The Man from Mosel River

The tasting chamber

During the recent wine expo of the Upper Goulburn Winegrowers Association (UGWA, www.uppergoulbournwine.org.au ), three wine tastings were offered to the visitors. The tasting took place in the meeting chamber of the Alexandra Shire Council where the mayor and the council members convene their meetings. Because Margit and I (Two Hills Vineyard) participated for the first time in an event of the Association, we took the opportunity to learn more about the wines from the region and our fellow members. Margit participated in the first tasting conducted by Les Oates, from Growlers Gully (www.growlersgully.com.au) and chairman of the UGWA. She thoroughly enjoyed herself. I was scheduled for the second one with David Miller, winemaker and partner from Rees Miller Estate (www.reesmiller.com), is one of a few certified biodynamic wineries in the region (the other one I know of is Will de Castella and his Jean Pauls Vineyard near Yea (www.jeanpaulsvineyard.com.au).

David Miller, winemaker at Rees Miller Estate

David conducted the tasting with great passion. We tasted four wines, two reds and two whites. The first white was a 2003 Kinloch Chardonnay (www.kinlochwines.com.au) which displayed vanilla, melon and passionfruit characters. The second wine came from Barwite Vineyards (www.barwitevineyards.com.au). It was a 2005 Riesling with showed a floral character; it was a citrus bomb explosion in the mouth. Than we moved on to the reds, in this case two Shiraz wines, the first from Snobs Creek Estate (www.snobscreekvineyard.com.au.) It was a was 2005 Shiraz. The second, a 2006 Shiraz, came from the Rees Miller Estate (www.reesmiller.com) itself. Both displayed delicious black fruit characters but whereas the Snobs Creek Shiraz was elegant and showed cherry flavours, the Rees Miller wine displayed a creamy richness that was truly remarkable.

The four wines

All the wines were superb; they were clean and well crafted. They showed the outstanding quality of the cool climate wines the region can produce. David did a marvellous job in guiding the largely novice tasters through the various stages of grape growing and wine making. He answered many questions and in a twinkle of an eye, two hours were gone. All the participants were very satisfied, enriched by the experience and certain in the knowledge that winemaking is art, as David put it so convincingly. They went straight back to the showroom to sample more wines from the Upper Goulburn Region. The tasting was also a great opportunity to get to know the region’s wines and it enriched the expo tremendously. A great success I would say.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 8:49 pm and is filed under food and wine, wine regions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.