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Australia's Other
Red Centre
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A Defining Moment
Remember Deinhard's Green Label? This was the measure of a sophisticated host of
the seventies to offer dinner party guests It seemed to go well with the prawn cocktail
and after several glasses you could never remember the main course anyway. My recollection
of the purpose of 70’s dinner parties was for wives (baby boomers didn’t have partners)
to reciprocate in grander culinary ways and husbands to find a more exotic overseas
wine at an affordable price. French reds were considered the domain of the older
rich and men who had experienced a New Zealand red of that time had immediately re-sworn
allegiance to Sparking Waitemata as the aperitif of choice.
The problem of the wine remained however. Imagine our delight when we found some
dust covered bottles of Australian Cabernet Sauvignon at a local pub bottle store.
The publican had no idea what it was like, or even what it was doing there, but was
prepared to knock several dollars off the price of each bottle for failing to chill
it before purchase. Our guests were impressed with our knowledge that it should be
served at room temperature, and our ability to almost pronounce the name correctly
- Wynns Coonawara Cabernet Sauvignon. From that defining moment we have always loved
the big reds from the Coonawarra region and it was with a sense of discovery and
homage that over twenty five years later, we finally visited Coonawara - ‘Australia’s
other Red Centre’.
The Coonawarra District
The Coonawarra district of South Australia is just over the border from Victoria.
Being 400km south east of Adelaide and 450km west of Melbourne does mean a special
effort must be made to get there. We hired a car in Melbourne and enjoyed the delights
of the Great Ocean Road, staying at the Victorian picturesque coastal town of Port
Fairy overnight.
Once you arrive at Penola, the historic gateway town to the Coonawara, wine tasting
could not be easier. Starting at Penola in the South and extending in a narrow strip
about 35k along the Riddoch Highway north towards Naracoorte, the Coonawarra offers
23 cellar doors, many within a few hundred metres of each other. Choice and discipline
and stamina therefore are the only problems that confront the intrepid wine taster.
Pre Trip Planning Made Easy
Before our trip we went online and ordered the superb glove box guide to South Australia’s
wine country ‘South Australian
Secrets’. This free book is produced by the South
Australian Tourist Commission and can be ordered at www.southustralia.com Not only
does it have informative entries for every winery in the 10 major South Australian
wine regions but suggests itineraries, lists accomodation options, local festivals,
gastronomic journeys and contains local roadmaps. It was must have book and combined
with a James Halliday Wine Companion, it solved our problem of choice as we listed
the wines we wanted to taste and the cellar doors we wished to visit. If only discipline
and stamina were this easy!
Welcoming Cellar Doors
We started at Parkers Coonawarra Estate, a modern and stylish cellar door just minutes
from Penola. A small tourist wine trail bus had just left and we had the charming
lady to ourselves. Can you imagine our delight when she produced the Terra Rossa First Growth priemium wine for us to taste. At $79 Aust per bottle, this did seem
generous in the extreme. But it was dark, it was dense, it had fine tannin, it had
oak and it was classy and we loved it. ‘Put it away for ten years”, said our hostess
as we walked out the door with two unintended bottles under our arms. |
In fact, all cellar door staff in the Coonawarra made
us feel very welcome, were tremendous promotors of the region and really knew their
wines. Most cellar doors also offered their premium wines for tasting which left
our credit card limp from shock by the end of the day.Warming to our task, wines
from Leconfield, Yalumba, Zema Estate and the famous Wynns John Riddock Cabernet were
all tasted and purchased. I believed I had gone to heaven but Lizzie, ever the pragmatist,
suggested lunch at Hollick Wines. “ We’ll be able to try a nice glass of wine,” she
added.
An Encounter with a Big Red
Sitting on the restaurant deck at Hollicks, the Coonawarra vines seem to stretch
out to the horizon. Apart from sufficient rainfall, cool winters and long hot summers
and autumns a cutting in the ground at Hollicks explains just why the wines are so
good. The Terra Rossa (red soil) is clearly visible as it sits on top of limestone
beds which store the water for later use. Needless to say, the lunch was delicious
but it was the glass of 1990 Ravenswood
Cabernet Sauvignon that really knocked our socks
off. Imagine being able to buy 13 year old Coonawarra Cabernet by the glass. It was
still a ‘kick-ass’ wine but everything had come together - the fruit, the subtle
oak and the fine tannins. As Hollicks had done the aging for us, it seemed only right
that a couple of bottles should be purchased to take back home.
The view from the restaurant
deck. Terra Rossa soil - the secret of the Coonawarra can be clearly seen in this
cutting at Hollicks Vineyard
Petticoat Lane and Pipers of
Penola
The day only got better after this and after visiting many more cellar doors we were
delighted with our Penola period cottage accommodation in Petticoat Lane surrounded
by a lavender farm.
Fine wine means fine food and we were not
disappointed. Pipers of Penola is a special restaurant - a converted weatherboard church
is now a stylish restaurant and wine bar. The service was excellent and everthing
on the menu was tempting. We finally settled for two delicious entrees. We can still
taste the Malaysian Seafood trio of mussells, prawns and scallops. This was followed
by the highlight of the night - a tasting plate of matching food and wine:
We will return
We haven’t mentioned and nor did we taste the fine cabernet blends, the chardonays,
the shiraz’, the merlots, the semillions, all produced in the Coonawarra. It’s reputation
is built on Cabernet Sauvignon and and it is both a tribute to the region and to
the wine makers that it produces some of the very best flagship brands in the new
world.
It was well worth the journey and we will return!
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The ultra modern Punters Corner
vineyard cellar door - home to the famous Sparctucus. Punters Corner also offers
a 'retreat' stay in the midst of the vineyard vines in a modern 4 bedroom lodge.