The May 2005 South Australian Tour Diaries

Click here for Chapter Five Part One

Chapter Five continued Part Two

God, life can be depressing; breakfast was a write-off, the visit Peter Lehmann was disappointing; my throat is getting worse and I'm starting to feel like crap: and because breakfast was so bad the Pie King and his Apprentice have decided to shanghai me and go to the Tanunda Bakery for lunch. This place doesn't even make sandwiches! The day has just gone from bad to worse. The last time John dragged me to this joint, I had one of their mini pizzarettes, it was so greasy most of it wound up in the bin, so this time, I was reluctantly forced to relent and have a meat pie.

Needless to say, his Pieship and his overpaid understudy tucked into the local wares with great gusto. John, with his head down in rapt concentration, muttered something about his chicken pie being lovely and Brian said his chunky steak pie was not quite up to standard, but his sausage roll had some quite nice spices in it. The commentary did not end there because Brian, who is normally a gourmet of the highest order, complained that the sausage rolls consistency was too soft. Brian is really starting to be a concern. I have finally found something worse than having to put up with a Pie King’s antics. It is listening to a PiWanker (and they are worse than Wine Wan*ers) banging on about the subtle nuances of a sausage roll’s consistency like they were talking about the structure of a fine, furkin expensive, Frog claret. When John tactfully asked a Brian what he expected Brian replied "like what my mother used to make; solid, firm meat and spices…..” And he rabbited on for another few minutes about the intricacies of a "fine sausage roll." Holy cow; Brian has delusions if he thinks he's going to find anything more than adequacy in this mass-produced fodder that is turned out like sausages; bad pun absolutely intended. (Ed: Interestingly, the Cafeteria at Department of Defence at Campbell Park in Canberra, now run by a local restaurateur, has decent sausage rolls with real meat and good spices @ $2 ea., the best I've seen in Canberra)

My potato pie was edible, but only just, however the Poppy Seed Streusel was so good I seriously contemplated getting one to take away for afternoon tea. This was the best thing and I had had to eat all day, but let's face it, that would be about as difficult as getting a dose of the clap whilst engaging in unprotected sex in a brothel.

As we had some spare time, we decided to head back to The Willows Vineyard. They have some excellent priced, quality wine and Mrs Scholz has such a wonderful, dry sense of humour, it would be worth visiting this place even if they didn't have such good wine. Last year, I did a full story on this winery and it can be found here. When we walked in, Mrs Scholz had a big, welcoming smile on her face until she recognised John and me. You could just see the cogs ticking over while she thought “what have I done to deserve this; here we go again with these two haemorrhoids” but as expected, she was very gracious with her welcome and without missing a beat, she started opening fresh bottles.

The Willows 2002 Shiraz sells for $23 at cellar door. A very attractive, youthful, fruit driven bouquet showing plum and a black fruit aromas. The silky tannins and pure fruit, seat the wine well in the mouth and the plum, spice, blackberry and pepper linger beautifully. Ample-weight this solid, harmonious wine with a well-developed complexity is good for the price and whilst it's drinking well now, it will improve. Rated as Highly Recommended with **** for value.

The Willows 2002 The Bonesetter Shiraz sells for $45 at cellar door. A brooding, black bouquet with a touch of white pepper and ripe fruit; it smells seductive and the quality is blindingly evident. A classical balance between silky, drying tannins and deeply-seated fruit which delivers lip burning pepper and blackcurrant; its savoury through and through; it finishes with excellent persist. Muscular-weight the structure is solid, tight and shows some elegance whilst the complexity is harmonious. Rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value, the ratings should improve as the wine matures.

The Willows 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon sells for $23 at cellar door. A well-crafted wine solidly seated on a bed of silky tannins that is perfectly balanced to deeply-seated, ripe fruit; it sits well in the mouth. A very interesting and unusual flavour profile for a Cabernet, blackcurrant, pepper, dark chocolate, and mint; it finishes clean, with excellent length, and lingers well. Muscular-weight, the consistency is supple and the complexity diverse; whilst it is drinking well now, it will improve in the mid-term. Rated as Recommended with *** for value.

Whilst we tasted the wines, we wandered around the quaint cellar door and inspected the home-made produce. My good friend Lynne, who looks after my children (the three dogs) whilst I am away, as well as keeping my business ticking over, is a complete and utter pain to buy to buy presents for: she is celiac as well as a vegetarian, and to make matters worse eats like a sparrow. Whenever I see any interesting home-made produce in cellar doors, like muscat butter for example, I normally buy them for her. Mrs Scholz’s home-made Shiraz Sauce looked like a perfect candidate as a gift for Lynn. Whilst it looked the perfect colour, the label indicated that it was based on vegetables and contained some solid Shiraz bits. So I bought a bottle for her, and the other two reprobates, also bought gifts for their partners.

Whilst this was going on, Archie arrived to check us out and we must have passed muster, as we remained in one piece. He is a fine looking boxer, and further adds credence to the fact that owners are like their dogs; it's very pleasant “sparring a couple of rounds” with Mrs Scholz.

About a week after I had given Lynne the sauce, she very gently, verbally beat me up and asked me if I had taken leave of my senses buying her a sauce that contained flour. Oops, I read the list of ingredients, but obviously not all of them! It's an ill wind that blows no good! What the hell, I'm now enjoying the Shiraz sauce on grilled chicken. My local fruit shop sells scrumptious chocolate coated apricots, which are made in Mount Barker; as they qualify as a gift from South Australia, I gave Lynne a box of those instead. I have now extracted myself from the hot excrement; well almost. In a previous chapter, I made mention of the fact that I bought her a slab of dark chocolate from Meadows. A couple of days ago, Lynne read that chapter and very pointedly asked me what happened to the chocolate. I. refused to divulge my answer publicly, as it could wind me up in even more hot excrement if my alibi decides to do the dirty on me.

For some time, I have wanted to try Viking Wines but for whatever reason have never been there. The winery is set high on the hill, located just up the road from the church in Marananga; it is owned by Thord Söderström and his charming wife Charmaine. With a name like “Söderström” it's easy to see the derivation of the Viking brand name. It's just as well he is not Irish, somehow the name “Paddy's Plonk” doesn't seem to have as much class. Although the winery was only established in 1993, some of eighteen acre of vines on the eighty acre property dates back over fifty years and are dry-grown. Like many growers, these old-vine grapes were contacted to Penfolds, but as the contracts expired, they decided to keep the grapes for themselves and asked some guy by the name of Rolf Binder, that no one had ever heard of , to make the wines for them.

We drove up the steep driveway, and if we had eyes in the back of our head, would have seen what a glorious vista lay below us. When they first bought the property, they lived in the shed whilst waiting for their home to be built. That shed is now their cellar door. When we arrived, we received a very affectionate greeting from Tara, and as we were later to find out for ourselves, that dog turned out to be a real character. We were invited to bypass the cellar door counter and to do the tasting around an old Formica kitchen table, which was a much more pleasant and relaxing way of doing it.

Thord and Charmaine were most hospitable, if anything a little too hospitable. Prior to even tasting the wine, whilst I was sitting there getting ready, with my head down and writing, Thord offered us 50% off any wine that we purchased today. As I had my two sidekicks with me and my head was down and I was writing, I pretended I had not heard that comment. If I had been on my own, at that point I would have got up and walked out. I am not sure if the comment was made out of naiveté, or generosity but whichever was the case, it is certainly not a smart thing to say to anyone with any credibility, who is seriously reviewing wine.

Viking 2003 Grand Shiraz Cabernet sells for $40 at cellar door and this vintage is just about sold out. The first vintage of this blend was made in 2000. The bouquet was subdued but showed good complexity. With enough silky, dusty tannins to hold the wine together, it shows good balance and it sits attractively in the mouth too. With the Shiraz component being dominant, ultra-ripe blackberry, prune and chocolate flavours finish with reasonable persistence but it finishes short on the palate and doesn't go all the way back. Muscular-weight, it is supple and harmonious so there is no surprise that it is approachable now. From my perspective, I think it should be best consumed young as it is likely to go hard and leathery in the future. Rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value.

Viking 2004 Grand Shiraz Cabernet is available at cellar door for $40. When John sniffed this, he said, "This certainly brings you back to life." The ripe, brambly fruits are certainly attractive. On the palate, the wine is off-sweet showing chocolate, blackberry, and some brambly fruit characters that finish with pepper; there is also some alcohol sweetness below (no heat.) Muscular-weight, with a supple consistency, the harmonious complexity should improve with age; a better wine than the previous vintage it should sell well. Rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value, it should peak between 2008 and 2010.

Thord, Charmaine and Brian – John is hiding, as is Tara

Viking 2004 Grand Shiraz will sell for $50 at cellar door what it is released towards the end of the year. A seductive bouquet, showing fresh brambly fruit with a menthol lift. This is a bloody serious, chewy wine that begs another sip. Big, very-fine, dusty tannins need time to integrate but the deep, pure, fruit has enough power to kick through. Liquorice, chocolate and black plum flavours finish with terrific length and persistence. A muscular-weight wine its tight and demands time. Rated as Excellent with *** for value, it'll be best approached after 2010.

All these wines come from their own estate grown fruit and are very credible. They are also tied up in another label called Odin’s Honour. The fruit of this label comes from neighbouring properties and the wines are made by Steven Black. Although I have not heard of Steven Black before, according to Thord, he makes wine for a lot of other people.

Odin’s Honour 2003 Reserve Shiraz sells for $40 at cellar door. Frankly, I had trouble getting my head around this wine. Medium-toast American oak, and cedary, coffee oak characters overshadowed the fruit on the bouquet. Silky, powdery tannins provide a supple consistency but the crisp acid sticks out slightly. Savoury on the uptake, with spice, it’s zingy on the mid-palate and finishes to blackberry, aniseed and chocolate. This wine is a complete dichotomy; the structure seems harmonious despite the crisp acid, but the flavour profile with lots of oak, which needs time to integrate and soften, gives a disjointed impression. Rated as Recommended with ** for value, it's possible the rating may improve with time (although based on this tasting I doubt it will.)

As we were leaving the cellar door, and prior to going to have a look at the winery, Thord repeated his offer of 50% off. As he was looking right at me at the time, I could not ignore this one. I turned to John and Brian and forcefully said "I obviously can't have anything to do with this offer, but if you guys want to buy wine, it's got nothing to do with me. It's your decision what you want to do, I won't take any.”

Tasting some of the wines at this winery was a real pleasure, but that pleasure was almost overshadowed by what came next. We went across to the winery which was in full swing. Talk about hands-on; places like Rockford would seem to be highly mechanised and modern in comparison to this place. We parked the car next to a tractor that was a modern implement around the time Moses played front row forward for Cairo.

Outside the open door to the winery, a rather fit looking bloke in Wellington boots was slogging away at the long ratcheting arm of a basket press, as the last of the precious juice flowed out into a bucket. For those of you that think that the greatest advantages of a basket press, is its ability to gently press the juice out, without undue pressure on the tannins (skin) as the picture shows, a basket press does have the ability to get every last drop of liquid out, leaving a rock-hard must cake.

The winery was being used by their next door neighbours, Gnadenfrei Estate which is owned by Malcolm Seppelt, a name which is well known to wine lovers for two reasons. The surname is obvious but to those in the know, the name “Malcolm” is also synonymous with the owner of the vineyard that used to supply the grapes for “Magpie Estate The Malcolm Shiraz.” When we got to the winery, Malcolm and a helper were the "labourers" who were making the Gnadenfrei wine, and it looked like bloody hard work.

Tara’s Wine Fetish Starts with the Grapes! ..

By chance, Brian had picked up some Gnadenfrei Estate 2002 St Michaels Shiraz at auction for some ridiculously low price and gave me a bottle so try which had been sitting on shelf for a few weeks. At the time I got to this point in the Tour Diary and the bottle of Henschke 1999 Keyneton I had opened was laced with enough Brett to make it undrinkable, I decided to open this wine. Loaded with youthful, spicy aromas the bouquet certainly let me know there was a mass of good fruit backing it. A solid, full-bodied wine, with sufficient fine, drying tannins to handle the massive quantity of deeply-seated pure fruit, the finish is long and persistent. It is still tight and will benefit from four more years in the bottle. Choco-o-block full of dark fruit flavours, there is nothing over-ripe about this black wine. It goes close to pushing the envelope in every respect, but it stays on the right side of the border. Rated as Highly Recommended (I have no idea of the retail price,) I have to find out more about this producer, this wine even in this youthful state is bloody enjoyable. (I am going to forget this chapter for now, time to cook dinner and enjoy a real bottle of wine.) After a couple of hours of airtime, my thoughts on this wine changed. Whilst I was initially very impressed with the amount of fruit they had packed into the wine, as the wine gained air and metamorphosised, the tannins became very hard, leading me to believe that the wine had been too heavily extracted. The rating after a few hours would have been dropped to Recommended. It would be interesting to see this wine in four years, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was hard.

I emailed the winery to find out the price; the 2002 is long gone and the 2003 is almost sold out and the 2004 will be released as soon as the 2003 is all gone. Oh, the price? $40 which makes it marginal value in my book.

The visit to Viking Wines was an enjoyable experience for a number of reasons. A couple of the wines were very sharp products and observing “the couple” was just as fascinating. They are a very unusual blend of two cultures and both are delightful people. Thord originally worked for a submarine corporation in Sweden and then came out to Australia to work for the (Collins Class) Australian Submarine Corporation here. He married Charmaine and now calls Australian home.

Our last appointment for the day was at one of the Barossa's most notable wineries, Veritas which is also going through a name change and becoming known as Rolf Binder Wines. Every year in May, normally just after I have been to the winery, Rolf goes on a trip to the US and the UK. As mentioned in a previous chapter, when I told Rolf when I was coming, he decided that it was necessary for him to leave a week earlier then normal; I can understand wineries that get negative reviews trying to avoid me, but now even the ones that normally are reviewed positively are avoiding me, maybe I need fresh breath mints, or is it something else?

Over the last five years or so, this winery has undergone exponential growth. Every time I visit, there are new labels to taste. As I was writing this section, I wanted to check something on their web site, only to find that it had received a complete makeover; and as much as I liked the red colour on the old site, the new web site layout and content is vastly superior. It has Rolf’s inimitable style stamped all over it, so that must be taking up some of his valuable time too. I wonder when the guy sleeps?

Whilst Rolf was obviously not available as he had fled the country, his able and incredibly helpful cellar door manager, Jonathan Milne had been given the onerous task of looking after us. Having tasted my way through line-ups of Rolf's wines on a number of previous occasions, I do know that they unquestionably show better with a little bit of aeration, so I had asked Jonathan if he would be kind enough to open the bottles and pour the wine a couple of hours before we got there. Jonno, being the sort of person who finds nothing too much trouble, and always has a smile on his face, was happy to oblige. When we arrived at the winery, we not only received a warm welcome from Jonno, the glasses were laid out, the wine had been poured and then disaster struck.

Dave Brooks – looks like he’s had an accident!

Or is he an accident waiting to happen? ….

In walked an apparition that looked familiar. The smiling face (it must be contagious in this place) looked decidedly familiar; in fact the last time I saw him was at a dinner with the Mad Hungarian (aka Attila) in January; Dave Brooks (aka Matau) was working vintage at the winery. It was with great glee, that he told us that tonight was his last night in town and that tomorrow he was out of there; another person I have scared off; and he doesn't even normally work in a winery!

For those that don't know, Magpie Estate is a partnership between the Rolf Binder and Noel Young, who lives in the UK. Some of the Magpie Estate labels are sold in Australia, but some are exclusively exported. Some of the names of the Magpie wines are shall we say “inventive.” They could have only been thought up by dedicated members of "a red wine think tank" who had either been “tanking” for days and were under the affluence of incohol; or someone who had been smoking funny unfiltered, roll your own, green cigarettes: talking about wacky ….

Magpie Estate 2003 Whick and Shanker is a Cabernet Sauvignon and retails for about $25. A fruit driven nose with a touch of spicy pepper, the palate also shows chocolate and plum. A "nice dry red” rather than a varietal Cabernet, the persistence is reasonable but the length is clipped. Ample-weight with a soft consistency, it's an easy-drinking, fruit-driven wine that is ready to be consumed now. Rated as Agreeable with ** for value.

Magpie Estate 2003 The Fakir sells for $20 at cellar door. There was no Gomersol Grenache produced in this vintage and it looks like this wine has been the beneficiary of that top fruit. The bouquet is unusual showing ripe Kirsh and mushroom. A solid, ample-weight wine with an agreeable complexity; the flavour profile is savoury, with cherry, chocolate, black fruits and a brambly finish. In its favour there is a lot of the fruit punch for the dollar, and this easy-drinking wine will be perfect with spicy food but everything is happening at the front of the palate. Rated as Recommended with *** for value.

Magpie Estate 2003 Call Bag sells for $20-$22 on the street. As this wine was unlabelled, I am not sure what it contained, but appeared to be a Grenache blend. The bouquet showed raspberries, milk chocolate, spice, and dark notes on the tail with a slight touch of Band-Aid like character. Unobtrusive tannins, a supple consistency, and a harmonious complexity makes this an easy-drinking, fruit-driven wine would be perfect in a bistro situation. It's ripe, with savoury layers of flavour including dark cherry fruit, milk chocolate and the Band-Aid adds to the complexity and is not at all objectionable. Rated as Recommended with *** for value.

Magpie Estate 2003 Black Sock sells for $28-$30 on the street. This Mourvedre will polarise people, but I loved it; very solid and nicely structured, the tannins build slowly and keep building, finishing with fantastic length, that lingers for yonks. It’s off-sweet with meaty characters, blackcurrant and chocolate. Muscular-weight, it’s tight, solid and sophisticated, much it will need time for the complexity to develop. Rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value, it should peak around 2009 and beyond.

Magpie Estate 2003 The Sack sells for $22-$24 on the street. I tasted this wine last year and it is still “a party in a bottle” but the bouquet shows plum, loads of dark chocolate and liquorice; with a similarly endowed palate. A greatly enjoyable fruit driven wine, it’s rich and ripe and rated as Recommended with **** for value.

…..The new, stylish Rolf Binder Wine label

Rolf Binder 2004 Heinrich is an SGM blend that sells for $25 at cellar door. With a sweet and ripe fruit driven nose and a touch of menthol lift, the palate is more attractive than the nose suggests; whilst there is a good hit of ripe fruit, the sweet and savoury contrasting flavours are interesting. There are enough smooth, dusty tannins to hold the wine together and whilst the mouth-feel is good and the flavours linger, it's a bit short on the palate. An easy-drinking bistro wine with an intense fruit punch, there is nothing serious about it; when you want a glass of red to enjoy without being analytical about it, this will do the trick. Rated as Recommended with *** for value.

Rolf Binder 2004 Crista Rolf is a Shiraz Grenache blend which retails for about $20-$22. The sweet, raspberry nose with earthy undertones progresses through to the palate as chocolate, spice, coffee, raspberry and blackcurrant; the tannins build slowly, provide good length and reasonable persistence ensuring there is enough structure to hold the wine together for a few years. Ample-weight, this is a good, solid wine with an agreeable complexity and rated as Recommended with *** for value.

Veritas 2003 Binders Bulls Blood sells for $35 at cellar door and is a Shiraz and Mourvedre pressing blend. Since I first tasted this wine, it is consistently one of my favourites made by Rolf. It is certainly a step up in class from the previous wines tasted and the bouquet is both ripe and brooding. A full-bodied, old fashion wine that is well backed by abundant, chewy tannins; it's very savoury showing intense plum, black chocolate, black olive and black pepper flavours that finish with admirable length. It is very firm, solid and frankly tough drinking now, but it should be enjoyable in five years. Rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value. Brian said "They should throw in a free set of steak knives with every dozen purchased; not to cut steak - for the wine.”

Rolf Blinder 2003 Heysen Shiraz will not be sold in Australia but will retail for about ₤15-₤18 in the UK. The first bottle was corked and had to be replaced, so this freshly opened bottle had not had the benefit of air time but the bouquet showed chary oak over ripe fruit. Deep, strong, very-ripe fruit delivers blackberry, prune and black chocolate flavours that are well backed by abundant, fine-grained puckering tannins that finish with persistence. A full-bodied wine with very-firm consistency and a tight structure; it has a well developed complexity but it needs about four years to soften and integrate; rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value. Like the Hanisch, this wine is extremely hard to evaluate when it has just been opened, and due to its structure, I am not sure if it will go hard and leathery in time or not.

Rolf Blinder 2003 Hanisch Shiraz will be released in September and sell for about $75. This wine has a cult following and always sells out extremely quickly. As expected, it had the best bouquet in the line-up and although it was brooding, it was classy and showed quality coffee oak. A well-balanced wine that sits beautifully in the mouth, the very fine drying tannins ably support the pure fruit that delivers blackberry, black plum, prune, black olive, and dark chocolate. A more refined wine than the Heysen, it finishes with long tannins and is full-bodied, tight and has a well developed complexity but ideally needs another five years to settle down. Rated as Highly Recommended with ** for value, the rating may go up as the wine matures. Some people may find it a bit porty but it is a good result for the vintage.

There certainly was a diverse range of wines to taste through; from “a party in a bottle” through to “a cult wine” with some interesting, obscure varietals thrown in for good measure. Overall, the line-up of wines was probably not quite as good as last year's tasting and that was probably because so many of the wines tasted on this occasion were from the difficult 2003 vintage. For differing reasons, by three favourite wines in the line-up were The Sack, The Black Sock, and the Bulls Blood. Rolf is certainly a talented winemaker and next year, given the improved vintage conditions, the wine should be even better.

By this state of the proceedings, after an intense week of wine tasting, as well starting to feel flu symptoms, I was feeling a knackered. A good dinner and a glass of wine was just what the doctor ordered. We headed back to the hotel and decided to crack a bottle of (Ashmead) Sparkling Shiraz before dinner. This time, we had managed to get into the 1918 Restaurant by ensuring that when John booked, he did not mention meat pies (under a threat of grievous damage to his pie munching equipment) and the use of an assumed name. Whilst we were in Brian's room, gently settling into this reviving medication, John made in the first of the night announcements. John said, “My primary objective with our house on Pie King Bridge Vineyard Estate is to raise the accommodation standard to one star so the Brian will stay with us again next year; because I think one star is probably enough!”

After two glasses of Sparkling Shiraz, the truth finally came out from John. He confessed, he actually doesn't like being called the Pie King, he is quite concerned about that label. He said, and I quote verbatim, "It doesn't sit well with me, I would prefer to be known as The Love God, or possibly even The Sex God and the man that any woman would want to munch on; for a snack, or a main meal.” As this is not an X-rated story, we won't go into what he said about “munching on the John Burger.” However, according to John’s wife's Sue, it is akin to Nouveau cuisine, a small serving, over-rated and finished quickly!

The 1918 Restaurant was reasonably busy when we arrived. As usual, the completely substandard glassware was on the table but a polite request quickly replaced them with much more appropriate glasses. The first wine opened was a Penfold 1991 St Henri Shiraz. Initially the wine opened with some bottles stink that was very similar in nature to the 91 Basket Press we had consumed recently. It opened up to reveal pristine fruit and this will be a very long-lived wine, it has a least another 10 years, if not more in it. The glorious fruit shows chocolate, coffee, mocha, dark fruit and leather. An excellent wine, bordering on outstanding it will just keep going and going.

For a starter, I had a Caesar Salad and whilst it had all the right ingredients, it was not a great Caesar Salad because the ingredients were not in the right proportions. It was dominated by way-too-much garlic infused croutons and whilst it was very tasty, it was a little disappointing. Brian had a Moroccan style beef strips married with oregano, cumin, coriander and all sorts of lovely stuff. According to Brian, "It was served with some “funny yoghurt mint-flavoured stuff and local pickles, with cauliflower, and some other things that were a bit ordinary, but the beef itself was lovely." John had pasta with leg ham and “an awesome tomato sauce;” the serving size was also huge. With the thick parmesan cheese on top, it reminded me of what he had for breakfast.

The service to this point was excellent but at this time, two unrelated events occurred which was to put a damper on the trip. The first was that I felt so sick, in middle and dinner, I had to excuse myself and go back to the hotel room; the second I will tell you about later.

I left the two reprobates with multiple bottles of open wine, went back to the hotel and crashed into bed. (End of Part Two.)

Story Continued here

Click here for Chapter Five Part One