Invited to a chef’s flat in Bethnal Green to meet two winemakers from down under, Nick puts on his hipster beard and gets on the tube.
Sauvignon Blanc remains one of New Zealand’s biggest hitters export wise and this 2015 example is beautifully crisp and mineral and just the thing for a very hot day.
Soon we’re crammed onto a table, elbows in each other’s plates, and we tackle a superb smoked haddock risotto with English mustard sauce, soft boiled quail’s egg with two white wines – a Jackson Estate Vintage Widow Pinot Noir 2013 and Wirra Wirra Absconder Grenache 2014. The two winemakers make the most of these early, still sober, moments to fill us in a bit about who they are, what they make and where they come from.
Wirra Wirra 12th Man Chardonnay 2015 gets its particular name, Paul explains, from founder Greg Trott who loved cricket so much he built his own concrete pitch at the family farm. He never thought he’d be in the Aussie team, but always said that being twelfth man would have made him just as happy.
I liked the lemon rind freshness on the nose of this one, as well as on the palate, as well as the vanilla and creamy-textured finish. Not quite as good as the Ghost with the haddock, lacking the acidity, but still an inspiring rendition of 100% Chardonnay.
Jackson Estate Vintage Widow Pinot Noir 2013 is a wine we’re told that was named in recognition of the winemakers’ families, who are often forgotten as the workers strive to make the perfect bottle of Pinot Noir. The grapes are grown on clay-bound vineyards in the southern Waihopai Valley and the wine has a background of spice and cedar. Good firm tannins, but not too firm, and full of southern Marlborough clays’ character.
I love the name of the Wirra Wirra Absconder Grenache 2014 named for Wirra Wirra founder Robert Strangways Wigley, whose taste for flouting the law had him sent away by the courts to McLaren Vale where he mended his ways and began making wine. This 100% Grenache is a cracker, my favourite wine so far with lots of berries and spice and a mouth-filling intensity that backs off from being in yer face.
Jackson Estate Gum Emperor Pinot Noir 2011 is brought to the table and is named for the Gum Emperor moth Opodiphthera eucalypti that’s found on the edge of the vineyards. I find the words Pinot Noir always sounds better said with a Kiwi or Aussie accent and the wine usually tastes better too. This one is rich and intense already and wiser palates than mine assure me that over time the tannins will smooth out still more to make an already lovely wine a real grandstander.
A plate of cheeses sourced from Androuet cheeses, served with homemade sourdough bread, grape chutney and Wirra Wirra Dead Ringer Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 was just the ticket. The cheeses were all at perfect temperature and ripeness and the Dead Ringer a great match.
It’s a wine that will cost you around £40 in the shops, but it does ring a lot of bells. A very deep colour, lots of wild berry fruits on the nose and as leathery as a feller left out in the bush too long without a tinny. real classic in fact.
This was of course to hold in the wine’s fizziness and presumably is cheaper than a champagne-style cork. A great sweet wine; bright, sherbetty and Frizzante style. Named, by way, after a local cat that moved into the cellars. The food? A fitting end.
Down under? I’m up for some more
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Jackson Estate
Jackson Estate’Stich’ Sauvignon Blanc 2015: RSP £13.49 Waitrose, Majestic Wine, Ocado & Tesco.
Jackson Estate’Grey Ghost’ Sauvignon Blanc 2012: RSP £18.00 Majestic Wine, Ocado & Tesco Wine by the case & Cheers Wine Merchant
Jackson Estate Vintage Widow Pinot Noir 2013: RSP £19.99 Majestic Wine, Ocado, Cheers Wine Merchants & Christopher Piper Wines.
Jackson Estate Gum Emperor Pinot Noir 2011: RSP £26.99 The Drink Shop.com, Rollings Wine Merchants (Harpenden), Christopher Piper Wines & Cheers Wine Merchants.
Wirra Wirra
Wirra Wirra 12th Man Chardonnay 2015: RSP £19 The Wine Society, Hennings Fine Wines, Cheers Wine Merchants, Bin 21, Harper Wells, The Wine Chambers, Winos (Oldham)
Wirra Wirra Absconder Grenache 2014: RSP £40 Carruthers & Kent, Abbey Fine Wines
Wirra Wirra Church Block 2013: RSP £13.50 Waitrose, Ocado, Tesco.com’wine by the case’, Morrisons Cellar, The Wine Society
Wirra Wirra Dead Ringer Cabernet Sauvignon 2009: RSP £40 Cambridge Wine Merchants, Vagabond Wines, Abbey Fine Wines, H2Vin, The Wine Chambers, Cheers Wine Merchants, Vinea (Liverpool)
Wirra Wirra Mrs Wigley Moscato 2015: RSP £9.99 Ocado, Cheers Wine Merchants, Bin 21, Hennings Wine Merchants, The Wine Chambers, The Vineyard (Dorking), The Whalley Wine Shop, Mmm & Glug (Newcastle), The Oxford Wine Company
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