Orange
Orange Wine Week – you’re only in it when you are based on 600m plus altitude
From the 16th to 25th of October 2009 Orange wine enthusiasts celebrate their wine week consisting of 10 days with close to 100 events showcasing the district. Whether wine, food, music, sport or arts, there is a lot to do in this time.
Wine week in Orange
Orange winemakers claim to make wine that people like to drink, this is at least the comment I get most when travelling through the region and visiting its many cellar doors.
Orange is considered cool climate with an altitude from 600m to about 1,000 metres and the night temperatures dropping to quite pleasant levels even in the sometimes extremely warm summer months.
Don’t even try to call your wines from ‘Orange’ if your grapes grow under 600m altitude. The ‘climbing’ and ‘rolling hills’ story of Cumulus wines confirms this story nicely, we’ll report on this in a separate post.
Rain closing in
But the local winemakers also claim that the soil plays a major role too: there is the volcanic basalt of the old volcano on Canobolas (the views frrom there are the more impressive when rain is in sight) or the red-brown clay in some other parts, the Orange region provides very rich and fertile grounds for the vines to thrive on.
Winemakers such as Philip Shaw with his Koomooloo Vineyard, the famous Printhie Wines with winemaker Drew Tuckwell or Stephen and Rhonda Doyle as two of the pioneers of the Orange wine region: they all came to produce outstanding wines and their highlights so far have been their whites: Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc. The latter is claimed in Orange’s prospectus for the wine week as ‘the hero variety with international recognition’.
I will check out on this in the coming days, as our spring family holiday leads us to this wine region – so far pretty undiscovered by myself. I am also told to watch out for the cool climate stars Pinot Noir and Shiraz – well it will be a pleasure to start the discovery.
The time is ripe, as James Halliday’s guide descibes the 2009 vintage from Orange as ‘a memorable vintage for some, especially reds: whites good with volumes down 10%’. Let’s see what the next days bring.
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Ich befinde mich in Orange – einer Region im westlichen NSW – keine 5 Stunden von Sydney entfernt. Hier haben sich grosse Namen wie Philip Shaw, Drew Tuckwell oder das Doyle Ehepaar angesiedelt, um hier ihre Weine anzubauen. Sie werden ergaenzt um eine ganze Serie an kleineren Wineries, die zwischen 1,000 und 5,000 Dutzend im Jahr abfuellen und meist komplett vermarkten.
Ich freue mich auf diesen Besuch, denn die hiesigen cool climate Weissen und inzwischen auch Pinot Noirs und Shiraz gelten als Geheimtips Australiens in diesem Jahr. Begleiten Sie mich auf dieser Reise durch eine der jungen Weingegenden Australiens.
Ihr Michael Brecht
Five star Printhie’s Sauvignon Blanc wins Trophy for Best Small Vigneron in Canberra
A five star James Halliday rating in 2009 and 2010 promised to make Printhie Wines a pretty good winery to look at when I came across the results of the latest cool climate wine show in Canberra:
Printhie Wines in Orange NSW
The Sauvignon Blanc is a bit of a landmark for Printhie wines - 15 wines they serve in total at their cellar door close to Orange in NSW. While harvesting this year, the juice required little fining or acidification prior to fermentation. Winemaker Drew Tuckwell explains that "selected commercial yeasts were used for fermentation to highlight fruit purity and maintain a clean aromatic profile". He uses stainless steel tanks for fermentation exclusively to retain the aromatic intensity and complexity of the wine and filters the wine immediately after fermentation and bottles it early to capture it in its freshest state.
I find the bouquet quite intense and full of grapefruit and lime, the palate offers generous fruit flavours supported by lively acidity. The wine has a great length and persistence with a dry finish, great with the fish and aspargus we are having tonight.
Winemaker Drew Tuckwell spent several years in Europe and after four years in Adelaide and vintage work with Wirra Wirra Vineyard in McLaren Vale, he settled in Mudgee NSW to start playing with Italian varieties like Sangiovese, Barbera and Pinot Grigio, as well as the more traditional varieties such as Chardonnay, Shiraz and Cabernet.
Today this is a great combination: the cool climate Orange region with its arguably not very cool climate hot summer days, a family owned winery with enough capacity to try out things and a winemaker who has learned the trade at famous other places – Printhie Wines is a winery to watch out for and I really liked their 2009 Sauvignon Blanc – well deserved its win in Canberra a few days ago.
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Printhie Wines hat vor wenigen Tagen die Trophaee des besten Weines kleiner Produzenten in Canberra gewonnen. Der Sauvignon Blanc ist ein herrlich fruchtiger Vertreter seiner Zunft, erstaunlich hierbei dass zwischen Gewinn des Preises und der Ernte der Trauben gerade einmal 11 Wochen gelegen haben.
Ein wunderbarer Vertreter seiner australischen Sav Blanc Zunft – ich geniesse den Printhie Wein zu einem gegrillten Lachs auf Spargel an einem dieser ersten Fruehlingstage hier in Australien 2009. Einfach herrlich.
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
The NSW wine week starts in Sydney on the 1st of March 2009
NSW Wine jointly with the Sydney Morning Herald will present the second annual NSW Wine Week, starting Sunday the 1st of March until 7th of March. After last year’s success, the city prepares again for the celebration which aims to promote the diversity of the NSW Wine regions. The organisers promise that “this wine festival, not to be missed, will be the biggest outdoor wine event ever staged in Sydney”.
More than 100 wineries from the famous Hunter Valley, the cool climate Southern Highlands and Canberra District, wineries from Orange, Hilltops, Mudgee and the Riverina will be there – just to name a few: a total of 14 regions from NSW will be present.
Many of the events are outdoors: on Sunday the 1st of March the Hyde Park South becomes a wine tasting area between 11am and 6pm. Additionally Sydney will host four unique dinner experiences in four of Sydney’s leading restaurants including Glass Brasserie, Buon Ricordo, Becasse and Bentley Restaurant & Bar.
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Vom 1.-7. Maerz findet in Sydney zum zweiten Mal die NSW Wine Week statt, es verspricht in diesem Jahr die groesste Veranstaltung im Rahmen von Wein in Sydney zu werden, die es je gab. Mehr als 100 Wineries aus 14 Regionen aus NSW werden an dieser Woche teilnehmen, vom Hunter Valley ueber die cool climate Gegenden Canberra District und Southern Highlands, bis hin zu den Wineries aus Mudgee, Riverina oder Orange.
Sollten Sie in Sydney oder NSW weilen, so schauen Sie doch vorbei. Allein am Sonntag, den 1. Maerz werden mehrere Tausend Weintrinker im Hyde Park erwartet, um dort die vielen Weine zu verkosten.
Ihr Michael Brecht
