Appellation Australia

If you’ve visited the site over the past couple of weeks, you would have noticed that I was trialling limited Google Ads on some pages. There were a number of things that I didn’t really like about the Google ads. Primarily that I had no real control over what companies were promoted via the ads.

Thus, I am pleased to be able to remove the Google Ads and replace them with a business that I am happy to endorse, Wickman’s Fine Wine Auctions.

There are a couple of things about Wickman’s that sets them aside from other wine auction houses in Australia.
* An annual charity auction for the Multiple Sclerosis Australia charity.
* A charity section in each auction with unique donations from various industry sources and no commissions charged on lots.
* A “guaranteed provenance” system where they will take extra steps with certain lots to guarantee that they have been stored properly.
* Low commissions - 5% for the seller and 10% for the buyer.
* Reasonable shipping - it costs less to have a case of wine shipped from Wickman’s in Adelaide to Sydney, than it does to have a case shipped from a leading auction house in Sydney to me!

I’m glad to recommend them and I think it is worth checking them out, and if you are interested, signing up for their newsletter in advance of the next auction that starts in July.

Clonakilla is a well known, but still relatively small winery in the Canberra region, close to Australia’s capital city.

I had a less than ideal experience with one of the wines that I purchased last year from the cellar door and I wrote to the winery expressing my concern over the problem that night and to see if he had received any other reports of problems. The next day I had a response from Tim Kirk (winemaker/owner) acknowledging the issue and giving me a detailed rundown of the steps they were taking in the winery to prevent the problem occurring again. He should also be commended for taking an approach to make the situation right without me asking him to do so.

It amazes me that the attitude of some wineries is that customers almost seem to be too much of a hassle to deal with. In a industry where we read numerous reports of producers struggling with the over-availability of wine and other issues, it seems like it would make sense to ensure the customer is happy and remains loyal. Some wineries just don’t get it, there is a massive amount of brilliant wine out there and the amount that I can afford to buy is the tiniest of percentages, it makes it a lot easier to decide where my money is going to go when the winery shows loyalty to the customer, realising that it is not a one way street. You may be able to sell out of your wine every vintage and this year, but it doesn’t mean you’ll be able to the next year, or the year after when I’ve moved on to buy from other producers.

So a big “well done” to Clonakilla and Tim Kirk, you will have my loyalty in the years to come and I’m sure the loyalty of many others you have dealt with.

Since posting on some new Australian wine blogs a few months ago here, there have been a few more that have come along and are worth having a look at. I think I might have to narrow my niche again now that there are so many Australian focused sites - how about Barossa Valley Pinot reviews?

Bella Bacchante’s Wine Page! - A recently started blog by Caroline from Melbourne that is going to focus on her lengthy overseas wine focused trip.
The Wine Nazi - “Wine Reviews from a guy who is NOT actually a member of the Nazi Party.”

Anybody else out there running an Australian wine/food blog? Feel free to leave a comment below if I am missing anyone.

For those readers in Sydney, it’s almost time for the annual Victorian Winemakers Exhibition at The Menzies Hotel. This year the event will be held on January 30 & 31 with the public tastings between 4pm - 8pm.

I went last year and may I suggest arriving as close to 4pm as possible to taste around some pre-selected wineries and then doing a tutorial session from 6pm to 7pm when the crowds really start to ramp up.

There is more information at http://www.vicwineweek.com regarding entry cost, wineries on show and the tutored tastings that are being offered.

I have some observations on trends encountered at last years show here and a roundup on wines tasted here. This year I plan on getting along to the trade tastings and having more time to speak to the winemakers along with tasting some new releases.

Thanks to SmartyHost for including my blog amongst the finalists in their search for Australia’s Best Blog. Over five hundred blogs were judged for the contest and to make it to the final eleven was exciting (and unexpected).

If you are a new visitor, then welcome. As an introduction, the About page talks about some of the things that I’m looking to achieve with this blog. Aside from that, you can view stories and tasting notes on specific regions via the Categories section on the right hand side or just browse through all the previous pages via the links at the bottom of each page.

Please feel free to email me or leave a comment with any questions, suggestions or general feedback that you have for the site. We are working on some exciting features for the near future and I hope that you’ll continue to visit and enjoy.

I think that my prize for reaching the final eleven consists of some hosting services, so it looks like Appellation Australia is finally getting its own domain name. Suggestions for the domain name would be welcomed, www.appellationaustralia.com has already been registered. Perhaps a name change for the site is in order as well.

As for the grand prize of $10,000 for the overall winner Singing Bridges, well, there is always next year!

Tyson Stelzer, screwcap expert and Australian wine writer has posted a roundup of thirty 2005 Australian Rieslings at his web site.

2005 is looking like the best overall vintage since 2002 for many of Australia’s Riesling regions. I’ve tasted some super examples from the Clare Valley and Eden Valley in South Australia along with Victoria and Western Australia.

I’ll shortly be posting a roundup of the Annual Riesling Challenge which is held in Canberra and features Riesling from Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America.

Welcome to all who have arrived through the mention of my site in the Sydney Morning Herald Good Living section today.

As an introduction, the About page talks about some of the things that I’m looking to achieve with this blog. Aside from that, you can view stories and tasting notes on specific regions via the Categories section on the right hand side or just browse through all the previous pages via the links at the bottom of each page.

Please feel free to email me or leave a comment with any questions, suggestions or general feedback that you have for the site. We are working on some exciting features for the near future and I hope that you’ll continue to visit and enjoy.

Andrew over at Spittoon “tagged” me to take part in a meme started by Beau at Basic Juice. The idea of the meme is that you nominate the best wine that you have had in the past 30 days and then pass the baton on to a fellow wine blogger as well as a food blogger.

This has come to me at an opportune time as I recently had the good fortune to try a piece of Australian wine history.

The wine in question is the very special Seppelt 1905 Para Liqueur Vintage Tawny.

The story goes that the owner and winemaker at Seppelt, Benno Seppelt wanted to commemorate the opening of a newly constructed stone cellar at Seppeltsfield in the Barossa Valley. He decided that he would put aside a barrel of the finest wine for that vintage and declared that it should remain unbottled for 100 years.

This was in 1878 and each subsequent year a barrel has been put aside to be untouched for a minimum of 100 years. Wine is bottled only on demand and Seppelt still has unbottled stock for all years back to 1878. This makes Seppelt the only company in the world to have significant stock of unbottled wine laid down in consecutive vintages for what is now 127 years.

Unlike a solera system, where vintages are blended together, the Seppelt 100yo Para is a true vintage wine with 100% of the wine being from the specified vintage.

This particular vintage of 100 year old Para is a blend of Mataro, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache and Malbec.

Tasting Note: There aren’t strong enough superlatives to do justice to the concentration and viscosity of this wine. Swirling ever so gently left a thick coat of wine along the sides of the glass for over five minutes.

An impenetrable glowing dark mahogany in colour with glimpses of olive yellow, honey and maple throughout.

Impossibly complex bouquet, one feels that you could dedicate weeks to sitting and smelling this in awe and still not unravel all the layers that it has to offer. Toffee, caramel, butterscotch, tobacco, rancio and spirity characters each as fully intense as if they were the only aromas in the wine.

On the palate you are treated to the unbelievable viscosity of the wine as it flows ever so slowly down the side of the glass and past your lips. You almost feel like you are able to chew on the wine it is so dense. The flavours are like an explosion in your mouth - Toffee, caramel, maple syrup, roasted coffee beans, dark chocolate, cigar box - but enough acid to keep a semblance of balance.

The finish is glorious and the astonishing aftertaste remains with you for hours, if not longer.

Verdict: 100 points. No tasting note can do it true justice.

As mentioned, the wine is bottled on demand from vintages ranging between 1878 and 1905. Each vintage costs the same to bottle, $575AU for 375ml and $1050AU for 750ml. Expensive, but an unique part of Australian wine history. For those of us not quite willing/able to part with that much hard earned money, at Seppelt’s Barossa Valley Cellar Door you can take a guided tour of the winery and then taste Seppelt’s premium wine range followed by a cheese platter and a taste of the 100 year old Para for $50 per person.

Now, to pass the meme along, I nominate from the wine blogging side Mike from ShirazShiraz and for the food blogging side I nominate Niki at Esurientes

A while back Andrew from Spittoon mentioned that the RSS Feeds for my site were not displayed. After some investigation I found that the feeds were not working at all.

I have finally managed to resolve the problem that was preventing these from working - so if you are using RSS or Atom compatible feed readers, please feel free to add my site.

For those of you not familiar with RSS and Atom, these are parts of the site that are updated whenever I add a new post. The idea behind this is that you can add all your favourite sites to an application that supports it (such as Thunderbird Email or the web based Bloglines) and you are shown new posts to those sites when they are posted. This means that you don’t have to visit the site to find out if it has been updated or not.

The links to the feeds are on the right hand side under the links section. Alternatively, you can copy and paste the following URL in your favoured feed reader.

http://www.camwheeler.com/wine/?feed=rss2

I was pleased to share some excellent wine over a couple of nights recently with some friends who enjoy drinking it, but perhaps aren’t quite as obsessed with it as I am.

From left to right:

Bannockburn Shiraz 2002 - ($50 - Geelong, Victoria): Earthy and stalky with spice and pepper, well balanced oak lending structure. Super complexity on the palate to keep things interesting. There was a touch of unbalanced acid on the finish but a very good wine regardless. Needs food to really show its best. 92 Points

Star Lane Merlot 2002 - ($35 - Beechworth, Victoria): Contract made by Keppell Smith from the cult winery Savaterre. Medium weighted, great line and length, not lacking anything in the mid-palate. Showed some cool-climate spicy characteristics on the nose and palate. Well balanced with a smooth finish. Among the top Australian Merlot predominate wines that I have tasted this year. 93 Points

Egly-Ouriet Brut Tradition Grand Cru N.V - Disgorged Sept 2004 - ($75 - Champagne, France): Lovely golden colour with a glimmer of pink, fine bead and mousse. Pinot dominated nose. Yeasty and apple characters on the nose, but neither were overpowering. Delicious and excellent value compared to the big Champagne houses. 89 Points

Henschke Abbotts Prayer Merlot 2001 - ($65 - Adelaide Hills, South Australia): I’ve talked about this wine a couple of times before (here and here) and each time it has been excellent, this time was no exception. Impeccable structure and length. Velvety all the way across the palate. The kind of wine that you look up to find that the bottle is empty in no time since it is so drinkable. One of the few producers doing something special with this variety in Australia. 93 Points

Clonakilla Hilltops Shiraz Viognier 2004 - ($30 - Young, New South Wales): From the winery that made the Shiraz Viognier blend famous in Australia comes this version priced at about half the cost of the flagship wine. Previous vintages of this wine were without a Viognier influence but this vintage has been fermented on Viognier skins and looks all the better for it. Crimson tinged with a superb, enticing floral nose with hints of apricot. Excellent mouthfeel. Strongly fruit driven at this stage of its life, but has a backing of restrained oak and the tannin structure to develop for 4 to 5 years. Perhaps a little bit angular, which should resolve itself over time, but this is such delicious drinking now that I don’t know if many will be able to keep their hands off it for that long. 92 Points