Thursday, April 24, 2008

Wine Club Tasting at The Arkaba

On Tuesday evening I was invited to The Arkaba Hotel in Adelaide to meet their wine club members and present some of our wines for tastings. What a great night it was and I met some wonderful people - some even with family roots in the Barossa (small world!). Quite a few of the members are great fans of aged rieslings and it was interesting to have them try our 2007 Eden Valley Riesling and note how they could actually taste the characteristics that ensure a riesling will age well.

I also took a few bottles of our 2005 Barossa Shiraz and a lot of people were very impressed. It is always wonderful to get such honest positive feedback!

It was a great opportunity to meet people who had no idea we (Karra Yerta Wines) even existed. It is still such a jungle out there as far as new wines go but slowly we are raising our profile and with all the recent reviews, things are looking very positive.

A big thank you to Tania of The Arkaba for inviting me to the tasting - her enthusiasm is most definitely contagious!

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Toast & Honey on an Autumn afternoon: C1999 Eden Valley Rizza

The weekend has come and gone but what a pleasant one it was. Firstly, our favourite Melbournian friend Terence (www.terencepang.com) visited with some of his family again. Despite having a sick teenager (bronchitis) and a large pot of home-made chicken noodle soup cooking (for said sick son!) I did manage to sit and chat with our guests for a little while, and even have the occasional sip of shiraz with them over a platter of Maggie Beer pate', cabernet paste, cheese and crackers.

Prior to Terence's arrival, during a short husband/wife/business partner discussion, James decided to open one of our 1999 Eden Valley Rieslings (not made under Karra Yerta Wines, but during our "hobby" days). It was superb!!! I am not usually a fan of aged rieslings (I prefer them young) but what a surprise I received on the first mouthful. As we only have one case (12 bottles) left, it is a rare event indeed that we open any of our rieslings from that era. I expected something that had a kero aspect to it, and it did oh so slightly, but I was very surprised at the first sip - it was one of the smoothest textured rieslings I have ever tasted.

The clarity was impressive - still very clear, not the least bit murky like other aged rieslings I have seen and the colour itself was still relatively pale, although there was some yellowing as to be expected from a riesling of this age. The flavours of toast and honey were amazing. Very slight notes of grapefruit and straw (cannot quite work that one out!) and a lovely acidity still even after eight years. The bottle was our last vintage sealed under cork and the cork itself was in excellent condition still. For dinner we had fried rice, satay steak, stir fried vegetables, and honey-soy chicken pieces and the riesling went very well with it indeed.

Amazingly we did not finish the bottle; I specifically asked James to leave some for me to try today to see how it opened up: tonight it presented just as beautifully as last night - it is just so smooth, almost silky.. the toast and honey is there; just as predominant and yet a little different, more depth/length perhaps..? It makes me even more optimistic about what our allocated museum stocks will turn into over the next five to ten years. It just goes to show that riesling is truly one of the best varieties to cellar long term; the rewards are certainly worth the wait!




Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Rain and riesling

There's not a great deal to report right now but a couple of things worth a mention. Firstly we have had the most beautiful rains for the past day and a half - a bit of rough weather, strong winds - but so wonderful to have the rain after seeing so much parched ground for so long!

Secondly, I managed to have a small taste of our 2008 Eden Valley Riesling yesterday while at Rocland. Peter Gajewski (aka Juicy) handed me a glass and it was terrific to see how it had changed since the last time I tried it. Yesterday it was all citrus and limes - delicious! I cannot wait to see what it is going to end up like in a few months.

On that note, we have some new reviews coming out this weekend and also had a recent one for our 2005 Eden Valley Riesling. Other great news is that we have a new outlet in Sydney which will promote our wines to the international market. See our website for details on stockists (our wines page) and also to read our latest reviews (on the media/news page).

Cheers