One of life’s most memorable experiences

During my recent trip to SA I was lucky enough to spend a few hours at Veritas with the winemaker, Rolf Binder.  Rolf one of the Barossa’s real characters (and all round good bloke) as well as being a highly respected winemaker, both here and overseas. His wines sell out extremely quickly and his 98 Hanish Shiraz just scored a whopping 98 points from Robert Parker.

The story this week won’t make Winestar any money as Bert can’t get any Veritas wine to sell, and chances are you will find it difficult to obtain too, but that not important, because I am writing this to share a fantastic vinous experience with you.

The winery is very new, the last time I was there 18 months ago it was sparse, about 20% barrels and the rest open space. Rolf has been busy, this time floor to ceiling barrels crammed everywhere. What a great site! Then onto the barrel tastings. Out comes a plastic tube to siphon the wine out the barrels and the ISO glasses. First the 2001 vintage wines, many were still undergoing malolactic fermentation. These wines leave a spritzig feel in the mouth. The wines that have finished fermentation are dark purple, some almost black and all have a dark hue. They are richly textured and full the mouth with a sweet array of diverse fruit flavours, the oak has not had time to have a big influence yet. You are tasting gloriously pure fermented grape juice in it purest sublime baby form. The quality, intensity and purity of this fruit leaves one in no doubt that 2001 will produce some pretty special wines.

The 2000 vintage wines are still in the barrel and sample many of those wines too. The 2000 barrels are now showing more complexity as the influence of the oak takes hold and the wine starts to mature.

It’s absolutely fantastic to have the opportunity to taste all the different barrels of wine and find that each is different. Each has its own personality and characteristics which are influenced by the vine age, the type of soil, the way the vines were cropped, the amount of water they received, their location in the vineyard etc. They are as different as two people who are born in the same hospital in the same town. No two exactly the same.

What’s even more incredible is to realise that even at this early stage, Rolf has a fair idea what will be blended with what to make each wine. He already knows that a particular Cabernet Sauvignon barrel with the dominant minty characteristic will be best blended with the Merlot barrel that is showing perfumed violets and that a particular barrel of young vine Mourvedre will be blended with that particular barrel of Grenache and two barrels of Shiraz from a particular vineyard. Multiply those blending options by the thousands of possible combinations and you start to see the magnitude of the operation and how much skill it requires to be a top winemaker. Even when you have the best grapes available and top quality oak, there is a huge amount of skill, knowledge and experience required to make the wine and ensure you get the most out of the raw ingredients.

It was a wonderful privilege and a great learning experience to have Rolf patiently take me round the winery, taste from the different barrels and have the fine nuisances and subtleties explained to me by a craftsman winemaker.

From there to the tasting room. The winery is not completely finished and floor in the tasting room and office is still bear concrete, but who cares, we are here to sample some very special wines. Rolf has a special treat in store for me, a line up of six of his yet to be released wines, but the tasting notes on those wines are another story.

Cheers

Ric