Babich Listed in The World's Most Admired Wine Brands

Drinks International, one of the most trusted and respected global drinks journals, has just launched their World's Most Admired Wine Brands Top 50 list for 2012.

Sixty members of the global wine community nominated the wine brands they admire most. Voters included Peter McCombie MW, Peter Marks MW, Tuomas Meriluoto MW, Kym Milne MW and Lynne Sherriff MW.

In his opening summary, Most Admired Wine Brands editor Graham Holter writes: "The results provided a fascinating insight into how the wine industry regards its leading players.

"The list includes brands that are found in Shanghai boardrooms as well as mom and pop stores in Minnesota, and all points in between. Congratulations to all the brands who achieved a ranking in this unique project."

Managing director, Joe Babich comments "It is a real pleasure to see seven New Zealand brands named in this Top 50 list, and this is testament to the high regard held internationally for New Zealand wine."

DELIGHT WITH THE BEST OF VINTAGES

Wc14May12

IDEAL with grilled
black-peppered T-bone

David Ellis

EVANS & Tate in the West's Margaret River have long prided themselves on making their Redbrook label wines only from fruit from the best of Vintages.

2009 was one such vintage: from New Year's Day the region flourished under 4 months of blue skies and temperatures in the high twenties, with fruit for the 2009 Redbrook Shiraz picked at the end of this period when at its optimal ripeness.

Winemaker Matt Byrne fermented individual parcels from different vineyard blocks separately, racking these to either new or older French oak barriques or hogsheads. "This provided a diversity of options for blending," Matt said. "Perfect barrel maturation was achieved by matching barrel types to each parcel of fruit and removing the wine from the barrel when ideal structure, texture and integration had been achieved – whilst also ensuring fruit character was at the forefront of the wine."

Pay $37.99 and enjoy this one with a grilled black-peppered T-bone.

NEW Zealand beauty to enjoy
with spicy Thai seafood

ONE FOR LUNCH: Naysayers told Peter Yealands the land he'd bought in New Zealand's Marlborough district was too rugged for viticulture, but defying their gloomy forecasts he turned it into some of the area's first terraced vineyards.

And he's not looked back, with his label now one of Marlborough's most-respected. Search out his 2009 Yealands Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, another of those wines produced only in exceptional years, with fruit for this one being hand-harvested to get only the best extra-ripe bunches, and with 35% then going into a mix of new and used French oak for 12 months and the remainder into stainless steel tanks before blending.

The resultant wine has nice savoury flavours with a mineral finish, and at $30 is one that its maker, Tamara Washington recommends matching with spicy dishes such as Thai seafood.


(NEED A FOOD/DRINK IDEA? Check out  http://www.vintnews.com )

                                                    

APPLE TREE FLAT IS VALUE FOR MONEY

ONE reason why customers come back time
and again for the wines of Apple Tree Flat

Wc07May12

David Ellis


IN the decade-plus since he released his first Apple Tree Flat wines from the 2001 vintage, Peter Logan has striven to improve upon each vintage while at the same time also maintaining a philosophy of value for money.

And he says it's because he's conscious that customers choose to buy his wines a second and a third time as a result of enjoying their first experiences of the label. "So it's therefore important to honour this initial experience and not change the profile of the wine too dramatically," he says.

Named after the little hamlet just outside Mudgee in the NSW Central Ranges wine region that Peter and his wife Hannah call home, Peter's wines are well-priced for their quality, a just-released 2010 Apple Tree Flat Merlot just $12.

With berry, dark chocolate and dried herb and earthy flavours, this is a good drop at the price to enjoy with a roast leg of lamb, mint sauce and baked vegies, or a lamb-based Shepherd's Pie.

JUST the drop for celebrating Italy's
National Republic Day on June 2.

ONE FOR LUNCH: With Italy's National Republic Day coming up on June 2, what better way to celebrate than with pasta with seafood sauce or a pasta alfredo, together with a bottle or two of Pinot Grigio – the product of Italy's national white grape and its most popular white wine.

With Italian ancestry, Lerida Estate's Jim Lumbers planted his first Pinot Grigio on his vineyard in the Canberra District in 1997. "I believe our 2011 is now our first really authentic-styled Pinot Grigio," Jim says, "as opposed to the more Alsatian-style we have produced in the past."

Winemaker Malcolm Burdett coaxed the best of the style's mineral and herb  characters from Lerida's excellent fruit, and finished it with nice savoury characters from 5% barrel fermentation. Pay $25 and enjoy with either of those pastas dishes, or your own favourite Italian choices.


(NEED A FOOD/DRINK IDEA? Check out  http://www.vintnews.com )

PR Firms Merge to form White Ink. | Wine & Life

MEDIA RELEASE: Sydney, Friday 4 May 2012

White. Crisp, fresh, clean, clear, uncluttered, reflecting nearly all the rays of sunlight.

Ink. Publicity, especially in print media. To mark, stain or cover.

Winestream Communications and Impressions Marketing Communications have merged to form a new wine and lifestyle communications agency under the new White Ink. brand.

Opening their newly-merged doors on 7  May 2012, White Ink. will commence the business with already committed top lifestyle clients including Belaroma Coffee, Blue Pyrenees Estate, Chateau de Sours, Dilmah Tea, Gibraltar Hotel Bowral, Koonowla Wines, Liku Liku Lagoon Resort Fiji, Lowepro, Maui Jims Sunglasses, New Generation Hunter Valley Winemakers, Optimiste Wines of Mudgee, Petuna, Pure Tasmania, Shaw Vineyard Estate, Sip Your Modo, Stonehaven Wines, Tintilla Estate and Wine Odyssey Australia. The merged businesses will allow White Ink.'s combined lifestyle clients to leverage media opportunities and gain greater efficiencies as well as enjoy extensive business-to-business communications' opportunities. 

Managing Director of the previous Winestream Communications business, Kylie White (nee Teasdell) takes the reins as Managing Director of White Ink., while Tracey Leitch, previous Managing Director of Impressions takes on an Associate role directing new business, driving key accounts, and sitting on the newly-formed agency's advisory board.

White and Leitch each have in excess of 20 years' experience working in senior client-side marketing roles as well as running their individual PR agencies.

Kylie White commented on the merger: "Our extensive media contacts and proven track record in the wine and lifestyle industries gives our clients benefits beyond that of a usual PR agency.  We have our finger on the pulse of events and activities that can move lifestyle brands beyond the traditional media experience and extend them into the social media arena in a more personalised and meaningful way to their audience.  Our cross-platform offering which now includes all facets of marketing, together with our combined lifestyle communications experience will provide clients with both strategic and creative solutions all under one roof."

Tracey Leitch commented, "The joint energy of the two agencies combined will be a force to be reckoned with and we look forward to making a significant mark on the PR landscape. Our initial focus will be maximising the reach of our existing clients and then we will look to extending the account family. "

In addition to traditional PR services, White Ink. will provide lifestyle brands with a full service communications suite including graphic and web design, social media, events, direct, digital and e-marketing, specialising in what the dynamic duo have loosely termed 'wine and life'.

The new agency commences with a team of six and will be based out of its corporate headquarters in the new High Street Willoughby restaurant precinct in Sydney's lower North Shore from 1 June 2012.

Photograph thanks to Ken Martin bluecockatoo.com.au

Left to Right

Ally Lipman – Account Manager Life, Eileen Thomas – Marketing Assistant, Kylie White – Managing Director, Tracey Leitch – Associate Director, Camilla Barlow – Account Manager Wine, Danielle Berger – Designer & Developer

PS We're hiring! We seek an enthusiastic wine industry professional to fill the newly created Account Executive Wine role!

For further comment contact

Kylie White         kyliewhite@whiteink.com.au     P  0401 408 080

Tracey Leitch      traceyleitch@whiteink.com.au P  0415 290 023

www.whiteink.com.au  (from Monday 7 May)

NSW Government Asks For It

(L to R)  Member for Dubbo Troy Grant, Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner,
NSWWIA President David Lowe – at the 2012 Royal Sydney Easter Show

Media Release: Monday 30 April 2012


The NSW government is investing $40,000 in a new social media campaign called 'Ask For It', aimed at boosting the sales of locally produced wine.

Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner helped launch the initiative at the new Food and Wine Garden at the Royal Sydney Easter Show.

The campaign which is jointly funded by the NSW Wine Industry Association is designed to encourage consumers to be loyal to locally produced wines.

NSW winemakers produce 38 per cent of the nation's wine but account for only seven per cent of those on restaurant wine lists.

Mr Stoner said consumers needed to ask for NSW wine. "If you go along to your local restaurants and they've got South Australian wines or they've got Victorian wines, just have a word to the proprietor or the sommelier and say I want NSW wines," he said.

Mr Stoner said the industry was already heading in the right direction, domestic sales within NSW increased from $52 million in 2008 to $86 million this year.

You can find out more at www.nswwineaskforit.com.au

www.nswwineaskforit.com.au           @WineNSW   #nswwine   #askforit

BOTTLER – FAMILY’S 438 YEARS OF WINEMAKING

Wc30Apr12


David Ellis

DOING it right, family-owned Dopff au Moulin
has been making wines since 1574.

WHEN the family's been making wine since 1574 and today 13th generation members are at the helm, you know you must be doing something right, and certainly that's the case with Dopff au Moulin in France's Alsace region.

Headed by Pierre-Etienne Dopff and with Pascal Batot leading the winemaking team, the wines of this oldest family-owned and run winery in Alsace are now exported worldwide, including to Australia where for the past four decades they've been imported exclusively by the Dan Murphy liquor store chain.

The 2010 vintage in Alsace was an exceptional one, and one resultant wine in particular, the 2010 Dopff au Moulin Pinot Blanc is nicely fresh, light and dry with a mild acidity and with nice melon and pear flavours. Fruit was hand-selected off some 70 hectares of vineyards stretching across Alsace, and remarkably this interesting and excellent drop sells here for just $12.99.

At this price grab a couple of bottles and enjoy with what other than Quiche Lorraine – considered a classic French dish today, but actually originating some centuries ago in Germany's old kingdom of Lothringen, that was later re-named Lorraine when it came under French control.

PAYING tribute to the
Barossa Valley's German heritage.

ONE FOR LUNCH: Kym Teusner and Corey Ryan, the winemaking power behind Zeppelin in the Barossa Valley, choose to use fruit from vines 60 to 80 years old, to pay homage they say to the Valley's rich German heritage.

Kym's 2009 Zeppelin Barossa Valley Shiraz came off a single vineyard he owns in the Angaston Hills, the fruit being hand-harvested, crushed in small open fermenters, fermentation then finished in-tank and the wine matured in older oak for 18 months.

The result is a great drop with forward blackberry and plum flavours and nice tannins, and ideal with most grilled meats or a meat-lovers pizza; pay $18.



(NEED A FOOD/DRINK IDEA? Check out  http://www.vintnews.com )

PINOT GRIGIO PROWESS

With two of Italy’s most celebrated national holidays just around the corner – National Republic Day of Italy (2 June 2012) and Ferragosto (15 August 2012) – many an epicure’s thoughts turn to the delicious dishes and drops that the Italians have created over the centuries, with the wines made from the Pinot Grigio grape being amongst the highlights.

Two wines inspired by Italy’s national white grape and the country’s effervescent style, are the:

Lerida Estate 2011 Pinot Grigio, Canberra District ($25)

Lerida Estate 2011 Zenzi rosato frizzanti, Canberra District ($13.50)

Owner Jim Lumbers has Italian ancestry so when planting the vines on their Lake George vineyard site back in 1997 he was keen to plant Pinot Grigio alongside his (now award-winning) flagship Pinot Noir.

Jim says, “It has taken hard work and patience but I believe the new vintage Lerida Estate 2011 Pinot Grigio is our first really authentic Italian-styled Pinot Grigio, as opposed to the more Alsatian-styled Pinot Gris we have produced in the past – hence the subtle name change on the label. It was something worth striving for as I am a big fan of the style’s mineral and herb fruit characters, and especially its savoury mouth feel which makes it an ultra-friendly food wine. The key contributors to achieving this were many years of careful vineyard management, vines that are now fully mature and a cool - slightly wet - summer. This combination has allowed the grapes to ripen the fruit tannins without too much sugar, and maintain good acid. Our winemaker Malcolm Burdett also encouraged the natural savoury characters with 5% barrel fermentation.”

Within a few months of bottling, the quality of this wine was recognised at Australia’s premier regional wine show, The Cowra Wine Show, where it was awarded top of its class.

The Lerida Estate 2011 Zenzi rosato frizzanti also reflects a clear Italian inspiration and has made a big impact on Lerida Estate’s customers, being the new best seller at their Cellar Door and café. With Pinot Grigio at its core, it also includes Viognier (another variety planted on the 40 acre Lake George site, alongside Chardonnay, Shiraz, Merlot and Cabernet Franc), and a splash of their premier Pinot Noir - to create a unique blend.

Jim explains, “The three varieties in this wine work exceptionally well together. The Viognier brings its distinctive perfume of peaches and blossom to the Pinot Grigio’s fashionable, crisp and refreshing fruits, and the Pinot Noir creates the beautiful pink hue. We make it in a delicately frizzanti style, reminiscent of a classic Italian Moscato. The clean, crisp palate of this wine matches brilliantly with creamy or cheesy pasta dishes, or as an accompaniment to a palate cleansing sorbet after a rich winter dish” says Jim, “but judging by comments from our customers, it goes pretty well with most things, any time!”

For further inormation: Jim Lumbers & Anne Caine, Lerida Estate P: 02 6295 6640 E: wine@leridaestate.com W: www.leridaestate.com.au


Availability:

Both wines can be purchased directly at the cellar door or via the online store at www.leridaestate.com.au
Lerida Estate 2011 Pinot Grigio, Canberra District – RRP $25, 750ml bottle under screwcap
Stocked in ACT, Qld, NSW and Vic at Vintage Cellars and good independent liquor stores.
Distributed by Vino Bambino (VIC), Macro Vintner Partners (NSW and QLD) and Lerida Estate (ACT).
Lerida Estate 2011 Zenzi rosato frizzanti, Canberra District – RRP $13.50, 500ml bottle under screwcap
Stocked at selected independent liquor stores in ACT & NSW. Distributed by Lerida Estate (P: 02 6295 6640)