The Barossa goes to Brisbane, and so does Karra Yerta

Last weekend representatives from twenty-five different Barossa and Eden Valley wineries attended three events in Brisbane organised by Purple Palate to celebrate the opening of their new wine store, Bar Barossa.

We sent our resident red wine maker (oh, and my husband:), James. He travelled up with Steven Kurtz of Kurtz Family Vineyards and from the sounds of things they had a great weekend. A few Coopers Ales may have made our tribe feel at home I think. They also met up with the third Collective counterpart, Wayne Ahrens of Smallfry.

The events were incredibly successful and the wineries ended up showcasing their wines to almost one thousand people over the two tastings and dinner which is a remarkable feat. Many thanks to Darren Davis for his magnificent organisational skills and to the entire Purple Palate gang for making our winery people feel welcome.

Feedback from James was that our rieslings were received fantastically and everyone loved the style of it. No doubt that the Queensland lifestyle plays a part in that, and what better to have with a lovely seafood meal?

We look forward to working with Purple Palate in the future and increasing our sales to that part of the country. With the Queensland sector now covered, our wines are available all along the East Coast of Australia including Tasmania so we are absolutely over the moon with the opportunites that have come up over the past few years. Sincere thanks to all who have supported us in the current economic climate.

Special thanks to Darren for allowing me to use the accompanying photograph on this blog entry.

Karra Yerta Wines Event Diary - June/July 2009

Just a very brief blog entry tonight mainly to inform you of the dates to put in your diary for June and July. Looking forward to meeting up with some old friends and making some new ones!

SATURDAY JUNE 27
Barossa At Home:

• Exclusive Wine-Tasting at the Karra Yerta Stable (featuring the wines of Karra Yerta, Gumpara and Kurtz Family Vineyards) from 11am to 3pm. Admission $5.

• Intimate Dinner at the Karra Yerta Stable. Dine with the three winemakers from Karra Yerta, Gumpara and Kurtz Family Vineyards whilst enjoying a sumptuous four-course home cooked meal accompanied by wines from the three wineries. (Maximum) 25 tickets available at $100 each.

SUNDAY JUNE 28
Barossa At Home:

• Exclusive Wine-Tasting at the Karra Yerta Stable (featuring the wines of Karra Yerta, Gumpara and Kurtz Family Vineyards) from 11am to 3pm. Admission $5.
  

For a map showing our location for these events please go to this link: Barossa At Home map

THURSDAY JULY 23
Purple Palate/BarBarossa:

• Brisbane Public Tasting held at the Marriott Hotel from 6pm - 9pm

FRIDAY JULY 24
Purple Palate/BarBarossa:

• Sunshine Coast Public Tasting held at Montego’s on the Bay, Kawana Island from 6pm - 9pm

SATURDAY JULY 25
Purple Palate/BarBarossa:

• MMRI (Mater Medical Research Institute) Black Tie Charity Ball from 5pm – midnight.

For more information on the above events in Queensland go to: http://www.purplepalate.com

When the Festival's over....it's back to the vineyard

The past month has gone by so fast. In between my last post and this one we have had the 2009 Barossa Vintage Festival, numerous days of grape-picking and even my first drive around the Barossa in our newest acquisition with friends from the city. The Vintage Festival was a huge success and the weather for the week-long event was truly the Barossa at its beautiful best. The Valley was full of people attending many events. It was great to see everyone still enjoying themselves despite the current economic climate. That was the best thing about the Festival - there were events that were free to attend and ones that were well over $100 per ticket and everything price range in between so there really was something for everyone.

During the Festival a few of James' friends, John and Annette, stayed at Nuriootpa for a couple of days during which I took them on a tour to a few unique places in the Valley in our recently restored classic old Holden. They met some of our Collective counterparts - Steve Kurtz and Wayne Ahrens - for a private tasting, and it was wonderful to finally bring them to our place and sit in the old stable having a few glasses of wine. After a few extra stops we ended up having dinner with them at The Branch in Nuriootpa.

This week has been spent doing part days hand-picking of our Eden Valley Shiraz - a half tonne picked on Monday to pool with grapes from Colin Sheppard (from Flaxman Wines) for a Sparkling Shiraz. On Tuesday we picked our old vine Eden Valley Shiraz (about half a tonne only) for our own BullFrog Flat Shiraz and the last of the young shiraz was picked yesterday for our Red Blend. A very busy week indeed. James has taken leave from his full-time job at ETSA to be active in making our reds and today is picking up some Eden Valley Cabernet which we have sourced from David Brown (Mountadam Winery). In between all of this we have still been visiting Rocland (see the photo below of James and Juicy in front of the tank) to see how our riesling is progressing and so far, so good. All in all, in a few weeks time life should resume some normality and then it will be time to start pruning!

Finally, other news is that we have a new distributor for NSW, ACT and VIC - Single Vineyard Sellers and a new venture about to start in Tasmania so things are quite hectic on the paperwork/despatch side but very positive. I will also be attending a dinner in Brisbane at the end of July with many other Barossa winery representatives hosted by The Purple Palate. I will post more info regarding the Brisbane dinner and our own Barossa At Home dinner as things are confirmed in the coming weeks but for now, on this lovely rainy afternoon, I am heading to the kitchen to make a batch of scones and open a bottle of red which will be consumed watching the AFL match on television later tonight. It's been a huge month and it is certainly time to kick back and relax for a day or two.