Looking Back – to our Bubbles Evening

This was a superb evening featuring worldwide bubbles.

The special food matched some of the wines and was well thought out and tasty. It is always interesting to see what change the food makes to the wine you drink.

This has left everyone with some thoughtfully selected wines to source for Christmas celebrations.

As a reminder of what to put on your shopping list, the wines we tasted were:

  • De Bortolli Family Selection Sparkling Brut NV – Australia
  • Graham Norton Prosecco D.O.C. – Italy
  • Perelada Brut Reserva Spanish Cava – Spain
  • Pongracz Sparkling Brut – South Africa
  • Hunter MiruMiru Marlborough Methode Traditionelle Brut – New Zealand
  • Aimery Grande Cuvee 1531 Cremant De Limouix Rose NV – France
  • The Black Chook Sparkling Shiraz NV – Australia
  • Pegasus Bay Encore Noble Riesling 2007 AND 2017 – New Zealand

It was an interesting and fun evening for everyone, thanks to Wayne, Murray, Terry Gayl, and everyone else who helped with the food on the evening.

Related posts

Tasting – Affordable Celebration Wines for Summer ‘Nov 23

A panel discussion with member input

Wednesday 8th November, 8 pm

Members $15 Guests $20

Detergent is the enemy of effervescence, so always rinse your sparkling glasses in warm water to remove any residue. Photo / Getty Images
Detergent is the enemy of effervescence, so always rinse your sparkling glasses in warm water to remove any residue. Photo / Getty Images

From weekend brunches to housewarming parties to casual happy hours at home, popping a bottle of bubbles generally promises a good time. This tasting has been put together with assistance from our friends at Eurovintage and presents many affordable wines from around the world that may well surprise you with their wide range of styles and tastes.

And if you then go out and seek one or more of these wines after the tasting, we will be well pleased. Wines to be tasted will include:

  • De Bortolli Family Selection Sparkling Brut NV – Australia – Our welcome wine
  • Graham Norton Prosecco D.O.C – Italy
  • Perelada Brut Reserva Spanish Cava NV – Spain
  • Pongracz Sparkling Brut – South Africa
  • Hunter MiruMiru Marlborough Method Traditionalle Brut – New Zealand
  • Aimery Grande Cuvee 1531 Cremant De Limouix Rose NV – France
  • The Black Chook Sparkling Shiraz NV – Australia
  • Pegasus Bay Encore Noble Riesling – New Zealand

The club will supply you with a flute to taste the wines, but bring your flutes or tasting glasses if you prefer.

As there are eight wines for the evening, members are encouraged to have a good meal before attending the evening.

There will be extra small food supplied for some of the above wines to enhance the experience and make the evening extra special.

Related posts

Australia holidays: This tiny Queensland wine region remains a big secret

Caroline Gladstone | 18 Jun 2023

Hiking in Girraween National Park. Photo / Lachlan Gardiner
Hiking in Girraween National Park. Photo / Lachlan Gardiner

You’re not alone if you’ve never heard of Queensland’s Granite Belt. This little-known wine region has been kept closely under wraps. With epic scenery and delicious drops, no wonder Queenslanders don’t want us to know about it, writes Caroline Gladstone.

Balancing Heart Vineyard occupies a prime position in the shadow of Girraween National Park – a 117sq km expanse of forests and creeks dominated by spectacular granite outcrops, arches and bizarrely shaped lumps of stone sitting precariously atop lofty peaks.

This is the Granite Belt region of southern Queensland, home to more than 50 vineyards, wineries and cellar doors.

Balancing Heart takes its name from a heart-shaped chunk of granite that rolled down the mountain eons ago and has pride of place among the vineyard’s premium shiraz vines.

Balancing Heart Vineyard is home to bizarrely shaped lumps of stone sitting precariously atop lofty peaks.
Balancing Heart Vineyard is home to bizarrely shaped lumps of stone sitting precariously atop lofty peaks.

With altitudes between 800m and 1500m, the Granite Belt is Australia’s highest wine region, which took root, so to speak, 15km away at Ballandean Estate. There, in 1968, Angelo Puglisi produced the first shiraz on a vineyard his grandfather had bought 30 years earlier to grow table grapes.

Five decades on and shiraz and its cool-climate cousins, – chardonnay, cabernet, and merlot – are still the region’s mainstays, however, a growing number of Mediterranean varieties including fiano, petit verdot and nebbiolo and an Eastern European wine, saperavi, are gaining notoriety.

Yet, despite high praise from wine writers, the region – three hours from Brisbane and an hour from the New South Wales border – is relatively unknown. Mention it to a sophisticated Sydneysider or Melburnian and you’ll likely draw quizzical looks. It seems this 305ha pocket, on the eastern spine of the Great Dividing Range, is still very much a Queensland secret.

And Queenslanders love it, flocking there in record numbers during the Covid border closures to sample the fruits of the vine and stock up on gourmet produce and snuggle into guesthouses during winter, fondly known as brass monkey season.

At its centre is Stanthorpe, Queensland’s coldest town, which proudly displays its chilly temperatures on a giant thermometer outside the visitors’ centre.

Barrel View Luxury Cabins in Ballandean are designed to look like giant halved wine barrels.
Barrel View Luxury Cabins in Ballandean are designed to look like giant halved wine barrels.

The town (population 5500) and a clutch of northern Granite Belt villages have a long agricultural history. Decades before commercial vines were planted, they grew apples, pears, berries and stonefruit. Today the region’s one million apple trees produce around 20 per cent of Australia’s crop, while fruit and vegetables are still very much part of the economy. Growers such as Nicoletti Orchards and Eastern Colour open their farms to the public for apple and strawberry picking and the hottest ticket at the biennial Grape & Apple Harvest Festival, a fixture on the calendar since 1966, is the public grape crush where bare-footed folk squish as many grapes as they can to be crowned Queensland’s grape-crushing champion.

With such a bounty of good food and wine, a Granite Belt trip deserves at least a two-night stay and an escorted winery tour to remove the angst of drink-driving. Mini-van day tours visit five wineries and include lunch, while new ways to explore the vineyards include self-guided or group cycling tours that travel on e-bikes.

Accommodation choices run from the cosy to the curated with many guesthouses, bushland cottages and cabins set among the vines. One that has grabbed the headlines since its opening in October is Barrel View Luxury Cabins in Ballandean.

Views of the grapevines and distant hills from Barrel View Luxury Cabins.
Views of the grapevines and distant hills from Barrel View Luxury Cabins.

Designed like giant halved wine barrels with exterior timber cladding bound by metal hoops, each of the three cabins is the last word in decadence, with curved travertine walls, slick kitchens with the latest appliances and huge oval windows bringing in the views of the grapevines and distant hills.

Another property embedded in a vineyard, with the added advantage of an onsite cellar door, is Ridgemill Estate. Comprising 12 studio cabins and a three-bedroom cottage, guests have several wine experiences at their fingertips from tastings, master classes and vineyard tours led by the winemaker.

Heading out from Brisbane, a good place for a lunch break or even an overnight stay is Warwick, an historic town of impressive sandstone buildings and eclectic events including the annual rodeo and the Celtic Festival. Here the place to stay is the Abbey Boutique Hotel, an 1891-built Gothic-designed former convent and girls’ boarding school. Each of the 12 individually themed rooms has a story, such as the sought-after Bavarian room, once the girls’ dormitory and later the nuns’ chapel, and the Mother Superior’s room, created from four smaller nuns’ cells, with a glorious, canopied bed and cosy fireplace.

Ridgemill Estate boasts 12 studio cabins embedded in a vineyard.
Ridgemill Estate boasts 12 studio cabins embedded in a vineyard.

A short detour to Allora, 25km north, would appeal to history lovers: it houses both the restored Glengallen homestead, considered the finest house in Queensland when built in 1864 by wealthy pastoralists, and Mary Poppins’ House. The latter was the childhood home of author P.L. Travers, who as a 6-year-old girl moved there with her family in 1905. Guided tours tell the story of the girl, born Helen Lyndon Goff, who later adopted her father’s first name of Travers, and changed Helen to Pamela, reportedly because she thought it was ” pretty”. She moved to England in 1924 and began writing her famous novel, the first of a series of eight Mary Poppins stories, 10 years later.

From Warwick it’s an hour’s drive to wine country and the first Granite Belt village of Cottonvale, home of Heritage Estate Wines. Another 50 wineries are located down country roads in the villages of Thulimbah, Applethorpe, Severnlea, Ballandean and Wyberba that lead off the New England Highway as it wends south towards Girraween National Park and the NSW border.

Wine enthusiasts can partake in a “Winemaker for the Weekend” course at the Queensland College of Wine Tourism.
Wine enthusiasts can partake in a “Winemaker for the Weekend” course at the Queensland College of Wine Tourism.

Each has something different to offer.

Heritage Estate Wines holds tastings, lunches and monthly five-course degustation dinners (complete with old movies) where guests dress to the nines in a huge mid-19th century cellar door that was once an apple barn. Owners Therese and Robert Fenwick love to entertain and their latest offering is a weekly Friday night progressive dinner that begins with hors d’oeuvres among the vines and culminates with dessert in the cellar door.

Ballandean Estate, the oldest winery in Queensland, offers daily tastings and grazing platters in the rustic barrel room amid century-old wine barrels, while Whiskey Gully Wines’ cellar door occupies the 1880-built colonial homestead known as “Beverley”, where owner and multi-instrumentalist musician John Aldridge entertains guests at Saturday night dinners with an array of tunes.

Robert Channon Wines offers guided wine tastings including their award-winning verdelho in a venue that overlooks beautiful Singing Lake, and weekend lunches in the Persian Poppy, the region’s most exotic restaurant where dishes such as camel tajine grace the menu.

Discover a spectacular setting of giant granite boulders in Girraween National Park.
Discover a spectacular setting of giant granite boulders in Girraween National Park.

While locations and quirky features differ, what unites Granite Belt wineries are their “Strange Birds” – the wine varieties that represent less than 1 per cent of Australia’s vines, which include fiano, frontenac gris, malbec, gewurztraminer, marsanne, sylvaner, saperavi and nebbiolo. Visitors can pick up a Strange Bird Trail map and head out on a journey of discovery. One not to be missed is Bent Road Wines; owners Glen and Andrew provide tastings in an old timber church they bought on eBay, and show visitors the huge amphora vessels, known as qvevri, imported from Georgia (the former Soviet Republic) that has made saperavi, a robust red wine, for more than 8000 years.

“Winemaker for the Weekend” course at the Queensland College of Wine Tourism, the only facility of its kind in the world, or book a “Wine Philosophy” course with Balancing Heart Vineyard’s winemaker and viticulturalist Mike Hayes.

Named 2017 Queensland Winemaker of the Year, Hayes leads a fun session of swirling, sniffing and tasting of five of the vineyards top drops, including the acclaimed Campfire Company Red, in a spectacular setting beneath the granite boulders of Girraween National Park.

Getting there

WHERE ARE WE?Southern Queensland, Australia. Within 3hrs drive of Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Byron Bay.
WHERE ARE WE?
Southern Queensland, Australia. Within 3hrs drive of Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Byron Bay.

Brisbane is the easiest airport to fly into from New Zealand, with many of the Granite Belt’s townships sitting a 2.5-hour drive south of the airport.

For more to see and do, visit granitebeltwinecountry.com.au.

 

 

 

Related posts

Celebrating wines of Victoria with Keith Tibble – Feb 2023

With most of the club familiar with Australian wines, but not necessarily Victoria wines, this was an interesting introduction for most of us.

Keith introduced firstly, Mount Langhi (Ghiran) is an extremely famous cool climate-based winery in the Grampian range of Northern Victoria, established 1969 by the Fratin Family.

Secondly, we were introduced to Yering Station is an acclaimed producer almost as famous for its cellar door and restaurant as their amazing Yarra Valley Wines. Originally the first grapes were planted in 1838 by the Ryrie brothers.

The styles included a Prosecco to start [yes it was sourced and made in Australia], as well as two each of Chardonnay, Pinot and Shiraz.
That everyone present enjoyed Keith’s presentation and wines was reflected in the excellent orders received. Thanks again to Keith and EuroVintage for their continued support of our club.

UPDATE: We have just been advised that these are now in transit from the Auckland Warehouse, despite the logistical delays [weather issues etc.] and will be delivered to you, via Murray, either this weekend, or early next week.

Related posts

Celebrating the wines of Victoria with Keith Tibble – Feb ’23

Wednesday 8th February, 7.45 pm
Door Price: Members $14 / Guests $18

Victoria's wine regions. labelwines.com
Victoria’s wine regions. labelwines.com

There is much to admire and emulate in the wines of Australia. For many members such wines may well be amongst your favourites. Perhaps such wines are from South Australia, perhaps Western Australia, but for this tasting to kick the year off for the club we are highlighting Victoria.

For many wine enthusiasts the wines of this state fly under the radar. If so, you are missing a treat. On a much smaller scale than the neighbouring South Australian state, the wines of Victoria have their own charm, distinctiveness and award-winning status. And some plantings are indeed old vines.

As with NZ there are a number of different vineyard regions within the Victorian state and some well-known vineyards which we will explore under the guidance of Keith Tibble from EuroVintage, who is very well acquainted with these wines.

Across the state from the south (Mornington) to the central near Melbourne (Yarra Valley) to the interior (Grampians , Murray River) there is a diversity and quality that elicits awards and a dedicated following

Mount Langhi (Ghiran)

…is a highly famous cool climate-based winery in the Grampian range of Northern Victoria. Established in 1969 by the Fratin Family, the site had been planted (like Hawkes Bay’s Te Mata ) back in the late 1890s; after one poor and challenging year in 1980, the Fratins decided they needed a consultant and hired the noted winemaker Trevor Mast. Six years later, Trevor his wife and partner Ian Menzies purchased the varied blocks. They started to develop the concept of Cool Climate (Victorian) Shiraz, a personal vision of Trevor that has led Mount Langhi to be regarded as one of Australia’s greatest shiraz producers. We will taste two shiraz wines, the superb but great value Billi Billi and the superb ‘Mast’ awarded 96/100 in Decanter.

Yering Station

…is an acclaimed producer almost as famous for its cellar door and restaurant as their amazing Yarra Valley Wines. Originally the first grapes were planted in 1838 by the Ryrie brothers; this was Victoria’s first winery and was the largest Victorian vineyard right up to the 1980s. Purchased by the Rathbone Family in 1996, Yering Station is sister to Yarrabank, a sparkling producer jointly owned by a champagne House Devaux. However, Yering is famous for its Burgundy style wines – Chardonnay and Pinot Noir – and we will taste the legendary reserve chardonnay along with two superb Pinots, the superb Yering station 2021 and the unique value Village 2021.

Related posts

Looking ahead – Victoria tasting, Forrest Estate

Victoria, Australia tasting with Keith Tibble, February 2023

A well-kept secret of the international wine scene, and certainly the most diverse wine-growing state in Australia, is Victoria. [Wine Folly]
A well-kept secret of the international wine scene, and certainly the most diverse wine-growing state in Australia, is Victoria. [Wine Folly]
Something about Victoria suggests that it is easily accessible to members directly from Melbourne when they travel, the state flies under the wine radar, and there are several other sub-regions of significant note, such as Mornington and Rutherglen and along the Murray River, so this will be an evening different from the South Australian wines that we have had previously.

March – Forrest Estate

One not to miss out on. Wines continue to impress after more than 30 years.

April – tbc

Check your next newsletter for details.

Related posts

China’s third largest wine producer offloads 300 ha of Australian vineyards

Weilong Grape Co, one of the biggest wine producers in China, has announced the sale of 320 hectares of Australian vineyards for AUS$143 million (RMB 660.6 million).

Weilong is China’s third largest wine producer and the country’s biggest organic winery.

The company announced plans to sell its vineyard holdings in Coomealla and Nyah in Murray, which account for 76% of its total wine production in Australia, as reported by Vino Joy.

According to a statement released by Weilong on 6 July, the sale will “alleviate its financial and managerial stress for its Australian subsidiary”.

Australian wine exports are still being impacted by challenging conditions and Chinese tariffs, as figures showed exports plummeted 26% in the 12 months to May 2022.

Most of this decline was attributed to China’s tariffs on bottled Australian wine imports in November 2020, which saw a loss of AUS$844 million.

While the tariffs look set to remain in place for the foreseeable future, some Australian companies, such as Treasury Wine Estates, are devising ways to work around them.

But for Weilong Grape Co, punitive tariffs’ financial weight has proved too heavy.

This marks the first major selloff from a Chinese company heavily restricted by these tariffs from selling Australian wine back to the Chinese market.

The Shandong-based wine producer bought the vineyards between 2016 and 2018, when international relations were friendly, China was Australia’s most profitable export market.

Weilong purchased approximately 600 hectares of vineyards in Victoria and New South Wales, according to Vino Joy, building a 26,000-tonne capacity winery just south of Mildura.

As disclosed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the sale includes 167.6 ha of vineyards in Coomealla and 260.4 ha in Nyah, along with other associated assets, for AUS$26.6 million and AUS$44.4 million each.

Related posts

Victor Kattenbalt and Confidant Wines – March 2022

The March evening with Victor Kattenbalt and Confidant Wines was a taste experience for all those that could attend. We tried some Waipara Downs wines, which are largely exported to Australia, and some Portuguese wines that were quite different grape varieties to what we see in NZ.

Victor explained a little about the areas of Portugal where the Portuguese wines came from, and some of the Cellar Club members started dreaming of visiting and exploring those regions further.

Our thanks go out to Victor for moving his planned tasting forward to March at very little notice.

Related posts

Wine with Wings

By Walt Dickson. First published in Wairarapa Lifestyle Magazine, Winter 2020.

New owner of Gladstone Vineyard Eddie McDougall, also known as the Flying Winemaker. PHOTO/EMMA BROWN
The new owner of Gladstone Vineyard Eddie McDougall, also known as the Flying Winemaker. PHOTO/EMMA BROWN

Contrary to what the name might suggest, The Flying Winemaker doesn’t own a plane, nor does he hold a pilot’s licence. But there is sincerity in Eddie McDougall’s moniker, yes, he does literally jet in to make the wine.

Born in Hong Kong, based in Australia, Eddie might be relatively new on the scene in Wairarapa, but he is an established name in other parts of the world; an award-winning winemaker, chairman of the Asian Wine Review, wine judge and TV personality behind one of Asia-Pacific’s most dynamic wine brands, The Flying Winemaker.

He swooped into the region in late 2018 buying the Gladstone Vineyard with lofty ambitions to make the best and most expensive wine in New Zealand.

Last year, his first vintage, he made two special wines at Gladstone that he says, will turn heads when they’re released: a field blend of three aromatic white varietals and an icon Pinot Noir that will be positioned as ‘New Zealand’s most expensive wine and best pinot’.

Eddie grew up in Brisbane and was studying for a business degree and working as a waiter in the early 2000s when he had a wine epiphany one night. Someone handed him a glass of Alsace pinot blanc and he was hooked. He enrolled in a winemaking degree and worked vintages across Australia and Italy. In 2009, he launched his wine label, making wine in the King Valley (Victoria), and later, Margaret River (Western Australia), buying fruit and leasing space in other people’s wineries.

His big break came in 2009, when he moved back to Hong Kong to set up the city’s first urban winery, shipping frozen grapes in from Europe and Australia. That’s when he earned his Flying Winemaker name, attracting the attention of television producers. Fast-track to 2018 and he was again looking for opportunities, initially in Australia, but when nothing caught his fancy, he looked across the Tasman.

‘I was happy to go wherever good wine is made, and Gladstone ticked all the right boxes

Making it such a great acquisition was that at Gladstone, all the ‘really hard work’ has been done, he says. ‘We believe that it is still the oldest white wine vineyard in the area – the first Sauvignon Blanc grapes were planted in 1986’.

Pinot Gris and Riesling have also since been planted, and instead of making three wines, Eddie makes a blend of all three.

‘Coming here we want to represent the region, and on a brand, level to represent what our true unique selling point is …we think we can make some serious, serious wines’.

In addition to the winery site, Gladstone Vineyard also owns considerably larger blocks of vines at nearby Dakin Road, as well as leasing crops from other growers. It is from the Dakins Road block that Eddie hopes to produce his icon Pinot Noir – to be called The Wairarapa – which he says will be the most definitive wine of the region, only made in the best possible years, 2019 is one of them.

The Flying Winemaker Team
The Flying Winemaker Team

With a global team based in Hong Kong and currently exporting throughout Asia, Australia, Norway, UK and USA, the sky is the limit. But he is not ignoring the domestic market and is determined to continue Gladstone Vineyard’s reputation for hosting terrific events.

Building on the success of the nearby Harvest Festive, Eddie aims to run up to four events a year at the winery. Exactly what they will be and when, wine lovers won’t want to miss out if his super cool Rose’ Revolutions, a mainstay on the calendar in Asia, are anything to go by.

Meanwhile, if you are in the neighbourhood, the cellar door is open daily from 11 am – 5 pm (except public holidays), but don’t expect to see Eddie, after all, when you have wings you gotta fly.

For more on Eddie, visit The Flying Winemaker.

For more on Wairarapa winemakers, visit www.wairarapalifestyle.com.

Related posts

2019 President’s Annual Report

8 May 2019

It is indeed my privilege to present to club members the Cellar Club’s annual report for the year 2018 – 2019.

I want to stress that the club is first and foremost about you.  It is you as active members who make the club as vibrant as it is.  Maintaining membership at a sound level is the key.   Thank you for your support for events and meetings during the year and attending tonight’s AGM.   Our monthly meetings continue to be well attended, in fact the average number of members attending monthly meetings relative to the club’s subscription membership has perhaps never been better.  Total numbers attending tastings again exceeded 300 during this last year (at 9 meetings) but we have noted that guest numbers were a little down and this may need to be addressed if we are looking to build on our membership.

In particular the numbers attending the two club dinners in July and December 2018 were also at a high (the 2 dinners were collectively over 90) and as these dinners are highlight events for members we will continue to prioritise efforts to choose the right venue, creating a chance for you to share good wines with your table and to enjoy some of the first class cuisine that Wellington restaurants do provide.

May I add that this report, rather than being printed, is posted for your interest on the club’s website.

Keeping the membership levels up and ensuring meetings are well attended is a prime objective to ensure the club remains viable and we can sustain the costs that running the club incurs.   You will see from the financial report prepared for the AGM that the club’s finances are in very good shape thanks particularly to the diligence and astute budget management of our long serving treasurer.

These club’s finances and fixed costs are manageable but do require active attention.  Venue hire, licenses for the club website and the council’s liquor requirements, presenter gifts and the costs of the wines are the key points of focus.   With healthy finances we are able to subsidise the annual BBQ and dinners, sustain a club cellar and provide those cellared wines at dinners and the AGM tonight.  We are fortunate that occasionally the wine presenters either heavily discount the wine or are prepared to donate their wines.  This can be unpredictable but where it eventuates we are grateful and it allows the benefits to flow back to members.

This is often a function of the size scale of the wineries or their subsequent response to your level of orders.  It is worth noting that the presenters cover their own travel, visiting and accommodation costs and for some this is substantial.  In those terms I want to thank members most sincerely for their preparedness to order on the night and many of the presenters particularly comment on both their orders and naturally express a willingness to return to the club.  I know that is not always true of some other wine clubs where they have different arrangements and expectations.  Our club’s operating model is not unique, but where other styles of club operations put some pressure on presenters and wineries, our model ensures good relations are maintained with wineries, our financial viability is ensured and door charges and subscriptions remain affordable.

Therefore, the level of support from members suggests the formula may be right but I want to stress that meeting your interests is paramount.  We would want to hear both suggestions for meetings and ideas and options for events that are planned.   Each member of the committee is only too willing to talk with you to seek and explore ideas to ensure the club remains in good heart and is delivering what members want in terms of wine education, quality wine experiences and a good social atmosphere at meetings and amongst members.

As members you have excelled with the help you provide with meeting logistics.  Looking after the glassware, setting the venue hall up and helping stack tables and chairs away, assisting with pouring when requested, being inclusive at tables and helping with distribution of wine orders does ease the pressures involved in meetings and covering the necessary tasks and it is appreciated.

It is pleasing to reflect that the club continues to thrive as Wellington’s pre-eminent wine society established and operating since 1980 expanding from a local suburban focus to a membership residing from across the city, the Hutt Valley to the Kapiti Coast.  Your continuing involvement has ensured this longevity into our 40th year.

The programme over the last year was varied and well received.  We visited Hawkes Bay [Unison Vineyard, Clearview Estate and Askerne Wines], tasted internationally from France [Maison Vauron with cheeses], Portugal [Confidant Wines] and Australia [Yalumba with Negociants], tasted Marlborough [with Villa Maria], looked at quality wines under $25 with Joelle Thomson and dined at Saigon Van, at Juniper and the traditional January BBQ (courtesy of life member Derek Thompson).

My thanks go also to an outstandingly willing committee.  This is a group that is dedicated, reliable and affable.   The portfolios are well shared and the committee’s focus is sustained membership, managing costs, providing publicity and information, and promoting wine education.   It is pleasing for me to note that the current committee members have all expressed a willingness to continue in their involvement.

This is a group notable for their collective efforts and backing each other up.  The committee deals with a plethora of issues, with finances and organising the annual tasting programme being a focus.   There certainly is an extensive timely email flow amongst the committee and we always have a quorum at monthly committee meetings.   Planning and being flexible are the keys, although occasionally there is pressure on the scheduled monthly programme.  Invariably we manage to come through and frequently achieve stellar presentations.   Our secretarial support, the newsletter and our website as our “shop windows”, licensing and venue realities, catering and balancing our books all require dedication and effort.  For this collective endeavour I am grateful to committee members.

The club is about sociability, extending wine experiences and broadening horizons.   We are always looking for the means to increase our membership.  It is always a pleasure when you bring along guests to meetings and functions as prospective members and we are happy to make incentives for you to do so.  With guest numbers a little down of late there is a real interest to encourage your friends and acquaintances who may wish experience a tasting evening and perhaps to join the club.  Specifically, how we can increase younger membership is one of the challenges going forward.

Thank you for your support and active involvement and hence I raise a glass to you one and all and trust we will continue to do so for the year ahead and to mark the club’s 40th year.

Murray Jaspers
President
The Cellar Club Inc

Negociants present Yalumba Wines – Cenna Lloyd – October 2018

This was a very enjoyable tasting. Cenna was a very knowledgeable presenter with a great relaxed style. She admitted to a few nerves to start with but was soon interacting nicely with the members. The wines presented were great wines at a good value for money. The tasting was a good night.

Whilst we haven’t used Negociants before, the fact that we are now licensed means we can deal with this type of operation in the future. We will keep it in mind to pencil Negociants in for another tasting soon, as they have a really good provider base.

To reiterate, the wines tasted were the:

  • 2017/2018 Sangiovese Rosé
  • 2017 Organic Chardonnay
  • 2014 Eden Valley Roussanne
  • 2017 Eden Valley Viognier
  • 2017 Old Bush Vine Grenache
  • 2015 Paradox Shiraz
  • 2014 The Signature Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz

Related posts

Yalumba with Negociants – October 2018

A moonlit planting five generations ago has made Yalumba Australia’s most historic family owned winery. Fiercely family-owned extremely progressive and committed to looking after the land and its people, they acknowledge that the reputation of their wine is only as good as the next bottle a customer drinks. So they put the same attention to detail into every bottle of wine they make, regardless of variety, quantity or price.

Now there is a reason for Negociants to look to present Yalumba’s wine. Negociants New Zealand was established, by Yalumba, in 1985 to import and represent the finest wines of the world. They are passionate and knowledgeable about fine wine, and are committed to professionally representing family- owned wineries from around the world.

Negociants New Zealand is one of New Zealand’s leading fine wine merchants, distributing many of New Zealand’s most celebrated wines, as well as prestigious imported brands from Australia and the world to licenced trade.
Bound to be a cracker this one.

Related posts