Blog « Battle of Bosworth

New 2011 Battle of Bosworth Pinot Noir now available

15/01/2012

We have something new at Battle of Bosworth cellar door…. the 2011 Battle of Bosworth Pinot Noir was released on Tuesday for tasting (and sales, if you like it). Made using grapes from our own 25 year old vines, Joch decided there was space for another wine in the line-up, and especially for this fragrant, strawberry-nosed, middleweight lovely.

About 30% of the grapes underwent ‘carbonic maceration’ which is a process where the grape ferments from the inside, in a carbon dioxide rich environment (hence the plastic bag which was tied up when it was filled). This process is often used in Beaujolais to make Gamay, and helps make a fruity wine with low tannins.

Organically grown and certified of course, from our Braden’s vineyard. I seem to remember I was driving past the vineyard when it was being picked last year, and got some photos which I dug out.

2011 McLaren Vale Winemakers Lunch at The Old Tatchilla Winery

27/11/2011

It seems an aeon ago now since the annual coming together of winemakers, vignerons, and all wine associated folk in between that is the Winemakers Lunch. This year we were in a new venue, the old Tatachilla Winery on Tatachilla Road, McLaren Vale. In the early part of the last century Tatachilla Winery was the largest working winery in the southern hemisphere. It was a gravity operated winery, hence the split level luncheon we found ourselves at on the last Friday of October.

The old winery looked magnificent, alll decked out in a vaguely Elizabethan theme, which some people took to heart more than others. Justin Lane from Alpha Box and Dice went all out (see below), which provided an amusing visual gag for all, and raked up fond memories of Blackadder for me.

The main purpose of the Winemakers Lunch (apart from being a great forum for a catch up) is to announce the Bushing King or Queen, that is, the maker of the Best Wine of Show from the McLaren Vale Wine Show. This year for the very first time, Battle of Bosworth was in the running for this award, as our 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon had been awarded Gold and trophy for the best McLaren Vale Cabernet Sauvignon. The photo below was from the MV awards dinner held the previous week at Hardy’s old Barrel shed.

The CS is looking particularly pleased with itself with its Peter Coombs designed trophy, although Louise’s Blackberry camera leaves a lot to be desired. After tasting all the trophy winning wines on the awards dinner night, my thoughts were that a SC Pannell wine might ‘get up’, and I think a lot of other people thought the same. In fact Steve’s 2010 Touriga Tempranillo was announced Bushing Wine, which confirmed everyone’s thoughts. It is a lovely wine, and thoroughly deserved the gong. Steve and Fiona looked magnificent in their purple robes. The outgoing kings were Michael Fragos and Bryn Richards from Chapel Hill and I managed to catch a shot of Michael is his robes just before being stripped of his title. He would not put his crown on for me though, something to do with hair and product?

A big part of the lunch is the winemakers parade at the beginning, when with cajoling and cattle prods, the winemakers are made to parade up to the front through the seated crowd and stand and be gawked at. This years commentary was given by Mike Brown from Gemtree Vineyards and our very own Joch Bosworth. It seemed there were less cheeky asides than in previous years when Jock Harvey from Chalk Hill was the MC….Anyhow, with Joch being associate MC, this gave Louise the opportunity to pretend to be a winemaker, and wear the winemaker’s medallion and mince in to the front…

All in all a very successful lunch. Food by the Victory hotel was excellent. I believe there were a few injuries sustained later on due to uneven floors and over zealous greetings, but nothing that 7 weeks in plaster and a metal rod won’t sort out (@waywoodwines bad luck Lisa). Well done Lizzy and team from MVGWT (McLaren Vale Grape Wine and Tourism Association) for organising an excellent lunch, and well done SC Pannell Bushing King.

James Busby Travel 2011 Visit

31/10/2011

Sunday 30th October saw the James Busby Travel bus roll into town, with Tim Wildman MW leading a group of 13 wine professionals on a tour of the top winemaking regions of Australia. The group were predominantly from the UK, a couple from the USA, one Irishman, Colm who got the tasting started with a plank (you remember planking, surely?) on the wall outside cellar door, as well as a Swede, a Latvian and Sonal from India.

Joch caught up with the group at the Victory hotel for lunch on the Saturday and then took half the group out early morning squid fishing on the Sunday. The end result of this activity can be seen below. Well done Emily O’Hare from The River Cafe. First squid in the bucket AND first person inked, you win hands down! Thanks Carl and Ian for helping catch/ cook.

Jacqui from Guy Anderson Wines had a Road to Damascas moment on the squidding trip, discovering the magical and restorative qualities of Bundy and Coke in a can. We sent her off with the last one, looking very pleased with herself.

We had a tasting at cellar door and Joch showed currrent release wines, and then a retrospective of The White Boar, our nod (or was that a wink?) to Amarone (and a blending component for our Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon). We then looked through the component parts of our new ‘Best of Vintage Wine’ which is to be a Cab/ Shiraz/ Petit Verdot. A later tweet by Tim (@Jamesbusbytrav) suggested that he saw in this wine a discernable “Vale” style: raspberry, spice, chocolate & salt. This wine is going into bottle at the end of this month, which is exciting.

Joch fondly reminisced about his carefree early winemaking days in the shed, showing the 1997 Sparkling Cab Franc, amusingly named the Undi (made by a pair of Jocks – he and Jock Harvey from Chalk Hill Wines, ho ho ho) and the less amusingly named follow up wine.

We ended up the visit with a splendid group plank on the lawn outside cellar door, before the group was taken by David Paxton and Daniel from Paxton Wines for a viticultural meander back to the north of the Vale. It was a terrific afternoon, and I do hope that Qantas come to the party and allow the group to head to WA on Thursday and then home on Sunday…

Meet the Wine Show Judges at Primo Estate Oct 17th 2011

18/10/2011

It’s October which means McLaren Vale Wine Show time. The International Wine Show Judge this year is Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, who covers Australia and New Zealand for the Wine Advocate magazine. She is being given the immersion treatment into all things McLaren Vale, staying for well over a week. Judging for the annual McLaren Vale Wine Show takes place over 2 1/2 days at the Bocce Club in McLaren Flat.

Chief Judge is Tom Carson from Yabby Lake. Also in town to cast their eyes over our fine wines are Louise Radman, Nick Ryan, Sue Hodder from Wynns and Jane Faulkner who writes for the Age. The good folk of the Vale take the opportunity to subject the judges to a ritual humiliation by forcing them to make pizzas (in the wonderful pizza oven at Primo Estate) and then judging them on their efforts. In some small way it allows us, the wine show judgees, to feel big and powerful, when we know that the wine judges are likely not to recognize the greatness of our favourite Shiraz or Cabernet at the show, and leave us broken-hearted. (Below panel 1 lining up, Jane Faulkner to the far left chatting to someone, Tom Carson having a quick shut-eye, Lisa P-B MW, Justin Lane from Alpha Box and Dice and James Rouse from Wirra. Above an ENORMOUS and delicious paella)

MC for the night was Zar Brooks from Dandelion Vineyards, who rose to new heights this year in his role, quoting tracts of Shelley to the assembled throng, who were keenly awaiting the result of the pizza contest. We tolerated his erudite performance however, which he punctuated by throwing a knife into the ground, narrowly missing someones kid who was running by. He didn’t miss a beat of course. (Below left Andrew Locke chair of the MV wine show, and Zar)

Winner of the pizza making contest was the divine Mistress of Wine Ms Louise Radman, below.

I think this is the third year of this family friendly event, and is a credit to all involved; the organising committee, the judges good humoured involvement and us, the punters, for coming along on a school night. The kids were allowed to have a crack at making their own pizza once the main event was over as well. See young Bosworth (below) pretty pleased with her efforts.

Thanks for having us Primo Estate. PS The Bellinis were excellent by the way, as was that giant paella. Now, wine show judges, I want a gold medal for one of my wines!

October in the Vineyard and Vale Cru Tasting 16th Oct 2011

09/10/2011

We took a walk through the vineyard on Friday night on our way to early dinner at the Willunga Golf Club restaurant. We took the back way through Ding’s Block Shiraz (which used to be planted to Pinot Noir and Joch used to sell for sparkling base to Penfolds, or was it Tyrrell’s?). The recent rain has put a glint in the vineyard’s eye, and it looks great.

You can see evidence of Peter Bosworth’s (Joch’s dad) dodge ploughing under the vines – being organic obviously we can’t spray weeds out, so precision ploughing is the way to go. One false move and the vine gets it.

Looking back up to the house with our back to the 13th hole, you can see the dodge plough evidence more. We rely on the soursobs during winter to keep most of the weeds at bay under vine, then run through in spring with the dodge plough to clean up any offenders who managed to avoid being smothered by the yellow peril.

Perhaps the best sight we saw on our walk, apart from the healthy looking vineyards of course, was this giant topiary duck in someone’s back garden . Quite breathtaking. Splendid effort, whoever you are.

On Saturday evening we had the last meeting of the Vale Cru members before our big tasting on Sunday 16th October at the Victory Hotel at Sellicks (2-5pm bookings have a look at the producers involved at http://www.valecru.com.au ) You can see the back of Brad from Brash Higgins, Sue Trott on the left from 5 geese, Dudley from Inkwell behind Brad, and oh look, there’s Joch having a sly drink on the right just behind Nick Haselgrove from The Old Faithful Wine Co. Here’s the poster, or at least part of it, that the very talented Woods Cannon did for us.

So, I believe there are still some tickets available, please snap them up at http://mybookingmanager.com/VALECRU2011) for $42.95 (includes the $2.95 booking fee) you get a Vale Cru badged glass, some fine Victory nibbles, tastings of fine small batch McLaren Vale wines (with the opportunity to purchase at keen prices) and a great day. I checked the long range forecast and it looks good at this stage. Joch will be on duty. See him there….