Blog « Battle of Bosworth Wines

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….

Australia New Zealand Organic Wine Show Results 2011

02/10/2011

Battle of Bosworth had some great results at this years Organic Wine Show. The newly released 2011 ‘Puritan’ Shiraz {no added preservative} won Gold and Award for Best Preservative Free Wine, as well as being the highest pointed Shiraz in the competition.

The 2009 White Boar won a silver, as did the 2010 Battle of Bosworth Shiraz. The 2010 Battle of Chardonnay scored a bronze ‘bitter almond, scorched nut, complex’ as did the 2010 Spring Seed ‘Four O’clock’ Chardonnay ‘light, well judged, powdery, chalky, lemony – nice line of acid. citrus style’ I think with those comments the judges really meant to award a silver?

The Australia / New Zealand Organic Wine Show is the only annual organic wine show dedicated to the judging and promotion of certified organic and biodymanic wines from Australia and New Zealand. The first show was held in 2005 and has since grown steadily seeing an exciting upward trend in the quality of wines being entered and new vineyards coming onto the scene.

Only fully certified or in-conversion, organic and biodymanic wines can be entered. This means that the whole process, from growing the grapes through to the bottling has been checked and certified by a recognised certifying body in Australia or New Zealand. Chief of Judges is Max Allen, and his report of the show can be seen on his blog http://www.realaustralianwines.blogspot.com

Sips and the City Takes Sydney at Fix St James 21st Sep 2011

26/09/2011

A coming together of les femmes, always the best fun I think, no offence intended gents. Thanks for having us Stuart from Fix St James and co-host ‘Sip Your Style’ Katrina Holden, organisation Amanda Jane. More again soon I think.

(That’s Amanda Jane, Katrina Holden from ‘Sip Your Style’, Louise Radman from Radpublic, Corrina Wright from Oliver’s Taranga, Miss Kate Parry et moi with the glass…

(on arrival some Spring Seed ‘Sweet Pea’ Moscato)

(Options wine game…last lady standing…put your hands on your boobs if you think this is a white wine…great fun.)

Thanks Amanda Jane for organising, and Katrina from Sip Your Style (http://sipyourstyle.com.au/) for co-sponsoring. Great night all.