Flash Flood-Boireann Vineyard The Summitz

While floods ravage a Queensland surface area six times that of the UK, the State’s pristine wine growing district has not been spared.

“It took 60 mm overnight for the flood to start. Although the farms and vineyards are well drained, five weeks ago every dam in the Geographic Indication was full” said agricultural consultant Stephen Tancred from Stanthorpe yesterday. The town had another 50mm through the day.

So the need for the soil to take up moisture passed over a month ago, and it’s that sandy decomposed granite with underlying clay type soil throughout the district. Good for Mediterranean type grape varieties like barbera, tempranillo and nero d’avola, but without too much water indulgence.

The district’s water storage Storm King Dam has been full for weeks, and now that is starting to overflow through Stanthorpe town.

“Old style grapegrowers with experience have clean vineyards, while some new entrants have dropped the ball with the management of downy mildew, and some defoliation has taken place. With so much rain there is no farm work, so disease can continue to spread until the sun comes out again. However, the district harvest will be down. It will be late because it’s been so cold and wet. The apple crop is clean but we need sunshine to maintain it now,” adds Tancred.

Five kilometres south of Stanthorpe town yesterday the Broadwater River broke its banks from the run-off.

Broadwater Creek in flood via Stanthorpe

“Nearby we can hear the roar of the Severn River,” says Ridgemill winemaker and Strange Bird instigator Peter McGlashan. “The vineyards are holding up because veraison is yet to start, and it will be late. The main problem is access to the ground because the soil is sodden, but as this is some of the best draining soil in the State we should not need to wait long.”

The December rainfall total at Ridgemill was 206 mm and January total so far plus the last two days has been 120 mm to date. This pales alongside the 150 mm in an hour during Tuesday’s inland tsunami in Toowoomba or the 250 mm fall thru Wednesday over Wivenhoe dam (the main flood mitigant now threatening the State’s capital with severe water ingress). www.ridgemillestate.com.au

The sudden rain storms have been quite regular for the past month, causing headaches for the damage to vineyards and forced trellis and drainage repairs when attention to canopies and spray regimes would be better spent.

“This happened at about 4pm on 5 January. I hope the driveway will still be there when the water goes. Michael’s drain entrance is under there somewhere. Will start on the ark in the morning, Noah,” says a philosophical winemaker Peter Stark from Boireann at The Summit, north of Stanthorpe. www.boireannwinery.com.au

Flash Flood-Boireann Vineyard The Summit

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uncorked No Comments January 11th, 2011 Wine Region Review

Big Queensland wet: Vineyards under water, flash floods

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 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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uncorked No Comments December 22nd, 2010 Italy Tour Visit Post, Wine Region Review

Touring in Italy: Wine regions, ristorantes and stays

Uncorked and Cultivated took a listening tour of Chianti and its surrounds in advance of our tours starting September 2011.

PART 2: VENEZIA, VINCENZA AND PIEMONTE

While there is little wine production around Venezia (Venice), this utmost tourism venue is a magnet for the wines from almost all Italian regions. The closest being Soave, and it is a natural fit with the fishing activities in the Venetian region.

The restaurant of choice in front of the Rialto bridge was Al Pesador, looking quite hip at Rialto on Campo San Giacometo overlooking the tidal Grande Canal which was washing the tiles below. As expected the restaurant featured fish for lunch, and there were three types fresh for inspection.

The starters were encouraging; soft marinated sardines (lemon jest, good salt), mozarella soft in the centre and small spinach, squid in its own ink, jet black, salt cod (bacala) fluffed up as in a cream, all seeking an acidic local white Soave of which there was a choice of three including the popular Pieropan.

The drink was Filippi Brothers Castelcercino 2009 (USD 39); biodynamically-grown www.cantinafilippi.it, (86), 12.5%, quite skinny and obviously aged on its solids, needing better winemaking but this is covered when drunk with the fish of the day, porgy, a type similar to what we would call bass or bream.

It came simply grilled with peppered waxy potatoes and raddichio.

The Haitian espresso coffee was a marvel; made by a specialist roaster Gianni Frasi (torrefazione) in Verona who draws supply from some unusual and interesting sources in the Carribean.

Meanwhile accommodation was at the ancient Villa Valmarana in via dei Nani, having imposing sights of the city of Vicenza and surrounding vineyards, olive orchards and host to several running tracks, so the Vicenzians look to be a fitter lot.

The property is very imposing; part is open for public inspection with its manicured gardens while our accommodation is simply enormous. A new kitchen at one end of a very large living room is an excuse to visit the local markets to prepare fresh mussels over pasta while the local tomatoes still stay so ripe sitting on their covered trellises with barely any leaves.

Refitted bedrooms intersect the large walls and their beautiful frescos are intersected by new ceilings which cut the room height by half. We found time to enjoy the late and fading afternoon sun from the balcony and drink newly-discovered Proseccos with spiced olives.

This fizz was Desiderio JE10 Prosecco Superiore from Colmei in Valdobbiadene NV 11.5%; 90, termed extra-dry and tasting so, made by the Bisol family.

Across to Alexandria and then Alba takes you to the heart of nebbiolo grape country collectively called Langhe.

After some navigation which by-passed the spiritual city of local winemaking as well as the truffle centre, we located Grinzane Cavour, then a small area on the fringe of Diano D’Alba and accommodation at Tenuta Ottocentro under the steep hill behind the town.

The first encounter with traditional Piedmontese foods was at Trattoria nelle Vigne in via Santa Croce 17; tel 0173 468503 owned by Farioli Sabrina.

Successive courses of tuna sauce over anchovies, salad russe (one of many interpretations combining chicken, cheese, capers and iceberg lettuce), fatty pork belly, veal tartare and gorgonzola frittata, were completed with white rabbit braised in nebbiolo and onions, garnished with parsley.

A good bottle of Vietti Perbacco Nebbiolo 2007 14%; 89 (USD 22) from nearby at Castiglione Falletto soothed the nerves and the angst of such a succession of dishes on the hop. This ristorante was good value.

After a morning of tastings in Barolo town, the GPS was set for via Boschetti to locate Locanda nel Borgo Antico, an old renovated farmhouse, now a ristorante 0173 56355.

A little like taking the back roads, unsealed of course in my home country, quite a deal of navigating resulted in finding our place for a meal.

This did become a little complicated because the entry door is not signed (and there are several, some leading to derelict rooms or the cellar areas, unattended of course), and even more bizarre, the entry is kept locked, and a staff member jumps out the door from upstairs to offer admittance. Strange secrecy.

Food interpretations were quite contemporary; the veal tartare was tiny veal dices, marinated in lime juice and white truffle, dices of cheese, pimento, Dijon mustard and a single chive garnish.

The veal eye fillet was cooked pink, with green vegetable puree garnish, caramelised roasted vegetables kept to the minimum or taglitalle home-made had veal ragout, and canaraoli sauced with melted semi-hard Toma cheese.

La Morra from Locanda nel Borgo Antico

The wine choice Camerano Cannubi Barolo 2005 14%; 85 (USD 72) was simply too pretty to enjoy, so we reverted to a glass of Brezza Bricco Sarmassa 2004, 14%; 92, a wonderful wine showing little age and maximum flavour softness.In summary Locanda nel Borgo Antico scores well (16/20) for great decor, excellent service, “out-there” plate and dish presentation, super food flavours on the minimalist train, great country lunch venue and all-staff attention to detail. Check USD 104 px. www.locandanelborgo.it

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