New Halliday rating and Barossa At Home review

It is finally time to catch our breath as the previous months have been exceptionally busy. The good news is that our new labels are due to be printed this week so our 2008 Eden Valley Riesling and 2006 Shiraz Cabernet will be on the shelves adorned with the revamped labels sometime in July. It has been a long process but finally we came up with a design that kept in line with our original branding but smartened it up somewhat. I cannot wait to see them on the bottles!

Another exciting event for the week was a rating and short review of our 2008 Riesling (rated 4 and a half glasses and 92 points) from James Halliday so keep an eye out for the 2010 James Halliday Wine Companion to read James' full review. It normally hits the retail shelves in August.

Our Barossa At Home weekend was a success despite the last-minute cancellation of our dinner. We simply didn't sell enough tickets to make it a viable proposition but on speaking with other participants, we were not alone. That did not dampen our spirits for the weekend's wine tastings and it certainly proved to be successful in sales and in meeting new faces who ventured out in the chilly weather. All going well, we may try to arrange a similar event (a tasting and dinner) with our Collective counterparts in the warmer months.

The art display by the Bethany Art Group brought extra people out to visit us and it was terrific to see some of the artists attend. Their works were stunning and certainly brought the old stable to life. Many thanks to Tony and Phyl for all the work they did to get the display up in time.

James is getting organised to go to Brisbane for the Purple Palate events, and pruning in between. We have had lots of rain this winter so far and he has done well to keep on top of it. Not an easy task when he also has a full-time job elsewhere. It won't be long til I am up on the hill as well tying the vines on and before we know it, harvest will be here again.

As for now though, it is perfect weather for enjoying a glass of red at night by the fire. Winter is my favourite time of year and it is lovely to hear the squelching of the soil underfoot again. The vineyard is looking happy with itself and no doubt will do us well again this coming year after such good winter conditions.

How to find us for Barossa At Home

It is a hectic week indeed! I have been finalising everything for the coming weekend but realised that I have not put up our own map yet so here it is for anyone that is not familiar with where we are. Just click on it to make it open in a new window so that it is bigger. Hope to see you on the weekend!

Our driveway will have a wine barrel at the roadside, and there is a grid reference number plate on a steel dropper also at the roadside: #195-715. The driveway is in the centre of the two children's crossing signs (the only such ones on the entire Flaxman's Valley Road) so once you get to that point just head up the long driveway towards the old stable (the lights will be on so even if it is dark ie for the dinner, you should be able to see it:)

If by some chance you get lost, please just call me on 0438870178 and I will come and find you:)

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

Barossa At Home update - June 27 & 28, 2009

The Barossa Wine and Tourism Association have just released the new brochure promoting their latest event - Barossa At Home. I have briefly mentioned this event in my earlier blog post: http://karrayertawines.blogspot.com/2009/03/winter-wine-event-watch-this-space.html It is a very different event and we are looking forward to participating in it. In fact, of the 48 wineries taking part, we are the only ones to have multiple wineries at the one dinner (Karra Yerta, Gumpara and Kurtz Family Vineyards).

The purpose of the weekend event is to allow you to meet the winemakers behind the wines. On Saturday 27th June and Sunday 28th June between 11am and 3pm our rustic old stable will be open for wine tastings. Then at 6pm on Saturday evening our special wine dinner will begin. Both the tastings and the dinner will feature delicious home-cooked food and the wines of Karra Yerta, Gumpara and Kurtz Family Vineyards. The sumptuous food will be prepared by our good friend Leanne Tidmus (one of the Barossa's best cooks of country-style dishes) and Karra Yerta's Marie Linke. The three winemakers, James Linke (Karra Yerta), Mark Mader (Gumpara) and Steve Kurtz (Kurtz Family Vineyards) will be dining with guests on the night in our rustic old red gum stable.

Wines complementing the four courses for the night include:

• Karra Yerta 2006 Eden Valley Riesling (Soup: Yabbie Bisque OR Cream of Chicken and Corn Soup)

• Karra Yerta 2008 Eden Valley Riesling (Entree: Mushroom Strudel with Cream Sauce OR Salmon Salad with Creamy Caesar Dressing)

• Karra Yerta 2006 Shiraz Cabernet (Main: Grilled Lamb Cutlets with Red-Currant and Rosemary Glaze) OR
  

• Kurtz Family Vineyard 2004 Lunar Block Shiraz (Main: Beef and Red Wine Casserole with Parsley Dumplings) OR
  
  
• Gumpara 2008 Barossa Semillon (Main: Baked Spatchcock with a Nectarine and Honey Sauce)

• Gumpara Liqueur Frontignac (Dessert: Glazed Peach Tart) OR

• Gumpara Tawny Grenache (Dessert: Individual Black Forest Cakes) OR

• Kurtz Family Vineyard 2005 Boundary Road GSM (Dessert: Fruit and Cheese Platter for one)
  

Coffee, tea and home-made liqueur chocolate truffles plus other wines available for tasting on the night.

We have 25 tickets available at $100 each. Please email us at karrayertawines@gmail.com to make a booking or any enquiries, or phone Marie on 0438870178. We can then post you out our brochure with the menu choices, map and other information on it. As we are all such small wineries and will be doing most of the work ourselves we would appreciate knowing in advance what your menu choices will be (if possible). This makes preparation easier and also saves us costs (so that we can spend more on our wine-making:)

Please note that although the menu above is 99.9% certain sometimes things happen beyond our control so in that event you will be contacted and advised of any changes. I doubt that will happen but it is always good to have a contingency plan. We really hope that you can join us on this very special night featuring three of the Collective wineries at the one location. Our fourth Collective winery, SmallFry, will be having their own tastings and dinner at their cellar door in Angaston. As you can see from the photo below of the bar in our rare old stable, it is a very rustic old building. The floor is made of gum rounds sawn from logs so please wear flat shoes as the floor can be uneven in parts from the old draught horses that used to drag their hooves when eating from the mangers in the early 1900's.

We are also looking at having (free) courtesy drivers so if you are interested in using this service, please let us know when making your booking. Finally, the weekend will also provide us with an opportunity to show off some of the fabulous artwork from the Bethany Art Group which will be displayed in the stable. A lesser known group of Barossa artists, the display is sure to be stunning and provide our guests with yet another aspect of the creative talent that flourishes in our beautiful and diverse area. A selection of the artwork will be on sale at very reasonable prices.

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

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.