BLOG — 2014

From our 2014 Newsletter The Tin Shed.  We held several sourdough demonstrations, and I like to think there’s a few still at it out there!

While on a road trip in the US last year, we visited the Russian River wine region of California and while browsing a bookshop in Healdsburg (as you do) picked up a CD copy of Michael Pollan’s “Cooked – A Natural History of Transformation”.  It was great listening on long car trips - an exhaustive history on why we cook our food the way we do.  We were, of course, immediately attracted to his section on fermentation in all its various guises.

The discussion on bread, and sourdough bread in particular, caught our attention.  We’ve been making our own bread for ages but we had not taken the next step of “wild fermentation” breads, as we have with our red wines.  Michael introduced us to Chad Robertson and his life’s mission to make bread with soul - the perfect country loaf.  I love the painting (opposite) by Emile Friant (1888) that inspired Chad’s mission.

Similarly inspired, I’ve been mucking around with Chad’s instructions for making a basic country loaf in his book “Tartine Bread”.  After many tasty but somewhat dense test loaves, we’ve hit on an approach that works well with our local flours, and even includes a secret ingredient!  A few other important points:

steam is critical to baking good bread

managing the fermentation well is the most important skill to develop

sourdough doesn’t have to be that sour (in fact “sourdough” is a bit of a misnomer)

sourdough starters are simple to manage

small changes in approach can make a big difference to the results

you need to develop a feel for your dough and be flexible

It’s been fun, and we’d love to share some of our bread recipes with you – Fiona makes a great ciabatta too.  Learn how to make basic sourdough bread (or bring along your own bread and share your secrets!) at our winter solstice celebration – bookings required!

NM

An excerpt from our newsletter in 2014 – we were (and still are) chuffed to be rated so highly by Mr Halliday and his team:

Now a 4 ½ Star Winery  – In his  2014 Wine Companion, James Halliday has rated Yarrh Wines as a  4 ½ Star winery.  We are very pleased with this, and it marks another milestone in our development.  What does 4 ½ Stars mean? “Excellent winery able to produce wines of high to very high quality, knocking on the door of a 5-star rating. Will normally have one wine rated at 94 points or above, and two (or more) at 90 and above, others 87-89.” James Halliday is now no doubt the best known wine critic in Australia, so his ratings are an important indicator to many that they are dealing with a high quality producer.  Highlights of the wines he rated this year -  2011 Riesling 94/100 (“Outstanding”), 2011 Shiraz 90/100 (“Highly Recommended”). 

From our newsletter The Tin Shed of 2014, the beginning of our “Mr Natural” range of wines…

For some time now we’ve been fermenting our reds using “natural ferments” – no added yeast.  We wanted to see if we’d left anything behind taking this step so we divided our first pick of Shiraz into three batches.  The first batch dubbed ‘Mr Natural’ was allowed to start fermenting naturally and although it took longer to get going, it completed fermentation close to the other two. The second had some nutrient added – still a natural ferment.  The third had nutrient and yeast added.  All the ferments progressed well, though at times the aromas and activity did vary.  The batches were pressed separately and put into separate barrels.  All have excellent colour  (very important for tannin development) but have quite different flavour profiles.  The natural ferments tend to be more savoury while the added yeast tends to create more fruity notes.  The wines are still very young and not complete so it’s a bit too early to have a firm opinion on what might be best, but we will continue to explore and contemplate more natural, low input winemaking.

For the first time this year we also made a sparkling Rosé.  It was inspired by a wine dinner we attend in January, hosted by wine judge and writer Mike Bennie.  The wine dinner was titled “Wines you need to know about.” and started with sparkling wines made using the technique “methode ancestrale”.  The wine is bottled before fermentation is complete, so bubbles are created in the bottle.  These wines are often a Rosé made with no added yeast, no sulphur dioxide, unfined and drunk fresh, either during the vintage or in the following spring. 

Our sparkling Rosé was made from a small batch of Tumbarumba Pinot Noir.  Fermentation started like clockwork, but then at what point do you bottle the wine?  It turns out we bottled a little too early – it’s rather (very) fizzy but it tastes very pleasant, fresh, fruity and refreshing. It is a little cloudy as the yeast lees have not been removed (as you would with “méthode champenoise” ) but I think this adds to its charm and character – as Neil points out its very much like a Coopers Sparkling Ale.  It was available for tasting at the recent Wine Harvest Festival and

was very well received.  So the challenge for next year is to tone down the bubbles and make it just as pleasant to drink.

FW

Key Words

Winemaking

From the Archives

2014

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From the archives in 2014, one of the biggest Wedge-tailed Eagles I've ever seen gets hunted out the vineyard by a team of angry Magpies.  

NM