Archive for August, 2009
Barossa Boutique Wine Tasting coming up
In the Barossa Valley
Now here is a rare opportunity to sample some of the best wines from the small winemakers of the Barossa – over 25 winemakers & 95 boutique premium wines to taste and buy. So when is this happening:
Barossa Small Winemakers Tasting
Saturday 5th September 2009
10am – 5pm at Chateau Tanunda Grand Ballroom
9 Basedow Road, Tanunda SA
An entry fee of $10 is charged, you’ll get a limited edition Barossa Small Winemakers tasting glass and here you go: discover new and exclusive wines and speak to the winemakers yourself. Traditional German gourmet food & cheese platters are also served. Enjoy a day in the beautiful Barossa Valley – sounds good to me.
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Sollte Sie Ihr Reiseplan am 5. September nach South Australia fuehren, so sollten Sie unbedingt einen Abstecher nach Barossa vornehmen. Hier gibt es fuer $10 Eintrittsgeld die Chance 25 Winzer und 95 Boutique Weine aus dem Barossa Valley zu verkosten. Auf geht’s – das ist eine tolle Gelegenheit die Weine aus Australiens groesstem Weinanbaugebiet kennenzulernen.
Ihr Michael Brecht
Methode Traditionelle from the Southern Highlands
Australia’s top sparkling wines are very close to the french champagnes. In a former post we recommended Tasmania’s sparklings, the innovative ‘methode tasmanoise‘ was all present at Sydney Airport too.
Cool Climate Methode Traditionelle
Twenty years ago, some brands in Germany started with the ‘methode traditionelle’ or ‘methode champagnoise’ and did everything the way the French do with their champagne, only not using the grapes form the champagne region (hence not calling the end product champagne). It worked well, even in the country which loves German Sekt from German drink giants such as Henkell or Rotkaeppchen.
One of our current favourite sparklings here Down Under comes from Cuttaway Hill. These guys entered the sparkling arena only last year and what an entry this was: their top sparkling is named Laurence Chardonnay Pinot Noir and won the gold medal in Murrumbateman and a couple of silvers in its first year. Impressive.
The Laurence range of sparkling wines from Cuttaway Hill wines are named in honour of the founder of Cuttaway Hill, Laurence O’Neil. A premium single vineyard blend from hand harvested grapes followed by a slow cool primary fermentation only for the base wine was the base for this sparkling. The end product is then made in a traditional single bottle fermentation method and aged on lees for a minimum of two years before disgorgement and release. Low yields and dry ripening conditions produced full flavoured wines for Laurence.
We like this combination of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir – both excellent grapes that grow well in cool climate conditions here in the Southern Highlands. And Laurence is an excellent example of well made sparklings Down Under.
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Unsere Serie ueber australische Sparklings wird heute fortgesetzt mit einem pitzelnden Wein der Marke ‘methode traditionelle’. Jene Bezeichnung wird nicht mehr lange auf australischen Flaschen stehen duerfen, denn im Einigungsvertrag zwischen der EU und Australien hat sich Letzteres dazu verpflichtet, jenen franzoesischen Ausdruck nicht mehr auf australischen Flaschen zu verwenden.
Hier in der cool climate Gegend Southern Highlands werden erstklassige Chardonnay und Pinot Noir Trauben angepflanzt. Jene sind Grundlage fuer den Laurence Sparkling Chardonnay Pinot Noir, ein erster Wurf der Cuttaway Hill Winery und ein aeusserst erfolgreicher dazu: der sparkling sahnt bereits in seinem ersten Jahr eine Goldmedaille nach der anderen ab – ein koestlicher Tropfen, der Lust auf weitere sparklings hier aus Down Under macht.
Ihr Michael Brecht
Top Australian wine families fight back
What sounded as a new initiative for martial arts turned out to be a wine marketing act from twelve leading wine producers here down under. Twelve wine making families plan to launch a campaign in the UK early next year targeting key ‘influencers’ over there with the message: Australian wine is not cheap plonk with a kangaroo or koala on the label.
Road to Success
The decanter started the (initially until 31/08/09 embargoed) story with an article: “a powerful group of 12 family wineries are launching an attack to try to silence mounting international criticism that Australia only produces cheap, commercial wines.” A few hours later, winefront wrote “it may only be a marketing initiative but it’s a pretty strong one.” And to top these strong themes, the Australian launched their version with: “the families are fighting back.”
So what is all this strong stuff about: under its new combined brand ‘Australia’s First Families of Wine’ the following twelve wine labels plan to spread a more positive message about Australian wines:
• Brown Brothers (Victoria)
• Campbells (Victoria)
• D’Arenberg (South Australia)
• De Bortoli (NSW)
• Henschke (South Australia)
• Howard Park (Western Australia)
• Jim Barry (South Australia)
• McWilliam’s (NSW)
• Tahbilk (Victoria)
• Taylors (South Australia)
• Tyrrell’s (NSW)
• Yalumba (South Australia)
Now, these are some really big names here in Australia, carefully chosen from all top wine regions (sorry winemakers in Tasmania). These guys represent annual sales of almost $1bn, which equals about one fifth of Australia’s total sales. Their joined portfolio is a great collection of wines with a long history and a clear emphasis on how far Australian Boutique wine has come. These guys promise to use a combined brand on their bottles and marketing material and the press release mentions a combined yearly marketing budget for this initiative alone of between $500,000 -600,000. Wow.
So what is our view on this: firstly we clearly support this new initiative. Spread the news, get Australian wines out of this cheap and cheerful corner and establish credibility with excellent wines. The only downside to this story is, that again the focus is on marketing in the UK (first). No mentioning of targeting the German speaking wine enthusiast – it just shows how wineries generally target the European market. UK first and then – nothing.
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Die Neuigkeit dieser Woche hier in Australien ist eine Initiative von 12 familiengefuehrten Wineries, die am 31. August offiziell verkuendet werden sollte. Dieses Datum versuchte zumindest ein Embargo auf die versendete PR Mitteilung auszudruecken. Nachdem saemtliche Weinmedien hier Down Under allerdings die Geschichte schon bringen, so haben auch wir uns entschlossen, Ihnen davon zu berichten.
Die Nachricht ist so aufregend, wie auch wiederum enttaeuschend. Namen wie Henschke, D’Arenberg, de Bortoli oder das 160 Jahre alte Yalumba sind grossartige Vertreter australischer Weinkultur. Eine solche Initiative mit gemeinsamer Vermarktung ist fuer die internationalen Maerkte sehr sinnvoll.
Der Chairman der First Families Initiative und gleichzeitig CEO der Tahbilk Winery Alister Purbrick erklaert hierzu (uebersetzt): “Wir muessen dringend die Wahrnehmung australischer Weine in der Welt veraendern.” Nun das ist ein Thema, welches fuer uns bei Downunderwines zum Alltag gehoert, es ist genau der Grund, weshalb wir vor guten 2 Jahren diesen Blog begonnen haben.
Uns stoert einzig bei dieser Nachricht die Tatsache, dass der erste addressierte, internationale Markt eben wiederum England sein soll. Weitere Maerkte sollen dann in 2010 Australien selbst und danach die USA und China sein. Von Deutschland keine Rede, leider bezeichnend fuer die Marketingaktionen australischer Weinmacher.
Rockpool’s Bar and Grill wine list on top with 3,500 different wines in the cellar
Rockpool wins best wine list 2010
Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine has named the top honours for restaurants and bars at the 2010 Restaurant Awards here Down Under this week. Sydney’s Rockpool Bar and Grill has the top winelist in the country, a great and well deserved result.
Australia’s Star Chef Neil Perry and his business partners, Trish Richards and David Doyle were thrilled with these awards and commended the restaurant’s dedicated wine team, consisting of Nicole Reimers (Wine List Consultant) and Sophie Otton (Head Sommelier) who, with Doyle, were responsible for creating the list that features over 3,500 different wines.
Representing an investment of $9 million, Doyle has spent over 20 years amassing the core of the restaurant’s extraordinary wine list.“We believe that enjoyment of wine is a key aspect of the Rockpool Bar & Grill experience and in order to provide our diners with enough choice among the world’s best wines, we have assembled what they believe to be one of the best wine lists in the world,” says Doyle.
Let us reflect on these numbers: it would take me almost 10 years, if I would frequent Rockpool Bar and Grill daily and chose a different bottle of wine each time! My bank manager would most likely stop me doing that after the first couple of weeks, so there is a limited risk for me to drink this much in the years to come.
The oldest bottle stems from 1795 with 32 selections of Penfolds Grange as the major highlight of fine Australian wines. For those who can afford to dine out in Rockpool’s art deco skyscraper we can confirm: the list includes expensive rare and fine wines as well as less expensive and still drinkable reds and whites. Apparently about 10% of the wine on the list cost less than $100 – to be honest, we haven’t counted them (yet).
Congratulations to the Rockpool team for taking the prize this year, their first since opening in early 2009.
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Sydney’s hippest Restaurant in diesen Tagen ist das Rockpool Bar & Grill, seine Weinkarte erhielt dieser Tage die Auszeichnung: Best Australian Wine List. 3.500 Weine aus allen Teilen dieser Welt wurden von Star-Chef Neil Perry und seinen Geschaeftspartnern gesammelt und hier gelagert, ein Investment von ca. $9 Millionen.
Wir gratulieren dem Rockpool Bar & Grill und empfehlen Ihnen den Blick auf Weinkarte bei Ihrem naechsten Besuch in der pulsierenden Metropole Down Under. Sydney hat mit dieser Weinkarte einen klaren kulinarischen Vorteil im Staedteduell mit Melbourne – fuer dieses Jahr zumindest.
The spirit of Australia on Downunderwines
For us Australians Qantas has always been a strong favourite when traveling internationally. Michael did various tastings on his trips to India in the past years on board of Qantas planes to Mumbai or Delhi.
The Qantas wine list is reknown for outstanding quality. Here is another reason why Qantas represents the Australian spirit – or as they put it: “The Spirit of Australia”. Have a look at their latest ad, one of the best ads I have seen in the past months and it makes me clearly emotional:
You may excuse us for bringing an ad on downunderwines, though we are commercial free. This one is simply too good. Good on you guys.
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Wir haben in den vergangenen zwei Jahren Downunderwines frei von jeglicher Werbung gehalten – das soll so auch bleiben. Dennoch wollten wir insbesondere unseren internationalen Lesern das obige Video nicht vorenthalten – repraesentiert es doch den “true Aussie spirit”.
Was denken Sie? Macht das nicht Lust auf Australien?
Our new series on Australia’s sparkling wines
The financial crisis made even the wealthiest wine drinkers realise, that there is more to sparkling wine than just Champagne. We’ve been following a few wineries here in Australia working on their own Sparkling wine in the past months to meet increasing market demand.
A Magnum of Dom Perignon Champagne
The production of sparkling wine itself is quite an interesting process and the results are sometimes rewarding, sometimes it has to be realised that the French did quite well to secure the term ‘Champagne’ for themselves. It takes quite a long time and experience to be listed in the top restaurants, brands such as Dom Perignon are unique and have a close following around the globe.
Follow our new series on Australian Sparkling from this week onwards: how to make a new sparkling, what grapes work best, bottle fermented or methode champagnoise, why can’t we just name it Champagne – and so on.
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Seit einigen Monaten begleiten wir eine kleine Anzahl an Winzern, die ihr Weinsortiment um einen eigenen australischen Sparkling erweitern werden. Wir haben dabei eine Menge gelernt und werden in den kommenden Wochen darueber in unserer neuen Serie ‘Australian Sparkling’ berichten.
Ihr Michael Brecht
A nice Pinot Noir from Orange in Australia
Wine making family Shaw from Orange are well known for their various brands here Down Under.
Philip Shaw's No. 8 Pinot Noir
Last night we tried the 2006 Philip Shaw No. 8 Pinot Noir – brought along to dinner by close friends of our. “Pinot is a hard variety to classify, with everyone having an opinion on what it should be – I can eliminate what it shouldn’t be but the rest is the gamble” says Philip on their website.
And he is right: Pinot Noir is such a difficult variety – many winemakers here in Australia get sleepless nights when they think about their Pinot grapes.
Well, the gamble in 2006 has worked out well for the Shaw family – its lifted and spicy nose comes out immediately, a soft fleshy palate and a lightly savoury finish really make this Pinot Noir a great representative for that year.
The Orange Wine region is so much into growing grapes from this hot and warm climate to be added to wines from other regions, who need the volume (or taste). Well, the No 8 shows its own character, its vineyard named Koomooloo is established on 900m altitude, a nice altitude comparable to most cool climate regions from Australia.
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Gute Freunde brachten gestern abend eine Flasche 2006 Philip Shaw No. 8 Pinot Noir zum Abendessen, ein schoener Tropfen mit Pinot typischen Gewuerzaromen und einer schoenen Laenge.
Die Trauben der Orange Weingegend werden von vielen Winzern hier Down Under gerne als ‘add-on’ fuer ihre eigenen Weine genutzt, dieser Pinot Noir No. 8 von Philip Shaw hat seinen eigenen Charakter.
Ihr Michael Brecht
This week it is all about supermodels at the Rosemount Sydney Fashion Festival
It is the Rosemount Sydney Fashion Festival this week, sponsored by Australia’s winery Rosemount Estate with cellar doors in McLaren Vale and the Hunter Valley.
The warm temperatures of up to 29 degrees in Sydney this week help us get into the right mood for bikinis and summer clothing. Is this sponsoring of the Festival really paying off for Rosemount? We can’t tell from here, but there are certainly quite a few bottles opened by Australian fashionistas at the many fashion parties following the various catwalks.
I found it quite a coincidence, that the Sydney Morning Herald’s web presence this week provides some nice insights into the worlds best wines – calling it’s post quite appropriately supermodels of wines. Have a look here:
Finishing the video with the expression: “what’s more Australian than drinking”, I would add: what’s more Sydney this week, than enjoying Australia’s newest fashion trends and a glass of vino with them.
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Das Rosemount Sydney Fashion Festival ist alljaehrlich ein Fest fuer Sommermode, bei Temperaturen um die 29 Grad macht es Spass, die diversen Bade- und Sommermoden fuer die kommende Saison zu betrachten. Heute fand ich das Video ueber Supermodel Wines in Sydney’s groesster Tageszeitung SMH, viel Spass bei der Betrachtung der dortigen Weine.
Anabel
