In April Tony and I spent 9 glorious days in South Australia’s Barossa Valley. We go every two years with friends to the Vintage Festival, mostly just to enjoy the festivities and expand our wine education. But this year our visit had a different focus.
In December Tony had successfully passed his Wine Spirit Education Trust Level 3 Certification (WSET3), a London based world-wide qualification which enables him to, among other things, be a Sommelier. It is Tony’s passion for wine that saw him not only pass, but receive a ‘credit’ for theory and a ‘distinction’ for his palate. And despite him doing this training for ‘fun’, it got us thinking.
Over the years we’ve shared many good bottles with friends, with me cooking delicious multi-course dinners, Tony matching the wines to each and both of us imparting our stories of travel to our guests. It’s the careful planning and execution of this journey of matching good wine and fresh produce to the right combination of guests and adding a dash of interesting and humorous stories that gives us both so much pleasure.
So we asked ourselves why we don’t do this on a bigger scale. With the idea conceived and worked through in great detail this trip would focus on finding boutique wineries with a story and a flair for producing wines of exceptional quality and character, especially those not available in the large retail outlets.
We thought the hunt would be difficult as we’ve been travelling to the Barossa for over 10 years and in that time we’ve seen most of what it has to offer. But to our great (and rather joyous) surprise we found a couple of gems, and so ensued discussions of our new idea with each of their wine makers.
The result is we are pleased to introduce to you our first wine dinner event under the new Wine Matchmaker banner being held on Monday 27th May in Melbourne. This dinner features one of our favourite wineries from the Barossa and Eden Valley, Glen Eldon Wines. Its Winemaker, Richard Sheedy, is a real character and it was a delight to spend a few hours with him sampling the wines and talking about the fascinating history of his vineyard.
It is Richard’s lease of the old Steingarten winery in the Eden Valley with Riesling vines over 100 years of age, vines that produce an extraordinary concentration of fruit, that enable him to make an exceptional wine of long cellaring potential. In fact on the night we’re being treated to a special Museum release of the 2005 vintage which shows just how luscious and different an aged Riesling can be.
If Reds are your thing then you’re in luck. The Dry Bore Shiraz is how I first got to know Glen Eldon and Richard, and the 2010 is another great vintage filled with lots of juicy fruit flavour and fine grained tannins (wine wank that simply means it’s ‘yummy!’) And as Richard puts it ‘almost anyone can make a good Shiraz from Barossa grapes, but it’s our Cabernets that we use to compare our winemaking talents’. Fortunately Richard’s Dry Bore Cabernet is a good one – not as tannic as classic Coonawarra beasts, but rather more elegant and fruity, thanks to the warm Barossa climate.
In tasting his wines the real surprise for us was Richard’s 2004 Cinnabar – a luscious sparkling Merlot of great depth yet softness thanks to its age. Not only was the wine a pleasant find, but its matching with Swiss cheeses was a great marriage and one we’ll be pleased to present on the night.
I could go on talking for hours about how we’ve carefully tasted and matched these wines to the fresh produce from chef Roger Moullet that we will be showcasing, or how we’ve managed to get Plumm Stemware on board to ensure that you’ll be experiencing these wines from some of the best glasses around.
I could also tell you we’ve got several surprises in store on the night including additional exclusive tastings and competitions where you could win some amazing prizes. But the bottom line is all you need to know is it’s great value at an amazing $99 a head all inclusive. So grab your partner and a few friends and join us for an unforgettable evening and an extraordinary journey.
View more details including the menu here:
https://winematchmaker.com.au/may2013/