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on-line wine cellars

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Everyone loves a bargain, a secret wine buy known only to those on the inside! The wine deal that started off all Chinese whispers, and progressed to virtual reality, wine style. The icon wine forgotten at the back of the cellars, until an over observant bean counter discovers said treasure, demands stock movement at any cost, and on-line wine guy pounces, thin chequebook in hand.

Written up, praise heaped….ready to sell.

A few clicks, a ready credit card, and whooshka…you-beaut, bonzer booze for a fraction of retail.

This is the mystical on-line wine businesses dream of, had aspiration to, wish they could conceive, yet fail to deliver, turning into yet another bottleshop, sans walls!

Many try, few succeed.

A great website, funky layout, persuasive words, cool graphics….a great buying team! All these, and more, are required to succeed in this hotly contested space.

Here are some I like….

vinomofo….the cool cousin, selling wine at a great price, sometimes so cheap they can’t reveal the maker until delivery, as well as own label stuff which looks pretty good. Money back guarantee, for piece of mine. A winning formula…

winestar….started out as the online business attached to the bricks and mortar Strathmore Cellars. Great wine write ups, geared to the more serious folk, with good pricing, if not great. Their range, and availability of scarce stuff is impressive.

nakedwines….is a customer funded wine business, where the customers fund independent winemakers in return for exclusive access to wines at wholesale prices. Wine crowdfunding, cool idea! The wines are good, it deserves support.

backvintage….direct to the consumer wine business who make all their own wines from selected parcels, using the authority that is Nick Bulleid MW, as a statement of quality. “if it’s not good enough for Nick Bulleid MW, it’s not good enough for you !” Interesting wines at a pretty good price, once again with a money back guarantee.

Here are membership style clubs….mmm, not my thang!!!

the wine society….not a bad website, plenty of info. Claims to be the first wine club in Australia, sourcing competitively priced wines from “the little guy”. Good periodical wine mag offered with membership. A good mix of interesting ranges/blends/styles.

wineselectors….seen at every airport selling memberships. For convenience, not bad. Every month/quarter/whatever you want, a mix dozen is plonked on your doorstep. Plenty of ‘filler’ wines to pad out the price, but by and large the end product is pretty good. Very easy, simple way to keep the cellar stocked.

cellarmasters….like the others, plenty of no names amongst the recognisable. Makes it hard to recognise value! Plenty on offer, and worth a look.

Bargain bins!

crackawines….plenty of no name brands, obscure labels, and bin ends. Not sure of the quality of some of this stuff, but the model works, they sell heaps.

getwinesdirect….huge tasting area to try before you buy, which sort of defeats the purpose of shopping on-line. Massive retail space in Burnley, and does monster business, so what do I know!?

Cellar Doors…

Of course there are websites for all the cellar doors out there, so when you visit make sure to join the mail list/cellar club for those you like. The shopping experience can be quite varied, but the ones that do it right, do well. A couple of my favourites…

Olivers Taranga….a great site, easy to navigate, perfect after sales communication. FREE delivery on case buys. Oh, and their wines are fabuloso!!

Flametree Wines….WA winery, great website, great wines

God knows I don’t need to buy wine, but if I’m buying online then Vinomofo is my go-to site. Easy to use, interesting ranges, good pricing and that little bit of excitement factor when you buy one of their ‘black market’ offerings at 50-70% off, ‘identity unknown’ till it hits your door. You need to have confidence that the wine will meet, or exceed, expectations, and for the most part it does.

Like anything, the price you pay is more than likely the price it’s worth, not the exorbitant price set by the winery: and all sites quote the highest RRP to make the discount look more appealing! But hey, a perceived bargain is still a bargain in your eyes, so everyone is pleased. Winery gets rid of dead stock, retailer gets there margin, and consumer gets something to gloat over at their next BBQ.

If I’m paying for wine, there’s nothing better than thinking I’ve done better!!

Cheers….

Lanson

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Special occasions should always be celebrated with a bit of pizzazz, and nothing spells pizzazz like Champagne!

Lanson Black label NV ~$40, exclusive to Dan Murphy’s.

‘A Champagne made predominantly with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay
in the purest Champagne style. Vinification without malolactic fermentation:
a historic decision at Lanson to guarantee a fresh and fruity wine.’

Everyone loves a ‘champers’, and nothing beats the birthplace of sparkling wine, Champagne.

Aussies have forever been in love with the bubbly stuff we colloquially called ‘champers’, Australian sparkling wine made in any number of ways, but for many years labelled and marketed under the moniker “Champagne”, much to the annoyance of the French.

Nothing wrong with Australian sparkles, just it ‘aint Champagne.

Maybe our wine industry suffered from an inferiority complex in our early days, labelling everything after foreign wine regions such as Port, Chablis, Rhine Riesling, Burgundy etc. To make matters worse, we didn’t really even try to make wines true to those regions styles. For instance, Chablis is Chardonnay, yet our ‘chablis’ could have been almost any dry white, and Rhine Riesling turned into all sorts of concoctions from dry to sweet, being the ruin of the riesling market for about 20 years!

Stanley 4lt Rhine riesling casks….yuck!!

Eventually, under trade agreements, we phased out the use of these terms, replacing them with varietal names, or in sparkling wines case, just that “Australian Sparkling”.

Sparkling 101……. There are 4 main methods of making sparkling wine:

1. carbonation – like soft drink.
2. tank fermentation (Charmat method) – the wine is put through secondary fermentation in a bulk tank and then is bottled under pressure.
3. transfer method – the wine is put through secondary fermentation in the bottle, then all the bottles are emptied into a tank and the yeast sediment is filtered out. It is then rebottled under pressure.
4. Champagne method (Methode Champenoise) – the wine is put through secondary fermentation in the bottle, and the wine stays in this bottle with the naturally produced bubbles until the consumer drinks it.

Most Australian premium Sparkling uses the Transfer Method, with a few using Methode Champenoise, which will almost certainly be labelled as such.

The cheaper stuff mainly use the Charmat method, due to economy of scale.

The size of the bead, or bubble, is normally a good indicator of which method it used….crudely, the fatter the bead, the cheaper method used.

For me Australian Sparkling wines will tend to be more fruit driven, have a softer mouth feel, a more aggressive bead, with maybe a little less finesse and elegance. The best examples will be more classical in style, and more expensive to boot!

Champagne on the other hand is all about finesse, elegance, a fine persistent bead, lean crisp flavours, romance…and most important of all, Celebration!

Lanson Black Label Brut is my go-to Champagne. A lovely wine, inexpensive in champagne terms, in fact pretty much a bargain.

When we where in Reims (Champagne country) a couple of years ago, we did a couple of tours, and rummaged thru the odd bottleshop or three, but couldn’t fine any recognisable brand at a cheaper price than we could get them back home! Go figure! In the town the stuff is made, yet cheaper 15000kms away!

Mind you, shouldn’t complain, can’t see myself back in Champagne buying the stuff anytime soon….

As much as I’d happily drink local sparkling wines, and do so regularly, when it comes to those special occasions….

So, $40 well spent I say…….and Happy Anniversary!

Why, why, why….Wye River?

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Quite often people ask me why we go to Wye River each year, why there and not, say….Inverloch, Waratah Bay, Mallacoota…?

Others ask…”Wye River! Where’s that?”

Of all the places to pick as your annual camping destination, a tiny coastal spot at the foothills of the wettest district in the state, the Otways, would at first glance not seem to be considered ideal!

So why do we choose to come to Wye River every January?

For me I guess it’s the familiarity, the sounds and smells, the memories…the rock pools!

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Here’s me and my cousin Louise, in about 1963… on the rocks, just like every year, just like everyone. Go to the beach, look left, look right….and you have these magnificent rock formations running down to the surf. Rock pools for all shapes and sizes. People walking over them, swimming in them, fishing off them, watching the sea from them, contemplating the meaning of….all day, every day.

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Pools big enough for Kenzie, and Rachael!

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For me, a sense of history and family ties seem to bind me to this joint. My grandparents came down every year from Williamstown, season camp holders for many, many….many years!

Wye River 1951

Check out Mum (on the rocks!) fashioning the latest in bathing design. And how about the caravan? The hipster barista’s would pay plenty for the chance to set up their fancy-pants coffee joint in one of those today!

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This is the first SLSC, in 1958. I’m pretty proud of the fact that my Mum’s family had such a strong connection to this, and the formation of the club. Brian Dann, my uncle, was the first club captain. He’s the devilishly handsome fella standing third from the right.

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He even has the honour board named after him! The SLSC has been updated somewhat since.

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A bit of tunnel ball action, circa 1964. Tim, Sal and myself bottom left, and Granny leading the way on the right.

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The standard joke about Wye revolves around water, of the precipitous type that is, in all its guises from mist to showers to gale force downpour. We’ve seen it all over the last decade or so, joked along about the likelihood of similar on our next visit, or the next day, or the next hour! Not often do we compare suntans, or UV ratings!

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Lets face it, a few years ago we got roadblocked in for four days as landslips made the road impassable, that was after being stuck in Lorne for eight hours waiting to get back to our site. It rained and rained some more, dumping about 170mm over four days. The river itself is normally a babbling brook, but for those few days was a raging torrent. Many books and uno games late it stopped, sort of!

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The weathers not always crap, just a good proportion of it. But when it shines, the whole place lights up. The sea turns a beautiful emerald green, clear and crisp…with rolling (if small) waves, perfect for a surf or boogie board. Rachael had never been on a boogie board before coming to Wye….

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Our weapons of choice! Naturally, the beer branded one is Rachael’s.

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When you get sick of the beach there’s always the General store for sensational bread, or one of the best view anywhere, from the deck of the old “Rookery Nook”. Beer in Hand, of course!

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Wye River and Separation Creek (around the bend) were settled mainly to service the timber industry, with logs been transported elsewhere via a long wooden pier, reaching out into Bass Strait, remnants of which have been left to slowly decay.

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It’s not exactly Bell’s Beach, but the surf has it’s moments, and more often than not there’s a nice little rip on the right hand side, just waiting to catch the unaware. One year, two bus loads of tourists stopped off for a quick dip to cool their jets before heading to the 12 apostles, and 39 of them had to be pulled out of the rip. Wye was rated the most dangerous surf beach in the state that year, courtesy of our northern neighbours inability to swim!

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Wye River in it’s normal guise.

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A couple of the locals, point guard and lookout!

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Forward patrol.

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Rachael is a relative newbie to Wye, but the place is as much a part of her’s as it is mine, and we’ll continue to carve out our own little slice of the story that is Wye River.

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So, there you have it, we come here ‘cos we love it. It’s part of the fabric of our lives. It’s not perfect, far from it, but the sum of the parts make it the place it is.

What more can you ask for in a summer holiday but relaxing, enjoying your surrounds, comfortable in your skin.

Perfect!

Sparkling Shiraz!!

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It’s that time of year again, when there’s no longer an excuse needed for drinking Sparkling Shiraz. Not that I’ve ever spent too long justifying my indulgence!

Seppelt Original Sparkling Shiraz 2012, about $20-25 pretty much everywhere.

Sparkling red’s are a quintessential Australian wine style, frowned upon by the French and confusing most other wine producing countries. The sparkles come in all sorts of varieties from Cabernet, Malbec, Durif, and even that most dreaded grape….Merlot (urgh!). But the predominant style is based around Shiraz, mainly from warm(ish) climates.

My favourite area is the Grampians region….Best’s, Grampians Estate & Seppelt leading the way.

There’s good ones out of the Coonawarra…Majella is a beauty. The Clare Valleys contributes with Leasingham Classic Clare, amongst others.

So many to choose from, so little time…

You may have guessed it….But I LOVE Sparkling Shiraz!

Seppelt Original is one of the pioneers of the style; consistent, reliable, refreshing and undervalued. A bargain at the price. Yes, there are plenty better (which will get a look in this festive season!) but none come close in the “bang for your buck” stakes.

Christmas day is not complete without a bottle departing the fridge. One on Boxing Day seems like a good idea as well!

And what about New Years Eve?

Summer holidays at Wye River?!

The possibilities are endless, willpower strong, waistline expanding!!

When I finally curl up my toes, I want everyone to grab a glass to send me off, with a bit of Elbow, Wilco or Elliott Smith to serenade me either upstairs, or down.

And I’ll take a few bottles with me as company while I wait for Rachael!

the best wine I’ve had this year!!!

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Man, this wine is good!

Sevenhill 2012 Inigo Shiraz, $17 from Dan Murphy’s.

When you read the spiel about this wine in the latest Dan’s buying guide, and they claim 98/100, one needs to try it if for no other reason than to knock the score down a few pegs. I mean, 98 is a ridiculous score for any wine, and even more so for one that’s only $17!

Scoring for wine has become ridiculous, with 90/100 becoming the benchmark score for any wine that is half decent. James Halliday has set a rod for his own back giving out higher and higher scores in his wine companion book and magazine, seemingly making perfectly good wines superfluous if they ‘fail’ to garnish a high enough score. If your wine scored a 90 a few years ago you’d shout it out loud for all to see, and hopefully buy, but now that is seen as only a fair pass mark.

Even our own Dromana Estate 2012 Chardonnay got a 94/100 this year, and it barely caused a ripple out in wine land!

So….98/100 hey? Bet it isn’t anywhere near that, just a trumped up score to help Dan’s move a few extra cases? Justification for the pallets of the stuff they bought?

Well….it’s bloody excellent, even better than that for the price. Maybe not 98, but right up there.

Made in the Clare Valley by the Jesuit’s, lead by Father John May, it is indeed almost heavenly!

Sevenhill is the first winery in the Clare Valley, established in 1851 when the Jesuits who settled in the area planted vines to produce sacramental wine. From these modest beginnings, the Jesuits’ focus on wine has remained, with Sevenhill adding to its sacramental wine production with an extensive range of table wines.

Looking at their website it looks like they have run out of the Inigo Shiraz at cellar door, so get in quick to uncle Dan’s to grab some before they are all gone.

God knows we don’t need anymore wine at home, but I reckon I might just manage to squeeze a box of this bad boy in!

Probably today!!

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Done!

travel planning, with Vino!

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One of the bests part about travel, for me anyway, is the planning. The searching out towns and villages, researching accommodation, planning routes with transport needs, finding interesting and varied things to do, places to visit, surprises found along the way…tripadvisor, booking.com, airbnb, google, etc, etc.

I enjoy it so much I sometimes forget I’m not travelling alone! I probably need to keep Rachael in the loop!

DSC05072Hence the wine, the book, the map….time for a debrief!

And what better way to do so than with a wine from the region? Except the wine we tried isn’t! It’s from Burgundy, which we visited last year. Never mind, it is French and anyway Bordeaux is expensive, and I don’t want to spoil the excitement before we get there!

So…La Chablisienne 2011 Chablis 1er Cru, Cote De Lechet. $40 from 1st Choice.

Quite the mouthful, lots of detail.

La Chablisienne is a co-operative of growers that have bandied together since 1923 producing wines, coming from a mosaic of vineyard plots, providing a pallet of emotions marked with a truly mineral touch…

Chablis is Chardonnay.

1er Cru is the Premier cru, for in Burgundy wine, the term is applied to classified vineyards, with Premier cru being the second-highest classification level, below that of Grand cru and above the basic village AOCs

Cote De Lechet is the subregion.

Simple!!?

Anyway, the wine was bloody excellent! Chablis has a beautiful minerality lacking in our chardonnays, and this is typical of the style, subtle and refined. Beautiful!

The only problem with buying French wine, or any European wine for that matter, is the vastness of choice, the multitude of labels, the lack of knowledge. You look at the imported shelves and have little to go on except price, which can be problematic when making choices.

I’m noticing more and more imported labels on shelves, and especially on wine lists, probably because the price perception isn’t there, as our awareness of them is limited. The likes of 1st Choice and Dan Murphy’s, as well as leading restaurants, import their own exclusive brands, therefore being able to set pricing without fear of comparison. Look at the back label and you’ll see the importer in most cases is owned by the proprietor. La Chablisienne, for instance, is imported by James Busby Fine Wines, which is owned by Coles.

Nothing wrong with that as long as you’re happy with your purchase, and I was with mine, but…

God, I am so out of my depth. My knowledge of Australia wines/varieties/regions/styles is pretty good, but Europe….forget it. I know where all the regions are, but the magnitude of vineyards/growers/labels is overwhelming. You would need to spend weeks, if not months, in each region to get an understanding of the scope and variety of labels, and here we are planning on spending a few days, max!

I guess there’s nothing for it, but to diligently plough on with relentless research into the subtle nuances of all the wine regions we plan to visit, continually referencing all the other regions as well, constantly!

Like I said, I love the planning.

Behind….dementia!

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The featured photo is of Dad rubbing his hands in glee….”got her”! That’s Mum!

About 1954.

Before they were married, before 6 kids, before Mum was gone, before dementia!

Mum & Dad 1988

Here they are again in 1988, Dad doing what he does best…..hamming it up for the camera, or the crowd.

Dad & Tim 1987

With Tim on his wedding day, doing his usual.

Dad 1990ish

…and again

Dad 1990ish

resident DJ, Mozart style!

Dad's 80th 2009

The family at his 80th.

Up till now he was still functioning quite well, and if you didn’t know him too well you wouldn’t suspect anything was amiss.

But sadly, things were amiss, missing, forgotten…

Early onset dementia was the diagnosis a couple of years earlier, whatever that meant? He looked fine, just a little vague. Nothing to be concerned with, nothing? He was a bit like a functioning alcoholic, all calm on the exterior, still playing it up for his audience, probably completely panicked inside.

Knowing what lay ahead.

Just not how horrible it would be, how hopeless he would become, how dependent on others for every moment of his groundhog day. Except in Groundhog day every day starts the same, with dementia every day is just a little worse.

I was reading the other day from Pete Evans Facebook page how he surmises that diet has a direct influence on the rate of dementia, not withstanding that dementia & Alzheimers is more prevalent now due to us living longer due to advances in medicine either curing, managing or treating all manner of illness/disease! He reckons our prevalence for low fat diets, high in carbs and sugar has helps push dementia up the scale.

Well, Dad lived on a high fat diet….fat lot of good it did him!

You hear and read all the time about the right to life, the right to die….euthanasia. Philip Nitschke gets a bum wrap from the hard right, and can be a bit abrasive in his views, but on the issue of choosing the timing of your death, when the future is all downhill, he is to be commended.

Honestly, there has to be the ability to chose the timing of your exit with dignity. I know with the likes of dementia, by the time your life is no longer productive you have lost the cognitive ability to make decisions pertaining to your exit strategy! It’s a tough, complex issue which needs thorough and concentrated discussion, without the religious zealots, and the nutty ultra right hijacking proceedings.

God knows I’m no great fan of the Greens, but Richard Di Natale‘s proposed ‘dying with dignity’ bill needs proper and considered debate, and hopefully the compassionate result will occur. Mind you, I’m not holding my breath, religion seems to always become the sticking point with any discussion around such issues. I know there are complex moral and ethical arguments which have some merit, and many have strong view on the sanctity of life and God’s will etc, etc. But what about the dignity of the sufferer?

Yes, the bill is aimed at those with a terminal illness, and their right to pick the timing of death, but for dementia suffers when is the right time? By the time they are ready to pull the pin they have forgotten where the pin is!

I swear to God, if Dad could have seen into the crystal ball he would have taken the ‘green dream’ years ago! I know I would.

I challenge anyone to walk through a dementia ward and see the hopelessness in the eyes of the inmates….I mean residents, and ask yourself…”is this what I would want?”

Five years ago Dad could clothe himself, feed and water, go to the toilet unaided, converse, recognise!

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This was at Christmas 2009, his last outside. Looks thin, a bit confused. Cracked it early on, I think the noise got to him, and marched outside to get in his car and drive home. If he’d managed to do so I’ve no idea where he would have ended up! Bruce had to make a mad dash to get all the keys out of the cars before he had a chance to make his escape.

After months slowly regressing he finally went full time into the local nursing home attached to the Mansfield hospital. Buckland House is wonderfully staffed by dedicated nurses and aids who genuinely have the best interests of the patients at heart. How they do it I’ll never know, they have the patience of saints, and the hearts of gold, but also the pragmatism to not let emotion get in the way of the duty required to care for these poor souls in their dying years.

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Dad’s framed photo looks pretty good by the front door, misspelt surname not withstanding! Plus, not sure about the fishing….

He looks ok in this photo, taken early in his stay. The beard is an interesting stylistic touch, easier than shaving.

His tasting, which used to be quite refined, have simplified of late.

Sprung him recently clapping along to a Andre Rieu DVD, his former self would have slapped himself. He hated that modern populous crap, fair dinkum classical all the way, plus Trad and Dixie jazz! And radio national on Sundays with the Goons…Neddie Seagoon, Eccles, Moriaty, & Bluebottle…. “You dirty, rotten swine, you! You have deaded me!”

He loved that stuff, pretty funny.

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Last year, now unable to walk…needs help feeding, wears a nappy. Only recognises me for a few minutes before the lights go out.

Try to jog the memory with photos on the iPad, engages him for a few minutes, and he remembers his father, and tells me its my grandfather…so still some recognition. Must be bloody hard having those moments of lucidity, when you probably realise how much shit you are actually in. Presumably  the memory is fleeting…

How the tables turn…man slowly becomes baby.

Nasty, and only getting worse.

So, what is dementia, and how is it different to Alzheimer’s?

Dementia is a brain disorder that affects communication and performance of daily activities and Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia that specifically affects parts of the brain that control thought, memory and language.

Dementia is the host, Alzheimer’s a very nasty bug!

Either way the prognosis isn’t good. There is no cure, only palliative care which can last years.

So, why Dad? Why anyone of the poor buggers in Buckland House? Why anyone?

What an undignified end to a productive life, what a waste…

October 2014

Last week, shaved ‘cos he hated having his faced wiped after each mouthful. Looks pretty buggered, eyes weepy, vacant. Almost no recognition, no longer able to talk, struggling to stay awake.

Still seems to recognise my voice, or recognises it’s difference to the normal hum in here. Still looks at Rachael likes she’s an alien!

I’m sure he still loves seeing family and friends, he just can’t communicate his appreciation.

Pretty sure he hates having his photo taken though, certainly not going to smile….teeth gone!

I don’t think I’ll take another photo of Dad, it’s not really the memory I want of him.

Dad could go on like this for years yet, gradually getting worse, becoming bedridden, lost and lonely trapped inside a mind and body wearing out like your favourite boots. RM’s of course!!

Naturally he’s not on his own, the rate of dementia & Alzheimer’s has soared in the last 20 years as we all live longer, are better medicated and better housed. Hospice care is a runaway growth industry!

So sadly Dad is now one of this growing statistic, and we can only hope that what time he has left is as pain free (in every way) as possible.

When Mum died we all knew it was much too early…..

..with Dad, sadly, too late!

d’Arenberg d’Arry’s Original

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Sometimes when you look at the vast array on offer on the wine list, you thank your small mercies for a trusted old friend that rears up at you, saying “pick me, pick me”.

So, I did!

d’Arenberg d’Arry’s Original Shiraz Grenache 2010, about $16 pretty much everywhere. Unless its on a wine list, in which case it could, and will, be a whole lot more!!

Confession first, I have a very soft spot for d’Arenberg, and more particularly the Original, which used to be called Burgundy. So, yep, I love this humble wine which has never failed to please and impress. What used to be predominately Grenache, now has plenty of Shiraz for the younger set, but this is still an old fashioned wine with plenty of tannin, grip, and old school ‘get down & dirty’ to it.

Grenache is quite popular in the McLaren Vale, as in the Barossa, and is usually blended, most often with Shiraz and Mourvedre, becoming GSM. Sometimes its a straight varietal wine, which can be a bit course and tannic, unless done well which quite a few do. Obviously this one drops the ‘M’, but suffers little for the omission.

d’Arry Osborn is the father of the current winemaker, Chester, and he is still very much involved in the whole process. d’Arry’s a ripper fella, old school 101, but with plenty of modern touches to keep relevant, and Chester has taken the winery to another level, adding his own personality, of which there is plenty.

I knew Chester when he was a young buck terrorising the McLaren Vale in his clapped out Porsche 911 , hair everywhere, a drink in both hands! Where d’Arry was Principal Skinner, Chester was Bart! Not sure he’s grown up, but his winemaking chops certainly have.

I love family wineries, the history is fascinating and the wines seem to reflect the passion of those before, an understanding of the terrior, a feel for the environment and an ability to portray the sense of family, and the connection between them and the consumer.

We who share are all part of that extended family!

My only complaint would be about the back label, and all their back labels in fact, which tend towards Tolstoy! Way too much information people.

If that’s all I can find in the negative then d’Arenburg will continue to keep the Osborn family employed for generations to come.

So as you can see from the photo, my oldest friend trusts d’Arry, and he’s pointing at you….so get on it!

 

 

 

Voyager Estate Shiraz 2010

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Most transplanted Vic’s living in West Aus reckon the only part of that state that reminds them of their former home is down south in the Margaret River. Sounds like a pretty good reason to grab a wine from down that way.

Voyager Estate Shiraz 2010 $34 @ Templestowe Cellars.

Whereas most of the west is bush scrub, the Margaret river region is the land of tall gums, Aussie bush, and some of the best tended vineyards in the country.

Man, there must be money in digging up the state as the mulla spent on some of the estates is phenomenal, and Voyager estate is certainly no exception. No expense has been spared in turning what was once Freycinet Estate into Voyager. Beautifully manicured lawns, rows and rows of roses, white washed walls, cellar door, restaurant, functions, you name it…the lot!

It also has the second largest flag pole and Aussie flag in the country, behind only Parliament house in Canberra. Why? ‘Cos they can!

Wouldn’t surprise me if they had a team that went around hand polishing the grapes before vintage.

In keeping with the attention to detail that goes into the surrounds its no surprise that the same treatment goes into the wines, and the 2010 shiraz is schmick!

Margaret river would be better defined by Cabernet, or Cabernet blends, but when done well Shiraz really shines, and this one requires sunglasses.

This is one smart wine, bloody brilliant. I could wax lyrical about the lifted spice aromas, the blackberry and cherry flavours, the lingering tannins…but you can read all about that and more on the back label!

I’ve tried a few Voyager wines over the journey and all have been excellent, especially their chardonnay, but this one is right up there and at a fair price, especially for a West Australian offering as everything is out of control over there price wise!

Rome has nothing on the exorbitant price gouging going on in Perth, courtesy of China’s lust for our dirt, and from all accounts the price of real estate in the mining towns is out of control. Donga’s costing $800 per week rent in the middle of nowhere!

And don’t get me started on the price of a pint of beer! Mind you, who in their right mind buys beer by the pint, what ever happened to a POT! You’d reckon they brewed the stuff in gold lined vats sprinkled with saffron.

Lets face it, West Aus is on fire at the moment, holes been dug quicker than a brace of golden retrievers, money changing hands faster than a Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme, and coffee prices climbing as fast as the supposed % returns from Bill Vlahos’s punters club!

Come to think of it, maybe that’s where Bill invested all that syndicate money, ‘cos these wineries go through money like toilet paper after a dodgy vindaloo, and poor old Bill’s been in the shit lately!

So, lets hope they don’t discover iron ore down south or we’ll never get another chance to drink the likes of Voyager estate shiraz, ‘cos it will cost $1000 a bottle, and the view from cellar door might not be magnificent manicured lawns, but a bloody great big hole in the ground.

Then all those transplanted Vic’s would have to travel another 3500k East for their homesick fix, maybe with a roadie of Voyager Shiraz?!

 

 

 

Saltram Mamre Brook Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

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Sometimes you need to pull out a wine that’s a little bit special to commemorate significant moments in time, something befitting the occasion.

Saltram Mamre Brook Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 certainly fit the bill the other day, as Rachael held a glass up to her mum, Marie, who passed 12 years earlier….much too early!

I never had the pleasure of meeting Mars, but from all account a wonderful wife, mother and friend to many. If her offspring are anything to go by, she was a beauty!

…and so is Saltram Mamre Brook. The Cabernet was fabulous, fully matured at eight years but with a few more in the tank, I reckon. Full bodied, lush with layers of plumb, berries, and chocolate.

The Barossa is more famous for Shiraz, which there is a Mamre Brook as well, but Cabernet done well is a pleasure no matter where it comes from.

Saltram may be owned by the largest wine company going around, Treasury Wine Estates, but continues to be a hidden jewel in their vast cave of wine brands. So often when wineries are gobbled up by conglomerates individual brands suffer at the expense of the profitable mass produced offerings which warm the bean counters hearts, but few others.

Luckily, Saltram has been able to fly under the corporate radar, and produce wines which are both  stylistic and true to the region, but also free of all the marketing bs that goes on with the trendy upstarts hogging the shelves and fridges.

Established in 1859 Saltram is one of the elder statesmen in the Barossa, probably the premier wine region in Australia. The homestead is beautiful, built in 1844, and largely intact still today. The wines try to stay true to it’s origins, bucking faddish trends, sticking to what works, and works well.

Saltram is a wonderful place to visit in the Barossa, and if you’re lucky you might get to sit in the most comfortable chair in the state! Inside cellar door, down amongst the barrels, at the end of a brick paved walkway is the wing-chair from heaven. Glass in hand, head leaning ever so slightly to the side, you are engulfed in fabric paradise, cushioned like an overstuffed turkey at Christmas. Surrounded by wine, in the bowels of the cellar, Mamre Brook swirling around the Riedel how could you not be comfortable?

If Marie were still with us today I dare say she would have been right at home in that wing-chair, a glass of Saltram’s finest in hand.

Salut, Mars.