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Published: April 4th 2009
Penfold
Well, I cannot see Dangermouse anywhere but they do make a fine wine.DAY 147
Its ten to eight in the morning, it seems quite dark and it is definitely cooler this morning, oh and we had a little rain in the night. A great nights sleep though, I did wake up feeling quite refreshed even though I polished off two large glasses of wine while playing cards.
If ever was there an excuse for drinking in the morning, I have one today as this morning I am heading of to Penfolds Winery in Nuriootpa for a “Blending Session”. I don’t really know what exactly this session entails except that I am going to learn how to blend my own wine.
I feel a tad guilty that I am leaving Andy on the campsite while I go off and have fun, but I think he will enjoy his quiet time and have a nice shower and shave.
Anyway, I am breakfasted, showered and dressed in my now regular uniform of T-Shirt and Shorts and ready for the off. I had asked Andy if he could drop me off and pick me up. Although I was quite happy to drive, the sensible person inside me said that if I am
blending wine, surely I will be tasting it, so Andy agreed to drop me off.
We decided to stay another night here, quite a pleasant campsite, good clean facilities, not badly priced and a half reasonable camp kitchen. So on the way out to Penfolds I book in for another night, this takes the pressure off us today moving on at midday and finding somewhere else to park up. Tomorrow we will concentrate on knocking out a fair few kilometres.
Andy drops me at Penfolds, I go inside but I am a little too early, they don’t open until 10.00, the foyer is comfortable and I find myself a nice comfy seat to sit in and wait. In the meantime a few other people turn up, it looks as if it is going to be a busy session.
Finally, the doors are unlocked and in we all go, one by one we check in for the purpose of our visit. I am really excited about this, ok so I am no wine connoisseur, but I know what I like and am interested in learning more about this art, especially how they come up with the blends that
we find on the shelves in the local liquor stores or in England in our supermarkets.
We are led back to the foyer where a young lady called Jacqui explains about the history of Penfolds, which was started by a young English Dr Christopher Rawson Penfold in 1844, when he died at the age 59 his wife continued to run it until she passed it down to her daughter and son in law. It used to be a family firm, but now Penfolds is actually owned by the Fosters Group who also own Wolf Blass, but I am not going to bore you with history, lets get down to the nitty gritty of today’s session.
Before we head up the stairs, Jacqui instructs us to pick a lab coat, for the next hour we are to be wine making assistants, we all head up the stairs to the lab, when I hear someone say, “It’s just like being at school” as I turn into the lab I agree, it looks fairly similar to a science lab in school.
There is a large bench in the middle of the room and a bench that runs right round the
Caroline Making Her Own Blend
It is a great experience, really good fun if you are into wine edge of the room, it is all very white and clinical. The large bench in the middle is all laid out with measuring jugs, glasses, bottles of wine, some paper and a pencil.
It all looks very technical and pristine. Wandering around the room I find a small bottle with a label that has my name on it. I assume that this is my lab position and soon everyone else finds their bottles and take up their positions. There are about 14 of us in the room.
Jacqui commences with our lesson in blending and explains all of the bottles and glasses in front of us. We have 3 large wine bottles, which contain wine varieties of Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvedre. Standing next to that is an empty 375ml bottle; it has a label with my name on it. Once we have done our blending this is where I will place my preferred blend.
In front of that on a nice white piece of paper with the names of the wines and placed over the names are glasses of the Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvedre for us to taste. My memory has slipped slightly we did try a
Everybody Needs a Sidekick
Chelsea, trusty sidekick of KangarooJack base wine at the very beginning however I really cannot remember what it was, it was nice though.
Jacqui explains the percentages of the blends for the previous 3 years, which gives us some guidance on what we perhaps could do. However Jacqui will not tell us the blend for this year, well not until the end anyway, she wants to see if any of us are close.
I go ahead and make my first mix, deciding what percentages to use based on the information given, i.e. The Grenache is a sweeter wine so the more you base your blend on the Grenache the sweeter it maybe or if you prefer a richer bolder wine then perhaps your blend should contain a higher percentage of Shiraz.
We of course can drink as much as we like while we are tasting our blends, but Jacqui does issue a warning to us, it is not a problem unless you are driving so remember if you do drive to one of these sessions, then you cannot taste as much as you think you can, you will be over the limit before you know it! Thinking now that I am grateful
for Andy dropping me off.
Now here is the best bit that confirms why a drink in the morning is not such a bad thing, apparently before midday our taste buds are at their best as we have not had chance to eat and drink very much and therefore “confuse” our taste buds into a variety of tastes.
My first trial involves 51% Grenache, 20% Shiraz and 29% Mourvedre. I taste with excitement my first blend. Not bad! Quite smooth, a little peppery, sweet without being too sweet and quite rich.
My second trial involves 45% Grenache, 10% Shiraz and 45% Mourvedre, again I taste, taking plenty of sips just to make sure of my findings (of course!), this time it is a strong bold flavour and very rich. Very nice but I could not drink too much of this, unless it is with a nice piece of steak. This should be toned down a bit, I prefer my wine sweeter.
Based on the findings of my first two trials I modify my third trial to involve more Grenache for the sweetness and much less Mourvedre to take down the boldness. So I have 70% Grenache,
Seppelt Winery
Beautiful Building in Beautiful Gardens 20% Shiraz and 10% Mourvedre. Tee hee, I could do this all day, but couldn’t promise to get any sense out of me. I found that by upping the Grenache it was very sweet, but of course this was making it very rich although a very smooth wine. I could not drink too much of this one.
Jacqui explains that the winemakers do 240 samples, they pick the best representations and then finally work it down to what is best on the palate (what a job eh!). So each year they do a different blend, but the other thing the taste depends on is the harvest and how well the vines have done or other growing factors that may affect the taste or texture.
During harvest (vintage) they could employ around 400 grape pickers but on a normal basis they have about 50 permanent employees. We are camping with a few guys from parts of Europe that are here grape picking but they have told us there is not much work, this years harvest has not been that good, so they are awaiting until Monday to find out if there is any more work for them.
I
Seppelt Winery
Barossa Valley try each blend again to now decide which one I am going to bottle to take “home” with me. I could throw away a trial or two and do a couple of different, but on reflection I was happy with trial one.
So, Jacqui now tells us that in order to fill our bottles we have to multiply our trial percentages by 4 as we are now going to make 400ml to fill our bottles, I can hear you say but you only have a 375ml bottle! Yes, that is true, but the volume is only if you fill to the shoulder, which is what they are normally sold in, so if we make 400ml then it takes it right to the top.
I mix away and soon I have 400 ml of my finest blend. Using a funnel to pour the wine into the bottle and being careful not spill any and ruin the label. I taste of course the drop left in the tube just to make sure it is ok. It is it tastes the same as my trial one, I am really pleased with the results.
We are told that we should drink
Seppelt Winery
Barossa Valley our bottles within a couple of days; it won’t keep because we cannot seal the screw cap again (sorry Dad, I cannot send it to you as it won’t keep!). This is something that they are working on for the blending session as our bottles are capped and labelled in preparation we have to unscrew the cap and therefore break the seal. Oh well I see no issue in drinking the wine so soon.
Also a thing that came out of this session is that it would be a good dinner party exercise to provide everyone with some wine so that they can work on blending their own to taste, what a fab idea, roll on a night in with the girls eh!
Andy collects me, I only feel slightly heady by the wine that I have drunk, but I had a cup of coffee with me just to help me along the way.
We drive to Foodland (IGA) and get some provisions, we then drive back to camp for lunch a great lunch of cheese and biscuits (would have gone down well with the wine!). I get some washing on the line to dry, it is
a blowy day so a good day for drying.
We pop out to visit Wolf Blass, which is just down the road from our campsite, incidentally our campsite is in Penrice Road, just down the road from, you guessed it, Penrice. My brothers used to go to Penrice School when we lived in Cornwall.
Wolf Blass, if you were reading properly earlier, is now owned by Fosters Group, although it was started by Wolfgang Blass who emigrated to Australia with 100 pounds in his pocket in the belief that he could offer something to Australian Wines. Well, he surely did that, originally he acted as a consultant and travelled in an old VW Beetle around to the different wineries before establishing his own winery in 1966 and since then has won many awards for wine making.
This is one of the only wineries in this region that have a visitor’s centre that is free to look around. Some wineries offer tours but you do have to pay, other wineries offer no tours.
As we get closer we can see this huge industrial plant, the frontage looks very modern and the grounds are beautifully kept. We park
Labels
New and Old and head straight for the new and modern visitors centre. It looks like a place that would be good for Corporate Events and maybe even the odd wedding reception.
We see a sculpture of the EagleHawk which has been the Emblem of Wolf Blass since its inception. This circular wooden and glass building with central courtyard looks very impressive, we go inside and read about the man himself and the history of the vineyard, it is impressive. There is a huge collection of wine labels on display too.
We spend some time in there mooching around and then wander to the shop, they sell similar merchandise to Penfolds, I guess they are all pretty much the same except for the wines and the buildings. We see the ultra modern wine tasting room, which is set up ready for the next event.
We come back to the campsite; we plan our journey for tomorrow.
Andy cooks a great tea tonight; we had Tortellini with ham and cheese and with a bacon, chorizo and pasta sauce. He made a great effort with this one. The best part of the meal of course was that we washed it down
with my very own blend of wine (Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvedre) that I made earlier at Penfolds.
It has been a long day, I am not sure why, but we have been busy so we retire early, well Andy does, I just do a little bit on the blog.
Until tomorrow bloggers.
C&A
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Helen
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Hi, Just thought I would mention the car and motorbike museum in the Barossa. Well worth a visit and it is huge. I should have mentioned it earlier but only just remembered. Love the blog - am enjoying your trip. Love Helen