New reviews from Philip White

The weather is a scorching forty one degrees celcius outside and I am not in a hurry to leave the computer, nor the air-conditoned room, for any reason. So it appears that the best way to spend my afternoon is to update my blogs, answer emails and print off any new reviews. So, in that respect, even though neither wines are officially released (both wines will be released after vintage ie March or April 2009) here are the latest reviews. It is our first review for our 2006 Shiraz and the second for our 2008 Riesling. Both reviews have been written by Philip White. You can read his wine blogs here: Drankster and Drinkster.

Karra Yerta Flaxman's Gully Eden Valley Barossa Riesling 2008

$20(?); unlabelled pre-release bottle; 12.5% alcohol; screw cap; 93++ points

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?

Karra Yerta Flaxman’s Gully Barossa Shiraz 2006

pre-release unlabelled sample; ??% alcohol; screw cap; 94+++ points

The stony, barren ridge at the top of Flaxman’s, where the ancient rocks poke through high above the Barossa, is the home of some of the world’s most expensive and elusive shiraz wines. (Think Ringland, next door. McLean’s Farm at the northern end; Mountadam at the southern.) This vineyard is windswept and wild, freezing in the winter, and even cool at night in the midst of the most vicious heatwaves. So this rare tincture has quite a lot to live up to. It has the most intense and complex bouquet, riddled with twists of beauty that seem so blacksmithed into compression they unwind in a dreadfully gradual and teasing manner. Musk, lavendar, violets, licorice, mint, cedar, sandalwood, vetiver, blackcurrant, blackberry, beetroot, morel, porcini, ancient soy, salt, schist, podsol, guano, gunpowder, swarf, burlap ... I dunno. I could go on, and I’ve only had my hooter in the glass for thirty minutes. I know now that this wine is gonna be a king hell striptease viper with a voice like Barry White and Grace Jones for a Mum. The palate’s disarming and confronting from the first sip: just mildly viscous, especially compared to the intensity of its flavours, with, yep, the lithe form of the black whipsnake slithering around your mouth like some professional girls apparently dance on poles. It’s strangely compact and intense, as I’ve said too many times, but still seems ethereal in its saucy habit of letting little shots of its myriad components just go: they’re there for a flash as they evaporate, and suddenly they’re replaced by something else. And on and on it goes. The dance of the hundred and summit veils. Sometime a long way off all these bits and pieces will assimilate and homogenise and the damned thing will be mature and formal and very, very famous, and those astonishing components will let go at the same time in equal proportions and really, really gradually, but shit, that’ll kill people, and by Bacchus I love it now. I doubt that I can stay alive long enough to drink it at its peak, and if I did, it’d kill me anyway. Karra Yerta has never hit the top ten in the glambam gobstopper any price you like stakes, but it will, and it will outshine most of those wannabeez and cooderbeenz. This is a stunning, secret wine. Gimme! JAN 09

A girl's afternoon at "Bucks" Bistro, Springton

We had wonderful rains yesterday morning. Humid as it was, the rain was much appreciated and needed. The late morning sun hid behind light grey clouds and only came out in full force mid-afternoon. By that stage my four friends and I were sitting in the most beautiful cottage garden setting at the rear of the new restaurant "Bucks" which is run by Poverty Hill Wines. "Bucks" is situated in the old blacksmith shop at Springton, a sleepy hamlet on the most southern edges of the Barossa Ranges about a fifteen minute drive south of Angaston (past iconic places such as Lindsay Park Stud, Collingrove Homestead and Eden Valley.)

Not only were there a range of beautiful wines to taste (even a 2004 Eden Valley Riesling, just beginning to show its soft and delicate texture and lovely aged flavours) but the menu was terrific. Between the five of us, we had an assortment of dishes. Some of the dishes on the menu were (starters): Goats Cheese and Fetta Vegetarian Lasagne ($9.00), Crumbed Oysters ($?), Salt and Pepper Squid and Soft Shell Crab with lime alioli ($11.50 - pictured below), and (mains): MSA Scotch Fillet Steak with Poverty Hill Riesling creamy garlic prawn sauce ($24), Pan fried Duck Breast with pinenuts, raison, orange, cherry cointreau glaze ($26) and a choice of salads or vegetables.

The atmosphere of the bistro, inside and out, is charming and inviting. A rustic old building with thick rendered walls and massive slabs of redgum it is one of the southern Barossa's historical treasures. The staff were friendly and courteous and that is another great attribute.

We enjoyed a pre-lunch tasting of some of the fine Poverty Hill wines: Eden Valley Riesling ($20 per bottle), the 2004 Eden Valley Riesling ($30) and the 2006 Eden Valley Merlot ($24). Of course, no "girls day out" is complete without a glass or two of bubbles and the Sparkling Shiraz sufficed nicely. We finished off with desserts and as we couldn't decide, on the advice of Peter (the manager of the bistro) we shared three of the dishes between us: chocolate cheesecake, strawberries & cream and jaffa slice ($6 each).

Many thanks to Peter, Liz and their staff for such a wonderful experience. I hope that you enjoyed the rest of the bottle of our 2005 Riesling that I left as much as I enjoyed your 2004 Riesling! Although the Barossa is full of fine places to wine and dine, the value and ambience of Bucks is exceptionally hard to beat! Pictured below are the Salt and Pepper Squid, desserts and three of the five ladies (Denise, Jenelle and Lisa) who enjoyed the afternoon at Bucks.

A Silver medal from San Francisco!

June is certainly a busy month on the wine front when it comes to shows and competitions. In the past few weeks there have been the 2008 San Francisco International Wine Competition and the Brisbane Fine Wine Festival; this weekend is the world-famous Barossa Shiraz Alliance and next weekend is The Great Edinburgh Shiraz Challenge.

All of these events and many others that I have not named are wonderful opportunities to get products "out" into the market but when you are as small a winery as we are (under 4,500 bottles produced per year) it is impossible to enter lots of competitions due to our very limited supplies. Six bottles sent here, a dozen there, and before long, a significant portion of your stock can be gone before you know it. So it's a big task to choose which shows you think are the right ones for your range of wine.

On that note, we are absolutely ecstatic to announce that we have been awarded our first ever medal - a Silver medal in the 2008 San Francisco International Wine Competition for our Karra Yerta Wines 2005 Barossa Shiraz. (From the competition website: "The San Francisco International Wine Competition, the largest, most influential international wine competition in America, is judged by a prestigious panel of nationally recognized wine experts. Judging is based on a blind, consensual procedure, ensuring that its rigor and integrity remain the nation’s most respected competition. In 2007, over 1,071 wineries submitted wines from 21 countries.")

These few statements regarding the competition show that it is indeed a feather in our cap to be awarded a medal and it certainly inspires us to keep following our dream of making super premium wines in very limited amounts.

Red, red wine

shiraz syrah
eden-valley
Last week we had our first lot of rain for so long I cannot even remember. It seems like months ago and probably is.... We are now in the beautiful season of Autumn and it felt good to go to the wardrobe and get out my woolly jumper and Doc Martens as compared to the recent items of a singlet-top and flip-flops (or thongs as us South Aussies call them). Football season is upon us and bottles of shiraz are getting pulled out of the cellar regularly. There is definitely something about Autumn - there is a noticeable sense of relief that the long hot summer is over and everyone seems much happier.... it is time to get a great book to read sitting in front of the fire or to cook huge pots of home-made soups.

Ah, the end is near of Vintage 2008. Our Eden Valley Shiraz (Karra Yerta Wines Bullfrog Flat Shiraz) was picked on Friday March 28 and after the very intense summer that we had, we were so fortunate to have cool days and chilly nights the week before we (hand) picked it so that the grapes had a chance to freshen up.

Approximately 1300kg picked and the baume' was 13.8 - very low compared to a lot that I have seen or heard of recently. All in all, the grapes looked terrific. James has been down in the sheds with Pete Schell and Jason Schwarz not only crushing our own grapes but helping the boys out with the other crushes as well. He will be spending a lot of time there again over the next week and it is great getting daily updates on the progress of our wine at this early but crucial stage. Which reminds me, I must bring home a sample from Tank 1101 again this week to see how our Eden Valley Riesling is travelling!

There is no doubt that our current bliss is grape-related psychology - to know that despite Mother Nature's trials and tribulations of another Vintage, we have survived, and again, better than a lot of others. I guess that is one reason why our appellation is called the Eden Valley - it really is an "Eden". Mother Nature certainly seems to shine down on our grapes with a less ferocious force than on many other areas of the country and for that, I am extremely grateful. And all going well, so will our customers be when the products are finished and finally on the shelves.

Selah