Ashley Smith and Kym Thumpkin are successful dentists, international class small-boat sailors and have built from scratch a thriving winery-tourism business. Their professional practice is in Toowoomba, the Preston Peak cellar door complex is 10 minutes out of town and their various Flying 15 class boats have been raced impressively around the country and overseas.
One of them did extraordinarily well in the 2006 UK Nationals. They called her Clapped Out Old Toy Boy and raced under the burgee of the Tin Can Bay Club. Closer to home, there appears to have been a Fully Active Board doing great things. (Come on, sailor, get back to the wine stuff. Ed.)
One more thing: The couple put considerable effort and capital into a wine centre at Southbank, right near the beach. It was a pleasant, tasteful and very worthwhile enterprise, and years ahead of its time. Didn’t last all that long. But to the present and the wines of Preston Peak. The Toowoomba part of the operation is a tourist-focused cellar door (some 20,000 visitors a year), and good for functions of up to 150 people.
There are some vines there, but most of the grape-growing happens at the Devil’s Elbow vineyard at Wyberba in the Granite Belt: shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, chardonnay, white muscat, petit verdot and pinot noir. The fruit is processed in a modern winery at Devil’s Elbow.
The winery began its work in 1994 and now turns out 3500 cases of wine a year. It was awarded a four-and-a-half star rating in James Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion 2010, with the 2006 Reserve shiraz scoring five stars and 94 points. The 2008 Reserve Shiraz has since been awarded in the Top 5 Australian and New Zealand Shiraz in Winestate Magazine’s Wine of the Year Awards (November 2010).
All up, over the years, the winery has scored more than 200 awards and recommendations throughout its range of wines. Preston Peak Wines produces a range of red. white, sparkling and fortified wines in three product ranges: the Reserve – premium wines with cellaring potential, the Leaf Series – fruit- driven wines suitable for drinking now, and the recently expanded Wildflower range which offers a reasonably priced range of easy-drinking table wines including merlot, shiraz, blanc and a picnic-style red.
All three ranges are now being made by several specialist wine makers, including Mark Ravenscroft, Peter Scudamore-Smith, Mike Hayes and Peter Stark. Three samples, all very fine examples of interesting white wines: 2010 pinot gris brings tastes of peach and lime boosted by wild yeast ferment and four months in new French oak.
The makers suggest it would go well with Asian dishes, particularly Thai and “would be beautiful with salmon or ocean trout”.
2010 viognier will give you peach and citrus with a touch of ginger later, again wild yeast ferment. “Perfect with seared chicken fillets with rocket and pine nuts or strong fish like salmon”.
And a new look at an old charmer, 2010 gewürztraminer, which we are assured has aromas of Turkish delight and fresh lychee, tastes of rich citrus and melon and is a very versatile food wine …. Asian dishes, particularly Thai.
Each has a retail price of $28, though PP wine club members get them for $23.30. Right on the edge of the Range escarpment, Preston Peak has a spectacular view of the vineyards, Lockyer Valley and Table Top Mountain. It is open Wednesday to Friday from 11am to 3pm and Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 5pm. Closed public holidays. Well worth a visit.
***
Still in the rugby capital of the world, here’s one from Queensland biggest wine-maker, Sirromet 2011 Vineyard Selection verdelho. It is a well-made, excellent wine, the work of Adam Chapman, working with fruit from Sirromet’s 150 hectares of cool climate high altitude vineyards at Ballandean on the Granite Belt.
It was made at Mount Cotton, between Brisbane and the Gold Coast and you will find it at several big liquor outlets as well as at the Mount Cotton cellar door and on line at www.sirromet.com.
