Rain, hail and more reviews

I have spent the day inside, working at the computer, listening to the rain and hail pounding on the roof. The hail is a concern as the young buds and delicate growth on the vines can easily be damaged so I hope, as many other vignerons do, that it calms down a bit soon. It doesn't sound promising though as the forecast is for rough weather for most of the weekend.

The good news for the day though, besides yet more orders coming in due to the influx of incredible reviews of the past week, is that we have received yet another review, and while posting that one I will also post a very recent review on our 2006 Shiraz Cabernet. Please read Jeremy's reviews below and have a look at his website as it is full of many interesting reviews:)

Karra Yerta Wines 2008 Eden Valley Riesling

http://winewilleatitself.blogspot.com/2009/09/2008-karra-yerta-riesling.html

Eden Valley 13% Screwcap $25

The grapes are from 80 year old vines. Cool. I hear the 2009 of this could be even better. But this is a tasting note on the 2008, so enough about that.

This Riesling is so pure and pristine, its chastity makes me wonder if I should enjoy it as much as I do. Oh well, I'm not one for guilt so I did.

The extremely pale colour is indicative of the restraint inherent in the wine. Everything is suggested, nothing is stentorian :) Quite the opposite of me in some ways. It's penetrating without being sharp and it carries its lime, spice and bathsalts with aplomb. There is some pear but it doesn't broaden nor sweeten the palate, it just whispers its name as you drink. The spiced granny smith apple appears more as the wine opens up. And yes, there are river pebble like traits.

Amongst wine tragics, sorry enthusiasts, I sense that it is very hip to like this sort of wine. Austerity has cultural capital amongst the wine media at the moment. Well, this wine gives the austere a good name. It is a happy time when fashion and quality collide. Karra Yerta are deserving of all the praise they are receiving and I feel lucky to be able to drink their wines.

Winery Website- http://www.karrayertawines.com.au/

Posted by Jeremy Pringle at 10:30 AM

2006 Karra Yerta Wines Shiraz Cabernet

Barossa & Eden Valley SA 14.5% Screwcap CD $25- Tasted 2/9/09

http://winewilleatitself.blogspot.com/2009/09/2006-karra-yerta-wines-shiraz-cabernet.html

I'm a bit late on the Karra Yerta bandwagon really. You'll find better tasting notes of this wine over at The Wine Front-http://www.winefront.com.au/ (subscription needed, and it's more than worth it) and Full Pour- http://www.fullpour.com/

I tasted this after a raft of amazing Barrosan reds that were presented at Tyson Stelzer's and Grant Dodd's "Barossa Wine Traveller" and the couple of glasses I had last night were wonderfully satisfying as a night cap. You'd never pick the ABV, it's all in balance. 87% Barossan and Eden Valley Shiraz, 13% Eden Valley Cabernet.

Blackberries, dried flowers, cooked meat, violets, plums, a touch of Cabernet leaf and some chocolate. All complex and in harmony. Sweet/savoury interplay is very good and the structure seems equal parts acid and tannin. Very impressive for a wine at this price point. Very impressive for a wine full stop. Lovely long finish via those tannins, which started to kick in around the mid palate. I liked that after the juicy entry. Order some, or buy some at Bar Barossa in Queen Street, Brisbane. I don't believe there is a lot of it made (170 cases is all), which is a shame in some ways.

Winery Website- http://www.karrayertawines.com.au/wines.html

Posted by Jeremy Pringle at 10:24 AM

Tasting Notes: 2008 Eden Valley Riesling

KARRA YERTA WINES 2008 EDEN VALLEY RIESLING

PRODUCT: Karra Yerta Wines 2008 Eden Valley Riesling
VINTAGE: 2008
APPELLATION: Eden Valley
VARIETY: Riesling
HARVESTED: March 4th, 2008
BOTTLED: July 4th, 2008
ALCOHOL: 13%
TA: 7.79g/ltr
PH: 2.90
PRODUCTION: 85 cases/dozen
CELLARING: drink now to 2018
RRP AU$25

COMMENTS: This Riesling was made by Peter Gajewski of Rocland Winery from 75+ year old dry-grown, hand-picked grapes which are situated a mere few hundred metres to the west of the famous Ringland "Three Rivers" vineyard in the premium area of the Barossa Ranges. With lime aromas and flavours, touches of peach, paw paw and honey, along with the usual regional minerality, this wine will age very well. Screwcap.

REVIEWS & RATINGS
93++/100 points Philip White - "Drinkster", Adelaide
Alsace. Germany. Tasmania. High Barossa. Who cares? Honey and nuts; gewurztraminer and roses; spicebox and creme caramel: you'll find all these sorts of delicioso swimming round this bowl. It's not the austere crisp rapier some earlier Karra Yertas have been, but it's rich and wholesome, like some of the more Germanic rieslings made in the Barossa in the sixties and seventies, and what I imagine Petaluma tried to do sometimes during the eighties. The flavour has lovely honey as much as lemon and lime: not exactly sweet, but with an illusion of sweetness as much as your actual unfermented sugary juice. The aftertaste is a tantalising tumble of spiced mead, citrus pith, dried apple, lemon blossom and dry stones. It's like a serious spatlese riesling fermented dry. It'd be perfect with a creme caramel flavoured with a tiny squirt of lemon and garnished with citrus rind; or King George whiting fillets wrapped around a little squirt of prawn mousseline in beurre blanc. Savvy?

92/100 points James Halliday - "2010 Wine Companion", Melbourne

Julian Coldrey - "www.fullpour.com", Brisbane
"Lately, I've been thinking about wine styles and how some come to be defined as classics over time. In a way, it's more complex than the literary canon, for example, in which a single, unchanging artifact is evaluated and re-evaluated over time. With wine, a particular combination of variety and region remains static but a whole set of variables -- everything from particular vintage conditions to winemaking to long term climatic variations -- ensures a constant evolution. So, how to pin down the essentials? This wine poses the question because it seems to present atypically at first. The nose is heady, hinting at tropical richness without feeling at all broad. There are wisps of paw paw, honey and the sort of spice that would feel at home in a Gewürztraminer. These elements are at the fore, and for a moment mask a backbone of fine, detailed minerality and a curl of lime rind that are all about the Eden Valley. There's also what appears to be a touch of sulphur, adding complexity as much as anything else. On the palate, these potential contradictions resolve beautifully. It's not a sweet wine, but there's a luxurious softness here that comes from a combination of ultra-fine acidity and fruit character that recalls the delicacy of truly fine cuisine. The entry is clean, showing mostly citrus fruit and a refreshing level of tartness. It swells significantly as things move towards the middle palate, with a well defined wash of precise flavour and a finely textured, supple mouthfeel. An undercurrent of minerality, and some sulphur-like notes, add a savoury undercurrent to proceedings. The finish is exceptionally long and fine, fading gently over time with an echo of citrus flowers. Perhaps it is their very elasticity that elevates some styles above others, weaving a consistent thread through a variety of expressions, and drawing them together into something overarching and identifiable. This may not be a steely, forbidding wine, but it's an Eden Riesling just the same, with delicate minerality and an overall lightness of touch despite the generous flavour profile. An expression of this style I'm grateful to have tasted. A tiny production of 80 cases to be released in June." 18.8/20 points Andrew Graham - "Oz Wine Review", Sydney "The picture below tells the story here - those lovely gnarled 75 year old Riesling vines are located in one of the highest vineyards in the Flaxman's Valley, sitting high above the Barossa floor in an epicentre for Riesling in Australia: The Eden Valley. Hand tended, dry grown, hand picked (even hand labelled), its these pieces of vinous history that are what makes this very fine Riesling so very fine. Green green in colour and youthfully bright. Lime, slate, lime cordial and just ripe peaches on the very expressive and open nose - the aromatics fairly leap out of the glass and seduce the room. Unsurprisingly, the soft and long palate follows the nose with a flow of limes, lime juice and general limey-ness. I have two conclusions with this wine: Firstly, only 80 dozen were produced and if the price stays the same, it may not last long. Secondly, I actually think this may never be more attractive - its so beautiful now that whilst the backbone will carry it through for many years yet, I think it deserves to be drunk young and delicious. 18.8/20

Bottling time and the new labels are finally on!

Our 2009 Eden Valley Riesling was bottled on Wednesday July 8th and after a very long wait, with many headaches in between, our revamped labels were printed last Friday so it is all systems go now for our new releases: the 2008 Karra Yerta Eden Valley Riesling and the 2006 Karra Yerta Shiraz Cabernet, and in a month or so, the 2009 Riesling. Already all of the pre-orders have been sent and/or delivered and samples have been sent to some of our regular choices of wine journalists so it will be interesting to hear their thoughts on both the wines and the new look of our products.

Both bottling and labelling wine is an incredibly expensive part of the process of creating your product and there is no room for costly errors so it is always appreciated when you find good businesses to deal with for these very important tasks. In the case of the bottling, we choose Kym Burgemeister - Boutique Bottlers (at Stockwell) as he is simply just so organised and not easily frazzled. Another small family business, Kym is often helped out by his wife Sandra and their children and I know that I can relax once our products are in his hands as they too understand the importance of doing a good job, no matter what size operation they are running.

Our labels on the other hand are produced by a larger company, Barossa Print Masters, who recently had the job of making the labels for Paul Stanley's (of KISS) newly released wine. But in saying that, we deal particularly with one lady from BPM and she is truly a gem: Kym Montgomery.

Kym is an exceptional person to have at your side for any aspect of the business as she is one of the handful of people I have met in the industry who really do go above and beyond to ensure that her clients have the best quality at the best price and as a bonus, she has the knowledge and foresight to completely understand what it is you are trying to create, sometimes even before it is clear in your own head. Simply amazing. As I went to "sign off" for the final time on Friday before the labels were printed, I completely entrusted any last minute decisions to her as I knew she was more than capable of getting me the product I was looking for. I must mention that the boys on the press who made our labels were fabulous also but that was actually the first time I had met them. A great job by all at BPM; thank you sincerely.

It is amazing really to think that even a winery as small as us can have costs of ten thousand dollars a year just on bottling and labelling, let alone wine-making.... Not much profit in it really but again, it does prove that the small guys really are not in it for the money, but for the passion of what we do. So in light of all the Constellation and Fosters press of late, please do consider buying smaller wineries wines (and not only Karra Yerta) as you are supporting the heart and soul of the industry when you support the smaller, family owned businesses, along the whole line from vineyard to labelling and bottling.