Irvine Wines OnLine Wine Shop

Welcome again to Merlot Musings and all the latest news from Irvine, Australia's master Merlot maker.

We've had a fantastic response to the first edition, with lots of encouraging feedback, so thank you for all the kind words and support. It proves what we have long suspected - that there are plenty of people out there keen to find out more about our wines and the little piece of paradise - Eden Valley - where they are made.

Since that first edition, life has been hectic here in the Eden Valley, with lots of new developments and a constant stream of visitors from all over the world. These include Ben Hammerschlag from Epicurean Wines our American distributor operating out of Seattle; Martin Apell our distributor for Germany and Austria working out of the Mid-North German town of Kassel; Ms Wee Chen Yen from our Singapore distributors Wine Sense and Senshukai of Tokyo as well. So between visitors and vintage, life has been full of delightful surprises.

As I often say, when you put fine people and fine wine together it is much more than just representing and promoting a brand. Each gives a little of one's self to the other and so a special feeling comes into the relationship. We like to think this is the 'Merlot Factor' - soft warm, fuzzy and so very nice. A finale "nice" note is that our daughter Joanne has graduated with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Oenology) from the University of Adelaide (see story below). The road she chose was not easy but with typical Irvine stubbornness and ability Joanne has achieved this milestone.. Joanne worked the 2000 vintage at Charles Cimicky wines and contributed significantly to our wines. After a study and working tour of Europe, we expect her to takeover the reins for the 2002 vintage. Please pardon the parental pride and understand the relief that Marjorie and I feel in being able to pass on the "Merlot baton"

Cheers,

Proud as punch - James and Marjorie Irvine with daughter Joanne, who graduated with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Oenology) from the University of Adelaide.

Double celebration for Joanne Our daughter.

Joanne had two good reasons to celebrate last month: not only is she now a fully qualified winemaker after graduating from the University of Adelaide with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Oenology), but she also won a Bronze Medal for her 1998 Zinfandel-Merlot at the Singapore International Wine Challenge. "This award is very special to me as it is the first wine I've made and it's from a little known variety grown in Australia," Joanne said. "I first came across Zinfandel in 1995 whilst working in California, USA and I was so impressed with its depth of flavour and character that I wanted to grow it here in Australia. "I am still battling to understand the viticulture and winemaking techniques of Zinfandel. It is a very vigorous variety and must be controlled in order to achieve the correct depth of desired fruit characters such as cherry, raspberry and brambleberry with a touch of spice."

The 1998 Zinfandel-Merlot is a blend of 80% Zinfandel and 20% Merlot, the latter being added to give flavour depth and enhance the Zinfandel characters. "Zinfandel is often blended with Shiraz and matured in American oak in the United States but I wanted to develop a different perspective blending it with Merlot and maturing it in French oak, giving it softer, rounder more integrated flavours rather than the bold, robust characters found in the US."

Another export success. Irvine Wines are now available in Japan, thanks to a successful trip last January organised by our Sydney agent, Denis Gastin of Australian Prestige Wines. I was invited to help open a wine tasting educational facility by the Outstanding Wine Club (wonderful name!) in Yokohama for Senshukai. The club wishes to work only with smaller Australian wineries producing premium quality wines and so become known as the place to get the rare Australian wines in Tokyo.

It was part of the club's strategy of planning to introduce Australian wines to businesswomen in the 25 to 32 year old age group - a very important and influential group of consumers. We were made very welcome. It was a fascinating experience and very heartening because of the attention the members paid to the tasting sessions. They were very interested and very quick to learn. There were wines from 30 small Australian companies with a view to members tasting and getting an understanding of the variation in Australian wines and the depth of flavours which they are not used to with French or Italian wines.

The sessions were run in association with King Island cheeses, so they saw the best of Australian produce as well as the best of our wines. They took it very seriously, but it wasn't all hard work - the Friday night turned into a typical Australian event when we opened a bottle of the sparkling Merlot. The event had been due to finish at 8pm, but once this beauty was opened proceedings went on until 10.30pm! They were amazed by our lovely sparkling red - had never even imagined a wine like that in terms of colour, taste and style. It was a big hit.

Soon there will be regular weekly tastings, and then the club will explore other avenues and opportunities, which is excellent news for us. They have already visited us here and are very keen. I must give special thanks to Denis Gastin of Australian Prestige Wines whose extraordinary understanding of wine and the Japanese culture have contributed so much to our introduction. And of course how can we thank enough Mihoko (Miho) Kondo who acts as Australian Prestige Wines Export Manager. This is one remarkable young lady whose kindness, effort, business ethics and hard work have to be experienced to be believed. Marjorie and I feel especially favoured to be associated with such fine people - the Merlot feeling again!

 

One of our visitors during the last six months was Julia Wei, our Taiwanese agent, who liked inspecting and tasting the grapes prior to vintage.

Cellar door with a difference We always like to do things a bit differently at Irvine Wines, and our cellar door situation is certainly no exception. Unlike virtually every other winery, we don't have an on-site cellar door - but what we have instead is the local pub! Landlords of the popular Eden Valley Hotel, the redoubtable Dianne Gabel and Siegfried Pihodnya, have taken on the role of ambassadors for Irvine, stocking our full range of wines and encouraging visitors to taste and try them. We have an old adage that one taste is worth 1,000 words, and with this exciting new arrangement, people have more opportunities than most to try our wines, since whenever the pub is open, our 'cellar door' is open, too - every day of the week, from 11am till late (and 12 noon on Sundays). There's a sign outside in Eden Valley's main street to let people know that the wines are available for tasting. However, Diane and Siggy haven't confined themselves to letting the locals know about Irvine - they've taken us worldwide as well, by making their new website the online home of Irvine Wines. So if you visit www.evhotel.mtx.net, you'll find all you need to know about us and our wines, and you can order online, too. You'll probably even find this edition of Merlot Musings! We are delighted with the arrangement and really appreciate all the support we're getting from Diane and Siggy, because it means that more of you will find it much easier to learn about our wines, taste them and buy them.

Off with their heads! If you happen to be driving through the Eden Valley and spot Jim in the vineyard chopping down vines, don't panic - we haven't taken leave of our senses. What we're doing is cutting some old Chardonnay vines back and grafting Merlot onto the wood instead, so that we'll have even more marvellous Merlot fruit in the future. Last November we grafted an acre and a half and we'll be doing the same again this year. It's a common way of creating a 'new' vineyard. The top of the vine is cut away, leaving a stump onto which a new young vine is grafted and secured with tape. The two pieces then grow together and the old stump produces a totally new crop. And the wonderful thing is that the vines don't have to be the same variety.

We are not getting rid of all our Chardonnay, by the way - we're just sacrificing some that we don't need to get more magical Merlot. Why Merlot? Some of you might be wondering where this passion for Merlot came from. Well might you ask as I ask myself the same question from time to time. The answer lies within my training as both a winemaker and a wine marketer - especially my understanding of marketing the world's very best premium wines. My marketing studies taught me about niche marketing; how to stand out from the crowd rather than going with the flow (which of course only dead fish do!). The secret of niche marketing is really understanding what excellence means and never, never, never forgetting your consumer.

Interestingly, when we bought "Springhill", Eden Valley in 1980, Marjorie and I set out on a very different road from today. We intended to be Australia's finest premium sparkling winemakers and some of that vision still remains today in the form of Australia's finest Blanc de Blancs - our Brut Royale 1988. But when we saw the big French companies coming to set up their own Australian companies, we realised the simple fact that they had huge financial backing and marketing strength and we did not. So what were we to do? I guess it was instinct to some degree and also just a little bit of romance that led us to Merlot. Sometime in the late 1970s I had the fortune to taste Petrus from the Pomerol region of France. This wine made such an impression on me - not only from a winemakers point of view but also as an awe-inspired consumer. I kept asking myself how do they ever get such richness, power and softness into this wine? And how could a wine which was first marketed in the United Kingdom in 1958 command such a following? The variety Merlot was the answer.

I asked myself would it grow in the Eden Valley? Of course it would - there were plenty of Merlot plantings already doing well in the region. Would it grow in gravel soils and bear well or poorly? Who knew? What would it taste like? Who knew? How would I make it and would the oenological techniques be different from Shiraz and Cabernet? Again no clear answers.

What we did know was that Merlot was an excellent wine to blend with Cabernet Sauvignon. It gave richness, plumminess and softness and filled out the mid-palate. So if it could do this for Cabernet, what could it do on its own? We decided to plant it anyway - not Shiraz and not Cabernet as everyone else was - but Merlot and nothing else but Merlot as our red grape variety. The three to five years before the vines started cropping gave us the time to find out all the answers to making our Grand Merlot, a world class wine. Why did we aim so high and position ourselves as an international quality wine? Why not just attempt to produce an Australian class wine? The answer is simply that in Europe, Merlot is known and revered whereas in Australia winemakers and consumer just saw it as a blending variety. Of course, now that we have matched and beaten the world's best Merlots on several occasions we feel vindicated in our choice and we can say that have learnt more than a little about Merlot making in the Eden Valley. So to the answer of the rhetorical question, why Merlot?

Of all the red wines it is the most subtle, the most flavoursome, the most rewarding, the gentlest, the most complex, the most satisfying. This is not just a characteristic of Irvine Grand Merlot but all the best Merlots from around the world. I must say that it is with some pride (not vanity) that we see our Australian-made Eden Valley Merlot in this class. How to describe a great Merlot Knowing the right terms to describe wines (wine descriptors) are not just handy to impress your friends - they also provide greater insight into the wine's flavour profile and give you added enjoyment of the world's most remarkable grape variety.

Look for these general characteristics: Opulent texture, gracefulness, plumpness, richness, ripeness (with huge extract and power), succulence, voluptuousness, silkiness, lushness and full tannins with fresh acidity. Specific flavour comparisons are: Chinese tea, black cherry as distinct from the sharper red cherry, plum, dried herbs, spice (usually derived from the oak influence), savoury, meaty, dark chocolate, cassis, dark berry fruits such as black raspberries, violets, licorice, truffles, fruit pastille, bramble berry, cranberry, leather, Christmas pudding, tobacco leaf, gameyness, mulberry, olive.

The year 2000 is our 21st year at "Springhill" and our 18th vintage and all I can say is 'wow' - what a year it has been for grapegrowers and winemakers.

While I am glad to experience it, I would be happier to avoid such a year in the future. Not Annus Horribilis but certainly a Year of Challenge! Firstly yields were decimated by poor fruit set in the previous spring - for us half a crop or less. An example is our Grand Merlot source block where in the past we have picked six tonnes pf premium fruit, in 2000 we picked just three quarters of a tonne. As a result there will be no Grand Merlot 2000. None.

On the other hand our B Block, which was grafted onto Chardonnay roots years ago, was magnificent. We had good yields, great plummy flavours and all the richness you have to come to expect from our Merlot. However, that was a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy vineyard register. The poor yields continued in our Chardonnay (a quarter of our average crop) and our Pinot Gris and Pinot Meslier (both down by 50%). While this might appear to be grim, just remember that there is one positive outcome of having half your crop growing on a vine with a full canopy - quality. The concentration of flavours in the finished wines of this vintage are enormous and I predict that consumers will be treasuring the tremendous varietal distinction of the 2000 wines for many years to come.

So in summary, while 2000 gave us tiny crops and less wine to go around, we hope that the flavours will be truly memorable.