In the course of an extremely fluid tour we ran across a number of quite wonderful Liqueur Muscats and Tokays, but nothing with quite the same je ne sais quoi as the HJT and when we arrived at Baileys we discovered that the tasting room was of the long-since-departed help yourself variety, and that the full range of fortifieds from the HJT down were available for tasting.
Over the intervening years I ran across the Baileys fortifieds from time to time - not very often, but often enough to keep the gentle reminders coming. Somewhere along the line the winery changed hands, and ended up as part of the Fosters Group. Personally, that was something I found a bewildering. It’s not a big winery, and produces a range that’s heavy on styles that aren’t very fashionable, but it does have its uses.
For a start, North-East Victoria is a phylloxera quarantine zone, and grapes grown there can’t be transported out of the area to be crushed. As a result Baileys ended up with a new winery that crushes 1600 to 1800 tonnes of grapes each season. Most of that crush went into other wines under the Fosters banner, but there is a limited range that appears under the Baileys label.
After the phylloxera plague had passed through the area, destroying the majority of vines the original Bailey family replanted the vineyard in 1904 using phylloxera-resistant rootstock, and the surviving vines from that era are, unsurprisingly, the 1904 Block.
Further replanting took place in the 1920s, when Shiraz, Muscat and Tokay went into what is now known as (surprise, surprise) the 1920s Block.
Plantings continued over the years and there are now around 143 hectares under cultivation with a new winery completed in 1998 and a new cellar door opening two years later, with landscaped grounds, a heritage museum, viewing deck, and an art gallery.
That’s what we found when we arrived on the doorstep at the end of 2006, and very impressive it was - a vast cry from the pretty rough and ready structures that I remembered from my earlier visit.
But, in the long run, it’s all about the wines, and the pack that arrived in Bowen today - hopefully, the first of many from the 1870 Club, contained single bottles of the current release Founder Liqueur Muscat and Tokay and an example of the NV Bundurra Dolce, along with doubles of the 2005 Shiraz from the 1904 Block and the 1920s Block. Suffice it to say that Hughesy’s definitely looking forward to a sample of each, though there is a slight technical issue here, since Mr Halliday rated the 1904 Block Shiraz as a 92, with a suggested drinking date of 2020. The 1920s Block attracted a higher rating (94) with a longer lead time (2025).
While that suggests that we’ve got a couple for the wine fridge, we’re going to need to have a taste in the near future. Just to check on quality, you understand.
And perhaps we’ll need to be looking at something beyond the current wine fridge’s forty-something bottle capacity....
