The Auswine Forum

G'day All

I saw mf's post and wondered two things.

1. Is anyone else from Brisbane going to the public session of this? After reading about mf's other tasting experience, I am hoping the $50 price tag will deter the "let's get pissed" brigade.

2. Are there any wineries from the list that I should trample grannies to get to?

BARRINGWOOD PARK
BAY OF FIRES
BREAM CREEK
CLARENCE HOUSE
CLEMENS HILL
CLOVER HILL
COOMBEND
CRAIGOW
DALRYMPLE
DERWENT ESTATE
HEEMSKERK
FREYCINET
FROGMORE CREEK
GLAETZER-DIXON FAMILY WINEMAKERS
GREY SANDS
HOLM OAK
HOME HILL WINES
JANSZ
JOSEF CHROMY
MOORILLA ESTATE
NOCTON PARK
PANORAMA VINEYARD
PIRIE ESTATE
POOLEY WINES
ROSLYN ESTATE
SPRING VALE
STEFANO LUBIANA
STONEY RISE
SUGARLOAF RIDGE
TAMAR RIDGE ESTATES

Cheers

Michael

I'm going to the Sydney version tomorrow.

I don't know about trampling grannies but I'm quite interested to try Holm Oak, Joseph Chromy, Moorilla Estate and Stefano Lubiana in particular but I'll be trying to taste as much as is humanly possible concentrating on bubblies and pinots.

Not all the listed wineries went to the Melbourne tasting as I think some were "sydney only" wineries. Just thinking they may not be in Brisbane - the ones I think were missing from Melbourne were Stoney Rise, Heemskerk and Nocton Park (may have been a couple of others).

The wineries I went mainly for were Freycinet and Stefano Lubiana. I would also try the Glaetzer-Dixon Family Winemakers for the Shiraz (just for something different). For me there was nothing else I would say was essential (although maybe also Barringwood Park just because they had a Pinot Meunier).

One useful thing they also had in addition to the winemaker stands was "wine flights" for Sav Blanc, Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir - basically a table where they had all the wines on show where you could taste them all together. It is more fun to taste at the winemaker stands but I found it useful for something like Sav Blanc so that I tasted some wines I may not have otherwise bothered with.

Also remember to taste the cheeses (Bruny Island I think) - breaks up the wine tasting nicely.

I'll be there

HOLM OAK won't, which is a shame as I've heard good things.

I'll be concentrating on

LUBIANA
BREAM CREEK
CLOVER HILL
HEEMSKERK (if there, which I doubt)
FREYCINET
FROGMORE CREEK
CHROMY
PIRIE


Others may get visited, I never can stick to a plan when I attend these things. And I find it very difficult to taste wine in these environments. As such I will be attending by myself, not doing much talking to winemakers and quitely forming my first impressions of Tasmanian wines in general and differences in regions specifically.

I'm concentraing on Pinot, Sparkling, Reisling, Chardonnay and any Bordeaux reds present. I'm pretty sure I will be overwhelmed to be honest.

Oh, and I'll be the one in jeans and a t-shirt, looking out of place

Clover Hill sparkling is one of my favourites.

I went along to the Melbourne session with a focus on Pinot and was very impressed with a number pf producers, particularly 07 Barringwood Park Mill Block, 06 Tamar Ridge Kayena Vineyard Reserve, 08 Josef Chromy, 08 Stoney Rise, 08 Bay of Fires, 07 Dalrymple Estate, 08 Bream Creek, 07 Cape Bernier, 06 & 07 Sugarloaf Ridge, 07 Clemens Hill, 06 Frogmore Creek, 07 Moorilla Muse. Those in bold were the pick of the bunch for me.

jeremy wrote:I'll be there

HOLM OAK won't, which is a shame as I've heard good things

Oh, and I'll be the one in jeans and a t-shirt, looking out of place

Went to the Sydney tasting today, jeans and casual was me today!

Shame Holm Oak aren't in Brissie, across the board great wine, lush, fruity style. The riesling was in my favourites the Chardy was divine, and the reds... all excellent wine!(stand out 2008 Cab Merlot)
I thought the 2008 Pinot Noir from all area's was outstanding now, but will develop well.
special mention of the Dalrymple and Home Hill 08 pinots!
Some of the unusaul wines

An excellent Nick Glaetzer Shiraz (Glaetzer-Dixon Mon Pere shiraz 2008) and thanks to Nick for the being there and his background of the wine.

Freycinet 2005 Cab Merlot, aged and still well balanced.

Grey Sands Romanesque 2005 gets the nod for the funky 'nose' wine of the day. A blend of 80% shiraz, 10% petit verdot, (10% some spanish grape type grown in Grey Sands vineyards) but this was a very good wine
(Note: The Grey Sands Merlot 2005 was ecellent)

Bream Creek Schonburger, an interesting german style, refreshing fruity, a little dry, but another good wine
Bream Creek late picked Schonburger was a very juicey style dessert wine, excellent and well made.

Sorry guys i also had a very nice sweet style pinot noir rose that was as described by a taster "dangerous"! and he was right! Think it was Nocton Park?

Enjoy the tasting

Simmo

Thanks for all the tips and replies. Where did you find out who was going where? Wish I had been able to see that before I booked. Must admit I had marked Holm Oak down and Heemskerk (as I have been there before). Sigh - living in the provinces has its drawbacks.

I'll PM you Jeremy in case you want to taste together for a while. I would love to at least say g'day and it might be fun to do one of the "wine flights" together (don't worry i am "with friend" and not the clingy kind).

Cheers

Michael

I went to the Sydney event today, and I thought that the most impressive wines were the chardonnays. Bay of Fires, Spring Vale were the standouts. Bream Creek Schonburger was good, and the Josef Chromy SGR Delikat Riesling (60 grams residual) was nice. Picked early, and the ferment stopped early for residual sugar.
I wasn't thrilled by many reds. I did try the Grey Sands wines. The reds were a little bit leafy for my liking, but the "Romanesque" was orright. The other grape in that wine is Touriga Francesca. Would have liked to try the Freycinet Vineyards Radenti Sparkling 2000, but the guy in front of me got the last of it. Was a bit of a rushed afternoon for me..

Having returned recently from Tassie ( with 5 dozen assorted wines )
I'd suggest Craigow Pinot
Frogmore iced riesling, pinot and chardonnay
Stefano Lubiana riesling, pinot and chardonnay
Dalrymple pinot


If you can get your hands on in the Puddleduck Pinot and Coal Valley Pinot.

A number of vinyards also send out regular tasting packs, I'm on three currently which is a nice way to keep up with what they are doing down there.

graham

Thanks for the tips all. I'll be more than happy to do a little bit of tasting with Michael, thanks mate, should be fun. Different palates are as interesting to me as different wines.

Spent yesterday arvo there and will write up detailed tasting notes on everything tried but the revelation for me was the Jansz NV Premium Cuvee sparkler. Beautiful clean style with green apples jumping out. I'll definitely be buying some of this.

The rielsings were very very good too, the Holm Oak and Joseph Chromy being the standouts. The Chromys in particular were a much more germanic / NZ style which I just adore.

I also had that Nocton Park Pinot Rose which was just delicous. They are a new winery and are only distributing through Chambers or direct from the winery at present. Went very well with the salmon tasting plate.

Somehow I managed to miss both Moorilla and Stefano Lubiana. I think I completely skipped one 'aisle'. DOH!

I wasn't as excited by the pinots as I was hoping to be. They were all a little lighter than what I might have liked but I think many were freshly bottled so may just need some time to settle a little.

Detailed notes to follow.

Yeah, I'll second that about the pinot noirs. Not many if any really impressed me. I don't know why that might be.

Story of my winedrinking life. I always hope to be excited by a pinot but it usually falls short. Just a shame that a great one comes by just frequently enough to keep me at it

cheers

Carl

I thought it was just me. Well, for New World Pinots, anyway.

Ok, maybe i was a little pre determined in my pinot call, i thought a lot of the pinot i tasted had a very nice nose, lush style palate, and the structure, tanins were good, however I don't cellar pinot, and don't drink much of it, hence went to the tasting to try some.
The chardy's as cuttlefish said were very good.
Anyway, so i got home and thought now for a proper red, and opened a Saltram No1 2002 shiraz, very juicey, yummo

Cheers all

odyssey wrote:I thought it was just me. Well, for New World Pinots, anyway.

Mmm even old world as well unless youve got serious $ to spend most of the time. If youve got sub $80pb to spend you will have a much higher success rate with Aus/NZ Pinot than French unless you just dont like New World.

Edited for vintage and further detail

It was good. 2006 Freycinet Pinot (most of their stuff V.good), 2008 Stoney Rise Pinot, all Jansz Vintage Sparkling, especially the LD, Lubiana 2003 Sparkling, Heemskerk all round. Clover Hill 2005 Blanc de Blancs. Back in the same good form as the wonderful 2001 (great vinatge for Clover Hill)

A pleasure meeting Michael McNally, shame I was rather overwhelmed. Still gathering my thoughts and notes. Lots of underwhelming pinot

Nice to meet you too Jeremy. A longer discussion in a quieter location is warranted! Roll on the next offline.

It was busy, but not overly so. I didn't have to trample a single granny, and by simply circling the two aisles we were able to see most wines at tasting tables that only had one or two other tasters and often none. I was with a friend, and I don't think you can make detailed notes at events like these anyway, so impressions only. As you can see the impressions got less detailed as the night wore on. I did visit Stefano Lubiana, but didn't make notes. The winemaker was distracted as he had a dinner to go to!

Joseph Chromy
Pepik bubbles were nice and a good start to the whole proceedings. The "Delikat" riesling has some residual sugar, but nice cleansing acid. The Gewurtz had a nose to die for but failed to deliver on the palate. The Pepik Pinot Noir was too green/stemmy for my tastes, but the JC label was Very Good.

Stoney Rise
Two unusual whites. The Riesling had a nose of saltwater and seaweed, but was nice. I didn't know what to make of the Chardonnay. The PN had a fabulous nose and followed through. Very, Very Good to Excellent (I will try this again in a better setting).

Bay of Fires
Solid range. Nice bubbly Rose. PN was medium weight and stemmy but approachable.

Dalrymple
Both PN were good, the Reserve Very Good, but exy.

Spring Vale
Nice people and a great range. Gewurtz VVG. PN VG. Reserve Chardy VVG. Reserve PN VG.

Heemskerk
Nice riesling. Derwent PN Good. Tamar PN has potential but a little unapproachable at thos point.

Roslyn Estate
Unwooded Chardy (06!) was surprisingly good. SB was pretty full on style but Good. Cab Sav Good.

Freycinet
08 Chardy VVG. Louis PN was "nice".

Pirie Estate
"South" Riesling VG. Chardy was too acidic. "South" PN a very light style (too light for me). Estate PV VG.

Frogmore Creek
Nice folks. Riesling VG. FGR a bit too high in residual sugar for my tolerance. 2006 Chardy VVG. 42oS PN "not so hot". Frogmore Creek PN was VVG but not sure about the QPR (but I might have mixed the prices up - if it is $36 not $45 as I wrote in another post it is okay).

Moorilla
Praxis riesling VG. Praxis PN VG. Good range overall. Beautiful labels.

Bream Creek
Nice bloke. PN was VVG.

Clemens Hill
Nice sauv blanc (09). The lighter pinot was the best of the enty level pinots at the tasting. The Estate/Reserve was VVG too.

A good night and well worth the entry fee.

Cheers

Michael

Hi Michael

Interested to know what vintage of Bream Creek Pinot you tasted?

Thanks

Ronaldo

Sorry to jump in on you Michael, I didn't do Bream Creek justice but

Maroon & Blue wrote

Hi Michael

Interested to know what vintage of Bream Creek Pinot you tasted?

Thanks

Ronaldo

They were serving the 2008 when I tasted, and that's also what's listed in the book. Over to Michael for more info than that

No worries Jeremy

G'day Ronaldo

It was the 08. I was down to my last couple of stalls, was probably a bit pissy (despite spitting all night) and he was a nice bloke. Context is important I guess. I only wrote three letters VVG, so I must have thought it Very, Very Good. But given the above, I wouldn't buy on the basis of that recommendation!

Cheers

Michael

Bream Creek Pinot, Riesling and Sav Blanc are regular buys for me