Mini facts to get you going on Shiraz Viognier

It’s a rainy, fall day here in Vancouver and thoughts of big red sippers are blotting out cravings for summer rosés on the patio.

This afternoon I’m heading to a tasting hosted by Yalumba’s Jane Ferrari, which got me thinking about shiraz viognier wines. I first tried this style of wine at the Yalumba’s tasting room. One of the staff encouraged me to try shiraz viognier along side a straight shiraz. The difference in flavour was quite apparent and I was hooked on the winery’s Hand Picked Shiraz Viognier offering.

What makes shiraz viognier special:

• shiraz grapes are co-fermented (not blended) with about 5% of the white winegrape called viognier
• the viognier brings a highly aromatic nose to the wine; eg. sniff your wine and you’ll smell a lot of interesting smells
• the viognier can also gives the wine a softer texture in the mouth
• it’s European origins rest in the French Cote Rotie region, where syrah grapes are often co-fermented with viognier

Give one a try (why not – it’s wine). Here are a few suggestions from producers that make great stuff:

Yalumba – Y Series or Hand Picked Series
d’Arenberg – Laughing Magpie
Black Chook Shiraz Viognier
Gemtree – Bloodstone
Tatachilla – Keystone
Henschke – Henry’s Seven

Biodynamics at Gemtree Vineyards, McLaren Vale

On a cool Vancouver evening a month so ago, I was sipping on a rich glass of shiraz viognier from Gemtree Vineyards. I’d finished up a day of working in a vineyard outside the city, and was really really enjoying the fruits of someone else’s labour. Reclining in my Ikea Poang, I was watching the street from my third floor apartment. In between rounds of interesting, attractive and bizarre passersby, I poured another glass of wine and read over the back of the bottle.

The bottle write-up notes that winery family member Melissa Brown is Gemtree’s viticulturist. Having just started work in the same vocation, I had to send a note out to Melissa to hear her views on the vines at Gemtree. Come to find out, Gemtree has begun to practice a method of vineyard agriculture called biodynamics. I heard of this concept prior, and (sort of) knew that biodynamics involved moon cycles and perhaps some alternative ground fertilization methods.

I’ll let you do the extra research into the myths and truths about biodynamics, and will let Melissa explain biodynamics at Gemtree Wines: 

Me:  What does biodynamic mean to you? 

Melissa:  To me, biodynamic means farming our land in a more sustainable way that is having minimal negative impact on the environment.  Biodynamic is a means of organic farming that requires added input of biodynamic operations and timing certain activities with the lunar cycle. Biodynamics is about improving soil health and fertility which translates to healthier vines and better quality fruit.

What were the factors at play when Gemtree decided to begin biodynamic practices? Who ‘brought it up’ first?

Mike [Gemtree's winemaker and Melissa's husband] attended a seminar on Shiraz in the Barossa Valley a few years ago and one of the workshops he attended was on biodynamic wines.  We had already started to convert the vineyard to organic practices at this time.  Mike came back from that seminar singing the praises of biodynamic wines and convinced me that this was the path we should take. It wasn’t hard to convince me as I had already heard about it but thought the rest of the family would think I was crazy if I tried to implement it!  I consider myself to be a bit of an environmentalist.  I choose to eat organic foods over conventional produce and I also grow my own veggies organically at home.  If you had the option to eat an organically grown tomato over a hydroponically grown chemically treated one which would you choose?  It didn’t make sense that I was living my life by this philosophy and then nuking our vineyards!

What’s involved in becoming biodynanmic certified in South Australia? 

Biodynamic certification comes under the banner of organic certification and there are national bodies that govern this.  We are in the process of registering to become certified.  It will take 1 year before we are considered to be in conversion and then a further 2 years to be fully certified.  We will be going with ACO (Australian Certified
Organic).

Do you find that many other South Australian / McLaren Vale vineyards are going biodynamic?

There are quite a few vignerons in McLaren Vale going down the organic and biodynamic path now.  Paxton Vineyards have been biodynamic for some time now and Battle of Bosworth Wines are certified organic. The more publicity and success that biodynamic businesses have I think the more that people will be prepared to give it a go.  There is a real fear of the unknown with biodynamics but its actually really easy, particularly in a region like McLaren Vale that has such a good climate for growing grapes.  Having said that, it is a big learning curve though, and a new challenge that we are really enjoying.

There is a trial underway at Gemtree by an Adelaide Uni pHd student. The trial is the 1st of its kind in Australia and is comparing biodynamic, organic, low input conventional and high input conventional viticulture on a patch of our Cabernet Sauvignon.  The trial is being run over 3 years with a focus on soil health, yield, wine quality and comparison of costs.  Many people will be very interested in the results of this trial.

What sort of training did you go through to become a viticulturist?

I started working on my dad’s vineyard as a vineyard labourer - training vines, installing irrigation, etc.  While working I undertook part-time studies in a Bachelor of Science (Viticulture) at Charles Sturt University via distance education which took me 7 years to complete!  It was a great way to learn though as I could immediately apply my knowledge.

Have you encountered many other female viticulturists in the  industry?

There are probably more female winemakers than female viticulturists but we are gradually increasing in numbers! Rachel Steer from Chapel Hill Winery in McLaren Vale is someone I hold in high regard as well as Prue Henschke from Henschke in the Barossa.  The partnership that Mike and I share as winemaker and viticulturist is fairly rare and unique I think.

Cultural Revamp Needed for Wine Reviews in China

There been tons of news lately on the expansion of wine markets into China. Analysts see huge potential for wine sales in this well populated country. With the economy down (I know you wanted to hear that again), so are sales to the world’s largest traditional wine markets like Britain and America. To help tap the market, Wine Australia recently put on the 2009 Australian Wine Showcase in southern China. This July there’s even an industry expo aimed at helping businesses understand Chinese liquor import intricacies. 

All set! Maybe not.

Yesterday, Decanter magazine released an article noting that some Asian wine drinkers have difficulty relating to Western descriptions of wine. Wine with so-called aromas of bacon fat and Twizzlers might just not cut it for the average Chinese wine drinker. There a huge wine writing niche out there if you speak Mandarin or Cantonese and understand Chinese culture.

Imagine a world before Robert Parker, Jancis Robinson or the multitude of other influential wine writers and reviewers. These are people made famous by other people wanting to know how a wine tastes. Think about the wine score and accompanying review on display at your local liquor store. A high score and a couple of yummy adjectives has likely caused you to choose wine over another. Maybe that wine was great, but maybe it didn’t suit your particular palate. Famed wine critic Robert Parker is known to like bold, fruit driven wine. His wine reviews are so influential, that legend has it some wineries tweek a wine’s flavour profile to suit Parker’s tastes and ensure a great score.  

If you could sci-fi it up and erase this system from our collective consciousness, what would you invent in its place? 

 The following are some badly thought through considerations that I’m making up now over coffee and an empty stomach. I’m sure someone(s) in China can rock it way better and “give the people want they want”.

• would you invent a whole new lexicon for wine reviewers to pick and choose from? 
• how would you make a Chinese-friendly wine glossary famous enough for everyone to want to use?
• would you want to have a pinnacle figure like Parker to distribute wine information to the masses?
• would you prefer to create a social network style wine website (like Booze Monkey) where Chinese people can rate and review wines? would wine drinkers in Chinese even use the internet for social networking?
• would a grassroots wine vocab develop out of this sort of website (akin to the way hash tags are created and followed in sites like Twitter)
• start a consulting business working directly with wineries; write culturally interesting wine descriptions for each label on the Chinese market

Whistler Wines

Toss around the word “Whistler”, and many people think of boarding and skiing down the snowy mountains of British Columbia’s Whistler Mountain (followed by some cold Kokanee beer). Whistler makes me think of the upcoming Vancouver 2010 Olympics, and whether or not I should rent my apartment and skip town, or enjoy the throngs of sport revellers.

In the wine world, Whistler Wines (whoa, that’s allotta W’s) is a family owned winery in South Australia’s Barossa Valley. Whistler Wines planted their first estate shiraz vines in 1994, followed by a range other varietals like delicious grenache and semillon. If you give the winery website a quick read, it’s evident that the whole family is into wine on some shape or form. Not sure about you, but that kinda makes me want to buy this wine over a corporate-y brand any day. 

In fact, one of the ‘fam’ let me know that a couple of the cousins teamed up this year to make an amarone style wine. If you’ve had this Italian originated wine before, you’ll know it’s a big, rich flavourful wine that goes great with food. Amarone is actually made quite a bit differently than other wines styles – the grapes are set out to partially dry on racks before pressing the juice. Lots of work!  

For now, I’ll have to stick to what’s available at stores in Vancouver. At the moment, BC-ers can pick up a bottle of lusciously blended grenache, shiraz and mourvedre called The Black Piper ($24.99). Look for ripe raspberry, plum, pepper, spice and leather from this wine. A decant or short breather in the glass always does great things for full-bodied red wines like this one. 

If you’re planning to be in the Barossa, Whistler Wines has a new project on the go. The winery will soon be home to eight rescued kangaroos in it’s new wildlife enclosure. NEAT.