As well as boasting some of Australia's best restaurants Canberra also sits on the edge of the Murrembatenman wine region, where they claim to grow cool climate wines (I say "claim" because it was about 35 degrees when we turned up) with a lot of the local vineyards having a "cellar door" which means you can go, do a tasting and buy a few cases of wine. This often gives you a chance to talk to the producer and find out a bit about the wines.
There are around 20 wineries in the region although most are not open for the whole week, usually only on Fridays and at weekends (and sometimes during the harvests, not at all). We arrived on a Friday a few days before Christmas and found quite a few we're closed.
We started with Clonakilla which is quite a prestigious vineyard having won several awards for their 2008 and 2009 Shiraz Viognier, they also have a selection of Reisling, Viognier and Semillion .
However like many in the region they have struggled with the weather in the last few years and their more recent reds are a long way from the thick, rich jammy Shiraz which the region is famed for. Having sampled the pretty watery, almost pinot noir like 2011 and 2010 Shiraz (strange that they were the ones available for tasting as these were not really ready to drink) we decided to exit without making a purchase, there is always a bit of pressure to buy at these things but if they are charging 85 AUD (around 60 quid) for a bottle that I can't imagine winning any awards anytime soon then I think a quick exit is always a good plan.
The second vineyard, Helm, was a lot better, down a gravel road about 5km from the main town in a quaint old school house from 1888. They had a much better selection of reds available from 2008 and 2009 as well as some of the more recent whites. Talking to the owner (who drove to meet us when she saw our arrival) we found that during the wet years in 2011 and 2010 they hadn't been able to make a red. The red we eventually purchased was a 25 AUD 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon, which (at the risk of sounding like a wine blogger) was smooth, full bodied with hints of cherries and was an excellent wine to accompany steak or cheese.
After a hard morning drinking we headed to Shaw vineyard estate for some food in their "Flint in the Vines" cafe where they serve a selection of food and wine.
We had 2 really nice pizza's (although we avoided the adventurous sounding blue cheese and pear topping) while sampling the 2010 premium reisling, which was a dry floral, crisp wine with a touch of green apple. After a very satisfying lunch (note: that one pizza per couple would have been plenty of food) we tasted some of the other wines they had to offer and found ourselves leaving with a few bottles of a very easy drinking sparkling white wine made from semillion called "Cielo", ideal for hot afternoons it had a light citrus taste and was available for 20AUD a bottle.
Sadly that bought an end to the tasting but I am keen to return on a weekend when more of the vineyards are open (although I have a feeling it will have a serious effect on my bank balance so I will probably need a job first). Next stop will be the Riverena region (which makes 65%
of New South Wales wines, including the yellow tail Chardonnay) followed by the Hunter valley.
No comments:
Post a Comment