Function report - Sunbury Wine Area Tour

14th August 2005

We normally start off our reports with a pithy comment about it being a lovely day, or the rain started coming down as we traveled along the highway. Today’s trip started off in cold weather, even though the Weather Bureau had forecast a top temperature of 16OC. It may have been that warm inside your house out of the wind, but some 42 members and guests joined the tour either by coach or private car.

We enjoyed our traditional coffee, paté, biscuits, cheese etc at the Organ Pipes National Park. Barbara Cecci provided some pikelets with jam as a welcome addition to our normal early repast. Time (or more correctly, lack of time available) did not permit participants to enjoy a stroll down the gorge, nor a potential heart attack coming back, however, there was something to attract members’ attention. Was it the rolls, biscuit and cheese or some other delicacy that was the centre of attention?

Our first wine tasting was at Galli Estate where our hostess was the Marketing Manager, Kate Fearn (pictured with our Vice President, Hilton Ludekens).

Galli Estate was established in 1997 by Lorenzo and Pam Galli in 1997. Lorenzo had emigrated from Tuscany to Australia in 1952, and established a construction company that later diversified into quarries, concrete plants as well as housing and property development. Lorenzo and Pam bought 100 acres at Rockbank, on the Keilor - Melton Road, and planted predominantly Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon as well as Pinot Noir, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Sangiovese, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. The estate concentrates on producing premium wines on the red volcanic soil of this area.

The family subsequently established a 250 acre vineyard at Heathcote. The Heathcote vineyard concentrates on Shiraz grapes, as well as some Viognier, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, Nebillo and Tempranillo.

All the winemaking is conducted at the Rockbank facility, which includes the magnificent cellar door, a sales and administration area and an underground cellar which is 15 metres wide, 6 metres high and an area of more than 900 square meters.

Kate and Leeann provided a marvelous array of wines for us to taste and purchase. A very interesting white wine is La Vigne. La Vigne is a winemaker’s blend that retails at $14.00 a bottle or $96.00 a case – great value and a very pleasant wine. Galli are also very proud of their Sauvignon Blanc Semillon, which was recently awarded 4½ stars by James Halliday.

The name Galli is derived from the Italian “gallo” which means rooster. A rooster is featured in all the Galli marketing material.

After spending less time traveling from Galli to Witchmount Estate than it took to load the coach, we were welcomed by Gaye Ramunno and Diane Tremble. Gaye, the mother of current manager, Tony, gave us a short history of the company and introduced us to some of their wines. There are 55 acres under vine, producing some bold reds, and aromatic white wines. Witchmount include tempranillo and barbera grape varieties, that reflect the heritage of the founders of the winery.

Some of the bottles have interesting labels – but my opinion is that they are not a ruse to sell inconsequential wines by using figurative containers or labels.

Witchmount are very proud of achieving a blue gold award at the Sydney International Wine Show. WWW.WITCHMOUNT.COM.AU to see what is going on!!!!

We had our dinner at The Olive Tree Hotel in Sunbury. The current management of the hotel have been operating the hotel for a short time, and the Guild was the first bus load of patrons that they had catered for. They did us proud. Service was good, and the quality of the meals was excellent. The wines served with the meal were from Rothbury Estate and certainly were a great companion to the meals.

During lunch, Maxine and Bruce Turnbull were presented with their membership badges, and we welcome them to the Guild.

After lunch we went on to the Goona Warra Vineyard. The tasting room is situated in a large blue stone building that has some beautiful stained glass windows in the Great Hall. Another function was being held in the upper storey so we did not get the opportunity to look out over the vineyard from an elevated position. Be that as it may, we were there to taste wines and learn about the vineyard – which we did.

Our final winery was Longview Creek Vineyard. Bill and Karen Ashby bought this rundown vineyard about 2½ years ago and have worked hard to turn it round. The vineyard is situated on two hectares on the brink of the Longview Gorge. There is a great view of the gorge from the rear of the tasting room.

The winemaker at Longview is Roland Kaval, who has more than 20 years as a winemaker and has worked in Canberra, Rutherglen, and the Pyrenees (Aust). Roland has been a consultant winemaker since 1997 and has his own label, Cavalier Wines. Roland sources exceptional parcels of grapes that reflect intense varietal and regional characters.

Longview Creek uses screwcaps to close all their wines. Roland explained that they have found that wastage has been greatly reduced. It was great to listen to Roland talk to us, and answer our questions. All in all, it was a very educative and enjoyable tasting.

We left Longview on time, and we were feeling quite smug that we had kept to the advertised timings (or pretty close to) all day – but timings really went out the window from now on. We had planned to have our final “cuppa” at a Parks Victoria location, but the gate was closed. We finally stopped in a windswept park near Keilor where we had our afternoon tea. However, we were now about one hour or so behind schedule. The committee apologises for the failure to keep to the schedule and will try to do better in future.

And so we completed our tour. It was another successful tour and tasting, and our thanks go to all our hosts and hostesses, and the organizers of the tour.

As is customary with these function reports, I am indebted to the various wineries for permission to quote from their publicity material. Any errors, omissions or plagiarisms are the responsibility of the correspondent.