Monday 2 January 2012
There's a bit of a problem when you're relocating website material from one site to another and the new layout doesn't quite coincide with the old one.
Needing a couple of quick intros to pages devoted to Baileys of Glenrowan, Brook Eden and Pfeiffer Wines, given the commonality of a Wine Club membership at each establishment it made sense to look at what prompted the move into the Wine Club. There are, after all, a number of places on these pages, and many of them have wine clubs that Hughesy didn't join.
In two of these cases - Brook Eden and Pfeiffer - the Cellar Door experience was such that having heard of the existence of a wine club I had no hesitation about signing up.
That, in turn, underlines the importance of a winery's Cellar Door staff, doesn't it?
Brook Eden was towards the end of the circuit around the Tamar Valley Wine Trail in November 2007, and I'd been impressed by almost everything I'd tried. Arriving at the Tasting Area I found a couple of customers on their way out, and a proprietor behind the counter.
Brook Eden doesn't have a large range, we weren't in a hurry, and during the conversation I picked up a couple of handy snippets of information I've been using ever since.
The first concerned Riesling, and the fact that there's nothing a winemaker can do to disguise substandard fruit. With other white varieties you can tweak things a bit, and with some you can tweak them a lot. With Riesling the winemaker's stuck with what he or she gets.
I like Riesling and this sat very comfortably with my perceptions.
The second concerned Pinot Noir, and I'd mentioned the fact that I'd been decidedly unimpressed by the Yarra Valley expressions of the variety, and was informed that, in Peter's view there were only four locations ideally suited to Pinot Noir, namely Burgundy (tick, ties in with fore knowledge), Oregon (raised eyebrow there), New Zealand (well, they've been coming through, haven't they?) and, of course, Tasmania.
On that basis I could confirm my initial opinion (Yarra Valley not on list, therefore different characters to genuinely cool climate expressions) and explain the fact that I was starting to enjoy Pinot (well, I would, wouldn't I? The cool climate version goes across the palate better).
There were other issues that actually tipped me over into signing the form. There was no freight free option, but a significant discount that offset the cost of freight, so I was effectively paying cellar door price and getting it delivered free. Same horse, different jockey.
And then, of course, there were the wines. At that stage a Pinot Noir, a Riesling and a Chardonnay, so a six pack would cover the range every year, wouldn't it?
Well, it did, but a slight diversification means there are now two shipments a year. One of the early release, drink now styles (Riesling, Pinot Gris, Pinot Rose) and the other the slightly more mature wooded styles, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, with two bottles of the new one and a slightly older one for comparative purposes...
Image, by the way, courtesy of the winery...