Tscharke - Mediterranean varietals

A Monday visit to Damien Tscharke's joint with the collaboration of Red + White. Only ever-so-slightly against the grain, Damien is producing some paradoxically über-fruity-yet-complex expressions of Euro varietals in the Barossa Valley (of South Australia). Remember, this is the home of 'Vino d'Auge Montepulciano' - grown by Damien, vinified by James Erskine, and to be enjoyed by all this coming May!
Damien goes the 'hands-off' technique, using a bit of post-ferment skin soaking to eek-out extra smooth tannins from front to back.
Straight from the bottle the wines sing fruit sweetness, but with time in the glass complex undercurrents of tobacco, eucalypt and camp fire make themselves known.

The family working the pump-overs


Whole bunch press recycling nitrogen for a completely anaerobic environment

Well worth the abduction...It breaths nitrogen


A barrel tasting of '08 Graciano, Tempranillo, Monte', and Zind.

and smashing down some glasses over a lunch of Smoked Salmon Rotolo, Beef wrapped in Bacon with a goat's curd accompaniment, and lastly: chocolate marquise with VP. Strewth! silence descended the winery....

East

West

The view toward the Eden Valley

Seppeltsfield Road

Rob Ellis can click his fingers and make great wine for Hewitson.
Not bad for a boy used-to picnic-ing at Hanging Rock.

Have you seen Steven King's first movie: 'Duel'? Rob keeps the keys to this Bad Boy.

Beautiful winery. So fresh and so clean.

Vendemmia all' improvviso!

In a momentary decision (on Sunday 15th March) that took all by suprise, the prosecco had to be picked by yesterday (Monday 16th) at the latest. Thanks to Silvio for his flexibility, and the picking crew (fielded mostly by the home team, thank you!) we managed to have the grapes off the vines by lunch time, and pressing finished by 9pm. The juice is clarifying in the cold night air at Anton's place in the Basket Ranges before being racked into tanks to begin fermentation. Once the base wine is fermented to dry, it'll be racked into pressure-tight kegs and dosed with a measured quantity of sugar solution to kick-off the secondary fermentation and give the wine its mousse.

Sunday: Prosecco looking spot-on. The rapid ripening in the two weeks since the last visit is incredible. Harvest cannot be held off any longer in order to hold any measure of delicacy in the finished wine.

Anton van Klopper and Silvio dal Cin

Sunday: Dry

Monday: Drizzle, all bloody day!
but harvest looked very healthy indeed. Prosecco is a vigorous yielder: big bunches, and plenty to each vine.

Anton and Jules

some buckets of harvested prosecco grapes showing the variation in ripeness between the east-facing and west-facing trellises. West for ripe fruit characters (apricots), and east for acidity and freshness (green tea).

Carozelli cucumbers! A secret of Silvio's. 'Eat them like an apple' - delicious.

Biodynamics by Dr Suess

We all like the idea of biodynamics, but no-one makes me want it more than Dr Seuss!
Thanks Dave (Teusner) for passing this on...

Maverick Wines - from Barossa to Eden

Maverick Wines and Decant were generous enough to treat a small group of Adelaide wine professionals and one complete unprofessional (moi) to a curated tour of their vineyards and wine facilities in Greenock, Vinevale, and Eden Valley.
Maverick has a spectacular collection of very old-vine vineyards through these appellations and is farmed biodynamically to ensure optimum fruit character.
Ron and Chris were on-hand to guide us through the philosophy and objectives of this property. A 'bench-marking' tasting exercise was also held to establish industry feedback (on one hand) and to better illustrate Chris's wine-making style on the other.

This is Ron. He owns the joint. Ron is very passionate about old vines. Watch Ron's hands.

How I love juicy, cinnamon-nutmeg-gy, floral, spicy Greenock shiraz

This is an old 'centurion' bush-vine grenache.

Ron guides us through the grapes-to-barrel process at Maverick. All small-lot fermentations with minimum interference i.e innoculations, etc. It's very apparent that Maverick is a boutique enterprise.

Check out this copper vortexing machine from 'Castello di Rampola'. It's used for energising the water for the bidynamic preperations used on the vineyards. Controversy! a machine!

Pewsey Vale in the Eden Valley. Shiraz.

Very shallow soils with a granite substrate. These vineyards are nearly ready for DEMETA accreditation.

A wonderful contouring vineyard of chardonnay at the 'Trial Hill' estate.

The Monkey Nut tree on the highest point of the highest hill in Eden. Chardonnay in the foreground.

Old Vine Riesling. An extraordinary taste contrast to younger vines. Younger vines are more sour and one dimensional, whilst the old vine fruit is muscat-y sweet with softer, talc tannins and less savage acidity.

Contouring riesling vineyard at 'Trial Hill'

The Barossa Flat in the background.

Chris explains the approach to winemaking. I think 'minimal-intervention' and 'elegant' would be fair calls.

Crispian has a secret. It requires fierce concentration.

Thank you 'Maverick' and Decant Fine Wines! Some of the most memorable vineyards I've seen. This is truly great 'terroir' and has changed how I look at Eden. Can't wait to get back up there.

Vino d'Auge Veraison

I spent a Sunday with Anton Van Klopper looking at the Dean's sangiovese and the Dal Cin's prosecco. After seeing devastated vineyards in other regions, it was a relief to see such healthy looking vines with excellent fruit set. There is another week or so to go for the prosecco and probably around 3 weeks to go for the sangiovese.

This photo establishes the 'opening shot' for the Dean's sangiovese vineyard - underneath Mt Lofty House and on an easterly aspect protected from the harsh afternoon sun.

Sangiovese with quite some ripening to go

Spider webs keeping the grape-loving birds off the sangiovese

This is Anton using his 'taste-spectrometer 2000' apparatus to measure for ripeness

I'll ask Judy and Duncan next time I see them...

oii!

Lucy Van Klopper - Artist in residence and zucchini farmer

Dry grown pinot noir from the 'Lucy-Margaux' vineyard at Anton's farm.
Read what Max Allen has to say about Anton's 'natural wines'.

The natural energies of Lucy-Margaux pinot crystallised.
The Van Klopper's use this natural image for their Pinot Noir labels.

Nigel's 'Little Creek' vineyard that forms the Domaine Lucci 'Little Creek' Pinot Noir.
Such a beautiful setting amongst the eucalypts at Norton Summit.

Ever seen prosecco before? This essentially organic vineyard in Norton Summit has the oldest prosecco in Australia and is owned and cared-for by the charming Dal Cin family of Basket Range.

I'm really looking forward to hauling in some grapes over the next month and getting stuck into some quasi-experimental winemaking.