The launch last month of Mercure Queensland hotels “Grand Vins” – great wine selection – is a real achievement for this big state.

I recently tasted the dozen wines served at the Mercure Brisbane’s Quay restaurant, greeting me as – Pure Pleasures – Autumn-Winter 2010 Collection.

All by-the-glass and reasonably priced – USD 5.40-6.60, I discovered wines grouped both by colour and snappy names.

In the bottles with green tags (TANGY AND TANTALISING) are a racy, tight pinot gris (Symphony Hill Reserve 09) USD 33 (88), cut grass, pea pod sauvignon (Tobin 09) USD 33 (87), and a bacony, buttery chardonnay (Witches Falls Wild Ferment 08) USD 29 (88).

The bottles with orange tags (FRUITY AND LIGHT), in demand today were a semi-mature, low alc semillon (Clovely Left Field 06) USD 27 (90), an appealing, crunchy, savoury sylvaner (Felsberg 09) USD 27 (91) and a melony, minerally verdelho (Sirromet 820 Above 09) USD 27 (88).

Next came maroon tags (BALANCED AND ELEGANT) for a merlot (Heritage Estate School Block 08) USD 31 (92) and a very snappy shiraz cabernet (Mt Tamborine Vineyards 07) USD 33 (91).

And the last group, russet tags (SPICY AND FULL BODIED) held a spicy shiraz (Ballandean Estate Family Reserve 07) USD 27.50 (87), a leafy, cut-grass cabernet (O’Reilly’s Canungra Valley 08) USD 27 (88), a juicy, lip-smacking tempranillo (Golden Grove 08) USD 30 (91) and an earthy, herbal cabernet franc (Rimfire 06) USD 31.50 (88).

These Queenslanders represent the Darling Downs, Granite Belt and South Burnett growing regions in true locovore fashion within 250 km of Brisbane.

Mercure hotels in Brisbane, Townsville and Cairns Harbourside stock these drops – sold from a standalone wine menu. And two badged Mercures-Mercure Clear Mountain Lodge and Mercure TreeTops Port Douglas dig into the selection to take a Queensland range.

The best aspect of this hotel group’s interest in focussing local was the obligatory training given to staff with wine diaries, food matching and theoretical wine assessment with on-line testing.

I’d think my wine was in good hands with these hotel restaurants pushing out such wares by a very clever, simple and unambiguous means.

The wine booklet cover bears the word “l’echanson”, an old French word for a butler or person you can trust with what you put in your mouth.

So I guess I put myself in the hands of the “l’echanseuses” at the Mercures.

The Queensland government hosted its “Queensland Grown” producer-restaurant exchange yesterday on the last day of autumn.

The focus was on winter produce and passionate people who supply the providors with excellent stuff. Some were new exhibitors as the gourmet food chain lengthens.

This clutch of people had farmhouse cheese, estate wine, hot house tomatoes, gourmet passionfruit, Coral Sea king prawns, game birds, rarer tropical fruits and organic olives.

Tomi of Eumundi is a hot house round and truss cherry tomato business run by Russell Parbury. Parbury is a man with a tomato industry background tenderly growing vine ripened tomatoes using established Spanish seed.

The round gourmet is Tradero and the truss cherry Conchita. There is a dearth of tomato breeding going on here but Russell stays with more stable varieties. Tomi is a tomato to find and established last year.

Kingaroy Cheese have had their second cheesemaker Erin Jones for 18 months, since their establishment in 2002. On display were Barkers Creek Camembert, Stuart River Triple Cream Brie (Gold last year’s RNA Brisbane) and Bunya Black (another triple cream doused in vine ash).

Jones has taken this small cheese producer a little higher in profile with these established soft cheeses; focusing again on washed rinds now that milk supply has come back after the big drought.

Tinaberries grow strawberries in Bundaberg and passionfruit in Childers. Bruce and Tina McPherson established Tinaberries in 2006 with the strawberries and passionfruit in 2008.

Large fruit often lack flavour yet the ex-Panama passionfruit variety Pandora was excellent; high sugar low acid alongside its traditional acidic variety Misty Gem. Tina was encouraging tasters to have a lash of Cointreau inside the topped fruit.

Wineries pouring for the edibles were Clovely (South Burnett) and Boireann (Granite Belt).

Clovely’s CEO and chief winemaker Luke Fitzpatrick was serving White Label Verdelho 2009 88 (USD 8) and had assistance from his Red Hill Cellar Door chef Jason Winter.

The 2009 verdelho tasted just great; unwooded, fruity not sweet, dry not oily and just a pleasant drink to have with a freshly-cooked Coral Sea ocean king prawn during the afternoon.

Therese Stark poured Boireann’s Shiraz 2009 90 (USD 26), a spicy drop with great texture and dryness – fine cool climate stuff without any whiff of high ripeness.

However the wine which was spinning the restaurateurs was Boireann La Cima Barbera 2009 90 (USD 26), with heady aromas of black spices and tangy, savoury acidity which just soaks up Mediterranean flavours and dishes.

The finale was a wonderful Queensland Government brochure demonstrating the Australian native flavour wheel – the sensory vocabulary which describes the aroma and flavour of plant food products native to Oz. Try www.anfil.com.au for the native ingredients such as davidson plum, desert lime, finger lime, kakadu plum, lemon aspen, muntries, quandong, riberry, anise myrtle, lemon myrtle, cut leaf mint, bush tomato, Tasmanian pepper berry, Tasmanian pepper leaf and wattle seed.

New Zealand’s tenth hosting of the International Chardonnay Competition (ICC) 2010 was a huge success for Aussie brands.

Several countries celebrate with chardonnay competitions-Chardonnay du Monde (887 entries in 2010), as well as the major UK wine competitions having chardonnay trophies from hundreds of entries. http://www.chardonnay-du-monde.com ; http://www.decanter.com/specials/85071.html

The ICC started with 100 entries but now has over 500, essentially from Australia and New Zealand though without restriction, and we occasionally see some Californians and South Amercians.

As well entries from France, Italy and South Africa (one bronze in 2010) appear.

The chardonnay grape is thoroughly deserving of this attention as a widely planted international variety able to adapt to vast climate ranges with ease. Unlike riesling and pinot gris.

In many countries chardonnay styles are undergoing huge palate retrofitting, and part of this charge is strongly led by the Australians.

This needs to happen to stay relevant at the top echelon of producers. However our friends in Chablis and Burgundy are closer to the core in this regard but these regions need to look closer at the closures used. Too many dud chardonnays are coming out of France from use of cork.

For the 2010 results at Gisbourne the judging panels (Kiwi dominant) would appear to be across this chardonnay style evolution awarding 14 gold medals to Aussie chardonnays. The remaining four went to New Zealand brands.

Whereas where the Aussies seek additional acidity from relatively warmer regions, the Kiwis tend to suffer for exuberant levels of acidity which cloud the tasting decisions. Kiwi chardonnay rides in a sea of malolactic flavour while most Aussies rarely do the conversion.

The
clear demonstration of Margaret River as top region of the show came with the five golds -Devil’s Lair 2008 and 2009-2, Killerby 2009, Laurence 2008, Peccavi 2009 and Xanadu. The latter Reserve 2009 also took best wine of this ICC: congratulations WA.

No Margaret River fluke of course-Cullen Kevin John 2007 took best Aussie chardonnay at last week’s Decanter World Wine Awards shadowing Voyager 2007.

The Queenslander Ridgemill Estate Pedigree 2009 took a silver. This show is a happy hunting ground for Ridgemill; the same small vineyard took bronze last year with their 2008 and gold in 2006 with their 2005.

Of the ICC results, the bronze medal to Fosters Wine Estates Heemskerk 2008 from Tasmania was noted after taking the chardonnay trophy at last year’s Royal Queensland Show. The style is ultra-modern with a core of streamlined acidity rivalling riesling, and is easily missed by judges due to its austerity.

http://www.internationalchardonnaychallenge.com

Semillon Blanc – heard of it? Well probably not but I hope you do quite soon.

To be quite direct this white wine from semillon has been with us for centuries – first in Bordeaux and more recently the hero white of the Hunter Valley.

What has changed though is a cleverer approach to marketing Australian semillon (always difficult) by the large listed wine company Australian Vintage (McGuigan and Tempus Two brands).

The brand new 2010 wine was recently unveiled at a London trade fair by its creator acting company CEO and chief winemaker Neil McGuigan.

It’s destined for the UK market at a price of around USD 10. McGuigan calls this wine his “Sauvignon Blanc killer” and I hope it does.

You see the prolific sauvignon blanc wines of New Zealand and elsewhere in cooler parts of Europe tend to be abbreviated and referred to as “sauvignon”.

It is axiomatic in a mature wine market that “blanc” is white anyway, so why mouth it if everyone understands.

This habit appears to be cleverly exploited by these Aussie marketers in amending the name of an old variety to gain better recognition. Best wishes from this writer.

What has McGuigan made? A modern semillon, pumped with all the aromatic nose characters to smell lovely.

Then he will have gone for texture and mouthfeel by using modern techniques; particularly ageing on the dead yeast after the ferments stop.

Lees ageing of course was first practised in making Champagne from the days of monk Dom Perignon.

The grapes come from the Murray Valley and the Riverina-engine room stuff where McGuigan located some relatively old vines (25 yo) at cost-effective prices.

The wine style is 11 per cent alcohol and easy drinking, unwooded. Though it has started in the UK market expect around by Christmas I say.