WINE ...with David Bray
The Clare Valley in South Australia is one of the oldest and prettiest wine districts in the country – and home to some of the most respected producers. Settled in the 1840s and named after County Clare in Ireland, the valley has heritage towns and trails, boutique wineries, museums and galleries.
There are more than 40 wineries, of which Sevenhill Cellars, built in 1851 by Jesuits fleeing religious persecution in Silesia, is the oldest. Two of the best and best-known are Jim Barry Wines and Tim Adams.
Jim Barry set up the winery now run by his son Peter in 1959. Its wines are poured in more than 25 countries around the world.
The winery produces its own fruit in 10 locations around the Clare Valley.
Most recent of its wines to hand is the 2005 Pb Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon. Its story, as told by Peter, is that in 1966 his father provided free rootlings of those two varieties to grapegrowers and farmers to encourage them to plant varieties suitable for dry table wine, away from the traditional high-yielding varieties used for table wine?
During his (Peter’s) first vintage in the 70s he saw his father making separate Shiraz and Cabernet trials, treating each with suitable oak to create a pre-bottling blend. He would have several trials and watch the trial blend interact over a day or two (they were left open on the kitchen sink). The tannins absorbed the air so being open for a few days was advantageous. At the end he would declare: “It’s 65 percent Shiraz, 35 Cabernet Sauvignon”.
During the 80s there was more interest in single varieties but in 2002 he went back to the idea of blending the top reds and made his first private bottling: “I grabbed the 2002 McRae Wood and 2002 Benbournie pre-bottling and repeated my father’s methods. I still have the 2002 Pb in the museum, half in cork and half Stelvin.
“The 2002 was intended as a personal wine and we enjoyed sharing it ? Encouraged by the response, in 2005 I repeated the procedure using the best parcels of the 2005 McRae Wood Shiraz and Benbournie Cabernet Sauvignon (70-30) in quantities that would allow me to release it in to the market.”
It is a rich, complex and nicely balanced wine of real quality, retailing around $50.
Mr Barry has had fun with the Pb, which he says could stand for Peter Barry, Personal best, Pace bowler, Prematurely bald, Peter’ blend, Prime beef, Play ball, Pure bred, Particularly beneficial, Plum bum and so on? But what he reckons best sums it up is personal bottling.
Another Clare personal special blend, one of four wines recently out, is Tim Adams 2008 reserve Cabernet Malbec.
Mr Adams says that one day during the 2008 vintage he saw a small batch, just a tonne and a half, of Malbec from the Sheoak vineyard being delivered to the crusher.
“It was the total yield from six acres of vines, virtually black in colour, Incredibly concentrated and bursting with the violet, mulberry and blueberry aromas that are the variety’s hallmarks.
“We had some exceptional cabernet coming in that afternoon, so we set aside the crushed malbec in a small fermenter and waited. We effectively blended 2400 litres from 60 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon and 40 per cent Malbec at the crusher, fermented it dry on skins over seven days, added back all the pressings material and matured it for two years in new French oak.”
Tim sees the blend as very much a Clare specialty, having first experienced it at the Stanley Wine Company where his mentor Mick Knappstein created Leasingham Bin 56 Cabernet Malbec. He acknowledges that there have also been great Cabernet Malbecs produced in Clare by Sevenhill and Wendourie. “This is a powerful full-bodied wine that sits comfortably alongside all those and has the potential to mature over at least 20 years.”
This one is cellar door only, at $35.
Also from Tim Adams is The Fergus 2008, (pictured left) which began its career as a grenache-dominant blend put together in 1993 during a shortage of the usual reds. The latest version is 35 per cent Grenache, 35 Tempranillo with Shiraz and Mataro making up the blend. Good drop this, at $22.
Its maker says this of the 2009 Shiraz: “It is more approachable (than the 2008) and has a softer, distinctly feminine side with voluptuous flavours of violets, mulberries and spice”. $25.
And so to Tim Adams 2010 Semillon ($22) (pictured at right), a variety that goes well in the Clare but which isn’t selling as well here as perhaps it should (for which Mr Adams suggests the blame could well lie with the big rush on NZ Sauvignon Blanc).
“We persist though, because we like drinking it and fortunately so too does our growing customer base in the UK.”
Your reporter likes it very much. A great match for simply prepared barramundi.
