Typical ripe Shiraz aromas of satsuma plum jam following through to the flavors of heavy/jammy fruit – the heaviness of the fruit maybe an indication of the Fruit Weight concept.  The tannins were balanced with the heavy fruit.

2009 Blue Eyed Boy (~$A55)

This wine was rated at 75% Fruit Weight.  Continued as with the Boxer the aromas were but jammy plums.  The difference here was when you taste the wine – the sweet jammy fruit is packed with huge tannins on the finish.  Tasting the wine made me feel like my teeth were coated by the wine after I spat the wine out!

2009 Carnival of Love (~$A90)

The wine was rated at 85% Fruit Weight.  Previous vintages of this wine have been classified as on of the top 10 most interesting wines by Wine Spectator – so I was looking forward to this based on that type of recommendation.

The normal distinctive Shiraz aromas of plum and dark, dark fruits were there but there was an extra hint of something that took me a while to comprehend – it was toffee.  Not what I expected coming from a big bold McLaren Vale Shiraz!  The flavors were again driven by ripe fruit and highly toasted oak barrels (to match with the higher Fruit Weight).  The tannins did not seem to be as big as the previously tasted Blue Eyed Boy – the heavier fruit was better matched with the oak (both in oak tannins and the oak charring).

It should be noted that this was was to be filtered before bottling (unlike the other wines).

2009 Velvet Glove (~$A185)

Straight away I got over ripe squishy satsuma plums on the nose – I has a Satsuma Plum tree in my backyard so this aroma brought me back to my childhood.  The high alcohol was not evident on either the aroma or flavor, but there was a plethora of soft tannins – very different to the other wines tasted so far.   As I mentioned on the first section on Mollydooker Wines that the flavor profile they are looking for in the grapes is licorice and up to now I had not really experienced this in the wines – well here it is.  The flavors are very dense with dark fruits and licorice here in spades.

Shiraz Cabernet Blend

2009 Enchanted Path (~$A90)

This 60% Shiraz / 40% Cabernet Sauvignon wine was just blended before tasting and was rated as 90% Fruit Weight.  Ripe fruit of the black kind – blackberries and some blackcurrent with hints of plum.  The good old McLaren Vale mid palate shows here there is plenty here to keep one interested.  I got a distinct coating of the tongue – not sure if I was getting the Fruit Weight or just the tannins doing their thing.

Cabernet Sauvignon

2009 Gigglepot (price unknown)

The wine is 50% McLaren Vale fruit and 50% Langhorne  Creek fruit and was not rated for Fruit Weight at the time of the tasting.  The aromas had a hint of green capsicum herbaceousness with the flavors dominated by sweet blackcurrent fruit with a licorice finish on the palate.

Overall Comments

So after this tasting (as well as the fruit tasting) what is my verdict?

Firstly, I must say that I have only tasted vat samples that were not the final bottled wine in some cases and that I cannot make comment about the aging capacity of the wines.  Secondly, I found that after tasting all the red wines my mouth had an after taste that was similar to cardboard.  My understanding of this is that this aftertaste comes from the type of oak used.  I found this after taste somewhat unpleasant, but made me wonder what would happen with 5 years in bottle.  Based on the after taste and the relatively high prices I would give these wines a miss.  However, I would like to try the Sparkling Shiraz to see how the high Fruit Weight would effect one of my favorite wine styles.

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Lonely Grape TV Episode #28 – J & J Vineyards Shiraz

Posted on March 31, 2010 by Lonely Grape

This week I get to share with you a tasting of 2008 & 2009 J & J Vineyards Shiraz. Can you guess which one I like the most?

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McLaren Vale Wineries – Mollydooker Winery Systems

Posted on March 27, 2010 by Lonely Grape

Mollydooker Winery & Vines

Since visiting Mollydooker, I have been trying to come to grips with how I would describe the experience that is Mollydooker.  If I had to describe it in one word it would be “different”!  From the moment you meet Sparky where he offers his left hand to shake you know things are going to be different……

Sarah & Sparky have a long history of producing high quality wines from McLaren Vale and during this time (plus Sparky’s thesis) they have developed systems to produce these wines.  The 2 systems are Marquis Vineyard Watering Program and Marquis Fruit Weight.  Both of these systems are under trade mark.

The Marquis Vineyard Watering Program is a methodology where watering is controlled to allow the vines to put their energy into vegetative growth and then when watering stops the vine can concentrate on grape berry flavor development.  What does all this mean, I hear you ask?  Watering late in vintage will initially dilute sugars but then allows the vines to then increase flavor.  As the flavor increases then it allows sugars to increase as well ie it is cyclic.  How do they know when to water?  The system does not rely on soil moisture, it requires a complex analysis of vine condition and grape flavor.  So during vintage there is a team of people that walk the vineyards twice a week to review certain vine and grape bunch characteristics plus the grapes are crushed to determine the Fruit Weight plus the flavor and colour profile of the juice.   I was very privileged to be a part of one of these grape crushing and juice reviews.  An interesting and time consuming routine.  The Mollydooker vineyards and the contracted growers vineyards are vast enough that it takes 2 days to go through the process  across and this is done twice per week.  Thus it takes 4 days per week to review all vineyards.  The information is inputted into the computer program and the watering program for the next few days and the expected picking times are the result.

The fruit flavors from the grapes go through a range of fresh berries to plums to spice to coffee to jammy and finally to licorice.  It is this final flavor that is sought before the grapes are picked.  The resultant viticulture leads to the latest picking of McLaren Vale table wine grapes.  But it does not stop here – watering is continued to allow root growth and a build up of carbohydrates to provide a good basis for the next vintage.

More information on the Trade Marked Marquis Vineyard Watering Program can be found on their web site.

The second system is the concept of Fruit Weight.  Fruit Weight is the extent of the tongue that is covered by the “velvety sensation” of the fruit, or another way to see it as the memory of the wine after you spit it out.  This is not to be confused with tasting sugar or other structural components of the wine.  It is expressed as a percentage of the area of the tongue that is coated (starting from the tip of the tongue).  It was commented that most commercial wines have a fruit weight of 20 – 25% where as Mollydooker has 4 levels of classification which are 65 – 74%, 75 – 84%, 85 – 94% & 95+%.

I had the pleasure of tasting the Mollydooker 2009 red wine range from the tank & just before bottling.  My methodology was to taste the wine “normally” and then tried to determine the fruit weight as a second tasting.  I admit I found the concept difficult but I could feel there was a difference.

I also grabbed the opportunity to be involved with a grape tasting (mentioned above).  I was able to follow the flavor profiles they were looking for but I again could not say I was confident that I understood fruit weight – even though I could again feel there was differences in some mouth feel sensation.

I was a little concerned that I was not getting this concept of Fruit Weight, until I was told that the winemakers and viticulturalists have some considerable training with Sparky and other senior personnel before they are considered competent in Fruit Weight determination.

More information on the Trade Marked Marquis Fruit Weight can be found on their web site.

Mollydooker Vineyard Views

Mollydooker has 116 acres of vineyards (mainly around the winery) and have contracted growers with about 250 acres of vines all under the Marquis Vineyard Watering Program.  Bonuses for the growers are possible based of the Fruit Weight of the resultant fruit.

More Mollydooker Vineyard Views

Next week I will review the winery and wines from the “different” winery.

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