Each year as the mercury dips, many wineries start to release new vintages of their red wines. They often time the releases to coincide with wine shows and regional grape celebrations.
This weekend, regions including the King Valley, Rutherglen and the Mornington Peninsula are hosting large wine festivals for wineries to throw open their cellar doors, host special lunches, open back vintages to demonstrate how they can age, release new vintages and even show barrel samples of unreleased wines. Many wineries also put up a few bargains for sale that you can stock up on to see out the winter.
I love the buzz of these events, when everyone’s as excited about wine and food as I am for most of the year. They’re great opportunities to soak up more information about wine and its different facets and to discover the wines a region does best – it’s just a shame that many choose the same weekend.
I’ve been going to the Winter Wine Weekend at the Mornington Peninsula for the past few years and each year have returned with a little extra knowledge about the region and its wines (and a few cases, for educational purposes of course).
I’ve had memorable lunches at places such as Main Ridge Estate, where you walk between barrels of ageing wine on your way to the restaurant.
Then there have been chats with winemakers such as David Lloyd, at Eldridge Estate, about the specific clones of pinot noir he has planted in his pretty vineyard.
Once they get started about their wines, most winemakers have trouble shutting up. When you speak to a winemaker, don’t be afraid to ask a few questions about the estate drops. I find good questions are: “How does this vintage compare to the previous year?” and “How old are the vines?” The answers can go on for a while and take you places you didn’t expect.
With so many diverse events, these weekends can be a bit daunting, so I have a few simple rules I try to stick to.
1. Base the day around a lunch somewhere and book early.
2. Choose an event that looks like fun.
3. Plan which wineries you want to visit before you head off, and don’t try to visit too many.
4. Find someone else to drive.
For more information about the Mornington Peninsula Winter Wine Weekend, see mpva.com.au and click on the events button.
These are my picks for this year’s Winter Wine Weekend.
• Mix your own sparkling wine at Foxey’s Hangout winery – and take the bottle home. $25. 11am and 4pm Sunday and Monday. foxeys-hangout.com.au
• The tasting plates matched with estate wines at Paradigm Hill are not only a work of art but show just how well wine and food can go together. Sunday?only. paradigmhill.com.au
• Taste pinot noir while nibbling on a Red Hill Kitchen duck pie at Stoniers winery. Sunday only. stoniers.com.au
• Fifty wineries are showing about 200 wines at the weekend’s main event
– Winter Wine Festival. Get to the Red Hill Showgrounds early to put your name down for a tutored wine-tasting session. Spots are limited. Red Hill Showgrounds, Saturday, 11am-4pm.
TASTINGS \ DRINK THIS
Foxey’s Hangout Sparkling Shiraz 2006
(Mornington Peninsula) $25;
14.5% a/v
4/5
Food match: Thai beef salad
I really enjoy sparkling shiraz but too often it is sweet and cloying. Not this one. Smelling of blackberry, red berries and fruit toast, with a whiff of chocolate, this has loads of berry and yeast flavour. Most importantly, it has excellent acidity, the hallmark of all good sparkling wines, red or white.
Stonier KBS Pinot Noir 2007
(Mornington Peninsula) $60;
14% a/v
4/5
Food match: Duck pie
From vines grown on an east-facing slope, this has complex aromas of strawberries, cherries, mocha and stalks. It’s light in colour, with flavours of raspberry, cherry and strawberry followed by a long savoury finish. Fine, powdery tannins and a good acid backbone will help the wine age well. Only a tiny amount of this was made and it should be on tasting at the winery this weekend.
Paradigm Hill L’ami Sage Pinot Noir 2008
(Mornington Peninsula) $50;
13.5% a/v
5/5
Food match: Roast duck
This smells of strawberry, dark cherries, raspberries and a hint of cedar oak, with a lovely sweet-and-sour flavour profile of strawberries and tart, stewed rhubarb and faint earthiness followed by a long finish. While it is silky-smooth in the mouth, there is a good tannin grip on the finish. Unlike most Australian pinot, which will normally only age for up to five years, this should still be good in 10 years
Port Phillip Estate Shiraz 2008
(Mornington Peninsula) $27;
13.5% a/v
4/5
Food match: Charcuterie
This complex, cool-climate shiraz is excellent value. It has aromas of blackberries, dark cherries, mocha and cloves along with meaty and funky truffle notes. Medium-bodied, it has meaty, sweet blackberry flavours with a little bit of pepper spice and a long, savoury finish.
Kooyong Estate Pinot Noir 2008
(Mornington Peninsula) $33;
13.5% a/v
4/5
Food match: Coq au vin
Intense, complex perfumed aromas of strawberry, morello cherry and rhubarb are followed by mouth-filling flavours of strawberries, raspberries and stewed plums, with some stemmy qualities in the mix.
It’s the structure of the wine and terrific balance between flavours, acidity and silky-smooth tannins that make this easy to recommend. \