This past Sunday provided this ex-pat an awesome opportunity to trek down into the city to stroll through Hyde Park and partake in The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Living Cellar Door Wine Festival. The Good Living Cellar Door Festival was the corner stone and kick off event of this year’s New South Wales wine week. Seeing how I have dedicated my 2008 to exploring and learning about more wine, it was not an option of missing out on this event.
Pretty unexpectedly I was flying solo for this opening round of wine exploration. I know a couple of you back home would have had my back, but alas I’m here and you are there. So the weather: sunny and about 80 degrees. The atmosphere: vibrant, family oriented, and full of people with gigantic smiles on their faces. My outfit: bright colored shorts, tropical print Reyn Spooner shirt, and a wicked pair of TOMS (I was going for the relaxed but subtly sophisticated summery look … needless to say I pulled off perfectly). My objective: to taste 10 wines all grown, produced, bottled, and sold right here in the wonderful state of New South Wales.
So I won’t keep you waiting, let’s pop the cork (or more likely in an eco-conscientious Australia let’s unscrew the cap) and talk about that beloved grape drink.
As mentioned above the sun was out in full effect and the walk from the station to the festival was not too long, but was not too brief either. The walk was actual just perfect to work up a quick thirst for some refreshing white varieties.
So with the thirst on my mind I as so excited when I came upon the festival and saw wine stall after wine stall stocked with bottle upon bottle of locally produced wines. Glass and tasting tickets were purchased in record time as I set off on my NSW wine odyssey.
• 1st wine was a 2005 Riesling from Blickling Estate located in the New England region of the state. Oh was it delicious! A very light and mellow rather than crisp fruity blend of cold climate grapes that are grown in a very high climate and have an extended ripening process as a result of the altitude. Any thoughts that this might not be an awesome afternoon were tossed out the window as I continued on sauntering down the grassy aisle of the Cellar Door sipping my wine while searching for what I would drink next.
• The 2nd wine of the day was a 2006 sparkling wine (‘bubbles’ as Aussies lovingly refer to their own take on champagne) from what seemed like a young and innovative wine maker name Peter Logan hailing from Orange which is over the Blue Mountains and about 4 hours west of Sydney. Mmmmmm. Its was served rather chilly which made this mild smelling sparkling rather crisp to the palate which helped bring the light peachy fruit taste out in the wine. The bottles of this Logan ‘champagne’ were going for 28 bucks which seemed like a steal. I see myself popping some Logan in the future!
• So I started working up an appetite with all this walking, traveling into town and drinking, so I decided to check out one of the local food stalls in the area that highlighted the Mudgee region of the state. What more could a guy ask for than a venison steak sandwich with poached pear, spinach, and caramelized red onion from Mandagery Creek Venison Farm?!?! With sandwich in hand I went to the booth next door for my 3rd tasting glass of the day, a Cab Sav from Huntington Estate hailing from the Mudgee area as well. Parked myself on the curb in the shade right off the main thoroughfare only to be serenaded by a 5 piece band playing some Gershwin on this amazing Sunday afternoon. As far as lunch went the sandwich was the main highlight by far, followed closely by the Gershwin, and then trailing heavily behind was the overly peaty Huntington Estate red. Well 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.
• With red wine on the brain and my sandwich destroyed in a matter of seconds it seemed I made the decision to head from the western regions of the states to the nation’s capital Canberra. It was while in the capital region that I had my 4th wine a 2007 Shiraz from Mount Majura Vineyards. I was told it was a spicy yet earthy Shiraz and that lady was spot on in her description. This wine was very peppery and full of either blueberries or blackberries and highlighted with a metallic earthy flavor. A different Shiraz for sure but very tastie!
• My 5th wine that marked my half way point was a surprising wine to say the least. What I had was advertised heavily as ‘one of the rarest wines in the world’ hailing from the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales. My midpoint wine was a 2006 Arneis that was very flowery not fruity with hints of honey to accent a light but sweet wine. I enjoyed it very much and was told that the ‘secret’ was in the partial barrel fermentation process – whatever that meant.
• With my last 5 tasting tickets I decided to head to the largest wine producing region of New South Wales, the Hunter Valley. The Hunter area was massive and had huge wine producers like Tempus Two and Scarbourough Wines there, but I decided that I would pass the big boys and try some wines from places I had not heard of which lead me to the Hope Estate tent for my 6th wine, a glass of their 2006 Merlot. I didn’t like it, and I always thought I was someone who liked Merlot in spite of Paul Giamotti’s now famous whiney comment about Merlot from Sideways. I simply feel that Merlot should come from a wetter climate like South Australia or California, not the Blue Mountains of New South Wales.
• Moving through the Hunter I came across what would be my 7th wine and my favorite of the day, a 2006 Pinot Noir from Hungerford Hill. My generous pour of this wine was pleasing to smell hinting at a complex nature and was even more pleasing to my taste. It was mild and almost buttery in its smoothness leaving a pleasant coating on my tongue that made me think of velvet. Like most Pinots it was mild and didn’t pack a huge punch, but was subtly earthy, a touch fruity, and fatty in a very good way. Hungerford Hill will be getting a visit from me sometime this year for sure!
• After my 7th tasting I knew I was not going to be getting much better, plus I was getting a little um lets say ‘happy’. My notes started getting a little sloppy and I had a birthday party to get to which meant I was short on time and had to walk back to the train station to catch my ride home. So what ensued was what I would like to call the big Red blitz of the Hunter. 8th wine was a Cab Sav that had grapes hailing from Orange and was produced in the Hunter by Pepper Tree. 9th wine was a Cab Sav from Allen Dale Winery. And the last wine, the 10th of the day was a 100% Hunter Shiraz from Brokenwood that I remember being quite fond of – then again who isn’t fond of their 10th wine of the afternoon.
Needless to say I had an awesome time at The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Living Cellar Door wine festival, and am happy to report that 2008, the year of more wine culture for this guy is shaping up to be a wonderful year.
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