I reckon Mount Barker is one of best areas is Oz for producing Riesling. I know Clare, Eden Valley and Tassie get all the limelight but the structure and flavour of Mount Barker Rizza is truly a delight to behold. Do Galafrey make Riesling??

G'day Folks
I commenced making wines commercially in 2007 for Caught REDHANDED wines. The 2007 year in South Australia was a hot year and the end of a 5plus year drought, the 2008 (my second wine) was picked during a 14 consecutive day period during which the ripening period was 35 degree Celsius + weather and the 2009 had much the same conditions.

I am an advocate for lower percentage ALC wines but BALANCE is the key. If you can make a wine that still exhibits a balance with the components for acid, fruit weight, tannin structure, palate weight and alcohol, then fine.

I would hope my wines were less alcoholic but when climatic conditions determine the level of fruit ripeness and picking is determined by the winemaker when the fruit is physiologically ripe, then you sometimes get stuck with over-ripe fruit.

Personally I do not find my wines porty, but I do find them spirity where there are others on the market that show more balance.

In Australia, it is legal to add acid (tartaric, malic, citric acids) to wine to achieve balance of both total acidity and pH. In the 2008 heat wave year, in the McLaren Vale based contract winery I worked at, we had fruit that came in at levels of 32plus Baume (roughly equivalent of 32% ALC v/v if you could ferment it that high, pH levels of 4.2 matching and sometimes having Total acidities of under 4. Generally a healthy pH range for wine sits between pH3 - 3.5 and TA's of 6g of Total acids and above at the least to maintain balance. This means that the grapes came to winery totally out of balance, so the winemakers had quite a challenge just to make wines that were sound; let alone balanced.

So in short ,the climate dictates the sort of wines that are made. The picking date dictates the type and style that are made. When wines are jumping 1-2 Baume in a day when normally achieve this in a week, there are going to be problems for the winemakers at the end of the day. Big alcohol is great , but balance is key.
I did a tasting the other day with 3 Syrah wines of which 2 were French Rhone wines and the other was a Mornington Peninsula syrah\\

The over-riding leveller was their 13%alc and their overall balance. I loved the fact that they all were individual, Very tasty but above all were very drinkable and really balanced.

So in short lower alcohol table wines make better balanced wines, bigger alcohol wines may make more generous wines in flavour and fruit weight.

Cheers RED

Hey guys great comp-Could not post it on your blogspot-so..............................

Hmm, a very serious and testy business -the old vintage tunes.
You can't please all of the people all of the time..............so then please yourself!!

1) Dayshift- 6am start- Watching the Detectives- Elvis Costello and the Attractions

2) Plunging and pump over work- something Techno based- See you baby- Shaking that ass -Basement Jaxx

3) 6pm wind-down -Beer O'clock beckons-
Classic Rock - Born to Run- Bruce Springsteen and the E-street band

4) 10pm night shift blues- Couldn't stand the Weather- Stevie Ray Vaughan

5) 4am night shift fatigue- Something reflective -Into my Arms- Nicholas Cave and the Bad Seeds

Have a great Vintage all you booze hounds, cellar rats and barrel monkeys!
Phil- Caught REDHANDED Wines

All indications is that it will be a great year in the Vale.
Just salivating at the prospect of getting my grubby little hands on some old bush vine grenache that I have been trying to source for the last 3 years.
With the heat waves and drought, a lot of the grenache has been decimated so really excited about getting some good fruit from a great year.
And looking forward to playing with a new variety!!
Comes off mid March. And Vale Shiraz is going to be great as well.
All the best for Vintage to all.
Phil-CRH Wines

Mr Harrow
In another life I was one of the Trainee winemakers at Charles Sturt Uni (With CurrantyKarina) which was the Uni developed out of the Riverina College. The first Wine science School Head was none other than Brain Croser of Petaluma fame and Tony Jordan I believe was a consultant to the Commercial winery for some years.
Even then Brian was an advocate for screwcaps (and incidentally developed the modern style of Sauvignon blanc (cool fermented in stainless steel Sauvignon Blanc with onoculated yeasts)
I've tried the College 77 Rhine Riesling and can attest to the fact that even in 2004 was drinking fabulously even though Riverina fruit is not the sexiest area to grab Rizza from.
I also had I think an 81 or 82 and that was even fresher and more aromatic than the 77.
Fabulously made, still holding lime fruit and quite fresh. Low in alc from memory as well- around 11%.
I think we all need to nod our hats to the Clare winemakers association for promoting a united front for the bottling of all whites (Particularly Riesling) under screw cap closures.

Which other industry in the world would accept a 10% failure rate for the manner in which it packages its finished goods?? Corks be damned!