19 June 2008
Given our location in the more-or-less Deep North it should come as no surprise that the climate has some impact on our drinking habits.
Living where winter days are usually accompanied by clear blue skies and temperatures in the mid-twenties (Celsius) a full bodied red wine is more likely to accompany steak or pasta rather than a roast or a big warming bowl of stew. It’s not that we don’t like roasts and stews, the climate predisposes us to travel in other culinary directions.
In summer the bowl of pasta or the steak and salad don’t really work that well in conjunction with a hearty red. The steaks don’t go that well with whites either, so we’ve got a problem unless we can unearth some red wines in a lighter style that can handle a spell in the fridge.
There are, of course, many options and over the years we’ve explored quite a few of them. This article gives me a chance to note what we’ve discovered and make a few recommendations. Anyone reading this could have a few of their own so feel free to contact me if you’ve got any suggestions as to wines we might like to try.
As time passes, Hughesy’s wine purchases tend to take place on line and at the Lolly Shop rather than the bottle shop. If we were in the habit of dropping into the liquor store and having a browse we might be looking at a wider variety of wines (hence the request for recommendations in the paragraph above).
The obvious option is to choose a Rosé. Unfortunately there’s no stylistic consistency and the name covers a multitude of possibilities, some of which also coincide with styles that I’ll be mentioning a little later on.
So I could head to Portugal and go for Mateus or Lancers. I’ve tried both in the past. While they’ve been acceptable, they’re nothing to write home about either. There are probably other Portuguese labels that would turn up in city bottle shops, but we’re not in a city and the price tag would probably be a little out of my preferred price range as well.
Quite a few Australian makers produce a Cabernet Rosé. The Yalumba Oxford Landing offers good value for money in a range that’s frequently heavily discounted by the larger chains, and I’m always interested in finding other wines along the same lines.
In November 2007 we found ourselves in Brisbane engaged in an enterprise that didn’t work out the way we would have preferred but provided a couple of unexpected benefits. One was an excellent bed and breakfast establishment located a short walk away from the restaurant enclaves in New Farm and Fortitude Valley.
Our inquiries about a suitable dinner venue on a Friday night found us occupying the second-last available table at the Himalayan Cafe in Brunswick Street and pondering an appropriate wine choice to accompany an unfamiliar cuisine.
Under normal circumstances you’d guess he management would have solved half the problem for you by eliminating anything that was totally inappropriate from the wine list, but the Himalayan Cafe is a BYO establishment, so I had to wander across the road to a nearby pub bottle shop.
I was still totally lacking in inspiration when I sighted a $5 bottle of rose in a display fridge.
“Fine,” I thought. “It’s cold, it probably won’t clash with anything we order and if it does the price means we don’t have to worry.”
As it turned out we enjoyed the Crittenden & Co. Rosé enough to pick up another on the way back to Cream Gables. We’ve found the 2007 vintage in discount chains comfortably under the five dollar mark it has become a semi-permanent fixture in the wine rack - nothing fantastic but good enough for a glass or two with lunch on a warm day.
Another low-cost option in those circumstances would be a lambrusco, and if we hadn’t stocked up on a certain cheap Rosé (if buying half a dozen at a time comes under the heading of stocking up) we’d probably have a bottle or two of the De Bortoli version in the fridge.
There are other options open as you move up the price brackets, of course, and on visits to Stanthorpe, Kingaroy, the Hunter, the Yarra Valley, north-eastern Victoria and the Tamar Valley over the past couple of years we’ve been keeping our eyes peeled for anything that fits the general description of light reds you can keep in the fridge.
One of the earliest ones we found was a Dusty Chill from Dusty Hill Wines in the South Burnett, and we managed to track down another couple in the Hunter Valley but we’ve had more success as we headed further south.
We’d already encountered the Brown Brothers Tarrango before we headed to the Rutherglen/King Valley area in early 2007, and, while I was there to follow the Muscat Trail, we found a couple of gems at the other end of the spectrum. Most significantly, we ran across Pfeiffer Wines just outside Rutherglen and signed up for their Wine Club, which delivers a dozen freight-free to our doorstep twice a year.
One of the main reasons we signed up was the Gamay, a delightful wine made from the variety that produces Beaujolais, although their Ensemble Rosé ain’t too shabby either. I’m waiting for the credit card to recover before ordering a dozen to tide us over the summer.
One of the most interesting developments on the Australian wine scene has been the emergence of different grape varieties, and it’s hardly surprising that the King Valley, with a significant Italian heritage and influence has been one of the most interesting areas in that regard. I’ll be interested to watch further developments in that regard. Unfortunately it’s probably going to be a couple of years before we’re back that way, so I’ll be forced to explore the various wine club options if I’m going to unearth anything along the lines we’re looking for without external assistance.
When we visited northern Tasmania late in 2007 there were a number of interesting possibilities as well. I signed up for the Vintage Wine Club at Brook Eden while we were there (half-a-dozen bottles per year from a vineyard that lies at the boutique end of the boutique spectrum).
Our first tasting pack arrived a couple of days before I started this article, and since then we’ve had the chance to try the 2007 Pinot Noir (which doesn’t fall within the parameters we’re talking about but is doing a lot to overcome Hughesy’s long-standing pinot-scepticism) and the 2007 Pinot Rosé which is just what the doctor ordered in terms of quality, though at $23 (bottle price, reduces when buying by the case or through the Vintage Club) it doesn’t quite fall into the summer quaffer category.
The November 2008 excursion to Adelaide and the Clare Valley was basically a search for Riesling, though that didn’t prevent us from looking at other styles, and, predictably, the odd summer red appeared on the horizon. There were four wines that hit the spot particularly nicely.
Neagles Rock 2008 Sweet Dorothy Cabernet Rosé ($19) was, as the name suggests, on the sweeter end of the spectrum without becoming cloying. A nice refreshing drop.
Kilikanoon 2007 Second Fiddle Rosé ($18) was a full-bodied, balanced, medium style and another excellent summer wine, as was the Thorn-Clarke 2006 Sorriso Rosé, a blend of Nebbiolo and Cabernet resulting in a dry, easy-drinking style.
But the pick of them, as far as I was concerned was the Rockford 2008 Alicante Bouchet ($17) struck me as an almost ideal Rosé style.
A lot of that comes from the fact that the variety is one of the ew red grapes with red juice. As a result, once the grapes have been crushed there is no need for the juice to come into contact with skins or stems and the result is a refreshing low-alcohol (9.5%) wine that’s more or less tannin-free. I ordered a dozen as soon as we made it back home.
So, for the moment, the quality end of the summer drinking spectrum features, apart from Rieslings and a couple of good value Sauvignon Blancs, Rockford Alicante Bouchet, Pfeiffer Gamay and Brook Eden Pinot Rosé.