Cellar Notes with Marc

Gday Tigers and Tigettes, so how’s tricks kiddies? Now you might have noticed that my regular update on what’s going down cellar town was absent from the last newsletter, but fear not my little Ramjets cause I’m back, and this time I’m taking no prisoners! Yeah I just got so involved with the whole winemaking caper a couple months ago, after returning back from the land of koalas (go on, I double dog dingo dare you to add the word “bear”!) and penal colonists, that I never got a chance to sit down and rant on for you tigers. As for my venture to the motherland, the highlight of the trip would have to have been watching little Tannin once again screaming her little hawkers heart out at the footy while her Daddah looked on proudly thinking “that’s my little girl!”. Speaking of which the mighty Hawks are sitting 10th, with 7 wins and 8 loses, time to pull those gold and brown stripy socks up and get it on like Donkey Kong.
 
So what’s been happening anyway? Let’s see…I’ve been winemaking my little peroxide heart out as usual. While we are yet to bottle any of our 08 whites, we did bottle my 07 Cabernet Franc recently (15 months oak aging) and hopefully that should hit the shelves after allowing some time for settling in bottle. And while I’m not tagging tickets on myself, I got to tell you I’m bloody happy with the result. A bold intense wine (holding its own with a honking 13% alcohol) rich in forest berry, rhubarb and black pepper spice, with hints of chocolate and tobacco! “Well doesn’t that just sound like a taste sensation” I hear you all exclaim. And if you think that’s the bomb, well ease up there tigers cause we also brought up the 07 Merlot (14 months oak time) a couple weeks ago too. She’s loaded to the hilt with tomato leaf, cherry, blueberry and silver beet, intertwining cracked pepper and cigar (“It’s like all my Christmases have come at once!”). Keep a captains for the release of this dynamic duo!
 
Also been working away steadily on the balancing of such fam favs as the 08 Grig (a lovely example of a zesty Old World Pinot Grigio, showing lychee, lemon drop and a delicate minerality) and the 08 Viognier (yep, you heard right fellas) which I’ve made in a crisper style expressing pear, cantaloupe and a delicate, yet shnarfa shnarfa, floral nuance (sorry if you use the word “nuance” you better be prepared to act it!). Throw on top a straight Gewurz which is also in a drier fashion with notes of lavender, pink grapefruit and apricot. And then let’s not forget the White Tiger 2 (Too Tiger, Too Furious!) blend which is just about sorted (totally new wave blend coming – look out!). All in all I’m about as happy as Michael Phelps at a sorority house bash!
 
So the end is definitely nigh for the 08 vintage. So much so that the next couple weeks will begin the march through the vines to kick some trucks and pretend I actually passed that Viticulture subject in uni. That’s right lads and ladettes, crush is on the horizon and I have more bottling of wine to do than a bootlegger. And with the onset of the next vintage comes the departure of our most excellent Cellar Rat Ringo, who not only managed to win over all chicks at the local rub-a-dub, but also performed such a sweet job that he walked (there may have even been some skipping) into a Cellar Rat job at Hillebrand Estates Winery just up the road from here.  Go you good thing Ringo!
 
Apart from that, it’s been that whole side of winemaking which I cringe from, that’s right, interviews and publicity. Baaahhhhh humbug I say! Anyway, I was quoted in the Niagara Pulse a couple weeks ago on an expose on young winemakers, followed by being the lucky bugger who was interviewed by Ange Aiello for the iYellow Wine Club’s 2 bottles & 2 questions which was not only totally random, but a total blast! And keep your Spidey senses tingling cause next week (I think next week anyway) I somehow ended the being the inaugural subject for the Niagara Pulse regular feature on local winemakers. Look out for a photo of some bottle blond Aussie wearing the most porn pair of purple sunnies you’ve ever laid you peepers on!
 
Ok Tigers and Tigettes, time for me to blaze. While it hasn’t exactly taken me long to write this, I’ve also been downing (sorry that’s supposed to say tasting) a bottle of White Tiger (aka Bottle Blonde) to gauge how the time had been spent, and I have a feeling that the fact that I have a glass full and an empty bottle is sign for me to sign off like Captain Kirk on the Starship Enterprise. So keep it real and slam one down for me. Too easy, marc