April 2007
Lovers Wooed to Margaret River Wines
Consumers have starting showing their love of Margaret River wines and the region by becoming an official Margaret River Lover.
The new Association membership invites people to become more involved with the region, enticing them with wine, special offers and information on the region. Launched last month, the Lovers has been growing daily.
For $30 per year, a Margaret River Lover receives a complimentary bottle of Margaret River wine, a travel voucher courtesy of Travellers Choice and a monthly Love Notes - an email with educative information on wine topics direct from the region’s winemakers and special offers.
Money raised from Margaret River Lovers will be used by the Association on environmental projects within the Margaret River wine
region.
Believed to be the first membership of its kind, ‘’ has Loversbeen well received.
“Promoting the region and its wineries collectively will be more effective at educating people about Margaret River’s wines than individuals trying to reach interested wine consumers,” Association President Ron Fraser said.
“By becoming a Margaret River Lover, the consumer will feel that they have a connection to the region, even if they don’t live here.”
“I’m sure one bottle will be enough to convince people to try more Margaret River wines, and with more than 130 wine producers, a ‘Lover’ will never tire of sampling something new,” he said.
Long Hours for Short Vintage
The usual long hours and massive workload has been increased this vintage, with some unusually hot weather resulting in quicker ripening times.
Wineries faced either short spells between the harvesting of different varieties or getting both reds and whites off at the same time.
A combination of an excellent growing season and poor conditions on the East coast has seen grape prices and demand for specific varieties increase. Semillon particularly has become a sought after variety.
As vintage drew to an end, it was predicted that crop yields were generally on estimate with a small reduction forecast in regional averages for both red and whites.
Both disease pressure and bird damage was low across the region.
The 2007 vintage has been a short but intense experience for most.
Vintage photos by Frances Andrijich, courtesy of Cape Mentelle.
Whites were showing intense varietal flavours, natural acids and good concentration of flavour. Reds were showing a great depth of varietal characters, very good colour with low pH.
Overall, winemakers are reporting that 2007 will be a very high quality year for the Margaret River region.
Girl Power Celebrates Vintage
All the female employees at Cape Mentelle experienced vintage this year with a new Rhone-inspired Crozes-Hermitage style blend, PARFUM.
Taken from the French ‘par femme’ meaning ‘by woman’, the Shiraz Grenache blend was stomped by Cape Mentelle women from marketing, accounting, warehouse, cellar door and cellar staff, lead by winemaker Larissa Bray.
”Vintage should be about having fun,” Larissa said. ”It should be an occasion, a festival, a time that everyone should look forward to, not just winery crew, so what better way to make people understand than to involve them.”
Larissa used bunches, stalks and all, which were stomped over 10 days before being pressed, racked and put in barrels.
Larissa is excited about the wine’s potential, saying it has brambly savoury aromas, a fresh palate and prominent tannins that are not green or
astringent.
But don’t expect to see PARFUM in the bottle shops – this wine will be enjoyed by its makers. xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Lara Bray (centre) with Glenys Rodgers and Sarah Thomas stomp PARFUM
Voyager Estate Wins Inaugural Viticultural Excellence Award
Voyager Estate has been named the first recipient of the 2006/07 Viticultural Excellence award.
The Margaret River Wine Industry Association established the Viticultural Excellence award to recognise the importance of quality fruit in the production of the region’s famed fine wines.
Judges A/Prof Mark Gibberd, Chair of Viticulture and Oenology at Curtin University of Technology and Mr Mike Melsom of Merum Wines in Pemberton said they were impressed at the quality of the applications and the care taken in their presentation.
Lead by Viticulturalist Steve James, Voyager’s level of commitment to staff, with the training and interaction between vineyard and winemaking proving to be an effective and complimentary team, was specifically noted by the Judges.
The Judges were unanimous in their praise for the detail Steve James’ team gave to planning, particularly with respect to matching soil type and variety.
Voyager’s extreme focus and attention to detail directing the management of the vineyard for quality fruit production was also highlighted, as was the emphasis on minimising the environmental impacts of production.
A Voyager Estate representative will receive a return trip to France, courtesy of the Margaret River Wine TravelClub, to study French viticultural practices.
Steve James (centre), the Voyager Estate vineyard team
& Robyn Mitchell from the Margaret River Wine TravelClub
Viticulture Forum Back in 2007
The popular and informative Viticulture Forum will return in 2007, supported by the Margaret River Wine Industry Association.
Leah Clearwater, Association Executive Committee member and Viticulture Forum co-founder, said she was keen to see the Forum revived to give grape growers and viticulturists an opportunity to meet in a professional and social context.
“It is important for viticulturalists to share information, both technical and anecdotal, on what is happening in vineyards around the Margaret River region,” Leah said.
The Viticulture Forum is an opportunity to identify key management issues and provides an informal benchmark as growers compare practices used to improve fruit quality, control pests & diseases and manage efficient vineyard systems. Each meeting usually involves a technical presentation, with discussion and social hour.
Having the Association’s administrative support will free up organisers of the quarterly Forum to concentrate on inviting relevant guest speakers, plan vineyard visits and timely topics for discussion, as well as assist in promoting the Forum’s activities. In addition, technical newsletters reporting on Forum topics can be made available to members.
2007 Stomp Will Be Crushing Good Time
Stomp is back bigger and better on Sunday, May 6 at Voyager Estate.
Keeping the theme of celebrating an international wine vintage, Stomp 2007 is going South African – Zulu dancing, drumming, music, African masks with more than 150 children participating in the opening Grand parade with Bacchus.
There will be a wine & beer marquee, children’s entertainment, food, craft stalls and more.
And yes – the favourites will all be back. The Barrel Race, the Waiters’ Race, the Great Tug-of War will pit winery against winery and the highlight: the Celebrity Stomp.
Now in its third year, Vintage Stomp celebrates the Margaret River wine region and another successful harvest.
Tickets are $10 adults and $5 children.
Teams for the Barrel Race, Waiters Race and Great Tug of War can be registered by emailing dgeo1488@bigpond.net.au
Festival to Continue Under MRWIA
The Margaret River Wine Industry Association has given its commitment to continue the Margaret River Wine Region Festival as an event to showcase the best of the region’s wine, food and arts to visitors.
The Festival Association voluntarily sought amalgamation with the MRWIA. With the legal processes underway to amalgamate, options for the Festival will be assessed, including moving the event from November, which has a busy events calendar to May, to celebrate vintage.
MRWIA president Ron Fraser said the MRWIA wanted the Festival’s reputation to remain undiminished.
“We want to see the Margaret River name further strengthened in the market place and recognise the Festival is a powerful vehicle to achieve this.”
Our Wine 'Best' on TV
Margaret River wines will feature exclusively on Foxtel’s new cooking series The Best of Australia.
The television show, starring Ben O’Donoghue from Surfing the Menu, will air in June 2007, showing three chefs in competition to produce creative dishes using Australian produce.
The series will give Margaret River wines access to millions of viewers through Foxtel, with the show going to commercial television in 2009.
“This series is better than any advertisement because the chefs will be able to educate people on matching good food with good wine,” Association president Ron Fraser said.
Originally 30 minute shows, the first edits of the show have been so impressive, Foxtel has agreed to one-hour programmes. The Best of Australia will air mid June.
Winning Wine Shared For Healthy Cause
Raffle winner Carolyn Crawford has given a portion of her wine winnings to a healthy cause.
The South Yunderup resident donated some of her 10 cases of fine Margaret River wines to the Peel Health Campus for its fundraising.
Second place, winning 6 cases, was Peter Moore of Morley, with Jacqueline Smith of Subiaco taking the four-case third prize.
The raffle raised in excess of $5,000 which will go to the Wine Waste project.
In conjunction with Curtin University, Wine Waste will investigate environmentally sustainable removal of waste water for wineries under 500 tonne crush.
The raffle was drawn by Fatt Matt (a.k.a Matt Yates) of the Lunar Circus in Karridale.
