Events

Australian cults in DP-Trade tasting
December 2005

In the middle of December Grant Dodd, Australian consultant of DP-Trade, presented a new collection in Vinum boutique.

It included wines of such popular in the Western markets wineries as Kalleske, Dalwhinnie, Tower Estate, Dutschke, Kaesler, Wild Duck Creek.

Grant Dodd started with a short overview of modern Australian winemaking. There are 1800 wineries in the country, about a thousand of them has access to export markets. Five largest conglomerates (Fosters, Constellation, Pernod Ricard, Casella, McGuigan Simeon) control 85% of the domestic production and 80% of export. Twenty leading wine producers account for 94% of export by volume.

For tasting, Dodd offered 11 white and red wines from six wineries which enjoy a cult status in Australia and abroad.

Kalleske from Barossa is considered today the hottest name in Australia. The estate has grown grapes for a hundred years and used to sell part of the crop for Penfold’s Grange. Own production was organized in 2002. The tasting featured Clarry’s White 2005, Semillon / Chenin Blanc blend, Clarry’s Red 2004, dominated by Grenache and Old Vine Grenache 2003 — one of the favourite wines of the tasting that impressed with deep aromas of red flowers and appealing flavours of blackberry/strawberry confit.

Dalwhinnie winery, Victoria, prefers to make elegant wines with low alcohol content. The soils in the vineyards are so rock hard that dynamite was used to break them. At the moment the winemaker is moving more into single vineyard wines. Chardonnay 2001 and Shiraz 2001 were offered for the tasting, both made in elegant, more European-like style.

Tower Estate in the Hunter Valley is connected with the name of legendary Australian winemaker Len Evans. A very distinctive was Chardonnay 2003, the grapes for which are gathered from othe best ’white’ vineyard of the country Yattarna. The wine is made by oxidative method. Pressed grapes are left in the open air which turns the fruit black. During fermentation dark colour disappears, and the wine gets a tighter structure. The tasting also featured Barossa Shiraz 2003 — fresh, rather elegant wine with typical chocolate flavours of Barossa Shiraz.

Dutschke winery in Barossa is known for fortified wines, along with dry. In Moscow two shirazes were shown — St Jacobi Shiraz 2003 and Oscar Semmler Shiraz 2003, flagship wine of the estate, with powerful character.

Kaesler, Shiraz specialist in Barossa, was represented by ’extreme’ wine Old Vine Shiraz 2003 with such powerful concentration that I found difficulty in drinking it.

The tasting finished with Reserve Shiraz 2003 by Wild Duck Creek — the winery which received a lot of attention in the end of 1990s thanks to high Parker scores.