#ultimatewineries

The annual Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, this year taking place from 4th to 13th March, is now in its 24th year and continues to increase in popularity.  The festival was first held in 1993 with a modest program of 12 events dreamt up by Peter Clemenger.  Fast forward over twenty years and it has grown to host over 200 events annually.

Food and wine lovers from throughout Australia and the world flock in to indulge in more than 200 events across Melbourne and regional Victoria.

Three of our Victorian Ultimate Winery Experiences members will be hosting events for this year's festival; Tahbilk, Fowles Wine and Montalto.  Details of these fabulous events are below.  Why not attend all three?

Regional World's Longest Lunch

Tahbilk, Friday 4th March 2016

Join co-hosts Tahbilk (2016 Halliday Wine Companion's 'Winery of the Year') and Mitchelton as they collaborate with regional food guru Jillian Hayes to create a food and wine pairing unlike anything offered before.  In this magical setting experience a three-course culinary feast, with wines from the host vineyards and revel in the entertainment provided by acclaimed Italian soprano Stefanie Ballamio.  This event is just one of twenty four Regional World's Longest Lunches.  Click here for details.

Wild Feast

Fowles Wine, Saturday 5th March 2016

Grab your tweed and join Ladies who Shoot their Lunch to experience the fun and flavours of a traditional hunt feast through delicious dishes, and garden games.  Get your aristocrat on because they'll be celebrating the fun and flavours of the 'Downton Abbey' era.  Featuring produce poached from across the region, you'll be dining on game and old breed meats, competing in traditional garden games, swaying to the sounds of rag time jazz, parading in a 'Fashions on the Field' competition and scooping exclusive lots at our charity auction.  Lord it up with 'The Lady' at the Cellar Door.... Are you Game? Click here for details and tickets.

Autumn Harvest Long Table Lunch

Montalto, Sunday 6th March 2016

In case you missed the memo, rosé is having a moment. The popularity of Australian rosé has been increasing in recent years and with good reason.  Rosé makes an excellent accompaniment to a variety of foods but is also easy to drink without food.   A chilled glass of rosé is refreshingly light making it well suited to the summer months. It is also a relatively inexpensive wine so great for a barbecue or summer party.

To make most rosé wine, red grapes are lightly crushed and left to macerate with their red skins for a little while (anywhere from a few hours to a few days), after which the juice is strained out and fermented in tanks. The longer the juice is left on skins, the deeper the colour of the wine.

Rosé isn’t from a specific grape or region; it’s just a genre of wine, like red or white. Until recently, most good rosé was produced in Europe; France, Spain and Italy being the largest producers but production elsewhere is on the increase and the USA, Chile and Australia are now producing some excellent alternatives.

As luck would have it, a number of our Ultimate Winery Experiences members are producing some of the finest Australian rosé and to save you some time, we’ve gathered them all in one place.

Just add sunshine.

Audrey Wilkinson

Audrey Series 2015 Rosé

Fresh red berries, rock candy and exotic cinnamon spice with a lean, crisp finish.

Learn more

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d’Arenberg

Stephanie the Gnome with Rosé Tinted Glasses Shiraz Sangiovese 2015

Bubble-gum, raspberry and plummy notes are matched with shades of herb. Light to medium bodied.

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De Bortoli Yarra Valley

La Bohème Act Two Dry Pinot Rosé 2015

A creamy brioche-like aroma, classic strawberry, hints of marzipan, gently aromatic. On the palate, dry, textural with some grip, moorish.

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Fowles Wine

2015 Rosé

Fresh, cool and vibrant, this wine is salmon pink in colour with delicious aromas of tropical fruits and red berries. The palate is fruity and fresh with a rounded clean finish.

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Jacob’s Creek

Classic Shiraz Rosé

Lifted aromas of strawberries and raspberries. Sweet and crisp on the palate with luscious cherry and strawberry flavours.

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Montalto Vineyard & Olive Grove

Pennon Hill Rosé

A food-friendly Rosé, made for immediate enjoyment. A spicy and leafy lift with strawberry and kirsch in support. The palate is soft and approachable with juicy redcurrant and florals.

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Tahbilk

2015 Cabernet Rosé

Dry and savoury characters and delicious red berry fruits of this release simply demand an equally pink lamb chop off the barbecue. Appealingly light and decidedly refreshing.

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Voyager Estate

2015 Project Shiraz Rosé

Lifted aromas of cherry blossom. A vibrant wine displaying fresh cherry fruit with a fine acid core and a hint of sweetness to finish.

The Yarra Valley's western edge is located just 45 kilometres east of Melbourne's CBD.  This large wine region is bordered by the towns of Gembrook in the south, Kinglake in the north, Wantirna in the west and Mount Gregory in the east and incorporates major towns including Lilydale, Healesville, Yarra Glen and St Andrews.

The Yarra Valley dates back nearly 180 years and is known as the birthplace of Victoria's wine industry. In 1838 the Ryrie Brothers planted the first vineyard at Yering Station and the first Yarra Valley wine was produced by James Dardel a few years later. From the 1860s to the early part of the 20th century the local wine industry flourished but due to an increase in popularly of fortified wine, wine production in the Yarra Valley was forced to stop. Replanting began in the late 1960s and between 1990 and 2000 around 40 new wineries were established, cementing the region’s future as a force to be reckoned with.

The Yarra Valley wine region is now globally recognised as one of Australia's foremost cool climate regions, producing classic styles from a wide range of varieties including sparkling wine, Chardonnay; Pinot Noir; Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.

While the area is most famous for its world-class wineries (there are currently over 50), there’s more to the Yarra Valley than just wine. The area is made up of picture postcard country towns, markets and even microbreweries. The Yarra Valley is also renowned for the beauty of the changing seasons, and an exciting food scene that has flourished around its local produce.

Of course you could squeeze in the whole area in an extended day trip but if you can, you should consider staying a day or three if you’ve got a long weekend to burn.

Our favourite and no doubt the most-visited of the wineries, De Bortoli has over 240 hectares of vineyards. Their wines include sparkling, cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, pinot noir, chardonnay, pinot grigio, and more. While you’re there be sure to allow plenty of time to indulge in their dedicated cheese shop.  More information can be found here.

Close by you’ll find the monthly Yarra Valley farmers’ market held on the third Sunday of each month. Pick up organic veggies and meat, home-made pies, cordial, sinful sweets, organic olives, cheese, coffee – all made by small producers.

The popularity of craft beers in Melbourne is continuing to soar and there are several microbreweries in the area such as Coldstream Brewery, Hargreaves Hill Brewing Company and White Rabbit Brewery.

Healesville is a beautiful country town that is well worth a visit, you’ll find gourmet food shops, chocolate shops, good coffee, bric-a-brac and plenty of friendly locals to point you in the right direction. Healesville is also home to the Healesville Sanctuary, a zoo specialising in native Australian animals.

From 14th to 20th September, the Yarra Valley will host Chardonnay Now, a food and wine festival celebrating predominantly, you guessed it, Chardonnay but showcasing all the best food and wine of the region. You can expect tastings, food and wine matching lunches and dinners and all surrounded by the rolling green hills of the Yarra Valley.

There are many wines we hold in high esteem and inspire us, and each year, we select some of the best examples of Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon blends, sourced from around the world, for our annual comparative tasting.

A fixture on the Voyager Estate calendar, this is the seventh consecutive year of the Masterclass Series, providing us with the opportunity to share and discuss the developments occurring in our own vineyards and winery. Steve James, Manager of Winemaking and Viticulture, Travis Lemm, Winemaker and Winery Manager and James (Jimmy) Penton, Assistant Winemaker all relish the opportunity to both reflect on the past year and talk about some of our initiatives that have given them inspiration and excitement, whilst looking at highlights and challenges faced by other winegrowing regions.

Our Chardonnay bracket featured wines from the outstanding 2012 vintage with excellent Australian examples such as Tolpuddle from Tasmania, Giaconda from Beechworth, Seville Estate Reserve from Yarra Valley and, of course, Voyager Estate from Margaret River. These were presented alongside new world Chardonnays from Neudorf Moutere in New Zealand and Littorai from California, and representing the old world, a wonderful white Burgundy from cult producer Coche Dury from Meursault.

The Cabernet bracket was from the more challenging 2011 vintage and was all about international exploration, visiting Chile, with a wine made in partnership with the Rothschild family called Almaviva, Tuscany with new producer Dulcamara, Pauillac featuring Chateau Pontet Canet and California with the famous Ridge Montebello.

We also included two aged Cabernets, the 2004 Chateau Cos d’Estournel from Saint Estèphe, which certainly created some robust discussion and our own 2004 Voyager Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot to show the longevity of great Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon.

Included in the two brackets were four of the Voyager Estate Project wines which are a deconstruction of our Estate Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot. They are all single block wines, with the Chardonnays also being single clone wines, namely our Project 95 Broadvale Block 6 and Project Gin Gin Broadvale Block 5. The two Cabernets were our Project Old Block and Project North Block, both blocks being the key elements in the Estate wine.

The roadshow took us all around the country beginning with The Trustee in Perth and moving on to The Botanical in Melbourne, Hotel Hotel in Canberra, Otto in Sydney and finishing at the Stokehouse in Brisbane ten days later. Across eight fascinating sessions the wines were all tasted blind in two brackets of nine wines. The participants knew which wines were included in each bracket but not the order they were tasted in. It is always great fun as we reveal the wines one by one and see who in the room managed to pick the wines correctly – it is certainly a great leveller for all tasters!

The Chardonnay bracket was exceptional and consistently wowed the room especially as the opportunity to taste the famous Coche Dury is very rare and it didn’t disappoint, showing huge depth and complexity. Given that all the Cabernet based wines were from international producers, with the exception of the Voyager wines, and most of the world had a very difficult vintage in 2011, there were some disappointments in the bracket it has to be said. Whilst some of the highly rated producers really struggled with the vintage, it also proved to us why following a great producer is so important, because even in difficult vintages, good producers can still make great wines.

For Margaret River, 2011 was a terrific vintage and we were able to show wines with beautiful structure and tannin development and, although we didn’t take a structured vote, we were thrilled that in most sessions our wines were universally acclaimed as favourites in the bracket, and, in fact, all our wines in both brackets looked very much at home in such esteemed company.

Otto Ristorante in Sydney recently hosted a Vasse Felix wine dinner. The wine dinner is a well-established and popular way to showcase a selection of wines from a specific region or winery or of a certain variety, most often held in city restaurants and usually with the added drawcard of commentary by a representative from the winery. This wine dinner had the benefit of the attendance of the winemaker herself, Virginia Willcock.

Virginia was awarded Winemaker of the Year 2012 by Gourmet Traveller WINE and, in their words, “Willcock’s rise from very good regional winemaker to the pinnacle of success in Australia has been meteoric.” Needless to say, it was a sell out. The opportunity to see Virginia, outside Margaret River, introducing her wines and paired with a menu to complement each variety, was too good to pass up.

The life of a successful winemaker, it is clear to see, is a complicated one. The job doesn’t begin and end in the winery. Virginia had travelled that morning from Margaret River, no small journey, so it was impressive indeed to hear her talk with passion and energy about her craft. Attending these dinners in person builds the profile of both winery and winemaker and it was obvious by the rapt attention of her audience how keen the members of it were to meet the face behind the wine. Virginia gave a brief introduction and talked through the wine choices for the evening describing articulately, but without jargon, the processes behind their production.

So who attends these wine dinners? In this case it was a pretty varied bunch - groups of girlfriends, couples, business associates, all male gatherings and more than one solitary diner, and why not?

In November, Josef Chromy will host the second annual Effervescence Festival, celebrating Tasmanian Sparkling in spectacular style.  Around half of Tasmania's Pinot Noir and three quarters of its Chardonnay is now highly prized for sparkling wine, with several specialist sparkling houses and many of the island's sparkling wines winning international awards and acclaim.  So where did it all begin?

Despite some early attempts in the mid-19th century, wine production in Tasmania did not commence in earnest until the 1950s, considerably later than most other Australian wine regions. European migrants identified similarities in Tasmanian soil and climate with certain wine regions of Europe, and began to successfully ripen and harvest grapes. These early experiments quickly led to the production of a wide range of varieties.

The success of the Tasmanian wine industry is thanks largely to a landscape dominated by dolerite-capped mountains that shelter the island’s wine regions from high winds and rainfall. The vineyard soils are formed from ancient sandstones and mudstones and also from more recent river sediments and igneous rocks of volcanic origin.

Tasmania has a moderate maritime climate, and as such enjoys seasons free of extremes in temperature, ideal for grape growing as it allows the grapes to ripen slowly on the vine, resulting in maximum flavour development.

The Tasmanian vintage usually begins from mid-March, at the peak of the dry autumn when ripening occurs, to late May before the risk of frost and rain.

While a wide range of varietals are grown in Tasmania, including Riesling, Pinot Gris and Cabernet Sauvignon, the region is best known for Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sparkling and Sauvignon Blanc.  

In 1986, esteemed Champagne house - Louis Roederer partnered with the owners of Heemskerk Wines to produce Tasmania’s first premium vintage sparkling wine. They saw the similarities between the climate here and the famous wine region of their homeland. The investment paid off and paved the way for other Tasmanian wineries to experiment with sparkling.

Keen to hear more? The true sparkling enthusiast should make haste and book their place at Effervescence.  Alongside the line up detailed below, visitors can sample some of the best Sparkling wines in the Grand Marquee where there will also be some delicious food to sample from Bruny Island Cheese Co and Huon Aquaculture.

One of the greatest Chefs in the world - Tetsuya Wakuda will joining in to celebrate over the weekend and the 2015 International Wine Communicator of the Year - Tyson Stelzer will be guiding us though the weekend's events.  If that's not enough, visitors will be entertained with some great Jazz during the day then one of Sydney's best DJs to relax to on Saturday night for Bubbles and Beats.

Visit www.effervescencetasmania.com for more details.

Here is the line up so far:

THE GRAND DEGUSTATION DINNER

Friday 13th November 2015 - Josef Chromy Wines 

THE MASTER CLASSES:

Master Class #1 Tasmania Sparkling. Terroir, Typicity & Taste.

Master Class #2 Cheese & Sparkling - life's great culinary pleasure.

Master Class #3 Huon Caviar and Sparkling - Pure Decadence!

Saturday 14th November 2015 - Josef Chromy Wines

THE GRAND TASTING

Saturday 14th November 2015 - Josef Chromy Wines

BUBBLES & BEATS AFTER PARTY

Saturday 14th November 2015 - Josef Chromy Wines

GO SOUTH

Sunday 15th November 2015 - Hobart 

In November, Josef Chromy will host the second annual Effervescence Festival, celebrating Tasmanian Sparkling in spectacular style.  Around half of Tasmania's Pinot Noir and three quarters of its Chardonnay is now highly prized for sparkling wine, with several specialist sparkling houses and many of the island's sparkling wines winning international awards and acclaim.  So where did it all begin?

Despite some early attempts in the mid-19th century, wine production in Tasmania did not commence in earnest until the 1950s, considerably later than most other Australian wine regions. European migrants identified similarities in Tasmanian soil and climate with certain wine regions of Europe, and began to successfully ripen and harvest grapes. These early experiments quickly led to the production of a wide range of varieties.

The success of the Tasmanian wine industry is thanks largely to a landscape dominated by dolerite-capped mountains that shelter the island’s wine regions from high winds and rainfall. The vineyard soils are formed from ancient sandstones and mudstones and also from more recent river sediments and igneous rocks of volcanic origin.

Tasmania has a moderate maritime climate, and as such enjoys seasons free of extremes in temperature, ideal for grape growing as it allows the grapes to ripen slowly on the vine, resulting in maximum flavour development.

The Tasmanian vintage usually begins from mid-March, at the peak of the dry autumn when ripening occurs, to late May before the risk of frost and rain.

While a wide range of varietals are grown in Tasmania, including Riesling, Pinot Gris and Cabernet Sauvignon, the region is best known for Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sparkling and Sauvignon Blanc.  

In 1986, esteemed Champagne house - Louis Roederer partnered with the owners of Heemskerk Wines to produce Tasmania’s first premium vintage sparkling wine. They saw the similarities between the climate here and the famous wine region of their homeland. The investment paid off and paved the way for other Tasmanian wineries to experiment with sparkling.

Keen to hear more? The true sparkling enthusiast should make haste and book their place at Effervescence.  Alongside the line up detailed below, visitors can sample some of the best Sparkling wines in the Grand Marquee where there will also be some delicious food to sample from Bruny Island Cheese Co and Huon Aquaculture.

One of the greatest Chefs in the world - Tetsuya Wakuda will joining in to celebrate over the weekend and the 2015 International Wine Communicator of the Year - Tyson Stelzer will be guiding us though the weekend's events.  If that's not enough, visitors will be entertained with some great Jazz during the day then one of Sydney's best DJs to relax to on Saturday night for Bubbles and Beats.

Visit www.effervescencetasmania.com for more details.

Here is the line up so far:

THE GRAND DEGUSTATION DINNER

Friday 13th November 2015 - Josef Chromy Wines 

THE MASTER CLASSES:

Master Class #1 Tasmania Sparkling. Terroir, Typicity & Taste.

Master Class #2 Cheese & Sparkling - life's great culinary pleasure.

Master Class #3 Huon Caviar and Sparkling - Pure Decadence!

Saturday 14th November 2015 - Josef Chromy Wines

THE GRAND TASTING

Saturday 14th November 2015 - Josef Chromy Wines

BUBBLES & BEATS AFTER PARTY

Saturday 14th November 2015 - Josef Chromy Wines

GO SOUTH

Sunday 15th November 2015 - Hobart