Function Report - Rutherglen Wine Area Tour

19th-20th August 2006

31 members and guests took the opportunity to tour the Rutherglen Wine Area over the weekend of 19 and 20 August 2006. As is usual, we travelled on a coach from Pakenham Bus Lines with Peter Henderson piloting us to our destination.

Rutherglen Wine Area

“A unique climate, commitment, endurance, skill, innovation and accident have coalesced in Rutherglen to create incredibly complex, unique, world renowned wines. Great examples of Sparkling Shiraz, Pinot Chardonnay, flavourful and long lived Riesling, Marsanne and Chardonnay, Sangiovese, and Gamay attest to the successful application of modern winemaking and viticultural techniques learnt, developed and embraced over the years. The Winemakers of Rutherglen have their own specialist vine nursery and meet on a monthly basis at Senior and Junior Vignerons Dinners, where wine styles from around the world are analysed, discussed and inevitably consumed

Rutherglen has the same heat degree days summation as the Clare Valley in South Australia (1770), and the same sunshine hours as the Gold Coast in Queensland. This combination of great sunshine and ‘not too, hot not too cold’ allows many grape varieties to develop the full flavours for which Rutherglen wines are so famous. Cool nights, warm days and a normally long dry autumn, allow Muscat and Tokay grapes to achieve high levels of sweetness and flavour. Rutherglen reds such as Shiraz and Durif develop a rich core of fruit, and firm natural tannin structure which combine to make them great cellaring wines, and enable them to be made into powerful vintage, and complex tawny ports.” From the Rutherglen Web Site

After the last pickup of passengers, we
enjoyed a chilled fruit juice before our
normal morning - tea stop beside the park at Euroa. Fresh rolls (so fresh there was insufficient time to butter them before the tour commenced), pâté, cheese, gherkin, salami and a nip of brandy were all available to accompany the tea or coffee.

On boarding the coach Barbara Cecchi once more provided each of us with a travel pack, filled with some edible and inedible items. However she also provided us with a trivia quiz to while away the time. As is usual, Barbara dredged up some completely trivial questions to frustrate us. I mean, who cares what triskaidekaphobia means unless you are triskaidekaphobic? Unless you are a “peeler” would you want to know what is a dactylogram? Michael Scott, guest of Barbara and Adrian Corkeron, proved to have the greatest knowledge of trivia, and his wife, Elizabeth, got the next most correct answers.

After a break of some thirty minutes or so, we travelled on to Wangaratta to collect chickens for our lunch. Unfortunately we were a few minutes early and so we had to wait for the chickens to be caught, trussed cooked and cut up before we could proceed on to our lunch stop at
Lake Moodemere Vineyard that sits in a unique position high above the lake where you can take in a spectacular view of the brilliant sparkling water.

Sixth generation winemaker, Michael Chambers, nephew of Bill Chambers, and his wife Belinda opened their cellar door in March 1996 making wine with fruit picked from the lakeside vineyard. The opening was 100 years after the vineyard was first established (1886). Michael hosted our visit and gave us an interesting insight to the wines.

The vineyard has about 60 acres under vine and has a comprehensive range of wines including the classic red and white varieties, Muscat and Late Harvest Biancone. Lake Moodemere also produce a Vintage Durif. Michael explained that the term “Port” will soon be unavailable for fortified wines produced in Australia. His Vintage Durif is a fortified wine in the “Port” style.

Biancone in Italian means “Big White”, but at Lake Moodemere Vineyards it means “a beautifully refreshing yet decadent wine”. This variety of grape, which originates from Northern Italy, was planted in the vineyards 40 years ago and has become very popular.

Members showed their appreciation of the wines, particularly the Muscat and Biancone. It was pleasing to have the opportunity to taste the wines with our chicken and salad luncheon. Quality wines are enhanced when partaken with a nice meal in such pleasant surroundings.

Our next stop was Cofield Wines where Damien Cofield hosted our visit. Cofield’s was commenced in 1990 by Max Cofield, who had been the winemaker at All Saints for many years. Cofield’s philosophy “is to provide all customers with an enjoyable, exceptional experience and ensure they feel like members of the extended Cofield Wines family. To make the best wine that they can, deliver distinctive, varietally honest, quality wines and share their passion for wine with the world.”

Cofield’s make wines from their own vineyards, plus fruit brought in from the King and Loddon Valleys. They have about 25 acres under vine and the normal tonnage of their own label is about 150 tonnes. Cofield’s have the capacity to process 400 tonnes of fruit each year and use their excess capacity for contract wine-making.

There was a constant stream of visitors to Cofield’s, so it was pleasant to have our tasting outside in the sunshine. Damian gave us an excellent talk on how sparkling wines are made. We were all interested to learn that Cofield’s, along with
Seppelts and Domaine Chandon, are now using crown seals for their sparkling wines, so those old bottle openers may need to be resurrected.

We all agreed that the wine tasting and talk were excellent, and after purchases were finalized, we rejoined the coach for the journey to the motel.

After settling in at the motel, we joined the coach once more for the journey out to Stanton & Killeen Winery for a pre dinner tasting of some of their wines, accompanied with nibbles provided by Barbara Cecchi.

The dinner was catered for by Chris O’Connor from the Corowa Golf Club. First course of vegetable and chicken broth, was accompanied by a Stanton & Killeen 2006 Victorian Riesling and an Anderson’s 2004 Pinot Grigio. Both wines were an excellent accompaniment to the food. The main course was a choice of lamb shanks or chicken, served with appropriate vegetables. Wines served with the main course were a Stanton & Killeeen, 2005 Chardonnay and a Stanton & Killeen 2003 Merlot. The sweets, which were bread and butter pudding, were accompanied by a 2003 Stanton & Killeen Auslese Tokay, which was absolutely scrumptious. Finally, with coffee, we had some 12 year old Stanton & Killeen Classic Rutherglen Muscat.

Members and guests appreciated Anne Killeen and Michael Oxley from Stanton Killen, and Howard and Mari Anderson of Anderson’s Wines joining us for dinner.

During the dinner Michael Oxley, the General Manager of Stanton & Killeen spoke to us about the wines he had selected to accompany the meal. His selection was excellent, as the wines and meal complemented each other.

And so, Day 1 of the tour ended.

Sunday turned out to be a lovely warm winter’s day. Our first stop was at Mt. Prior Winery where we were greeted by Jim Sawyer with a nice, chilled bubbly. Jim spoke of the sparkling white and red which are both exported to Japan, where they sell at up to US$100 per bottle. He bemoaned the fact that nowhere near that amount is returned to the producer. The winemaker at Mt. Prior Brian Devitt does a magnificent job with the sparkling wines. Most would agree that 9.30am would normally be a tad early to partake of alcohol (communion wine being the exception, of course), but the clear, crisp, taste of these wines were more than worthy of making an exception for this occasion. The sparkling white was made from the Chardonnay grape, and the sparkling red was made from Shiraz, with some 15% Durif to add some complexity to the wine.

After we had moved into the tasting room, Jim suggested that we remember Len Evans. President Bob and Jim both spoke of the contribution that Len had made to the Australian wine industry; and we drank a toast to Len Evans’ memory. Appropriately, we had a red wine for the toast; a Mt. Prior Merlot, which, typically of Rutherglen, was a bigger, bolder wine that was delightful to drink.

Jim Sawyer, with his staff, Brian and Di, hosted an excellent tasting and made the Guild very welcome. Jim suggested that next time we visit Rutherglen we could have a luncheon and tasting from his private cellar – this is something to be looked forward to in a few years’ time.

We then moved on to Jones’ Winery where Mandy Jones hosted our visit and spoke to us about the way they process the wines. The tasting started with a nice Marsanne, followed by a straight Shiraz. Mandy, together with her brother and sister, bought the winery in 1998, and have been restoring the winery and vineyard since than. A feature of the tasting room is the unique bark lined ceiling.

At Rutherglen the Jones’ grow Shiraz, Muscat and a little bit of Trebbiano. Wine sold under the “Jones” label is grown on the property, and wine sold as “Jones the Winemaker” is made from grapes brought in from other properties. The property consists of some 75 hectares with about 8½ hectares under vine. Mandy is rightfully proud of the number of successes that Jones’ Winery has had at wine shows.

And finally we arrived at Anderson’s Winery. Andersons’ is a small winery which crushes about 30 tonnes of their own grapes to producea good range of wines. Members who tasted the Pinot Grigio at dinner the previous night attested to the quality of the winemaking of Howard Anderson, and his daughter. Howard is known as the first winemaker to make sparkling wines in North Eastern Victoria.

After another enjoyable tasting we moved on to the Star Hotel in Rutherglen for lunch. The hotel provided a two course luncheon, with a range of Chinese main courses and either soup or sweets (lychees, pineapple fritter etc). The quality of the food was good, but it seemed that the kitchen had some difficulty coping with a bus load of people to be fed quickly. However, if you are visiting Rutherglen, you would not be disappointed in having a meal at this hotel.

Even though the lunch took a longer than expected, there was still time for us to have a quick browse in the antique and other shops in the main street of Rutherglen, before once again joining the coach and heading back home.

Again our thanks go to President Bob for co-ordinating the tour; Barbara Cecchi for providing the nibbles, side dishes to lunch, and the Trivial Pursuit competition: to Georgie Guthrie who assisted Barbara; to Peter Henderson for transporting us safely; and to the Guild committee and other members who all assisted in making this another memorable tour.