WINE ... with David Bray
Australian winemakers, long-established and relatively newly arrived, are producing interesting wines from grapes that over the years have tended to be rather neglected.
Blends or single variety, there are some good stories here. Among them: Luna Rosa, from Cumulus Estate who apparently asked consultants for help to “launch an innovative rosé wine into Australia... to create a name, a brand story and identity that is a stand-alone contemporary brand leveraging classic Portuguese visual and stylistic cues’’.
They reckon the result is “a magical combination of Portuguese-style and cool-climate Australian fruit. The grapes involved are cabernet 40 per cent, grenache and mourverdre 20 per cent each with “a touch of Orange chardonnay”.
Cumulus tells us that winemakers Australian Debbie Lauritz and Portugal’s Francisco Artune have produced a fragrant wine from a blend of traditional Mediterranean varieties: “With grapes picked by the light of the moon (to retain their freshness), Luna Rosa is a finely drawn rosé wine with crisp, silken fruit and an alluring touch of sweetness.
“The inspiration for Luna Rosa (below)reaches to the heart of our company, which is part-owned by and has binding influences with the Berardo family of Portugal.” It’s an interesting wine, great as an aperitif or with a selection of light tapas style or Asian cuisines.
Light in alcohol at 10.5 per cent. Around $12.
Cirillo 1850 rose (above) comes from Australia’s oldest vines. It has been written this wine is made from some of the higher-yielding old grenache vines (1850 plantings) in a fabulous Barossa vineyard, a national treasure said to be one of the oldest grenache vineyards in the world. Proprietor/winemaker Marco Cirillo puts enormous effort and care into pruning and nurturing the 150-year-old vines.
These wondrous veterans were first planted in the Cirillo family vineyard at Light Pass in 1850 and produce a subtle and beguiling grenache that's been commended as "one of the finest this country has ever produced".
Some of the juice goes to Torbreck, of whom serious and seriously well-off wine lovers will be well aware, and some apparently is bled off for the rose, which is a delicious version of this style and one that, perhaps not typically, will cellar profitably, should you have the patience. Around $23.
Pfeiffer 2010 gamay is the Rutherglen winery’s and maker Jen Pfeiffer’s version of Beaujolais. She worked the 2005 Vintage with the Saint-Charles family, owners of Chateau du Bluizard, at Saint Etienne la Varenne.
The Saint Charles family has a long winemaking history, dating back to the early 1600s. Pfeiffer Wines has been one of the benchmark Australian makers of gamay since 1985. Here is Jen’s story: “I have become more and more passionate about gamay since working in Beaujolais, and see the wine style as the perfect drop for the beautiful, natural setting we have at our winery.
“I’m absolutely thrilled with the 2010 gamay – the colour, the nose, the palate; it’s all where I want it. Everything just worked in 2010. “We have two parcels of gamay: the old vines (about 40 years) and the young vines (about 20 years), both planted on the sandy soils of our Sunday Creek Vineyard. The Old Vine Gamay crops at around one tonne / acre and thus produces grapes full of flavour and with good weight – we get dark cherry, earthy and even plum-like flavours from the gnarly old vines. The Young Vine gamay crops a bit higher, around three tonne / acre, and delivers a lighter, more fragrant and more acidic wine, with strawberry and raspberry flavours.
“We make both parcels in the same way, hand-picking into sealable half tonne bins, keeping all stalks in. I add CO2 and a small quantity of yeast, then seal up the bins, ensuring no air can get in.
“I leave the grapes fermenting in this very carbonic environment for about 10 days, during which time the ferment will be about 1/3 to 1/2 complete.
“Then the fun starts. With a ring around of a few mates (and the promise of some cold beers), all the cellar staff and my friends jump in the bins and begin foot treading, or “pigeage” as they called it in Beaujolais. At this stage, acid and more yeast is added. “I leave the grapes with full stalks and let the fermentation finish in the bins, foot treading three times a day. “Once the cap starts to drop, I then press the wine into stainless steel.
“The Pfeiffer gamay receives no oak. Instead I choose to make a fresh, fruit-driven style, with enough complexity to make it interesting. I stabilise the wine and generally try to have it bottled by the end of April, beginning of May. I think this locks in the freshness of the fruit flavour, while also giving the tannin in the wine (and there is some...) to settle down in time for its release the weekend before the Melbourne Cup.
“The gamay is fun to make. It’s great to drink.’’
Quite so. $18.
