Riversands Vineyard St George-Balonne river flooding

The rainy weather has been around since September, and the Sunny State has not seen mcu of the sun’s rays for three months.

Climate change has its bitter twist.For St George wine and table grape producer David Blacket of Riversands Vineyards his vineyard has been inundated with water from the nearby Balonne River (50 metres away) for over two weeks. His table grape harvest should have been underway since October when he usually enjoys the high early season prices.

But not this year says marketing manager Dana Gluzde ”As the crop was the biggest ever, we felt very confident about the 2010 season at first. However the persistent spring rain in a usually dry climate just kept putting disease pressure on us to the extent that we had to drop a lot of fruit. And with grape vines sitting in water the sugars dilute!”

However the Riversands people soldiered on to attempt to harvest the rest of their crop regardless. That meant working over water than by land to harvest, and as the 1 km roadway was cut off by a 30 km/hr torrent between the vineyard and collection point, a punt was borrowed from local cotton farmers to ferry the cartons of grapes to safe storage.

Riversands are both table grape growers and wine producers. I am reminded of their wonderful 2008 Inland Way Chardonnay which took best chardonnay and best Queensland white wine at last year’s Cairns Wine Show against chardonnays from all Australian wine producing states. It’s delicious but the 2011 vintage will not occur because the current ripening grapes are under 1-1.5 metres of muddy floodwaters.

Unlike the table grapes which are ripe, and harvestable, the Riversands wine grape portion (sauvignon blanc, semillon, chardonnay and shiraz) of the vineyard is under higher water coverage and yet to ripen.

Says Dana “The grapes are un-affected physically but the vines have simply been under water too long. There will be no wine vintage from this vineyard this year. The only straddle will be using our early muscat white grapes on higher ground as multi-purpose white wine grapes to get us through”.

The past 12 months have been a bittersweet battle says owner David Blacket. “While the season initially started well following record March 2010 floods, constant rain and cold weather caused substantial yield losses and delayed harvest. Now the floods! It’s been a hell of a year. It’s been our most challenging year since we bought the vineyard in 1996.”

On top of that the 2010 flood took all Riversands baby vines by waterlogging, and of course with re-planting that has happened again.

Bright weather at Riversands-pity about the water!

“Our biggest challenge ahead is the clean-up. After the water recedes there is the red mud, and the water subsidence looks to be a slow process; 3-4 weeks yet, so we will remain patient. In the meantime, as our wine income is tourist-driven, we will advertise that we remain open for business regardless. ” sighs Dana. The cellar door is a good drive-five hours south west of Brisbane. www.riversandswines.com

Queensland experienced is greatest ever annual rainfall in 2010; an average of 1210 mm eclipsing the long term record established in 1890 when the State was last so heavily saturated. This rainfall was not delivered by the usual climatic patterns-by cyclones with high wind gusts, but by persistent series of upper level rain depressions, often up to three covering the State, and neighbouring States in various alignments. Oh to see the sun, and a day over 30oC; now so rare.

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uncorked No Comments January 9th, 2011 Wine Review

Bali: Hatten, tropical wines, noon day drinks

Last July was the Australian wine industry’s technical gabfest. People who grow grapes or make wine descend on Australia (this time Adelaide because this side of the industry is very South Australian-centric) to hear about the latest technologies.

I bumped into an old friend Don Buchanan, who made wine at Tisdall (now under French ownership) and before then at Arrowfield in the Upper Hunter Valley.

Don told me he was now working in Bali as technical adviser and enologist; so I asked him to send me some wines from Hatten. It was no surprise that Don’s wines were very drinkable and cuisine-wise quite fitting.

After all, good sound, careful Aussie-style winemaking will convert sound grapes into a decent drop anywhere in the world.

Don took over in 2008 from founding French winemaker Vincent Desplat who joined the project inauguration in 1994.

Belgia grapes on pergolas

And these Balinese grapes, belgia (a variant of muscat of alexandria and alphonse-lavalee-which I know as ribier) are grown increasingly in the north of the island in a rain shadow between two volcanoes.

The varieties are essentially big, round, juicy eating (table) grapes which supply the domestic fruit market needs, now converted across to wine production because of a need.

This has been and is still occurring in Thailand and India where the start-up grape supply is solely table grape, now driven by a wine thirsty middle class, but wine grape varieties need introducing and propagation.

Often there are complications with these introductions as the climate and varietal needs may not coincide. Some varieties cannot handle the tropical conditions. In Bali the vines are grown on a high pergola trellis, and hang down, so lack of sun and high humidity must be a problem to overcome.

The up side is that the vines keep growing year round, so they are pruned after harvest, then another crop results.

Hatten’s vineyards are at 8o latitude. Don reports: “We have 3 existing vineyards of our own; Sanggalang is the oldest, Ume Anyar 1 and 2. In total 11.5 ha are producing.

“I am now planting a new 5 ha vineyard with an Ozi style trellis and management system to use as a training ground for our Bali farmers. We will use rootstocks and a range of vinifera varieties from Oz.

“We also have 7 contracted growers with another 12 ha producing and more coming on line. In addition we have purchase agreements with 3 other major growers”.

The magnet to make wine in Bali of course is for all those Caucasian tourists whose natural diet is table wine; coupled with a diverse, spicy, highly-flavoured range of plates naturally demanding off-dry, fruity, lowish alcohol wine as the standard pairing drink.

Hatten makes this range of desirable styles very comprehensively. I tasted five wines.

Hatten Aga White NV Anggur Putih 88 (11%); USD 14, pale straw/gold, made from belgia and muscat grapes, fresh but strong nose, crunchy palate and acid kept high, 7.5 g/L sweetness; drink with medium and high heat chilli levels.

Hatten Alexandria NV Anggur Putih 87 (10.5%); USD 14, lovely musk aromas, remarkably light body which means easily sold and drunk very chilled, again muscat based, 25 g/L sweetness; drink with very hot foods.

Hatten Anggur Rose NV 88 (11%); USD 14, salmon-pink, sea-salt and oyster shell aromas which caused interest, fruity and fresh, bone dry, clean and tingly acid which is high, no sweetness, drink with fish and oily dishes for paired balance. Made from the alphonse lavalee red grape which creates this seaside aromas.

Hatten Sparkling White and Rose

Hatten Tunjung Sparkling White NV 89 (11.5%); USD 14, pale but lots of greens, belgia grapes showing good fruitiness and less flowers, some yeast, quite dry though 25 g/L sweetness, has a long tail of acidity for food enjoyment, even hot and spicy is suitable despite the bubbles.

Hatten Jepun Sparkling Rose NV 90 (11.5%); USD 14; salmon, tons of salty/oyster shell aromas, lots of red grape character, less yeast, great palate, powerful, dry from tannin yet sweetness is 35 g/L; easy to assimilate with local fare, and serve icy cold for best effects. Both sparklings are made by the traditional method-in bottle, not externally fizzed.

Through social media I met a man in the telco industry based in Jakarta who first pointed me to the taste quality of the Jepun Rose thus:

“They do two sparkling wines, Jepun (frangipani flower) rose and Tunjung (means waterlily) white. It’s important to set the expectations beforehand, the wines are from grapes grown in Bali after all.

Sparkling the wine-Balinese style

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uncorked No Comments January 3rd, 2011 Italy Tour Visit Post, Wine Region Review

Touring in Italy 3: Piedmont, ristorantes, truffle season

October in Piedmont is the wind down of the vintage, the cooling of the weather and the proliferation of truffles in every ristorante in the region.

The emergence of the white truffle has been celebrated in Alba for 50 years; and the 2010 programme ran the covers of the food celebrities who had graced the previous 49.

The official festival lasts a month but the season extends another month after, and the largest tubers of course are dug up last in the season.

Most ristorantes will offer an additional truffle pairing for 33-40 USD over most dishes (pasta, eggs or roasted meats) or you can buy one outright for 40-66 USD and share with your friends (the waitstaff have clever little scales for selling by the gram).

La Ciau del Tornavento veal carpaccio

Vineyard views while you eat are a lot of fun, and great scenes make for relaxation while eating and drinking. The ristorante La Ciau del Tornavento (tel 0173 638333) in Piazza Baracco, 7, in Treiso (a Barbaresco village), is in fact an old library built by Mussolini in the ’30s, now refitted for this wonderful eating house. The basement has a fairly smart cellar.

This region has a tradition with rare veal of the carpaccio type; Le Ciau’s primo rendition was a square (see pic); adorned with marinated mushroom, anchovy and parmesan in the plate corners, saffron mayo, tasting succulent with the evoo pepper overtones. Simple stuff.

La Ciau del Tornavento parsley frogs legs

Secondo was frogs legs (see pic), endowed with parsley to the point of green when deep fried; comes with savoury salt and pepper, and a dipping sauce of white vinegar, more parsley and evoo. They are simply plump and juicy with feint parsley flavour, and probably not a very popular diners’ choice, but very fine frogs.

As a dolce nut the naturally-made gelato selection of the day was fig and raspberry combo, watermelon, pear and apricot; all ordered so I had an excuse to drink a glass of Francesca Ripetti’s local sticky made by rack drying, Tarasco 2006 Passito di Arneis 2006 Azienda Agricola Cornarea in Roero (90) 13.5%.The glass (USD 10.50) is golden, honeyed on nose, showing lots of barrel aging nuttiness, nice fineness then a shot of sweetness and the mouth dries out with the French oak impact; summary, a good sweet white which surrounds some locally-made ice-creams.

The local red glasses were Pora Barbaresco from the producers co-op (grower Pora) 2004 (91) 14%, soft and silky, now mature, (USD 8), and Ca’ del Baio Barbaresco Asili (Guilio Grasso) 2004 (90) 14%, cherry purple colour very good, maturing into the barley sugar honey development phase, great texture with the veal, (USD 10.50).

Venturing into Castiglione Falletto with the frogs legs match for a glass: the Barolo Pernanno (Cascina Bongiovanni) 2001 (91) 14%, deep black colour, very honied-sweet as now mature, deep and dry and tannic aftertaste showing a warm life and plenty to go (USD 10.50), was a good idea.

Barbaresco-Nieve; north-east

I agonised over the area’s winter specialty-finanziera; a combination of stewed chicken lung, heart, marrow, roosters crests, onion and capers, must be a Piemontese version of haggis, before declining as such a dish may disrupt other diners by being so out there.La Ciau scored well (18/20), positively outstanding food all-round, great cellar and all wines tasted by the glass, recommended by sommelier Luca were very fine value, www.laciaudeltournavento.it ; check USD 85 per person.

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