Bounders' Diary Part Three

Here's the last instalment of the Bounders' February trip to Australia.

Flight to Mount Gambier airport
Met by Brian Lynn from Majella wines, known as ‘Prof’ by all the winemakers in Coonawarra due to his great knowledge of everything. Noticeable that the Coonawarra vineyards are largely uninterrupted whereas the other areas we have visited have vineyards interspersed with farmland, fields and trees.

Majella
Tasting with Brian and Bruce Gregory the winemaker. Very good wines. The Musician Cab/Shiraz 2009 The 2008 Merlot, Cab Sauv and Shiraz are all very good - we all liked his wines. Tour of Coonawarra with Prof. Best vineyards are all on the red Terra Rossa soil. Saw an interesting cut away which highlighted the red top soil with limestone underneath.

Made a few extra stops.

Leconfield Estate
Hamilton Shiraz v good for the price.

Leconfield make our exclusive Hamilton Block Cab :

HAMILTON BLOCK COONAWARRA CAB SAUV 08

Katnook. 2007 Chardonnay and 2006 Prodigy Shiraz v. good. Balnaves 2008 Cab Sauv good.

Tuesday 1st March - McLaren Vale

Vale Coriole
A little bit of Tuscany in McLaren Vale. Tasting with Mark Lloyd and John Lamp. The 2004 Chenin was excellent - unoaked and ageing wonderfully. 2008 Sangiovese/Shiraz and 2008 Nebbiolo also good.

Paxton
Tour and tasting with Paul Limpus, Mike and Ben. Great bunch of guys. All biodynamically produced - a nice range of reasonably priced wines. 2009 Tempranillo good as was the 2010 Rosé. Some nice tank samples too from the 2010 vintage. Saw the herb garden as well as cows horns and stags bladders all used for fertiliser. Fruit trees including Fig, Kaffir, Tangello, Satsuma, Plum and Pear – all delicious.

A great evening with the RedHeads guys at the Victory Hotel - great food and wine too.

Wednesday 2nd March McLaren Vale

Chapel Hill
Tour and tasting with Michael Fragos. Lovely cellar door including the original Chapel. Very informative cellar tour - just bringing in the Chardonnay grapes too.

Last stop RedHeads
Tastings with Steve Grimley, Jess Hardy, Andrew Pieri and Adam Hooper. Good set up at RedHeads and the guys are passionate about their wines. Very informative tasting and the wines, as always, will be well received when they get to the U.K.

Red Heads wines in stock now :

RED HEADS RACK 1 OAK AGED SHIRAZ CAB 08
LA CURIO THE NUBILE GRENACHE SHIRAZ 09
LONGWOOD SHIRAZ MCLAREN VALE 09
WILSON GUNN BELLUM SHIRAZ CAB 07
PIKKARA MCLAREN VALE SHIRAZ 09
WILSON GUNN BELLUM SHIRAZ CAB 08
LA CURIO MCLAREN VALE RESERVE SHIRAZ 09
MCMURTRIE MCLAREN VALE CAB SAUV 09
PIERI AZZARDO MCLAREN VALE SHIRAZ 09
THE GOOD DOCTOR TANNAT CAB SHIR MCLAREN VALE 09

A great way to end the trip.

A common theme was obviously the late harvest due to the cool weather and rain - no one had yet brought in any grapes except Chapel Hill. 2011 will be an interesting vintage to say the least.

Without exception everyone was very welcoming and friendly towards us and made all the visits well worthwhile. The winemakers in each area we visited are all very supportive of each other and keen to distinguish the wines they make in their regions from the rest of Australia which is certainly the way forward. There are a lot of very good wines out there and production techniques that would make the Europeans envious.

The Bounders …