2008 Victorian Tour Diaries Chapter Six

The Bigot Bros™ Turbocharged 2008 Victorian Tour – Chapter Six

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Day Six – Tuesday – Beechworth Rutherglen

This is the final Chapter of the 2007 Victorian Tour Diary.

We hit the road looking for a place for breakfast. There was a huge variety of options. There was the open bakery, or the open bakery, so we chose the open bakery. It was a big bakery and doing a roaring trade, but I guess if you are the only place open, that is to be expected.

I ordered a ham, cheese and tomato toasty and Brian ordered the same combination on a croissant. Unfortunately, yet again, we had left civilisation and there was no tomato juice available. I am beginning to think that it must be against the average country Victorian person’s religion to drink tomato juice. The lady making the coffee was no spring chicken but she was a real character. A very quick wit, and although you are meant to collect the coffee yourself, she was kind enough to bring it over to the table for us. It must have been good coffee, we both had two cups. She probably thought we were last of the big spenders.

This bakery-come-cafe had an interesting offer. It serves unlimited, free, drip coffee all day. That would certainly be attractive to people on a very limited budget, and from my perspective, a very generous offering and a community service. It’s just as well as its only free drip coffee, because if it was for espresso too, Brian, now being an old aged pensioner (self funded) would probably move to Beechworth. Andrea could afford to retire early on what they would save on coffee.

Our first appointment for the day was at the Golden Ball winery. James McLaurin and his wife Janine own the operation. In 1980, their family purchased the land and in 1996, they decided to plant vines. They now have five acres of them. In 2002, they managed to produce about nine barrels of wine, that’s about two thousand seven hundred bottles, or two hundred and twenty five dozen. In 2004, James said, "we picked four and a half thousand bottles. (That's three hundred and seventy five cases.) In 2005 and 2006 we made five and a half thousand bottles (four hundred and fifty-eight dozen) each year. As you can see, it's a boutique operation and a low cropping one at that. The current yield, if they are lucky, is only about one and a half tonnes to the acre.

Everything is done by hand. The grapes are handpicked in the early morning and once they have finished fermentation, they are basket pressed. They use the one third oak principle. One third is new, one third is second use, and the final third is third use. Blending only occurs when the wines are ready to go to a bottle. Everything including bottling occurs on site.

James is self taught. He does get some consultant’s assistance, about twenty hours worth a year. That's not much. He did complete two vintages in France in the lower Rhone. Although the winery he was working in made other varieties, he was mainly involved in the making of Rosé.

Just after we started tasting the wine, the rain started to bucket down. James told us that he didn't believe in spraying against botrytis and he hasn't done it for four years. Some people may think that is unwise. James doesn't because he believes that once you start spraying for botrytis you have to continue to do so. In other words, whilst the spray may kill any botrytis, it becomes an addiction. According to James, the soil on which is vineyard is located is very porous. It can be raining cats and dogs; the vineyard can literally be awash with water, and five minutes after it stops raining, the water has disappeared.

Golden Ball 2004 Shiraz sold for $45 at cellar door but has now sold out. The wine is sealed under cork and was provided for comparative tasting purposes. The bouquet showed lifted volatiles over dark fruit; it's bright with floral blackcurrant, vanilla and mushroom. A very credible balance has been achieved with the use of soft, fine, powdery tannins and fresh acid together with deeply-seated fruit. An ample-weight wine with a supple consistency, a solid and reasonably tight structure that shows some elegance, it sits in the mouth comfortably. Flavours of blueberry, black cherry, milk chocolate, mushroom, and aniseed finish with excellent length and persistence. It's approachable now but should improve. Rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value, it should reach its peak drinking window between 2012 and 2018.

Golden Ball 2005 Shiraz sells for $45 at cellar door and is sealed under Diam. The bouquet was broody but did show meaty, earthy notes. It is sweet on the uptake with an off-sweet mid-palate and has a sour cherry finish. Flavours of black cherry/berry and milk chocolate finish with good persistence. A very credible, well crafted wine with excellent quality fruit showing, it is muscular in weight, firm, very tight, has a harmonious construction, a well-developed complexity and should become seamless in time. Abundant, fine, powdery tannins are backed by fresh, unobtrusive acid and pure, deep, strong fruit. Rated as Highly Recommended with **** for value, the rating should improve as the wine enters its peak drinking window between 2013 and 2020.

Golden Ball 2006 Shiraz is blended and in the tank, it will sell for $45, will be sealed under Diam and is scheduled for release in October 2008. The bouquet shows meaty notes with floral attributes below. A well constructed wine backed by powdery tannins and pure, deep fruit. Plum, cherry, mocha, dried herbs and liquorice flavours finish long and persistent. It's an ample-weight, firm and rock solid wine that is still incredibly tight. The complexity is harmonious already. It's very consistent with the other vintages but the 2005 is a tad better. Rated as Highly Recommended with **** for value, it should be in its peak drinking window between 2013 and 2019.

Golden Ball 2004 Gallice is sealed under cork and sells for $45 at cellar door. It is a blend of Cabernet 50%, Merlot 40% and Malbec 10%. The bouquet shows lifted, varietal floral aromatics with meaty aspects. A solidly structured wine backed by fine, powdery tannins, fresh acid and deeply-seated fruit. It's ample-weight, firm, and solid and needs time for the tannins to integrate. Bright red fruits are found on the front of the palate with milk chocolate and cherry flavours that finish with good persistence. Rated as Highly Recommended (just) with ** for value, it should reach its peak drinking window between 2014 and 2020.

Golden Ball 2005 Gallice sells for $45 at cellar door and is sealed under Diam. It is a blend of Cabernet 50%, Merlot 40% and Malbec 10%. The bouquet shows blackcurrant, leafy notes, and meaty Malbec characters. As solid as a rock of Gibraltar with an excellent construction; the wine is backed by fine, powdery, mouth-puckering tannins and deeply-seated fruit. It is varietally correct but the fruit is buried and it needs time for the tannins to integrate and for the fruit to surface. Blackcurrant, dried herbs, aniseed and hints of white pepper were found. It's a muscular, firm, solid and incredibly tight wine. Rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value, it should enter its peak drinking window between 2015 and 2025.

Golden Ball 2006 Gallice is blended and in the tank, it will sell for $45, will be sealed under Diam and is scheduled for release in October 2008. It is a blend of Cabernet 50%, Merlot 40% and Malbec 10%. The bouquet is tight, floral and varietal. The palate shows blackcurrant, aniseed, dried herbs and the juicy-fruit finishes long. It's a muscular-weight, firm, solid and tight wine that has a well-developed complexity. It's backed by powdery tannins, unobtrusive fresh acid and deeply-seated fruit. The quality of the fruit in this wine seems better than the 2005, but the previous vintage has a slightly better structure. Rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value, it should be in its peak drinking window between 2013 and 2021.

(The percentages on the Gallice varieties are plus or minus 2%.)

From what I am told, there are not too many sites in this area that can grow Cabernet and Merlot successfully. The Golden Ball vineyard must be one of them. There was absolutely nothing wrong with any of the wines we tried. James said, "If wines were women, my Shiraz would be the sort of girl you would want to go out with to have a good time, but my Cabernet would be the sort of woman you would want to take home and marry."

James is an interesting character. He comes across as a cross between an old-fashioned, slowly spoken, cocky farmer and an absent-minded professor. At one stage, he wanted to move a table, so he picked up one end, and started to slide it. The only problem was there was a row of bottles of wine on it. He was lucky it didn't result in a heap of broken glass and wine on the concrete winery floor. As I listened to him talk, I wondered how he became a winemaker. He just seemed so different to every other winemaker I have spoken to. James didn't seem to exude the confidence, and didn't throw out the winemaking talk that most winemakers normally use. I was quietly thinking to myself, this guy doesn't seem like a winemaker, yet his wines are bloody good. How does he manage to do it? And then all became clear. It turned out James had trained as a chef by Europeans. Each plate had to be of the same quality, not only that dish, but the next and the next. According to James, once you have got it right, changes should only be made when the menu is altered. He likes to work his property with that same philosophy; every year is different, and yet he manages to let style is of the property show through in his wines. His true skills lie in his ability to perfectly judge how to get the most from a combination of various flavours and textures. In reality, it doesn't matter how he does it, it works. And it works well.

Whilst I tasted these wines, I kept noting the similarity in the words used to describe them. Words like tight, well constructed, deeply-seated fruit, harmonious, and the list goes on. That's no accident. It's the sign of very consistent winemaking. That's a big plus. Without exception, the Golden Ball wines are credible and well-made. If you have tasted one of their wines previously, and you buy a newer vintage, you will know exactly what to expect. The differences are caused by seasonal; nothing else. It's a label that comes without nasty surprises.

We had lots of free time today and whilst there were a couple of places we definitely want to get to, the timing was flexible so we decided to make the most of this opportunity. We hadn't originally planned to go Brown Brothers at Milawa, but it seemed like a good idea so that's where we headed. This winery is one of the stalwarts of the area. It's the original player.

By this stage of our trip we had learnt not to rely on the Subaru's built in GPS system, so when we got to a roadside sign that pointed to Milawa, we took it. Unfortunately the sign did not mention that it was the scenic route, and even the GPS’s Taiwanese maps could have found us a far shorter route.

It started to rain. Then it started to bucket. At one stage it was like driving through a solid wall of water, but by the time we got to Brown Brothers, it had just stopped. When we drove in, much of the car park was under water and it was about six inches deep in places. That’s heavy rain; or poor drainage.

The winery was started by John Francis Brown. At the tender age of eighteen he talked his father into a partnership and they planted ten acres of vines. In those days, the only way to learn how to make wine was by experience. Given that the winery is still around today, he must have done a lot right.

The more things change the more they stay the same. In 1890 the government offered an incentive which they hoped would boost exports of wine. The government offered £2 an acre to anyone who planted approved grapevines. The incentive lasted for three years, and in that time John and his father planted another ten acres. Twenty quid was a lot of money in those days. As I said, the more things change the more they stay the same. The subsidy caused a huge overproduction problem. Sound familiar? Like today, people were doing it tough and by the turn of the century many producers had gone out of business. That didn't stop John.

In 1896 he bought out his father. He called his new venture Brown Brothers, hoping that his three brothers would eventually join him. They didn't. In 1898 he built a new winery. John must have been a smart and farsighted cookie. He also erected a building for a 60 gallon, wood fired, pot still. Considering the future of Australian wine was in fortified wine that was a wise decision. In a twelve year period, he produced fifty four thousand gallons (that the fiscal fiend knew about) through that still. That's a lot of hangovers.

By 1909, he had forty acres under vine, a wife and four children. Things went well until 1916. Phylloxera hit Milawa. Rather than just give up as many of his contemporaries did, he ripped out the entire vineyard, selected another area of the property and replanted on phylloxera resistant American rootstock. He certainly was a smart cookie, and he never got past primary school either.

Its just was well John wasn’t christened “Wally” or they would have been know as a family of “Wallys ” because when John Francis only had one son, he called him John Charles. Number One Son officially joined the winery business at the age of 19. He was the one that originally started trialling all sorts of different grape varieties. The practice is still going on today. He married Patricia, who was the family matriarch for many years, and now has a series of wines named after her.

John Charles had four sons. The oldest was John Graham. He became the third generation family winemaker, joining the business in 1958. In 1969 he became the winemaker. John's major contribution to the business was the installation of new technological gadgets. Things like refrigeration which enabled cold stabilisation.

John Graham only had one son, John Andrew. He joined the company in 1994 where he held various positions, mainly in information technology and administration, until he left the business in 2005.

So, although the original John Francis may have been a visionary, he made two mistakes. He shouldn't have called it Brown Brothers, he should have called it Brown & Son. His second mistake was in not designing the car park with better drainage. If he had got that right, it would have been sheer genius! There have also been numerous other members of the Brown clan involved in the running of the business over the last century.

They now have five different vineyard locations located all over Victoria, the newest is in Heathcote. They are not exactly a small operation; they now produce over a million cases of wine a year.

To give you an idea of the size of the cellar door, they have five bays that are capable of serving customers. They are not there for decoration. On long weekends they have up to five thousand people through the place and average between ninety thousand and hundred thousand visitors per year. That's a lot of samples to pour.

Interesting name for a bit of winery equipment (bottle washer at Cofield Winery)........

All prices quoted are less 10% for club members.

Brown Brothers 2005 Heathcote Sparkling Shiraz sells for $24.40 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The bouquet shows blackberry and leather. The wine is driven by pure fruit but is backed by silky tannins. It's dry on the uptake with mulberry, blackberry, dark chocolate and pepper but as it goes through the palate, it turns sweet. The wine is ample-weight; it has a soft consistency, an almost seamless structure and a harmonious level of complexity. Rated as Recommended with **** for value, buy some, we did. (Brian: I’ve drunk half mine already, might have to order some more.)

Brown Brothers 2006 Sangiovese sells for $15.90 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. The wine opened up with noticeable reductive characteristics, but they blew off very quickly to reveal brilliantly-perfumed, floral fruit and spice. A lean wine that seems almost delicate, it has an open structure, a soft consistency, a harmonious complexity and is seamless. It's so subtle that I just didn't get it. Rated as Agreeable with ** for value, people that don't like red wine and will find it hugely attractive.

Brown Brothers 2005 Barbera sells for $15.90 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. The wine has a spicy, earthy and meaty nose. Unobtrusive tannins combine with fresh acid and delicate, deeply-seated fruit to form a lean-weight wine with a seamless structure and harmonious complexity. It's spicy on the uptake with both sweet and off sweet nuances through the palate and finishes with respectable persistence. A credible wine, it is certainly food friendly. Rated as Agreeable with *** for value.

Brown Brothers 2005 Tempranillo sells $15.90 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. The bouquet shows forest floor and blackberry scents. Unobtrusive tannins combine with delicate, deeply-seated fruit to form a wine that is just medium-weight; it has a soft consistency, a seamless structure and a harmonious level of complexity. It is a good food wine and very drinkable, the blackberry, dark chocolate and black tar like characters finish with respectable persistence. Rated as Recommended with *** for value.

Brown Brothers 2004 Kid You Not sells for $19.90 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. It's a Tempranillo Graciano blend. The bouquet is pleasantly perfumed with spicy aromatics. A very solid, credible wine, the dusty tannins are unobtrusive and slowly sneak up. The medium intensity fruit delivers spice, black fruits, cherry and chocolate flavours that linger well, and the wine has very good persistence for its weight. It has a supple consistency, and the complexity is both well-developed and harmonious. A good food wine, this is certainly worth buying for something a little different and is rated as Recommended with *** for value.

Brown Brothers 2006 Graciano sells for $19.90 and is only available at cellar door; it is sealed under screwcap. The bouquet shows lightly perfumed fruit with talcum powder nuances. The wine is well backed by unobtrusive, silky tannins allowing the wine to have a supple consistency and sit in the mouth nicely. The pure, deeply-seated fruit hits the palate off-sweet and spicy and then finishes clean, and long with the aid of bright and lively acid. An ample-weight, very solid, well-built wine, it's rated as Recommended with **** for value and the rating should improve as the wine enters its peak drinking window between 2012 and 2018. This is my pick of the wines so far.

Brown Brothers 2005 Shiraz sells for $17.90 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. Spice, white pepper, menthol, mocha and dark fruit notes are found on the bouquet. It has loads of fruit flavour and delivers black pepper, mulberry, blackberry, mocha and spice flavours. An ample-weight, firm wine that is solidly backed by loads of powdery tannins, the complexity is uncomplicated but very agreeable. It's great value. Rated as Recommended with **** for value.

Brown Brothers 2006 Heathcote Durif sells for $19.90 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The bouquet shows meaty notes, pepper, blackberry, and vanillin characters. This is a big wine and driven by ship loads of mouth numbing, drying, dusty tannins, but there is enough strong, deeply-seated fruit to balance the package. Black cherry, blackberry, pepper and mint flavours are short on the palate, but with time they should fill out. Rated as Recommended with **** for value, this wine needs ages to show its best and the rating should improve as it enters its peak drinking window between 2016 and 2026.

Brown Brothers Liqueur Muscat is presented in the 375 ml bottle and sells for $29.20 at cellar door. The bouquet shows sweet Muscat grapes/raisins and some rancio characters. An ample-weight wine with a sticky consistency and a syrupy level of sweetness, the intensity is medium and the complexity although simple, is harmonious. It doesn't seem to have much aged material in the mix and frankly there is much better stuff around for the price. Rated as Recommended with ** for value. It will probably sell well at cellar door to people who are in the early stages of finding out about fortified wine.

Brown Brothers Very Old Tokay is presented in a 375 ml bottle and sells the $27.90 at cellar door. The bouquet on this wine is better than the last; it's dusty and shows improved rancio characters together with orange peel and raisins. The fruit is rich and luscious and delivers raisins, honey, orange and lots of other good things. It has a silky consistency, and finishes with medium length and persistence, and the fresh acid helps to cut through the sweetness. The harmonious and agreeable complexity certainly means this wine is worth a shot. Rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value.

A few years ago in a completely blind tasting, our group was very impressed with the Brown Brothers 2002 Patricia Shiraz. Surprisingly enough, it was still available for sale at the winery. Apparently they didn't make a 2003 and the 2004 had not been released yet, although by the time you read this it will have hit retail. We tasted the 2002 again to see how it was travelling. Unfortunately at this point, the oak is dominant. Hopefully it is in a hole. If it's not, the fruit will fade way before the oak is absorbed. If it is in a hole, hopefully it will return to its former glory when it digs itself out.

Overall, the tasting at Brown Brothers was much more enjoyable than my previous visit. That was possibly because we were drinking from better vintages. The wines are well-made, credible, and a few of them represent excellent value for money. They are certainly in the affordable range. The range is huge, so there's something there for everybody. The staff was more than helpful, engaging, and managing to walk that fine line of imparting information without being pushy. They were thoroughly professional and obviously loved their work.

It's not far from Brown Brothers to Rutherglen and it was almost hamburger o’clock. For many years, I have been corresponding with a guy called Lennie Lister, who works in Rutherglen, but we had never met. This was a golden opportunity and we arranged to have lunch together. Stupid me! I let him choose the location, and he chose Parker Pies. The chances of my having a pie free trip to the wine regions is about as remote as the chance of Bill Clinton being able to keep his philandering pecker in his pants.

Many bakeries and pie shops have signs on their window boasting about their awards at various events. Experiences taught me those awards are about as reliable as a bronze medal on a bottle of wine, which was awarded in Class 7,432.29 at the Wilcannia Agricultural Show. And in this case, that class happens to be for “Wines That the Locals Can Get Pissed on Fastest” which shows that that particular wine isn't even particularly great (Bronze Medal) at doing something very ordinary. I exaggerate, but you get the point. Parker Pies’ windows make the usual claim about selling the best pies known to mankind.

Like many of these places, there is board listing a huge variety of pies theoretically available. I say theoretically because invariably when you order the ‘crocodile tail with reduced elephant sauce’ it happens to have just sold out. I find the same thing often happens with less exotic pies like meat and potato. The menu board of theoretically available pies was certainly very impressive. Then I looked in the glass fronted warming ovens. Blow me down. Everything listed, and probably a few more weird and exotic varieties that the chef dreamed up that day, were all available. What's more, many of them were not the usual round varieties. They came in all sorts of different shapes and sizes. Even different pastries. Could this be a real pie shop?

Still, a pie is a pie, and in a place like this it pays to be cautious because you are still dealing with the black culinary art of the unknown. I ordered a beef and red wine pie, and it was actually quite enjoyable. Brian had a Buffalo Bill, what ever the hell that was.

We had quite an interesting conversation with Lennie. He told us all the inside juicy gossip of what was going on in Rutherglen. That’s about as exciting as watching a bad episode of Neighbours. We caught up with Lennie again later that afternoon; he works at Campbells; that's wine not soup.

It’s impossible for me to make a trip to Rutherglen without visiting the cellar door at Morris Winery. Their Cellar Reserve Grand Tokay is the best value Tokay in the market. It's not a matter of if I am going to buy any; it's a matter of how many bottles. It's always consistent, and a damn fine wine. I rarely go to a BYO restaurant or to a dinner with friends without taking a bottle. Every time I extol the virtues of this wine, I keep hoping that people are not listening and the price will remain the same.

As we were in Rutherglen not long ago Morris didn't have much in the way of new releases for us to try.

Morris Sparkling Shiraz Durif sells for $18.50 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. An ample-weight, firm and solid wine it finishes very dry and is a touch sharp around the edges but still manages to hold one's interest. Pepper, blackberry, aniseed and plum flavours present a very pleasant flavour profile. Rated as Recommended with **** for value, they don't get much better than this at this price point.

The next appointment was at Jones Winery. I have been here a couple of times and had generally been impressed with the wines I have tried. On a previous visit, I had a reasonably long chat with Mandy, but I want to get more on the lowdown of the operation, so I made an appointment.

The winery was established in 1860 which makes it one of the oldest in the district. It holds the dubious distinction of being the first winery in Rutherglen to be wiped out by phylloxera. The owner, Fritaz Ruhe lived long enough to see the vineyard replanted. In 1925 his son sold the winery to Lesley Jones senior. It has been in family hands ever since. Les Junior took over in 1979 and retired in 1998. His niece, Mandy Jones (and her brother Arthur) now own and run the property. Their father, Douglas, was a winemaker for Seppelt in Rutherglen until 1984. He was Les Junior’s only brother. This winemaking business can be incestuous. Once it’s in the family blood, it's in the blood. Although the property is just under two hundred acres, only about twenty of it is under vine.

The established vineyard is dry grown, and that is not necessarily out of choice. If you don't have much water, you don't have a choice. Some of the vineyard has recently been replanted and to help the vines get established, drip irrigation has been introduced. However, there is a lot that is old about this place, and in a winery, that's a positive attribute. The oldest vines are over a century in age. If you call about 200 kg of grapes per acre low yielding, then I guess these vines have a low yield. Any lower, and were probably not worth maintaining. Speaking of cropping levels, they are doing well if they manage to get a tonne and a quarter per acre on average. That's still low by anyone's standards.

The wooden fermentation vats are as ancient as the old vines, possibly even older and were used by the original owners. The fermenters only hold one tonne each, so that enables Mandy to have terrific flexibility. All the wines are fermented in oak, even the whites.

As we walked around the winery, Mandy used a phrase that I would hear repeated time and time again during the time we spent with her. "It's part of our style.” Wooden vats -- its part of our style. Hand plunging -- its part of our style. Basket press -- its part of our style.

Mandy has done a number of seasons overseas, including France, and she is fully cognisant of the importance of wine being food friendly. That is why many of the wines are not as big as some of the more traditional Rutherglen reds.

I have a bizarre theory about winemakers and winemaking. The better the cup of espresso coffee they can produce, the better the wine that the winery produces. When I saw the size of the coffee machine at this winery, I had two thoughts. The first was they could produce enough coffee from that machine to keep the Penfolds winery going. The second was that somebody was extremely serious about the coffee they drank. I hope they are aiming for the latter rather than the former.

Given the red diamond (left top) I would like to know what they put in the coffee

As we walked around the winery, Mandy lamented the lack of space available for winemaking. Ideally she would like a new building, but hates the idea of the typical winery tin shed and would prefer a solid, brick building. Why? Because it suits her style. It would be very easy, and cost effective, to erect a tin shed, however Mandy would rather go without than put up something that didn't fit in with her style. This is a lady that knows what she is about and what she wants to do with her wines, and is completely uncompromising in those objectives. Good for her.

They have two ranges of wines. Jones Winery and Vineyard is the brand used for estate grown fruit whilst Jones the Winemaker is for the label used for fruit that has been purchased.

When Mandy offered us a tour of the vineyard, two thoughts came to mind. The first was I didn't want another Dalwhinnie "exercise experience". The second was, unless there was something special or different about the vineyard, it would be pretty boring. When Brian mentioned the Dalwhinnie experience, a look of amazement came over Mandy’s face and she said, "I wasn't thinking about walking! We'll take the car." She also thought her old vines were pretty special, so with both objections overcome, we headed off to her vehicle.

As we drove through the vineyards, one of the first things Mandy said was, "We are trying to add value to our little patch of dirt." Given their incredibly low cropping levels, I am not surprised. Over time the plan is to have enough grapes so that they won't need to buy any in.

We discussed water in more detail. The objective is to have the whole vineyard dry grown, but the young vines do need a helping hand to get started. Mandy told me, “We bought 2 Mega on the open market. Due to the water restrictions put in place (stage 4) we were not able to water our vines using our current watering system. We have no other infrastructure other than hooking up the dripper lines at the end of the row to the town water supply.

North East Water has developed a system where they will deliver the water that we, and others like us, buy on the open market. This system is used by quite a few people in this area who have small vineyard holdings.

It works like this…. we buy water on the open market at the rate of the day… we paid $300 per Mega. Plus fees of course.

North East Water will deliver 80% of that to us – they take 20% as their fee…. Bottom line the extra 1.6 Mega that we bought costs approx $2000.

This year we watered vines that were grafted this year and Malbec planted in January, as well as one watering on the five and eight year old vineyard after veraison … I lost my nerve….. it rained one week later….. I bought the water on Jan 14th.”

When you consider there are nine hundred vines per acre that 1.6 Mega litre is not a big number.

Another fascinating example of Mandy doing things her way is the type of netting she uses for the vines. Most of the netting I have seen is the traditional, white variety that drapes over many rows of grapes. Not here. Mandy uses row netting. Essentially the vines are covered on the outside rather than going over the top. As they drive along the row with the netting on a purpose-built trailer, one side of the vines are covered. When they get to the row end, they tie it off and go down the other side of the vine. The advantage of using this netting is when it comes time to pick the fruit, removing the nets is super fast. The advantage of using this netting is when it comes time to pick the fruit, removing the nets is super fast, they use the trailer to retrieve the nets; in reverse…. its just like winding in a fishing line; (without a thumping great big Marlin at the other end. That would be too much like hard work.)

As we got to one particular row were the vines that hadn't been netted, Mandy said, "This is an example of New Zealand leaf plucking.” I said, "What?” thinking I had slight misheard heard what she had said. I had misheard; she had said “plucking.” Never having heard the expression “New Zealand leaf plucking,” I asked for an explanation. “The neighbour’s sheep got into the vineyard.”

Mandy told us that in 2003 some of their grapes were smoke affected. Initially the fresh fruit character hid the problem, but as the wine started to come together, the smoke taint became apparent. They only have one reputation, and Mandy is not prepared to compromise it. Needless to say, the wine was not released. An expensive exercise yes, but it's better to not release the wine than damage your reputation.

I hope by now that you are starting to understand that Mandy is a person that does things her way, and refuses to make compromises when it comes to the quality or the style of the wines, especially the Jones Vineyard label wines.

Jones The Winemaker 2004 Merlot is probably sold out by now. The wine has a lightly perfumed bouquet showing plum and blackberry which are both found on the palate together with mocha, and it finishes fresh, crisp and clean. A medium-weight wine with a supple consistency, and an elegant structure, it's well-backed by dusty tannins and finishes with respectable persistence. It's a good food wine and is rated as Recommended with *** for value, drink over the next five years.

Jones The Winemaker 2005 Merlot sells for $20 at cellar door and is sealed under Pro-cork. The bouquet showed a slight amount of VA, plums and red berry fruit. The grapes were sourced from Glenrowan and another vineyard in Rutherglen. An almost lean wine with a supple consistency, and an open and elegant structure; the complexity is simple and it is best described as a generic dry red wine. The tannins are dusty, the acid lively and crisp, and the fruit delivers plum and pepper flavours, but there is a touch of green to the tannins. Rated as Acceptable with ** for value.

Jones The Winemaker Durif sells for $25 at cellar door and is sealed under Pro-cork. The wine was matured in hundred percent new French oak puncheons. It has a bright, juicy, spicy nose which leads to a palace of black pepper, spice, blackberry, blueberry, coffee and black chocolate flavours. Chewy tannins combine with lively acid and deeply-seated, persistent fruit to form a muscular-weight, firm and solid wine; for a Durif it almost seems elegant. It's a little warm on the palate but nevertheless interesting. Rated as Recommended with *** for value, drink from 2012 and beyond.

Jones The Winemaker 2004 Shiraz sells for $18 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The fruit was sourced from Rutherglen, Beechworth and Glenrowan. The bouquet is attractive, but surprisingly enough a bit Pinot-like, with red cherry, strawberry and spicy characters. A fruit-driven wine with a lovely flavour profile, it's off-sweet with cherry and spice flavours that finish with good persistence. It's a medium-weight wine with a soft consistency, an almost seamless, elegant structure and a harmonious level of complexity which makes this a very drinkable wine; there's not a lot on the back palate but who cares. Rated as Recommended with **** for value.

Jones Winery 2004 Shiraz sells the $28 at cellar door and is sealed under Pro-cork. The bouquet shows coffee oak over spicy fruit which is not surprising as the wine was matured in 35% new, American oak with a heavy toast level. The palate shows loads of coffee oak but there is enough fruit to eventually absorb it. Dusty tannins combine with lively acid and deeply-seated, persistent fruit to form a muscular-weight, firm and solid wine that is uncomplicated, but shows too much oak at present. Rated as Agreeable with ** for value, drink from 2012.

Jones Winery 2005 Shiraz sells the $28 at cellar door and is sealed under Pro-cork. The bouquet is dominated by red and blue spectrum fruit. Speaking of fruit, it's lovely and delivers both off-sweet and savoury spectrum characters which finish long, clean and dry. Cherry, spice white pepper and chocolate flavours are moreish. An ample-weight, firm and solid wine that is backed by abundant dusty tannins, it needs time for the fruit to surface from below the tannins. Rated as Recommended with *** for value, the rating will improve as the wine enters its peak drinking window between 2011 and 2016.

Jones Winery 2004 LJ Shiraz will have sold out by the time you read this and is sealed under Pro-cork. This is a step up in class. The bouquet is serious and shows spicy oak with black fruit lurking below. An excellent, solid structure has been achieved by the use of a huge amount of silky, dusty tannins, which are perfectly balanced to the fresh acid, and deeply-seated, pure, persistent fruit. The red and blue spectrum fruit with leather characters, together with a touch of white pepper, aniseed and milk chocolate flavours sits in the mouth beautifully. A muscular-weight wine with a supple consistency, the complexity is already harmonious. Rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value, the rating should improve as the wine matures.

Jones Winery 2005 LJ Shiraz sells for $45 at cellar door and is sealed under Pro-cork. Only a hundred and ten cases have been produced. The bouquet has lovely, perfumed floral aromatics. An excellent balance has been achieved between the pure, persistent, deeply-seated fruit, and the fresh and crisp acid, which is perfectly framed by the fine, dusty tannins. The juicy-fruit delivers red and black fruit flavours with liquorice, black pepper, and sweet mint; it finishes long, clean, fresh and crisp. An ample-weight, firm and solid wine with an elegant and tight structure, the complexity is already harmonious; it's a damn good wine that only needs time. Rated as Excellent with **** for value, drink from 2012 to 2020. This gets the thumbs up, with a nudge and a wink.

The only real criticism I can make of this winery is that sometimes their wine seems a little inconsistent. I think I know the reasons why. The first relates to the use of brought in fruit. Over time, as the new plantings come online, that criticism should take care of itself. The second is in relation to the seasons. The vintage variation in Rutherglen seems to be a lot greater, particularly over the last few years, than many other wine regions. That's face it, 2005 was not exactly a brilliant vintage for this vineyard, yet the LJ Shiraz that Mandy managed to produce was brilliant. That's a sign of good viticulture and smart winemaking.

Our next stop was at Campbells Winery.

It all started off with this suspicious looking dude.

In 1857 he left Scotland on the Merchant Prince bound for a new life in the colonies. In 1860 he arrived at Rutherglen hoping to get rich by digging gold. Three leads, or veins of gold had been discovered in the general area, named Wahgunyah, Robert Burns and Lanarkshire. It didn't take long for the whole thing to peter out and in 1868 John Campbell selected seventy nine acres of land adjoining the Bobbie Burns lead, and planted a small area of vines. The dynasty and family business had commenced.

Like the other vineyards in the area, the vines were decimated by phylloxera at the end of the 19th century. When John died in 1909, his eighty-seven acres of vineyards were basically a mess. John's son David, and his wife Isabella, took over and spent the next twenty years replanting forty-five acres of the vineyard with phylloxera resistant rootstock.

The family didn't have an easy time of it. At the peak of the Depression in 1931, people didn't have a spare shilling, or even spare pennies rolling around their pockets to buy a bottle of good red. That’s because in most cases people had holes in their pockets but it didn’t matter as they had nothing to put in them anyway. They were dirt poor. The Campbells introduced sheep to try and help make ends meet, and if they couldn’t sell the sheep, there would always be plenty of lamb chops!

As if the effects of the depression weren’t bad enough, David went blind. His son Allen, who was all of 15 years of age, came in to help. Two years later, David died. The Bobbie Burns vineyard, as it was called, was heavily mortgaged, and as far as the bank was concerned, the inventory of wine had no commercial value. By this stage young Alan was all of eighteen and absolutely determined to hold on to the winery.

By 1943, Allen has married and things are heading in the right direction. They purchased an additional thirty-nine acres, of which ten were under vine. From that time, things have not looked back and the expansion continued. In 1961, as soon as Malcolm finished his final year of school in Melbourne, he came home to assist in running the property. In 1968 Malcolm's brother Colin, comes home after completing both a diploma of agriculture and one of winemaking. The brothers have been working together ever since. Colin is the winemaker and Malcolm is the viticulturalist.

In 1999, Collins daughter Jane joins the business as the Cellar Door Manager. Jane’s tenure was relatively short lived, but Colin’s daughter Susie, and Malcolm’s daughter Donna both work in the business today.

Today, they have approximately hundred and fifty acres under vine. Who knows what would have happened if John would have actually got rich by discovering gold?

My old mate Scott Howard, who always used to take good care of me at Cofield had jumped ship and was now behind the counter at Campbells. I hardly recognised him with his new hairdo. Rumour has it that he is trying to look like a chicky-babe magnet.

When I mentioned that I wanted to visit the toilet before starting the wine tasting, Scott said, "We have the cleanest toilets between Echuca and Albury.” I have heard cellar door staff making all sorts of claims in order to sell their wine, you know the sort of thing, gold medal this, xx points from Joe Bloggs, bronze medal at….. and so it goes. But I have never heard someone boasting about the cleanliness of the toilet to try and sell wine. Typical Scott!

Campbells 2007 Limited Release Tempranillo sells for $17 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. The bouquet showed slightly reductive characters over spicy fruit and cherry. The palate is dominated by blackberry, cherry, dark chocolate and a slight amount of funky characters. It's a medium-weight solid wine with fresh acid that is verging on being sharp. Rated as Acceptable with *** for value.

Not all their fortified wines are top shelf! .................................

Campbell's 2005 Limited Release Cabernets sells for $20.90 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The nose shows rose characters with red fruits. Palate flavours of strawberry, dark chocolate and black fruits finish with reasonable persistence and are supported by deceptive, long tannins. It's an ample-weight, firm and solid wine that is interesting and something a little different. A good food wine, it would be perfect with pasta, rated as Recommended with *** for value.

Campbell's 1996 The Barkly Durif is a museum release, sells for $59 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The bouquet is driven by sweet fruit and also shows pepper, milk chocolate, cedar and mint. Pepper, spicy cedar oak and the blueberry and strawberry flavours finish with good persistence. The fine, dusty tannins are still evident and beautifully matched to the fresh and lively acid and the pure fruit. A medium-weight, elegant wine it is rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value and will be in its peak drinking window between 2010 and 2020.

Campbell's 2004 Shiraz Cabernet blend is available to cellar club members only, sells for $21 and is sealed under cork. The bouquet shows bright, spicy notes with earthy characters. An ample-weight wine that is solidly backed by chunky, drying tannins; the acid is fresh and the fruit delivers loads of pepper and red fruit flavours. It has a supple consistency and an unusual flavour profile. A good food wine, it would be perfect with either a ham or Caesar salad. Rated as Recommended with **** for value, drink over the next five years.

A visit to Campbells without tasting their fortified wine would be like a tourist visiting Egypt and not looking at any pyramids. Whilst it's entirely feasible, it would be a complete and utter waste of a trip. Also, being a liqueur Muscat and Tokay slut, there was no way I was going to knock back an offer to try these wonderful gems. They were kind enough to show us the entire line-up.

Notice the difference in colour between the four grades of Tokay

Campbells Rutherglen Tokay is presented in a 375 ml bottle and sells for $16.90 at cellar door. The wine shows interesting, floral aromatics with honey notes. There is not a huge amount of aged material in this wine, but that's to be expected. Orange and caramel flavours dominate the palate. It's syrupy but the acid is fresh, runs right through and cleans up the tail beautifully. The finish is respectable, long and clean and crisp. The complexity is agreeable and it’s rated as Recommended with **** for value.

That was a good way to start, many of the entry-level Tokays at some wineries are not exactly great.

Campbells Classic Gold Tokay is presented a 500 ml bottle and sells for $34.90 at cellar door. This wine shows more complexity than the Rutherglen and is starting to develop some rancio characteristics. Hints of rose petals and coffee notes are also found. The coffee and caramel flavours give this wine a lovely flavour profile. It's approaching a muscular wine, is syrupy, but the acid is well judged and provides a fresh finish. It has a rich consistency, good power, and finishes long. It has a well-developed complexity and is rated as Highly Recommended with **** for value.

Campbells Grand Tokay is presented in a 375 ml bottle and sells for $64.90 at cellar door. The bouquet shows what I can only describe as caramelised and burnt coffee characters. It also has an excellent level of rancio characteristics, but that's to be expected in a wine with the Grand ranking. The deep, strong fruit is luscious and the acid is still reasonably fresh. A rich, muscular wine with a sophisticated level of complexity that finishes long, clean and with terrific intensity, it’s rated as Excellent with *** for value.

Wish I could buy a bottle of Rare Tokay this size for $94! ..

Campbells Isabella Rare Tokay is presented in a 375 ml bottle and sells for $94 at cellar door. In a very unusual set of circumstances, this is the third time I have tried the wine in the past two months. Lucky me! The bouquet shows the characteristics that can only come about with lots of quality, aged material being used. It is also earthier than its predecessors, showing sweet truffle like characters and a vague hint of medicinal notes. A mellow drop, driven by concentrated, intense and powerful fruit; the acid is still reasonably crisp and does a good job of cleaning up the very long finish. A full-bodied, rich and sticky wine with a potent level of intensity, the complexity is intricate, and it’s rated as Outstanding with *** for value. I will be more than happy to drink this three more times in the next two months; unfortunately that is unlikely to happen. If $94 sounds like a lot of money for a half bottle of wine, when you consider that the quality of what you are drinking, and the amount of aged material in it, not to mention the sheer intensity and concentration of the wine, it certainly is not expensive.

Campbells Rutherglen Muscat is presented a 375 ml bottle and sells for $16.90 at cellar door. The wine had a little bit of an odd character on the bouquet. On the plate it was slightly cloying and a little simple. Rated as Agreeable with *** for value.

Campbells Classic Gold Muscat is presented a 500 ml bottle and sells for $34.90 at cellar door. The bouquet shows floral, raisin like notes, a slight hint of coffee below, and rancio characters are starting to develop. The level of sweetness is bordering on making the wine flabby, but the piquant acid cuts right through it. An ample-weight wine with a rich consistency that is well backed by deeply-seated fruit, the length of finish is both respectable and clean. The complexity is agreeable, but generally speaking the equivalent Tokay it was a better wine. Rated as Recommended with ** for value

Campbells Grand Muscat is presented in a 375 ml bottle and sells for $64.90 at cellar door. The bouquet shows a good level of rancio characters, burnt caramel, and coffee to give it added interest. The fleshy fruit delivers rich honey with a little coffee and hint of aniseed. A step up in quality over the Classic, it has better complexity, the fruit is deeply-seated and intense; it's luscious, has excellent persistence, and the acid enables it to finish fresh. Rated as Highly Recommended with *** (just) for value, Brian thought that the finish on this wine was cleaner and brighter than the Tokay, and he would have rated it higher. In some ways he is right, but the Tokay has better aged characteristics, even if it was a touch blockier and harder.

Campbells Merchant Prince Rare Muscat is presented in a 375 ml bottle and sells for $94 at cellar door. There is a big step up in quality here. This is on the same level as the Isabella. It's a viscous, concentrated and intense wine with an elaborate complexity. The luscious fruit finishes with a beautifully crisp, clean and dry finish. Rated as Outstanding with *** for value.

The top two Muscats probably finished with more finesse than the top two Tokays and they were a bit brighter and cleaner. Brian preferred the Muscats, but I still preferred the flavour profiles and rancio characteristics of the Tokays.

After trying the wines, it was time to take a tour. One thing I have learnt after touring many wineries. There is never a shortage of bright ideas, and even daft ones; and seeing either type adds to the experience and the unique character of each winery. We noticed some odd looking barrels. The ends were pitch black, blacker than my Newfoundland, Goofy. Many years ago, some bright spark at Campbells had a “brilliant idea.” They would have some barrels made with clear glass inserted at both ends of the barrel. According to Lennie, who is trying to get a part time job as a comedian in his spare time, (and wondering why he is having difficulty in achieving his objective) “They did some complex calculations to work out the optimum wood to wine ratio etc. The barrels would then be filled with exactly the right amount of wine and placed in the cellar door. They would then be backlit so that people could see the different ages of the wines by the colour.”

Lennie’s measurement routine comment may have been a joke, but the plan wasn’t; even though the joke was on the “brain surgeon” who had the original idea. It didn't work. Even strong lights were incapable of penetrating the wine. Goofy indeed!

What is certainly not Goofy is the impressive line-up of barrels that make up their solero system of fortified wines. There is about two hundred and fifty thousand litres of the stuff. That's an enormous investment. And money is not just the only commitment here. Maintaining a solero system requires a huge amount of time, work and effort. Producing fortified wines at this level is like being pregnant. You either are, or you aren't. There is no halfway. Sure, there are wine makers out there who are buying in some aged material from various sources, and tinkering around making fortified wines, and some of them are quite credible. However there is only one way you can get the sort of complexity and quality that a company like Campbells can produce. And that's to make a gigantic commitment and to build a solero system over many decades or buy someone elses.

Whenever I have walked into Campbells, there is always been a selection of back vintage wines available. This is no accident, nor is it a way of getting rid of wine that they couldn't sell initially because they came from a poor year. This winery keeps an enormous inventory of back vintages, not necessarily with any great financial master plan in mind; they do it because it's an integral part of their cellar club strategy.

Everything that Campbells does is done slowly, thoroughly, carefully and with great deliberation. They don't rush into anything quickly and are not interested in the short term. That's probably why they have survived as a family winery for over a century. They have been running closure trials on their wines to work out what will suit them best. Their trials have now been going on for over four years and have included a dozen different possible alternatives. They have read all literature, but in the end only one thing matters to them. What is best for their wines! The winery readily admits there would be production efficiencies and cost savings by standardising on one closure but that is not the issue, because the quality of the wine comes first.

Colin and Malcolm may be seen as staid and conservative, but not many people know that they were one of the very first to jump onto the screwcap bandwagon in the 1970s. They got their fingers burnt, and maybe that is why they are making damn sure they get it right this time. They are certainly not afraid to try new technology. They had the first rotary fermenters and mechanical harvesters in the district. They were also the first in the district to use refrigeration in the production of their white wine.

The cellar door at Campbells, like the cellar door at many of the wineries in Rutherglen, does not really do the winery's history and background justice. The winery has a rich history and a wonderful story to tell. It's great that they have got the cleanest toilets for hundreds of kilometres, but what goes on behind the scenes; the rich tapestry of history, and the attitude of the people who are involved in lovingly caretaking the property, make a much better story than a clean toilet bowl. But then Scott is a worse bloody comedian than Lennie; and that’s saying something!

We wouldn't feel like we had been to Rutherglen if we didn't have dinner at Beaumont's and if we didn't see Andrew and Carol Smith from Warrabilla, so we decided to multitask and do them both together.

Warrabilla is renowned for making wines of heroic proportions. Many people pull the cork with fear and trepidation. I don't. The wines may be big, but they are usually well balanced, despite being high in alcohol. Andrew was kind enough to give me samples of three of his up coming releases to try at my leisure. I will include the tasting notes here, before we get into the details of the dinner.

Warrabilla 2007 Reserve Shiraz has now just been released and sells for $24, and the wine is sealed under Diam. Due to the lousy vintage conditions, there was no Parola’s made. The nose is inky black with iodine, vanillin oak, plum and brambly fruit. A muscular-weight, tight wine that is well backed by fine, chalky tannins; the strong fruit provides loads of flavour and delivers plum, brambly fruit, and dark chocolate which goes into a sappy green finish. It's a big baby and needs time to loosen up. Rated as Recommended with *** for value, drink from 2010 to 2014.

Warrabilla 2007 Reserve Cabernet has now just been released and sells for $24, and the wine is sealed under Diam. Due to the lousy vintage conditions, there was no Parola’s made. The bouquet is not anything like a varietal Coonawarra Cabernet and is more akin to a big red, with vanillin oak, dark fruit and a hint of cigar leaf. This wine is surprisingly well balanced with deep, strong fruit and loads of fine, soft, chalky tannins. It's sweet on the uptake with abundant berry flavour, blackcurrant, vanilla, a hint of liquorice, and it finishes puckeringly dry. A full-bodied wine with a supple consistency and a rock solid structure, the complexity is very agreeable and it is an interesting big red that needs time. Rated as Recommended with **** for value, drink from 2011 to 2015; you get a lot of flavour for your dollar.

Andrew was also kind enough to give me a bottle of the 2007 Reseve Durif. As soon as the Diam was extracted from bottle, I thought there might be a problem. The cork was completely soaked three quarters of the way up its length, and there were even dribbles of wine staining the top of the cork. It looked like it had been compressed too hard and had not bounced back. Unfortunately my suspicions were correct as the wine was oxidised. In my experience, it is rare for a Diam cork to fail.

Brian and I had brought some good bottles or older wine to have with dinner. Unfortunately the first bottle opened, a Summerfield 2003 Indulgence was corked. The next bottle opened, a Classic McLaren 2002 La Testa Shiraz was also corked. Brian had also brought along a mystery bottle of wine which he particularly wanted to share with Andrew. It was a Coopers Crossing 2005 Durif which had done extremely well at the Rutherglen wine show. When I said share, what I really meant was, "rub Andrews’s nose in it," but unfortunately it was also corked. We were not impressed.

We were reduced to drinking the (young) wine that Andrew had brought. No older stuff for the bigots tonight.

The first sound wine opened was a Warrabilla 2006 Reserve Shiraz, which is their current release. The bouquet shows a little oxidative handling/varnished oak. It's a huge wine. The palate flavours of plum, tar and dark chocolate finishes with good length to dried herbs.

I am normally reluctant to order Thai style dishes in anything other than a Thai restaurant. However experience has shown at Beaumont's can do it well. I ordered a Thai salad to start. The level of chilli was perfectly judged. It also contained red capsicum, bean shoots and noodle. The beef was cooked rare and managed to maintain its soft texture, something that seems to be difficult to do for many chefs. The dish was full of flavour, the sesame seed gave it a bit of crunch and it maintained an exceptionally good balance, and high-level of flavour. When Brian tried it, he said he should have had it too, and coming from Brian when it’s in relation to Thai food, that is high praise.

Andrew also opened a Warrabilla 2006 Reserve Durif, which is the winery's current release. The bouquet shows vanilla, chocolate and a little varnished oak/oxidative handling character with dark fruits below. The palate has a huge amount of fruit power and exudes loads of dark chocolate flavour blackberry, and prune. It's a full-bodied wine with lovely soft tannins, fresh acid and finishes clean long and dry. There is some noticeable warmth.

From main course, I had twice cooked duck that was served with all sorts of other goodies. Normally I don't like funny green stuff (rocket etc) but in this case, amongst the olives, cheese etc it was quite delicious. The sauce contained sun-dried tomatoes, onions, capsicum and a variety of other things that made it yummy. The serving was huge, and there was no way I could contemplate dessert. That's a shame, as the desserts here are normally brilliant.

By this stage of the trip I was knackered, hence the briefer than usual description of the food and wine, I just wanted to start to relax.

Over dinner, Andrew told us about the new marketing strategy they had come up with for the Rutherglen region. Apparently the local winemakers’ association employed a marketing consultancy firm in Melbourne to come up with a new marketing plan to the region. According to Andrew, they have come up with a doozy. These marketing geniuses, correctly I might add, came to the conclusion that some of the best wines in the world are blends. Rutherglen can't compete against the Barossa in the Shiraz stakes, or against Coonawarra and Margaret River in the Cabernet Sauvignon stakes. Therefore, as a region, Rutherglen should base their new strategy around pushing blended wine.

Hello! The lights are on but is anybody home? There's a big difference between Rutherglen and Bordeaux. Possibly the person doing the planning was a teetotaller. I can just see it now, Rutherglen pushing Pinot Durif blends as the next big thing. Or how about a Vintage Fortified Grenache blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot?

Brian did come up with a strategy, and frankly it was a lot better than the paid consultants version. Many of the wineries in Rutherglen make big reds; the sort of wine that is perfect to drink in winter with a casserole, “slow” food or rich, hearty food. Marketing that scenario, especially to the restaurant scene in Melbourne, sounds a far better way to go than pushing blends.

Andrew and Carol dropped us off at our motel and then headed on home.

Day Seven – Wednesday – Rutherglen to home via Canberra

The last official day of our trip and there were only two wineries we wanted to visit before leaving Rutherglen.

Past experience has shown that the breakfast available at the coffee shops and bakeries in Rutherglen are at best, pedestrian. Across the road from our motel is Tuileries Motel and Restaurant. It is regarded as the best motel in the district and we have had good meals here in the past, so we figured it would be a cut above average for breakfast. As well as an al a carte restaurant, they have a coffee shop which is open to breakfast.

Unfortunately, it was extremely ordinary. I had bacon and eggs on toast. The toast was charred and the eggs were just okay. They charged two dollars extra for half a tomato. Brian had bacon, sausage and tomato. We each had a glass of orange juice that came out of the jug, and a short black coffee. The bill was $31.00. The breakfast here was just as pedestrian as it would have been at one of the coffee shops in the main street, only more expensive. It was the worst value breakfast on the entire trip.

We headed off to one of my favourite wineries in the region, Buller Wines. The visit was unannounced, but we were hoping to find Andrew there. When we arrived, a young and inexperienced, but very friendly lad was manning the counter. Backing him up with support was the bubbly and vivacious Cellar Door Manager, Monica Neideregger. Andrew hadn't arrived yet as he had to drop the children off at school.

A visit to Buller is always good value. Besides getting to taste some enjoyable wines, I love talking to Andrew because he is a fountain of knowledge, and some of it is even useful.

When he arrived, he sat back on the lounge in the cellar door, put his foot up, relaxed, and proceeded to answer my questions. The first thing we discussed was the way wine styles have changed in Australia over the last century. And Andrew had a torrent of opinion on the subject that gushed forth.

“In 1908, the wine show circuit was very different. Most of the shows were "Colonial Exhibitions" in colonies like India, or in major capitals like Melbourne. To understand what the wine styles were like, you need look no further than the descriptions of the top winning wines. The facts show they were reasonably big wines, and had some residual sugar in them. At the turn of the 20th century, the yeasts they were using couldn't ferment all the sugar in wines, otherwise the alcohol would have been even higher. In those days, wines could probably only get up to 14 or 15%. So these 14 to 15% wines have been around for an awful long period of time.

It wasn't until the 1950s or 1960s that more effective strains of yeast became available.

In earlier days, wines were not exported in the bottle, they were exported in barrel. The wineries brought these large, brand-new barrels into Australia, filled them with wine and then shipped them back overseas. The stability was critical. Low alcohol wines without sulphur stood a good chance of refermenting. Higher alcohol wines were more stable, especially when a little fortification material was thrown in. Make no mistake about it; the English wanted the higher alcohol styles of wine. That's why they were buying wines out of Australia. In those days, the reason that Rutherglen was so successful was because they were able to do it so well.

The English merchants would buy the cheapest French wines they could get their hands on and one of the main reasons they wanted the big, alcoholic red wines from Australia, was so that they could blend it with the innocuous, thin and boring French wines.

For much of history, the French had to drink wine because the water was so bad. Drinking water could be hazardous to one's health. As wine was a staple drink, they certainly didn't want high alcohol. Wine was an alternative drink to water, and less likely to kill you. The primary reason for the French drinking wine in those days was not for enjoyment, where as in Australia, drinking wine was for enjoyment.

Fast forward a hundred years. Now there is a push, especially in the UK for lower alcohol wine.

Many of the Australian wines are still inherently sweet. Conversely, most of the wine made in Europe finishes bone dry. The question is why.

I believe the reason the European wines were dry is to do with history. It was a matter of stability. Once the wines were dry, they couldn't ferment any further. Today, many countries like Italy have wines that are slightly sweeter. And they sell because people like drinking them.

If you lived in Europe in the old days, the most highly prized wines, and the most expensive wines, were the sweet ones. Wines like Sauternes. The Germans had their sweet wines too. And then there was Port. The best wines were produced in the warm, dry years. They also produced the sweetest wines.

The big question is "how much is too much." If you go to Queensland and buy a banana, do you buy a green one because it's good to move around, or do you buy a ripe, yellow one? If you buy an apple, do you buy an unripe one because it won't bruise when you ship it, or do you buy a big, juicy red one?

Psychologically, it depends on what you are up to and how you are going to use it. If you are a major company, you look for a conservative, middle of the road position, because it's safe. Psychologically, we go for ripeness and sweetness. Moscato is the biggest selling white wine. Just have a look at Yellow Tail and the American market. Americans love sweetness.

I am not saying either position is right or wrong. Instead of having this cast iron mentality about what it should be, people need to look at their products and make sure they are in balance and in harmony. The great thing about Australia is the diversity of wines it can produce. We need to make sure we don't go the other way so that we don't wind up looking like a brewery with all the products being so similar they are on the point of being boring.”

The subject turned to alcohol and ways of keeping the wowsers and low alcohol proponents happy. As an experiment, Andrew has made some Limited Release Durif that has been through the RO process to reduce the level of alcohol. The full alcohol wine has pleasant, perfumed aromatics. The lower alcohol version was a bit stinky and reductive. The full alcohol version has bright fruit on the palate, but there is noticeable warmth as well. Flavours of rich, dark chocolate, aniseed and vanilla finishes dry and are well supported by the dusty tannins and fresh acid. The reduced alcohol version was like a completely different wine. The bouquet was much more floral, that didn't have the lift. On the palate it seemed like a completely different wine as well. The palate was lean by comparison and showed a lot less obvious fruit. Removing the alcohol has removed a lot more than just the alcohol. The tannins are now far more pronounced and even though they are soft, they are more noticeable because there seems to be less fruit. The acid profile has also changed and the wine finishes a little flabby. In summary, the reduced alcohol version is nowhere near as good.

Producing wines with lower alcohol, by using reverse osmosis is not as simple as just reducing "x%" of alcohol from the wine. You have to hit the "sweet spot" and if you miss it, the result is not pretty.

Andrew also told us something else that was interesting. There are some producers that over crop and get maybe seven or eight tonnes to the acre. When the fruit comes in and they find the flavour is not there, they whack the wine through reverse osmosis and pull out the water. This "permeate" can then be used to de-alcoholise wines as it was originally a wine product. Andrew feels that generally speaking, this sort of manipulation is not good. However, if you have an extremely wet year, it can be useful.

The big question is, where you where do you draw the line. Andrew said, “I think we are becoming far too clever and are wearing white coats. We will wind up manipulating wine to the point that it is a boring, consistent product. We need to get back to regionality. Even if that means the wineries have to pretend they are making a style that is consistent with the area, and ultimately the customer will either approve by buying the wine; or not.”

The winery has produced a new top fortified. It's the Buller Calliope Rutherglen Rare Frontignac which is sealed under cork and sells for $100 for a 375 ml bottle. The wine is very different in style to the rare Tokay and Muscat. It's much more refined and elegant, but it does have a sophisticated level of complexity. It’s a medium-weight wine with a reasonable depth of fruit. It finishes long and dry with noticeable tannins, and that's fairly unusual in one of these wines. It has a rich, silky consistency and the intensity of the fruit is consistent with the style. Honey and butterscotch spectrum of flavours dominate the flavour profile. It's undoubtedly a high-quality wine, it wouldn't wear this label if it wasn't, however as it is my first rare Frontignac, I don't quite know what to make of it. I do know that I prefer the Tokay and Muscat. Rated as……. beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Buller 2005 Limited Release Shiraz sells the $20 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. The bouquet shows vanilla, blackberry and liquorice flavours. A good old-fashioned red, the strong, deep fruit is well matched to the fresh acid and loads of dusty tannins. It has a good mouth feel with meaty flavours, rich dark chocolate, blackberry and liquorice, and whilst it finishes long and clean there is some warmth noticeable. A full-bodied wine with a supple consistency and solid structure, there is a huge amount of flavour that just glides down easily. Rated as Recommended with **** for value, it's ready to drink now.

Bullers 2004 Calliope Durif sells at $35 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. Despite its 16% alcohol, it shows no sign of heat. The strong, deeply-seated fruit and fresh acid is superbly balanced by the soft, fine, dusty, drying tannins. It sits beautifully in the mouth with flavours of mocha, dark chocolate, liquorice, coffee, and black fruits, and despite the fruit being sweet and ripe, it finishes crisp, clean and dry. A full-bodied, rich, robust wine, it has a supple consistency, solid structure and well-developed complexity. To my way of thinking this is the best Calliope Durif to date. Rated as Highly Recommended with **** for value, the wine is drinking beautifully now but the rating may improve in the short term; drink over the next 10 years.

(Brian: I also re-tried the 2004 Calliope Shiraz. In the 12 months since release it has settled nicely and the originally quite confronting burst of sweet fruit has subsided to show this is likely to be one of the great vintages of this wine.)

As always, the trip to Buller was an interesting experience. It's always fascinating to listen to Andrew's perspective on the world.

Prior to the start of the trip, I received an e-mail from Cofield Winery. They specifically asked me to drop in so I could have a look at their new toy. The winery had received a Federal Government grant to enable them to put in a semi-automatic disgorging line so that they would be able to produce more Sparkling Shiraz. The e-mail was dated the February 4^th it was due to arrive on their doorstep that day. They also had some barrel samples that sounded interesting so we decided to drop in.

Unfortunately when we got there, we couldn't see the new machinery as when it got to the local depot, the trucking company dropped the machine, damaging it beyond repair. I'll bet someone said a few four letter words.

A delicious play lunch at Pickled Sisters (Cofield Winery) ...........................

We had a wander around the winery, and tasted a few samples, and yes, the samples did look good, but I will wait until the wines are finished before I report on them.

Brian decided that we needed to have a pie at Parker's Pies before we left town. I am now sorry that we found this place because I will have trouble avoiding it on future trips to Rutherglen. I had a pie with mushrooms, and Brian ordered a chunky steak pie. I was not at all impressed with my pie. It was far too watery, and Brian thought much the same thing about his pie. To add insult to injury, the top of my pie had not been sealed properly, so I wore as much of it as I manage to eat. I looked messier than a two-year-old with ice cream. Their gourmet pies may be good, but their ordinary pies are just that, ordinary. Very ordinary.

We then headed for home. We stopped for coffee at Morrisons of Euroa at Holbrook which is reputed to have the best coffee on the Hume Highway. Normally I would have said, if that's the best, I would hate to try the worst, but unfortunately I probably have. Next time we stop in Holbrook, it'll be back to the bakery.

The rest of the trip back to Canberra was uneventful. As we approached Canberra, I suggested to Brian that he looks out for a Shell service station so we could fill up Andrea's car with its preferred level of high octane petrol. It was my turn to pay, and the tank was getting close to empty. Besides, leaving her with a full tank of petrol was the least I could do after she was kind enough to let us use her car for the week.

Although Shell had closed down one part of its refinery for maintenance and another had unexpectedly broken down, we had no trouble getting this petrol in Victoria. Unfortunately the first Shell station we came to didn't have any. And neither did the next, or the one after that, or the one after that. Mobil doesn't have the right level of octane so they were not an option. The Caltex service stations close to Brian's do not sell the right level of octane either, so we didn't bother trying those; and because of demand, all the local BP service stations were sold out. So, although I had the best of intentions, Brian got stuck with a final bill for petrol. Yippee.

That night we went out for dinner with some friends to an absolutely wonderful restaurant, and it was glorious to be able to kick back, enjoy wonderful food, good company, and a glass or three of wine without having to make a single notation.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this series of Tour Diaries. The good news is that Brian and I are off to join the Pie King towards the end of May for a week of fun and frivolity in South Australia. So the next series of Tour Diaries are only about six weeks away.

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