The May 2005 South
Australian Tour Diaries
Chapter Five
continued Part
Three
Friday - The Last Day - Barossa continued
Whilst I woke up feeling a little
better than I did when I went to bed, I was hanging on by a thread and not in
great shape; however I was confident l would get through the day; in reality I
had no option because I wouldn't get home until about 9.30 that night.
This morning
promised not only to be one of the highlights of the trip, but one of those
incredibly special wine experiences one remembers for their entire life. I
didn’t feel great; my throat was giving me hell, my nose was clogging up, I had
developed a very nasty cough and I was coming down with something but the
thought of a tour through the famous Seppeltsfield facility made me feel better.
Naturally
enough, breakfast was the first order of the day and after checking out of our
motel, we picked up John at the pub. He looked a lot better than I did, which
was surprising, given that last evening was the last night of the trip and he's
been known to “have a bucket or two of cleansing ale” prior to going home and
having to behave, where he would be kept under control and under Sue’s iron
thumb.
We breakfasted
at our usual spot and whilst I should have felt like I had well and truly overdosed
on toasted bacon and egg sandwiches recently; after the previous day's
breakfast, or lack thereof, the revolting pie for lunch, and only a starter for
dinner, I was feeling hungry and scoffed down the cholesterol sandwich.
The cellar
door here, like many large winery facilities looks as much a wine gift shop as a
cellar door facility, but to their credit, they have done a good job with the
presentation. There are nice little touches, like the weather forecast that
forms part of the daily bulletin posted outside the door, so visitors know what
is going on. As we were pressed for time, we only tasted a very limited range
of wines. Interestingly enough, the facility must have plenty of US visitors as
they had some of the US range available for tasting that is normally not sold
in Oz.
Wolf Blass 2002 Presidents Selection Shiraz sells for $24 at cellar door. An
ultra-ripe fruit driven bouquet; on the palate it delivers an upfront hit of
ripe black fruit with a fair amount of sweetness and finishes with respectable
persistence. Ample-weight, the silky tannins give it a soft consistency and the
complexity is both harmonious and agreeable. An easy-drinking, simple red that
will have mass appeal and a would-be popular in the US market, it is rated as Recommended with *** for value.
Wolf Blass 2002 Presidents Selection Cabernet Sauvignon sells for $24 at cellar door. The
bouquet shows some varietal influence with sweet fruit and mushroom aromas.
Fine, smooth, chewy, noticeable tannins provide a solid structure and a supple
consistency for this ample-weight wine. The palate has a savoury nature and is
attractive showing blackberry/blackcurrant, tomato leaf, cigar box, aniseed and
chocolate. Needing a year or two to come together, the complexity is agreeable,
but the wine doesn't have a huge amount of character. Rated as Recommended with *** for value.
Wolf Blass 2001 Heritage Cabernet Sauvignon sells for $20 at cellar
door and is a one-off wine to commemorate Wolf Blass's 70th birthday. Now this
is better; it is a nice, easy-drinking wine with a bit of structure and holds
some interest; there is a modicum of elegance to the style. It's well-balanced
and sits well in the mouth; medium-weight with a supple consistency, its solid
and the complexity is harmonious. Chocolate, mocha, leafy notes; it’s also
minty and the blackcurrant finishes with reasonable persistence. Rated as Recommended with **** for value based on the
$18 street price.
Wolf Blass 2003 Gold Label Shiraz Viognier (5%) sells for $25 at
cellar door. The bouquet shows pepper and meaty notes; the perfumed fruit has a
Viognier lift which is not excessive. Whilst the tannins are powdery and
coarse, the consistency is still supple. Ample-weight with a solid structure,
the complexity is agreeable and diverse; it's a credible wine that’s better
than many blends at this price point; it’s certainly drinkable and not sickly
sweet. Very savoury on the uptake with loads of pepper; a slab of beef with
some apricots, and on top of that it’s layered with chocolate. Rated as Recommended with *** for value.
We arrived at Seppeltsfield and went
into the office; this place looks like something that is straight out of
Charles Dickens. Antique bankers’ lamps on top of clerks stand up writing
tables, old-fashioned overhead light fixtures; the only thing that was under
100 years old was the receptionist!
Seppeltsfield
is more than just a place that is steeped in over 150 years of Australian wine
history; this is a unique, living, breathing museum and probably the most
historically important wine site in Australia. The owners, Penfolds and then subsequently
Southcorp are to be commended for not only leaving this site alone, but for
wearing the cost of maintaining it. Since our visit, readers will
know that Fosters now owns the operation. Reliable sources have informed me
that no sooner was the ink dry on the deal the bean counters went to work
seeing how they can best utilise this site. It is
crucial that these accountants and business analysis not just look at a return
on investment; if they have no social conscience and desecrate what is a
national wine shrine that can never be replaced, they deserve, as a company,
and as individuals to rot in hell.
Strong
words indeed and this is no rant. Whilst many people will have tasted many of
the fine Seppelt fortified wines, there is so much more to this place than what
is found in the bottle. Yes, the bottles contents can be anything from good to
the ultimate sensual wine experience, but it is what is behind the bottle
that makes it so special and if Fosters screw with that, they will not only have
raped the product, Fosters will have pillaged and plundered a unique part of
our wine heritage that can never be replaced.
Our
appointment was with the God Father and custodian of this unique enterprise, James Godfrey who is also known as the fortified
wine maker but lets go back to the beginning.
Hop in the
time machine and head back to 1851. It took forward thinking and guts to leave
your homeland and venture off into the unknown in those times; even if things
were not exactly rosy in the “old country”. Joseph Seppelt, an immigrant from Poland, was just such a person; he
purchased land in the Barossa, named it after himself, and decided to grow a
few grapes. In those times, families had to be as self sufficient as possible.
None of this popping down to the supermarket for a few spuds and bit of rump
steak; you wanted it and you either had to grow it, or barter for it, with your
own produce, so old Joseph had a mixed farm. At that time, there wasn’t any
such thing as “the pill” or synthetic condoms, so old Joe prolifically produced
more than just grapes.
Now young
Benno (with a name like that, it looks like the uniquely Australian way of
bastardising and changing names started early
Many people
think about putting down a few bottles for their kids 21st but I
told you Benno was a forward thinker like his old man; why settle for 21 years
when you are dealing with top port? Much better to think long term, (they not
worried about maximising quarterly stock market yields in those days;) let the
great, great, great grandkids have something incredibly special to celebrate
their family heritage.
And so a
tradition was born. As time went on, it quickly became apparent that one barrel
would not be enough, they needed extra material for topping up purposes so
three barrels became the norm, at the end of 100 years there is only the one
barrel left, the other two have replace thed evaporation from the "master"
barrel, no wonder it has a syrupy consistency and concentrated flavour. Like all great traditions, it is continued
today, long after the last family member has left the firm.
Benno was a
pretty eccentric dude, none of your baseball caps, or even an Akubra for this
guy. Like the American Express card of today, legend has it that Benno never
left home without “it”; it being a violin and an umbrella. Even stranger, when
you consider that he used to get around the place on the white horse, what a
sight he would be galloping off to do the weekly shopping.
Benno’s
eccentricity didn't end there. Towards the end of the 18th century, there was a
severe economic depression and Benno’s philanthropy came to the fore. Workers
mightn't have had the unions to stand up for them in those days, but those
working for Seppelt didn't need one; old Benno didn't lay off a single worker.
Workers decided that a good way of prettying the joint up was to plant a few
trees (there were even greenies back then,) and they propagated the date palm
seeds from the two trees next to the Homestead. By way of saying thanks, over a period of time, two trees became two
thousand. If you visit Seppeltsfield, you will see most of them are still there
today.
But
Seppelt's is so much more than 100 year old port and date palm trees. Once we
met James Godfrey and exchanged pleasantries, we hung a left out of the office,
walked past the original Seppelt family home; then we were surrounded by elm
trees and a rainforest like garden. We proceeded over the small bridge that
spans the creek; up the hill, and finally the padlocks were removed from the
huge, old, sliding winery door. If you ever drive past the south side of
Seppeltsfield, you will notice a large, (frankly bloody ugly) old structure,
painted in some revolting shade of “heritage yellow” that has been built on
terraced levels. The design of this building is no accident and was a very
practical and cunning bit of design work, especially so when you consider how
long ago it was built.
Built way
before there were modern fandangled conveniences like electricity, this working
winery was designed to take advantage of the technology of the time, gravity,
and when available, a bit of steam power and chain drives. Although the winery
is no longer used, it could become fully functional again with ease, all the
basic structure is there, and only some of the furnishings would be required.
As James
explained how the place functioned, standing at the back of the winery on the
top deck, I felt like I was magically transported back in time and could see and
smell the winemaking in progress. The steam pumps thrumming away amongst a
cacophony of competing sounds; the sweat-soaked workers cleaning must out of
the bins with shovels: the smells of fermenting grape juice making one feel
light-headed in the enclose space – all this and so much more. The inside of
the winery might be grey, but there is nothing boring about this building that
is steeped in history.
From there,
we went back down the hill a little way and to a room that defies description. The
old winery had some padlocks on it, but this door was like Fort Knox, and no
wonder! It was a barrel shed, but unlike any other barrel shed I have ever
seen. Inside the old bluestone sellers is 9,000,000 litres of fortified wine
slowly maturing; 12,000,000 bottles is one hell of a lot of hangovers! The
barrels are literally stacked in a pyramid from floor-to-ceiling and unlike
other wineries these are not on racks, as they are rarely moved. There are
wooden chocks between each barrel to separate them from the ones above and the
ones below. There is one other major difference between the barrels in this
winery and most other wineries. In most wineries, you will see some new or
fairly new oak, not here, these barrels look ancient. It certainly was an
impressive sight.
In those
days, Seppelt Sherry was also the preferred choice of the derelict population
when they could afford to buy the product. Whilst this might be seen as damning
praise, Seppelt Sherry certainly was the industry standard and I can remember
my grandmother having a little tipple of it every now and again; more
"now" than "again."
There are
some amazing and interesting historical artefacts in this museum. In many
wineries you visit, you see lots of antiques (items of junk that are regarded
as valuable because they are old) and there are some of those here too, but
there are many unique and truly worthwhile exhibits. For a start, they were
into “modelling” in a big way at Seppelt; they have all sorts of interesting
scale models of buildings, and other things, that were specifically built to
ensure the finished product would be exactly what was required. In this museum,
they have an incredible array of items that almost defies description.
Everything from “sample kits” the reps used to carry in the old days, through
to original ledgers, numerous different types of pot stills for making brandy,
even a grape crusher and stemmer from 1890 which is in pristine condition.
From there,
we went in through a side door, into the main building that houses the cellar
door, and the office, but once again there is so much more than you would
expect. The interior of this building is modern in comparison to everything
that we'd seen but as we walked along, we noticed two things. The first was a
further 3,000,000 litres of fortified wine; even the Pie King, without his Coke
bottle glasses on, would have difficulty in missing that one. Secondly, despite
the fact that this is in reality a working barrel shed, it was as clean as the
average operating theatre, but not quite as clean as my friend Marion's house.
On the top floor of this area is the Seppelt holy of holies, the casks of wine
that have been put aside for a hundred years. This winery is now in the unique
position of having the world's longest continuous vertical of fortified wines;
even Portugal can't touch them. When you think
about it, that was quite a vision that old Benno had all those years ago.
From there,
James was kind enough to take us into a private tasting room and open up the
entire range of fortified wines. During the tasting, he described where each
fits in the line up and the unique characteristics of each wine.
Seppelt
would undoubtedly have the biggest and best range of fortified wines in the
country. The opportunity to taste the entire line up was certainly an
incredibly special experience. The only thing that would have been more
incredibly special would have been to have every one of these wines in front of
you at home for a few days so that you could spend as long as you wished
tasting them, analysing them, and making full tasting notes, but that would be
a costly exercise given that the hundred year old Para Liqueur Port retails at
$1,000 for 750 ml, although I understand they do sell half bottles as well.
As
I hope I forcefully stated earlier, Seppeltsfield is a unique, living and
breathing wine museum that is completely and absolutely irreplaceable. It may
be too much to hope for, but one can only pray that the bean counters at
Fosters do actually have a social conscience and blood flowing through their
veins, rather than being soulless, corporate cretins, who have no interest in
the havoc and destruction they cause in search of the dollar. From my personal perspective, if
Fosters messes with this shrine, in protest, I would never buy another bottle
of any wine they produce again.
Without a
shadow of a doubt, our trip through Seppeltsfield with James Godfrey was a
once-in-a-lifetime experience that will never be forgotten and a fitting
highlight to end the formal part of this trip.
For more pictures of our
Seppelt trip, click here.
A little earlier in this chapter, I
mentioned that two things put a damper on the trip. The first was that on
Thursday night I started feeling unwell, by Friday I was feeling worse and
unfortunately I became sicker than I could imagine. A simple bit of flu turned
into a revolting dose of bronchitis and took me weeks to get rid of;
unfortunately, it is also left me with a mild case of chronic fatigue, which
will take even longer to get over.
The second
factor to place a dampener on the trip, in some ways was more disappointing and
certainly more frustrating. After spending two and a half hours of taping every
single word during our visit to Seppeltsfield, I had planned to write a special feature
that would be a complete chapter, in its own right, in the Tour Diary. When I
got home and turned on my micro recorder it was kaput; stuffed, no go. I wasn't
worried as I presumed that because it had been dropped earlier in the trip, the
recorder had just decided to die now; it was working the last time I checked it.
Although I had wanted to buy a new digital one, I needed a new “el cheap oh” micro
tape version so that I could transcribe my notes; less than $70 at Dickless Smith Electronics did the trick. Everything was
going smoothly with the transcription until I got to tape number ten, which was
the start of the Seppelt tour, the ****ing tape was (more four letter words)
blank. The recorder had died as we walked into the winery, and over two
complete tapes were blank; so this much shorter than expected story on our
Seppelt tour is pretty much from memory.
I have
never been superstitious but the day all this happened was Friday the 13th
May! Spooky!!
After leaving Seppeltsfield, we headed
to the airport and had just enough time to take a long shortcut through the
Adelaide Plains to visit Primo Estate. Since the
early days of our trip at Coonawarra, I had been carrying a defective bottle of
their wine which opened up to be very stinky, and as I was not sure what was
the cause of the fault, wanted the wineries input (as well as a replacement.) Although
it looked a fair way out of the way from the map, because of the lack of
traffic on the roads, it didn't take long to get there. Primo really is in the
middle of nowhere and to the best of my knowledge, there are no other wineries
surrounding it. I must say, on past experience, getting defective bottles of
wine replaced from this winery has always been absolutely first-class and it's
a pity that not all wineries are so cooperative. Their Sparkling Shiraz, is
consistently one of the top five produced in Australia today. After handing over the defective bottle, and whilst
waiting for the winemaker to have a look at it, we took a look at a few of
their new releases.
Primo Estate 2003 Il Briccone is a blend of Shiraz, Sangiovese, with some Nebbiolo and Cabernet thrown in for good
measure; it retails for $19 at cellar door. A ripe, fruit-driven savoury
bouquet produces spice, black pepper, liquorice and all sorts of other
interesting flavours on the palate; it finishes with good persistence. Medium-weight
with a supple consistency, the complexity is well developed and harmonious. The
wine is well-balanced with lively acid, pure fruit and unobtrusive tannins
which results in a wine that will be perfect with food. Rated as Recommended with *** for value, it will be best consumed over the next
three years.
Primo Estate 2003 Angels Gully Shiraz sells for $45 at cellar door. Clean
as a whistle and well made, unobtrusive, powdery tannins combined with fresh
acid and pure, deep fruit to form an ample-weight, supple wine with a solid
structure that is almost seamless and has a harmonious complexity. It sits in
the mouth beautifully which makes it approachable now, but it will improve.
Black pepper, liquorice, and dark chocolate flavours finish with excellent
persistence. Rated as Highly Recommended with ** for value, if you can pick it up on special it is
worth buying.
……………The Next Batch of Primo
Joseph Sparkling
This
was the last wine tasted on this trip and a terrific way to finish. The
analysis on the defective bottle of wine was surprising. Although it reeked of
all sorts of nasty characters when first opened, neither Brian nor I could
identify the cause, so we poured the wine back into the bottle and re-corked
it. The winemakers’ conclusion tasting it many days later; it was corked.
Interesting; that would have been the last thing that we would have picked
because there were none of the normal signs associated with cork taint, however
after it had some airtime, the cork taint was there, so it is interesting how
cork taint can show up in unusual ways and fool people. I might add, that Primo
was extremely generous in replacing my older bottle with two different newer
vintages. Rather than lug them home with me, I did a rash, foolish thing and
asked John to put them in his cellar until my next trip where we can try them
together. Giving John wine to keep for you, is like giving your ex wife a blank
cheque, there is unlikely to be much left by the time you get to it.
From there it was back to
the airport for the plane ride back to Canberra. We said our goodbyes to the Pie King, and to
completely embarrass him, I gave him a hug!
Although
this is the formal conclusion of the 2005 South Australian Tour Diaries, there
is a further feature story to come out of it, which will be posted in a few
weeks time. For the trivia buffs, in total the two South Australian 2005 trips
comprise over 130,000 words which equates to over 170 pages of text without
photos and there are over 400 tasting notes; don’t forget, best of all, its all
free!
In
finishing off, it would be completely remiss of me not to say thank you to a
few people. Firstly, to all the wineries that were so generous and hospitable
with both their time and wine. I would also like to pay special thanks to my
friend Lynne for looking after my family and my business whilst on these trips.
Secondly, without two people in particular, this Tour Diary would have been
extremely boring. To John Davis, who now has a world renowned, infamous reputation, as the Pie King of South
Australia,
thank you (and your family,) for allowing me to stay in your home, your
hospitality, your impact on my cholesterol level and above all your dry sense
of humour. To my other good mate, Brian Handreck who is also known as Red Bigot and now also as The Pie King’s Apprentice TM , thank you for being
such an easy travelling companion, a great tasting partner and finally, for
your efforts in editing the whole story.
Finally,
to you dear reader, I hope you have enjoyed reading the Tour Diaries and if you
have any feedback or suggestions, please place your comments in the Guest Book, or email me, they
are always welcome. Until next time, keep drinking plenty of good red wine, the
wineries need your help and you will be rewarded by helping your own health in
the process.
Click here for Chapter Five
Part Two
Our appointment at
Seppeltsfield was at 10.00 so we had a bit of time to kill. Luckily, there is
one winery in the Barossa that opens at 9.00 am so being complete “wine desperates” we headed over to Wolf
Blass.
) was a pretty smart chip of the old block and wound up being “the main man” of
the family. By 1878 he was doing his own thing, and had a radical idea. He went
to the Mrs and said, “Hay Mrs S, we have mucho barrels of good port every year;
why don’t we put down a barrel every year and leave it for a 100 years?”
From there we moved
back down the hill into what could only be described as a museum. As a child
growing up, our Sunday evening family junk food treat for the week would be a trip
to the local Bondi Beach fish and chip shop where we would buy stacks of the
freshest, most delicious fish and perfectly cooked, golden brown chips, you
could imagine. When we got home and sat down at the table, the fish received
liberal squeezes of lemon, and the chips were always smothered in Seppelt
vinegar. Way before I ever knew anything about wine, Seppelt was a household
name in our house. Besides being the largest producer of vinegar, (and making
lots of fortified wine) they made some very interesting other products; they
even sold mixed peel in cute little boxes.
In
all seriousness, even the most refined households would always have a few bottles
of Seppelt Sherry in the liquor cabinet; it was the foundation stone for any
household liquor supply.
Primo
Estate 2002 Moda sells for $45 at cellar door. A very-classy wine with ultra-fine
tightly-grained tannins and pure, deeply-seated fruit; it is ample-weight,
firm, solid and harmonious. With a fantastic balance, the tannins build slowly
and just keep going and going; finishing long but this wine is a baby!
Chocolate, mint, more chocolate, liquorice and brambly blackberry flavours are
approachable now but the wine needs time to build further complexity and it should
be bloody good in time. Rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value, the rating
should improve as the wine matures between 2010 and 2017.
The flight was on time; we managed to get our usual escape row
seats and the extra legroom made the trip more comfortable. Upon arrival in Canberra, we were met by Brian's
partner, Andrea who had a stack of wine in the car for me to take home. Around 8 p.m., I was driving through
Goulburn and feeling peckish and as it would still take me another hours driving
to get home, decided to get something to eat. Goulburn is not renowned for its
gourmet fare and I just wanted something quick anyway. After all the junk food
and bacon egg sandwiches that I had consumed on this trip, I felt like some "real food" so drove into Pizza
Hut! Yummo, if you going to eat all that cholesterol, you can't beat a pizza in
more ways than one; the Pie King and his Apprentice clearly have no taste and
need extensive pizza lessons.
Copyright © Ric Einstein 2005