As many of you will have read over the weekend, James Halliday selected our 2013 The Moorooduc McIntyre Pinot Noir as one of his Top 100 wines of the year and has awarded the wine 97/100. This highly regarded wrap up of the best of the year was published in the Weekend Australian and we are delighted with the result. From very early on, we knew this was a special wine and it is a delight to see that others think so as well. Take this opportunity to stock up for Christmas - order form is
here. And if you have not had a chance to taste the wine recently, Richard will be pouring it at the inaugural Halliday Top 100 wine tasting this Monday the 23rd in Melbourne - details and to book,
here.
NEW RELEASE CHARDONNAYS
Following the wonderful 2012’s, could it be that the 2013’s are even better? They are certainly different, and extraordinarily lovely in a slightly richer yet still tangy rendition of Moorooduc Chardonnay.
The defining feature of this vintage was a period of very warm weather over three weeks leading up to vintage. The ripeness of fruit and phenolics in the wines are a result of this pre-vintage weather. A vintage of perfume and juicy fruit, with great length, structure and depth in the wines.
2013 Robinson Chardonnay $55
Always the lean and lanky chardonnay of the group, the Robinson Chardonnay in 2013 has white floral notes, lemon rind, a touch of grapefruit and tangy fresh acidity. Perfect summer drinking with oysters, prawns and salmon gravlax.
2013 The Moorooduc McIntyre Chardonnay $65
Richer and deeper fruited, with more spice than the Robinson, the 2013 ‘Duc chardonnay has a luscious texture and length, with juicy white nectarine fruit, delicious hazelnut and sandalwood spice. Some creamy richness and delicious depth, with firm, fine acid length. Treat yourself to a bottle of this with freshly cooked lobster on Christmas Day!
Special Museum Release for Christmas
2010 The Moorooduc McIntyre Chardonnay $65
From the delightful 2010 vintage, we are releasing a parcel of this wine from the museum to make your Christmas and Summer really special. Still youthful, but with some beautiful complexity at 5 years old, this wine remains lemon in colour with a restrained yet powerful nose. Vinous – some nectarine and citrus with developing roasted hazelnut, a touch of honeycomb and savoury earthy, pithy characters – lovely fine phenolics. Subtle power on the palate – very complete with nectar-like perfume, silky texture, terrific line and length. Classy.
…And we are offering a 15% discount to all our mailing list customers for orders of any and all of our wines, in multiples of 6 bottles for the month of December. Full price list here.
RICHARD’S MUSINGS
Working together
In the medical community, I could not imagine a situation where someone would withhold information or an opinion on the grounds that one was revealing ‘intellectual property’ to a competitor.
I discovered early in my time in the wine industry that this could be a very different world where information may not necessarily be shared with one’s competition.
One of the great joys of the Mornington Peninsula wine industry has been the way most of us have realized that working together is one of the best things we can do. This applies to viticulture, winemaking and even to marketing. We know that what is good for one is good for all.
At the end of this month I will be attending the Victorian Pinot Noir Workshop, which has been held every year for more than a decade. This event has been organized by a group of (mainly) Yarra Valley winemakers (who deserve great recognition and applause for the inspiration and the enormous amount of work they put in every year) and is another example of how working together benefits all. (A similar event has been held at Steamboat in Oregon for about thirty years).
The basis of the workshop is evaluation and (open) discussion of unfinished wines of the participants. In addition, topics of interest are explored, international benchmark wines are tasted and, of particular interest to me, multi-winery winemaking trials are organized and evaluated which seek to answer important questions on a (small) industrial scale.
The period of time over which this workshop has been held corresponds with, I would suggest, the coming of age of Victorian Pinot Noir. Some of the reasons for this are the openness and generosity of the participants and the vision and hard work of the organizers.
CHRISTMAS HAMPERS – ORDER NOW!
Our Christmas hampers are a thing of deliciousness and, we think, beauty! A bottle of Moorooduc Estate wine and lots of goodies, for $100 a hamper, delivered FOC to any capital city in Australia. All orders must be in by the 1
st December!
Other wonderful Christmas gifts include our classy linen teatowels, Moorooduc Estate and ‘Wild Yeast’ t-shirts, Jill’s Produce, olive oil, verjus and, of course, the best gift ever – a bottle or six of Moorooduc Estate wine!
And if you enjoy Jill’s Sunday lunches, why not buy a voucher for someone special? Dates for next year will be published very soon on the website.
For all gift orders, call the office on 03 5971 8506, or email me@moorooducestate.com.au
JILL’S SAY
I think it is important to have a new project to maintain vitality and to bring happiness to daily life. Something that makes me fill those spare moments (and some not so spare moments when I should be concentrating on the job at hand) with exciting new plans. My current project is the vegetable garden!
I already have a vegetable garden outside the kitchen door, which is now to be transformed into the herb and raspberry garden. My new garden is 3 five metre raised beds, now stuffed full of amazing vegetable-growing earth. I have located it to the west of the dining room so that diners will be able to gaze at it in awe and admire its beauty. Hopefully the produce from this garden will also grace their tables.
No more down on the knees planting and weeding for me, no more holding the hose, hoping I don’t miss any important plantings. My new garden has its own complicated watering system. I think I will be able to grow my own magnificent vegetables here until I am at least one hundred.
My next new project will probably have to be an enclosure for my new orchard area as the birds seem to have taken all the apricots, peaches and nectarines even before they have started to ripen.
With the tomatoes coming on, you may like to try this salad:
Fattoush
1 cup sheeps milk yoghurt
2 small flat breads, torn into small pieces and fried crisp in grapeseed oil
4 tomatoes, peeled and diced
½ bunch radishes, thinly sliced
3 lebanese cucumbers, diced
1 salad onion, thinly sliced
1 handful parsley and mint, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon of dried mint
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 tablespoons lemon juice
½ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons white vinegar
pepper and salt to taste
1 tablespoon sumac
In a jar, mix dried mint, garlic lemon juice, oil, vinegar, pepper and salt. Shake well.
Mix remaining ingredients and then dress with the contents of the jar and mix well.
