Spent the weekend in the Hunter with my girlfriend and some friends. I’ll put up a list of some of my pics during the week but wanted to vent now. I thought i got marketing from the cellar door – it’s a chance for people to spend the weekend seeing where their favourite wines come from and finding new ones. Half the fun is feeling involved. You’re putting in the effort, so you expect to be served by someone that had a hand – however slight that may be – in the wine you’re tasting. Fair enough this is not always possible but it shouldn’t be too much to ask to run into such an experience in at least 3 of the 10 cellar doors you visit in a day.
This struck me most this morning when i ticked a few wineries off the list on the way home. Visited Krinklewood and was served by none other than the wineries’ owner – Rod Windrum. Lovely chap who obliged an interview about biodynamic growing practices. I’ve admired their wines for a while now, they guarantee the phrase “oh this is good, where’s this from” at social occasions. Next i stopped in at De Iuliis Wines and it couldn’t have felt more different. The tasting room was as sterile as a NASA lab and I think smiles were out of season. They had a decent Semillon though but the romance of the experience was totally gone.
I guess the equation for a visit to wine country is; the bigger the sign and more modern the surrounds, the greater your chances of being a number.
It was a great weekend though and the good wines far outweighed the lifeless cellar doors. The Krinklewood interview is in the pipes.
Archive for the ‘Hunter Valley’ Category
Wine Country Contrasts
Sunday, July 9th, 2006OWS#8: Sydney Royal Wine Show (Part 1) – Jukes, Halliday and a Few Tastings
Saturday, March 25th, 2006Mick and Hugo attended the 2006 Sydney Royal Wine Show last month and recorded a few speeches, interviews and trophy tastings. The event is enormous and very professional and we must thank Anita Solentic for giving us the royal treatment while we were there. Full show results are available by clicking here.
This podcast includes two speeches given on the presentation day by Matthew Jukes and James Halliday about the show’s results and Australian wine in general.
2:45 – Guest international judge Matthew Jukes gives his views on the state of Australian wine in 2006.
9:00 – Tyrrells Vat 1 Semillon 1994 won the trophy for “best white table wineâ€. A legendary bottle well worth familiarising yourself with as a benchmark Hunter Semillon.
11:30 – McWilliams’ 1998 Mount Pleasant Lovedale Semillon won “best white table wine (in previous vintages)â€.
13:35 – Head judge of the show, and well respected critic, James Halliday gives a short speech regarding his conclusions on the winners.
16:50 – Leasingham’s Classic Clare Riesling 2005 won “best young white wineâ€. The link only gives notes to the 1995 release for some reason.
Hope you enjoy the podcast.
OWS#2: Hunter Valley Review, How to Taste & New World vs Old World
Saturday, October 22nd, 2005OWS#2 features a review of one of Australia’s largest wine producing regions, an explanation of what to do a look for when tasting wine and a discussion of the “new world versus old world” wine debate.
Intro:
News:
Features:
All the best
Hugo & Mick