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For those who might be interested...........




MARGARET RIVER WINE “IN DAYS” – SYDNEY, MELBOURNE, PERTH

A tasting of a superb selection of Margaret River wines open to consumers, media and trade.

Sydney - 11 October Customs House, Circular Quay, 11am to 7pm

Melbourne - 13 October Prince Wine Store, South Melbourne, 12pm to 7pm

Perth - 19 October State Reception Centre, Fraser’s Restaurant, Kings Park, West Perth, 12pm to 6pm

Have a chat with and sample from these great Margaret River producers:

Aravina Estate, Arimia, Arlewood, Brookland Valley, Cape Mentelle, Capel Vale Winery, Celestial Bay, Cowaramup Wines, Credaro Family Estate, Deep Woods Estate, Devil's Lair, Fermoy Estate, Fraser Gallop Estate, Grace Farm, Howard Park Wines, Juniper Estate, KarriBindi, Knee Deep Wines, Laurance Wines, Lenton Brae, Ringbolt Wines, Rosabrook, Stella Bella, Tassell Park Wines, Thompson Estate, Vintners Ridge Estate, Voyager Estate, Wise Wines, Woodlands, Woody Nook Wines, Xanadu

Cost: $20 includes a tasting notes booklet, wine samples and a stylish Plumm glass to take home
(free for pre-registered trade and media)

In 2011 we are actively encouraging people to pre-register and thus ensure they are able to attend as we have limitations on capacity at each venue.

If you haven’t already done so please pre-register by clicking on one of the following hyperlinks:

[url]Sydney - 11th October Customs House, Circular Quay

Melbourne - 13th October Prince Wine Store, South Melbourne

Perth - 19th October Fraser’s Restaurant, Kings Park, West Perth[/url]

Once again, Brisbane misses out. I often look in the Wine Magazines and notice a lot of great events in Sydney and Melbourne but hardly any in Brisbane. I guess there just isn't the interest, or the wine trade just hasn't got the size to justify events up here?

Be interesting to find out why we miss out on so many events.

Ian

That's alright Ian, we'll just stick to Coonawarra

Rednick wrote:That's alright Ian, we'll just stick to Coonawarra

I had to work for the tasting this year. Hopefully next year I'll be off.

Apparently the guy who organises it is an Everton fan.....;o)

In all seriousness, though, i will ask as to why they don't exhibit in Brisvegas....

Cheers S

Could be that they were put off by the Taste of WA (or similar catchy name) tasting here a couple of years ago. There were very few punters (which was fine by me on the night), and many on the stands were openly disappointed. Some questioned whether it had been promoted properly.

I thought it was great, but I could understand a reticence to do it again.

Cheers

Michael

Stavros wrote:Apparently the guy who organises it is an Everton fan.....;o)

In all seriousness, though, i will ask as to why they don't exhibit in Brisvegas....

Cheers S

Just tell him 2-0 to the Reds at Goodison...he'll never come here!

Michael McNally wrote:Could be that they were put off by the Taste of WA (or similar catchy name) tasting here a couple of years ago. There were very few punters (which was fine by me on the night), and many on the stands were openly disappointed. Some questioned whether it had been promoted properly.

I thought it was great, but I could understand a reticence to do it again.

Cheers

Michael

That is what I thought. If people don't turn up then the promotors won't hold the gigs. I don't see a lot of promotion for events in BrisVegas at all. When you read the events page of the GTW it hardly ever has any decent Brisbane events. The Gold Coast is even more barren of wine events.

I'll just have to make sure I get to the Brissie offlines I guess.

Ian

anyone do the SYD gig?

Highlights?

Cheers S

Stavros wrote:anyone do the SYD gig?

Highlights?

Cheers S

Yes

Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon

The event was not quite as good as last year's due to the fact exhibitors were limited to 4 bottles (which actually did make practical sense but meant at someone like Cape Mentelle did not bring their Shiraz or Cab Sav).

That being said, there were plenty of highlights for me:

SBS/SSB - Lenton Brae 2011 (second year in a row I thought they had the best version), Xanadu 2010 and Voyager 2011 (Cape Mentelle 2011 was good but have preferred other years)

Chardonnay - a lot of very good restrained (in a good way with actual substance and complexity rather than just being boring) Chardonnays. My favourites were the Xanadu Reserve 2009, Fraser Gallop 2010 and Woodlands Chloe 2009 (but Cape Mentelle 2010, Brookland Valley 2010, Xanadu 2009 were not far behind - it is a rare situation that Voayger (2008 - which I also liked) is not at the top of the list). Woodlands 2011 was also very good value.

Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Merlot - I actually don't think there was a Cab Sav (all basically from 2007, 2008 and 2009 vintages) that I actually did not at least enjoy and think was of a reasonably high quality. I am not sure how I have missed this in the past but also realised that most of the wines labelled as Cab Savs were actually "Bordeaux" blends with around 90% Cab Savs. My favourites were the Fraser Gallop 09 (good value as well), Voyager 07, Woodlands Margaret 08 and Juniper Estate 08 (as well as the Woodlands Shelly Anne 2008 but you are really paying for that one). Brookland Vallley 09, Howard Park Leston 09, Xanadu 08 were also very good. Thought the Lenton Brae Wilyabrup 08 was also probably of high quality but either not my preferred wine or needed time, a Laurance Icon Cab Sav (I think 09) also needed some time so was a bit hard to judge. Cape Mentelle Trinders 09 was my value pick for the day (as was the 08 last year) ahead of the Woodlands Cab Merlot (I think 09). Again I could probably not name a Cab Sav that I thought was not at least pretty good, however Lenton Brae Cab Merlot 09, Voyager Girt by Sea 09 and Cape Mentelle Wilyabrup 09 were probably my least favourites (although would still happily drink all 3 - and would actually still say the Voyager is very good value).

Shiraz - the 4 bottle limit meant there was unfortunately a limited amount of them (and also very few reds other than Cab Sav or Shiraz) - Cape Mentelle and Voyager did not have theirs which was a bit of ashame. Xanadu 08 was probably my favourite and Howard Park Leston 09 I found slighty disappointing. There was at least 10 Cab Savs/Cab Merlots at the tasting that I would drink/buy before any of the Shiraz that were on show (which is more a reflection of the 4 bottle limit and the quality of the Cab Savs/Cab Merlots).

The fact Devil's Lair did not bring any of their best wines was probably the only real disappointment (other than some wines not being there due to the four bottle limit).

I'm not quite sure they had the 4 bottle limit..I actually thought it was pretty stupid. Why do you care how many wines someone brings? Am I missing something with that?

My impressions - Most of the Sem Sav Blanc blends were ok...I'm not sure what it is but without a bit of oak, this blend tends to be very blah...I'm not sure why I think this because I love Hunter Semillon...
Chardonnay - Fraser Gallop had a very nice Chard for the price...The Xanadu Chardonnay and Reserve Chardonnay were both very good. I think the Reserve is reaching a bit much with their 85 dollar price tag...their normal one is a good buy at 35.
Cab/Cab Blends - Xanadu Next of Kin was surprisingly good for its price. Most of the notes I've seen on it don't indicate that but maybe it just took some time of it to come into its own. It punches way above its weight and there is no way I would've guessed it was 18 dollars. Their regular Cab blend was pretty good as well. Fraser Gallop Cab was also very nice.
As MW said, all of the cabs were pretty good. I did find all of the Howard Park and Capel Vale stuff far too young...Maybe it was because I did all whites first then reds but their stuff was really really tannic...So much so that it was a distraction...

Overall I think it was a really nice event. I REALLY enjoy the fact that it is open to the public before 5 which means if you can go early you can actually spend some time there before you get the after work crowd that is there more or less to drink...Less crowded, more time to talk to the people there...I don't see a point to this 4 bottle limit (and some places had more so I'm not sure what was going on).

True some did not adhere to the 4 bottle limit (most did though). I assumed it was so that you sampled wines from all to most wineries (other than just sticking to a handful of favourites). Of course I would prefer more options.

Does the 4 bottle limit do that though? I guess if some of them had like 10 or 12 that might happen...I think the number should definitely be more than 4...but who knows, maybe it worked out very well for all of the wineries just having 4...