(written By Stuart Barry)
It isn’t often you come across a Scottish couple running a winery in
Australia named after a porridge, but in Skillogalee, you have exactly that.
Fresh from University and looking to develop their careers, Dave and Diana
Palmer left Scotland in the early 1970’s and headed toward Papua New
Guinea. Having recently graduated in Engineering, running a winery in Australia
was the last thing on Dave’s mind, however a job opportunity and the
comfortable surroundings that it offered soon wooed the Palmers to Australia.
Along came Skillogalee, a superb vineyard property situated in the Clare Valley
wine region of South Australia, renowned for its relatively cool climate,and
well structured wines. They soon realised they were sitting on a veritable
gem which even had its own Celtic history. The original settlers named the
nearby creek after the seed and water mix that kept them alive.
The winery is now a full time occupation and last year the property doubled
in size when Dave took over the winery next door.
1. The Cabernets 1997
Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc with a dash of Malbec and 15 months in
French and American oak. This wine is full of soft, sweet, leafy fruit with
an intense and complex raisin, plum, vanilla cream leanness, which you come
to expect from this beautifully textured region.
Price: £9.99
Stockist: Peckham’s
Rating: 8/10
Match with: Beef Stroganoff
2. Shiraz 1999
When I first tasted this Shiraz, it instantly reminded me of aTim Adams’
wine. Hardly surprising, as Dave sold half of previous vintages to his close
neighbour. Thankfully he now keeps all the fruit for himself – the block
busting balance of fruit and oak make this a wine to savour.
Price: £12.99
Stockist: Peckham’s
Rating: 9/10
Match with: Sage roasted rack of lamb
3. Riesling 2001
Like all good Riesling, this wine needs tome to open up. Drink now for its
limey minerality, or stick it away to savour luscious pineapple and grapefruit
flavours in a few years time.
Price: £9.99
Stockist: Peckham’s
Rating: 8/10
Match with: Fish terrine
(This article is courtesy of theage.com.au)
Someone has taken the trouble to figure out there are 250 million bubbles
in a bottle of champagne.
Like many things about the world's great sparkling wine, it's a "fact"
that sounds romantic but is probably debatable (so don't go throwing this
one around too freely!).
As is the belief that champagne tastes the same the world over.Most companies add a final top-up of white wine and sugar syrup that determines sweetness to meet individual market demand. The South Americans and the Japanese traditionally like their champagne sweeter; we like it drier, like the Europeans.
Or there's the wonderful exclamation: "Brothers, I am tasting stars!",
said to have come from the creator of champagne, Dom Perignon. It didn't,
and he wasn't. Here are some other myths and debatable points that can apply
to champagne as well as our own sparkling wines.
The French invented sparkling wine
Controversial stuff, this. Back in 1998, English champagne authority Tom Stevenson
was struck off the Christmas card list of Champagne producers when he calculated
it was the English and not the French who first put the bubble into wine (there's
one to make the English proud!). He found French glass was too weak for fizzy
wine and an efficient sealing material such as cork was not available in France
before about 1695, but both had been available in England for about 30 years.
He cited a 1662 report from England's Royal Society, that, "our wine
coopers of recent times use vast quantities of sugar and molasses to all sorts
of wines to make them drink brisk and sparkling."
Dom Perignon invented champagne
It is such a pity to have to destroy a perfectly romantic and highly promotable
misconception. Dom Perignon was a Benedictine priest who was sent to an abbey
in Champagne in 1657 and whose duties included making wine. He took to the
job with relish, refining the growing and making process and using stronger
glass for bottles as well as substituting cork for hemp and wood. But his
greatest gift was as a blender. "He arrived at a time that was very fortunate
for himself but he was also a man of training perfect for the times,"
says Paul Boothby of importers Tucker Seabrook and a former Vin de Champagne
Award winner. "He did not invent champagne. No one invented it, it just
happened spontaneously."
Champagne/sparkling wine doesn't get cork taint (what's cork
taint!!)
If only it were true! The bubbly effervescence of champagne doesn't disperse
or blow off those nasty-smelling fungal cork taint smells and flavours. So
why don't we hear more about it in conjunction with sparkling wine? Perhaps,
because it is a celebratory drink, we are less likely to be on the lookout
for faults.
"Cork taint is probably every bit as relevant to sparkling wine and champagne
as it is to still wine, if not more so," says Domaine Chandon sparkling
wine maker Neville Rowe. "Because of the delicate nature of sparkling,
its more restrained flavour structure, depending on style, it is more prone
to exhibit off flavours ... at lower thresholds."
The bready, yeasty, autolysis characters common to champagne/sparkling wine
are the result of the wine-making process.
Another controversial one, and definitely one to ponder. Most wine books promote
the theory that the bready, yeasty characters we smell and taste are caused
by the destruction of yeast cells (lees) during the second fermentation in
sparkling wine production. The longer the wine is left in contact with the
lees, the more pronounced the yeasty, autolysis characters.
Enter Seppelt group sparkling wine maker Steve Goodwin. "I think the
so-called Vegemitey, yeasty, autolysis character that we all see, most of
that is just bottle-developed pinot noir character (rather) than autolysis,"
Goodwin says.
Rosé is an inferior, less exciting sparkling wine style
One look at some of the most prestigious and expensive Champagnes in the world
will forever destroy the image of a cheap, pink bubbly made for the ladies.
Top luxury wines such as Dom Perignon 1992 rosé ($415), Roederer Cristal
1995 rose ($390) and Krug non-vintage rose ($450) can cost up to $150 more
than their white siblings. The higher prices generally indicate that the more
time-consuming maceration method has been used in which the black pinot noir
grapes are fermented for a short time then pressed, the first free-run juice
being of the highest quality. It is a difficult method, and many wine makers
prefer to simply add red wine to a white sparkling base (go for the real one
I say!!).
Champagne/sparkling wine doesn't age
Perhaps the greatest myth of all. Champagne and sparkling wine is usually
promoted as ready to drink upon release. This can be seen either as a clever
marketing ploy to make us keep buying, or a sign of the producers' concern
we will be disappointed by the apparent lack of freshness in an aged sparkling
or champagne. It is true that with age the bubble can lose some of its vitality
but in its place are more developed, honeyed, nutty smells and flavours that
a fresher, younger style won't have. It depends on individual taste.
Malolactic fermentation is/isn't good for sparkling wine/champagne
This one is for the diehards to debate but is worth a quick look because more
producers here and in France are turning to the malolactic process. It takes
place during wine making when malic acid is converted into softer lactic acid,
said to promote a creamy texture and to be easier on the throat. In the past,
houses such as Alfred Gratien, Krug, Piper Heidsieck and Lanson have prevented
malo from taking place, arguing its absence promotes a strong fruit-driven
style that will age well. Most have now come around and employ it to some
degree (the sooner the better! not that age isn't good!)
A scratch mark on the bottom of a champagne glass will promote bubbles
"That's not a myth," says Seppelt's Steve Goodwin, who often scratches
his glass with a skewer (a little cross on the bottom is considered most effective).
A small pebble can also do the trick as the rough surface promotes bubbles.
"It just gives nucleation points for the bubbles to form on, (or) nuclei
for the bubble formation. There's a number of scientific papers published
on this sort of thing based on the physical chemistry of COs (carbon dioxide)
solution and dissolution on bubble formation," he says.
Health Department regulations prevent wine bars from adopting the practice
(the fear is that bacteria can lodge in the cuts) but that doesn't mean the
rest of us can't try it, (just don't get caught!).