Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Mornington Peninsula & Tasmania - Peter Dillon - Handpicked Wines
85 Plays4 years ago
On episode three of Fine Vines and Wine, I'm joined by Peter Dillon; chief and flying winemaker for Handpicked Wines. We discuss the purpose behind the 'eggs' when it comes to winemaking, having to put trust in friends during Covid and the concept behind their cellar door in the Sydney, and soon to be Melbourne, CBD. With award winning wines, an organic certification on the way in Mornington Peninsula and Tasmania, and a focus on sustainability, this episode is not to be missed.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Fine Vines and Wine Podcast
00:00:07
Speaker
Hi everyone and welcome to Fine Vines and Wine.
00:00:10
Speaker
I'm your host Karis Pixie and each week I'll be giving you all an insight into the behind the scenes of our favourite beverage, wine.
00:00:17
Speaker
I'd love for you to use this podcast platform as a winery guide for your next weekend away, exploring everything Australia has to offer.
00:00:26
Speaker
You never know, you might discover a new spot or two to visit.
Acknowledgment of Traditional Custodians
00:00:30
Speaker
I acknowledge the Kadigal and the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation, traditional custodians of the land that we recorded today's podcast episode on.
00:00:38
Speaker
I pay my respects to the elders past, present and emerging, for they hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and hopes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across the nation.
Start of 2021 Grape Picking Season
00:00:49
Speaker
On this week's episode of Fine Vines and Wine, we're getting to know Peter Dillon, chief winemaker at one of my absolute favourites, hand-picked wines.
00:00:57
Speaker
Thank you so much for joining me today.
00:01:00
Speaker
How's the beginning of your week going?
00:01:02
Speaker
Thank you for having me on.
00:01:04
Speaker
The week is off to a pretty good start, actually, in that we've just started picking our first grapes of the 2021 season.
00:01:10
Speaker
So as of today, we are picking Pinot Noir in the Yarra Valley.
00:01:15
Speaker
Oh, amazing.
00:01:15
Speaker
Yes, I think I actually saw that on your Instagram.
00:01:18
Speaker
You did a little post about that.
00:01:20
Speaker
Yep.
00:01:21
Speaker
No, it's always an exciting day.
00:01:22
Speaker
It's always nice to get started.
00:01:25
Speaker
How long does that go for as well?
00:01:26
Speaker
It'll depend a little bit on the season and weather and all those things, but we're probably talking around about six to eight weeks by the time we've finished all the different varieties across the different regions.
Secrets to Award-Winning Wines
00:01:38
Speaker
Oh my gosh, that's amazing.
00:01:39
Speaker
It takes such a long time.
00:01:41
Speaker
Yeah, if it was a bit simpler and we were just picking grapes in one place.
00:01:46
Speaker
I also wanted to add that the lovely team at Handpicked have also sent me some of your wines to try.
00:01:51
Speaker
Thank you.
00:01:52
Speaker
I'm very appreciative of that.
00:01:55
Speaker
And to let everyone know that I'll be doing some live tasting on my stories soon.
00:01:59
Speaker
Plus, I also have a bottle of the 2019 Chardonnay to give away.
00:02:03
Speaker
So stay tuned for that too.
00:02:05
Speaker
So firstly, I had a little look at the awards page on the website and your wines have won so many, which is amazing.
00:02:13
Speaker
What goes into creating an award-winning wine?
00:02:15
Speaker
That's a very good question.
00:02:17
Speaker
I think it's not something we necessarily go into with the intent of
00:02:21
Speaker
We're not particularly making a wine that will win awards, but I think we've equally been fortunate in that we have had a lot of success.
00:02:28
Speaker
And I think the reason for that is because we're trying to really, one, find interesting vineyard sites, which inherently I think make wines that have really interesting flavours and aromas and complexity.
00:02:42
Speaker
We also have a real focus on trying to, across the various ranges, we're either capturing a premium wine region and probably the varieties that it's famous for, or we also do quite a number of single vineyard sites.
00:02:56
Speaker
And I think with that, when a judge is looking at wines and assessing things like a wine show, you're looking for wines that have
00:03:04
Speaker
character, they've got complexity and depth of flavour and persistence and I think, fortunately for us, those really interesting sites that we are working in go hand in hand with those sort of characteristics.
Peter Dillon's Wine Industry Journey
00:03:15
Speaker
How long have you been working in wine and what's your most memorable moment that you've experienced?
00:03:20
Speaker
I've been in the industry for about 22 years now.
00:03:23
Speaker
Oh, perfect.
00:03:24
Speaker
And I suppose in that time there's been different excitements and experiences but I think in more recent times
00:03:32
Speaker
I'd moved from Western Australia to take on this role with handpicked steer, the winemaking team and wine styles and those sorts of things.
00:03:43
Speaker
And I'd come from a really remote part of Australia, but also when you look at Western Australia, it's probably some of the most remote regions in the world.
00:03:51
Speaker
I moved into this role where I was looking after the Pinots from areas living in Warrington Peninsula.
00:03:59
Speaker
I did a day trip to Tasmania to check on our vineyards and to make our wine and I was home again by the end of the day.
00:04:05
Speaker
And for me that was just such a mind-blowing experience because it was such a paradigm shift in terms of my previous experiences and now being
00:04:14
Speaker
Being able to actually juggle all these different bowls all at once from Mornington Peninsula and still be home for a late dinner with my wife was pretty surreal.
00:04:23
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:04:24
Speaker
I'm actually going to skip forward a couple of questions because you see yourself as a traveling winemaker, which means that you can sort of fly around and visit all of the wineries, which is amazing as well.
The 'Flying Winemaker' Concept
00:04:36
Speaker
For people that don't know what that is, what does it entail?
00:04:40
Speaker
The concept of a flying winemaker can differ a little bit depending on the individuals involved.
00:04:46
Speaker
For me, what it really is, the concept is for handpicked we have
00:04:51
Speaker
Vineyards, a combination of our own vineyards and a combination of growers vineyards that provide us with bare fruit to make into wine.
00:04:59
Speaker
But that, probably unusually, is not just in one region.
00:05:02
Speaker
It's spread across all over Australia.
00:05:04
Speaker
We even do some international projects in New Zealand and Oregon and Bordeaux and elsewhere.
00:05:09
Speaker
And by default, we should try to keep an eye on
00:05:12
Speaker
how all those things are progressing means that I'm jumping on the plane, flying across and getting involved in those projects wherever they may be.
00:05:21
Speaker
So, you know, in some cases that's a trip that's early in the growing season where the fruit is on the vine and then we actually will pick the vine.
00:05:29
Speaker
So, say from a Tasmanian perspective, one thing
00:05:32
Speaker
pick the fruit we actually put it onto the cherry across the Nitton Peninsula and it comes into our winery in Mornington.
00:05:39
Speaker
But in other cases like say making fun in Margaret River or Pinot in Oregon, it's obviously too far away to do that so it involves flying and making it at the winery in those locations.
00:05:51
Speaker
Wow, that's amazing.
00:05:52
Speaker
It would be so cool to go and see so many different places and sort of be across lots of different wineries with lots of, I guess, different like
Impact of the Pandemic on Winemaking
00:05:59
Speaker
climates.
00:05:59
Speaker
And as this past year, and so 2021 affected that at all with all of the traveling, because I guess you probably can't be flying around as much.
00:06:09
Speaker
So how do you sort of control all of that sort of stuff?
00:06:12
Speaker
That's a very good question.
00:06:13
Speaker
2020 provided quite a few new things that we hadn't experienced previously.
00:06:19
Speaker
I think we handled various elements of it in different ways.
00:06:23
Speaker
I think the fundamental issue was that I couldn't necessarily always be on site in a vineyard to taste the grapes and then taste the wines.
00:06:32
Speaker
And that's where I suppose the industry is a relatively small one.
00:06:36
Speaker
Unfortunately for me, lots of good friends are spread across these regions.
00:06:40
Speaker
In 2020, I really probably leaned on a few particular individuals who are close friends and they'd go around and taste the fruit.
00:06:49
Speaker
in the vineyard or taste the wine in the winery and then we'd talk about it on the phone then I'd be making decisions based on what they said.
00:06:57
Speaker
I wouldn't necessarily recommend that on an act to do that that way every year.
00:07:01
Speaker
It's not the easiest thing to do and I was probably fortunate too and you know these are friends that I've had for decades who
00:07:07
Speaker
We've shared plenty of wines together and we probably understand each other's palates and can talk about what it tastes like through a Zoom call or whatever else and still come away with some idea of what it tastes like.
00:07:18
Speaker
So it's in some ways a bit surreal, but we managed to make it all work.
00:07:23
Speaker
In other cases, it would be something like coming up a pre-plan in a vineyard where you'd be staring at the vines of
00:07:29
Speaker
in Tasmania or wherever else it may be to make a decision on how we're going to manage the vineyard and prune it for the coming season.
00:07:37
Speaker
So a year of challenges, but I think we certainly got there in the end and came up with some beautiful wines all the same.
00:07:43
Speaker
Perfect.
00:07:44
Speaker
I mean, going back to getting your friends to taste the wine, I feel like that would be quite hard because, number one, you'd have to trust their opinion and trust what they're tasting.
00:07:52
Speaker
And also as well, like people's palates are so different.
00:07:56
Speaker
You would have to, yeah...
00:07:57
Speaker
I was just really lucky in that I do have the friends who, as I say, have tasted wines together in some cases from university days over 20 years ago.
00:08:07
Speaker
And I think that means once you're in a winemaking section, enjoyed wine, talked and argued about them over those years, it means you do have that trust in them.
00:08:16
Speaker
And without that trust, it would be impossible.
00:08:18
Speaker
Yeah,
Peter's Seven-Year Journey with Handpicked Wines
00:08:19
Speaker
no, definitely it would be.
00:08:20
Speaker
How long have you actually been working at Handpicked Wines for?
00:08:23
Speaker
I have been here for now seven years.
00:08:27
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:08:28
Speaker
So a while.
00:08:29
Speaker
And you're enjoying it still?
00:08:31
Speaker
It's an incredibly diverse and stimulating winemaking role because we do have these amazing clusters of fruit spread far and wide.
00:08:40
Speaker
But probably the biggest
00:08:41
Speaker
driver for me and what really drew me to come on board seven years ago was that real passion that I share with Handpick for particularly Pinot Noir and also Chardonnay and in that aspect we export for choice we're making Pinots and Chardonnays in some of the world's best grape-growing regions for those wines.
00:08:59
Speaker
So what would be a typical working day for you?
00:09:02
Speaker
Let's say a typical working day before COVID and a typical working day during COVID because I feel like they would be quite different.
00:09:09
Speaker
Definitely were.
00:09:11
Speaker
In the pre-COVID times, vintage is a bit of a juggle and it's really, you know, it's a bit like a, it's not quite as dramatic or probably life and death, but you almost feel like the triage nurse at the emergency ward at the hospital where you're just trying to prioritise where you need to be when.
00:09:28
Speaker
In Mornington, when we're picking and making the wine, getting up to the garage, our lines are going in the winery there, and then possibly the next day I'll jump on the plane and do a day trip
00:09:38
Speaker
down to Tasmania to check the vineyards, maybe book in some fruit.
00:09:41
Speaker
So quite a lot of travel and really a lot of those decisions.
00:09:45
Speaker
The way we make wine is according to different winemakers and it's really coming back to some form of mix of art and science.
00:09:53
Speaker
And I think some people would use a lot of analytical numbers.
00:09:56
Speaker
But I think part of that art side is really to go and flavour and taste and see how the wines respond for different seasons.
00:10:06
Speaker
So it's a very hands-on,
00:10:08
Speaker
and sensory related rollercoaster ride.
00:10:11
Speaker
In terms of the COVID window, last year we were probably also a little bit lucky in that things like lockdowns only really started once the lion's share of vintage in terms of key decisions had finished.
00:10:24
Speaker
We just had the latter passers of fruit come in, which was particularly Tasmania and West Australia.
00:10:30
Speaker
I'd be able to, and by then I had a lot of core passers of wine in
00:10:36
Speaker
a winery at Mornington and some other parcels up in Yarra.
00:10:39
Speaker
So I was able to just commute between those wineries and Cheplum and myself.
00:10:45
Speaker
And then the challenge then was just to get these friends who I'd be on the phone or phone call to tell me how things were going in Tassie and how the vines in Margaret River were going.
00:10:55
Speaker
Wow, that's crazy.
00:10:56
Speaker
And whereabouts are you based?
00:10:58
Speaker
I'm based at our winery in Mornington Peninsula, which is on the lower parts of Mornington Peninsula and a beautiful little
00:11:06
Speaker
and winery there.
00:11:08
Speaker
My geography skills aren't that great but yes, Mornington Peninsula is near Melbourne.
00:11:13
Speaker
Near Melbourne.
00:11:14
Speaker
Okay, perfect.
00:11:15
Speaker
We're about an hour southeast of Melbourne.
00:11:18
Speaker
If you drew a line between Melbourne and Phillip Highlands where the Philberns are.
00:11:22
Speaker
That's roughly where we are and Mornington is quite an interesting region because it's surrounded by three bodies of water.
00:11:28
Speaker
So it's got the Fort Phillip Bay on the Melbourne side, on the Phillip Island side it's got Western Port and then there's a straight to the south.
00:11:35
Speaker
So it makes it a really interesting and unique little wine region.
00:11:39
Speaker
I would love to visit it, hopefully when all the border restrictions and everything, because I feel like it's so hard to book in a trip at the moment.
00:11:46
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:11:47
Speaker
You book it in and then literally a week later it all changes.
00:11:51
Speaker
But I'm actually going to Orange at the end of the month.
00:11:54
Speaker
I'm trying to get around all the different wine regions that I haven't visited.
00:11:58
Speaker
So that one's on my list too.
00:11:59
Speaker
There's no shortage of beautiful wine regions to check out and some great wines.
00:12:04
Speaker
So talking about, this is probably the last part we'll talk about COVID and then we'll just forget it's happening.
00:12:11
Speaker
What do you think the industry will see more or less of in 2021?
00:12:15
Speaker
And are there any plans in the works for Handpicked as well?
Shift to Direct-to-Consumer Sales
00:12:20
Speaker
In a COVID sense, I think 2021 has really sharpened people's minds in terms of direct-to-consumer sales because obviously the downturn in terms of users to regions and store doors and restaurants has really probably made people rethink how they do their business.
00:12:37
Speaker
People have really, as we all like to say, visited and come up with some different ways to really try to connect and find those customers in the online space.
00:12:47
Speaker
So hand-picked business.
00:12:48
Speaker
I've certainly done that, driven through our cellar bear in Sydney last year and trying to get delivery services out, very speedy sort of turnaround, sharing some of the experience of cellar bear as best they could, so doing things like pairing it with cheeses and charcuterie trees and all those sorts of things.
00:13:04
Speaker
So that model has also rolled out to be outside of Sydney and trying to really start to drive into what will become more of a national
00:13:12
Speaker
model in the longer term.
00:13:14
Speaker
So I think that's probably the key thing in terms of Harvard.
00:13:17
Speaker
Outside of that, there's plenty of other things which probably come back to things like general consumer trends with interesting lower alcohol products and how we address things like climate change and all those other sorts of things.
00:13:30
Speaker
But we see those separate to COVID.
00:13:33
Speaker
Yeah, because I feel like low alcohol wine and non-alcoholic wine is really having a moment at the moment.
00:13:38
Speaker
Yeah, everyone seems to be jumping on board.
00:13:41
Speaker
And I have tried a couple and I've really surprisingly enjoyed them.
00:13:46
Speaker
Do you have any plans to bring in?
00:13:48
Speaker
We don't necessarily have a plan to bring in non-alcoholic but I think as a general rule we are really trying to push those lower alcohol styles and I think you know over time that will continue to evolve so for us that means not having say a Shiraz that's 14, 15, 16% it's in the 12s and 13s but I think really that will continue to evolve so there's work being done at New Zealand at the moment.
00:14:14
Speaker
producing wines that are more like 9% alcohol and still tasting more like they are in that sort of typical spectrum.
00:14:21
Speaker
Yeah, no, I agree because I feel like a lot of Australians, especially in Sydney, are all into their health and fitness and a lot of them people are really healthy during the week and then they go all out on the weekends.
00:14:31
Speaker
So I feel like definitely low alcohol is definitely going to be a popular choice for a lot of people.
00:14:36
Speaker
So the wines that you guys sent me were from the Mornington and Tasmania ranges.
00:14:42
Speaker
So I've heard that they're in the process of getting their organic certification.
00:14:45
Speaker
Congratulations.
00:14:46
Speaker
Thank you.
00:14:48
Speaker
What's the process for this and what steps as a winemaker do you have to take?
00:14:52
Speaker
I know it can take three years, so it is a long time.
00:14:55
Speaker
Yeah, I think three years is a long time, but I suppose in terms of the process, it's an investment for the future.
00:15:03
Speaker
So that was a way I'm more than happy to take.
00:15:07
Speaker
What it actually means by way of the certification, it's an interesting one because in many ways we haven't had to change a lot of what we were doing previously to now become certified.
00:15:18
Speaker
But what it particularly means is we're now following the organic guidelines and things like auditing process that NASA is doing with us.
00:15:29
Speaker
So that really makes it, I suppose, an official process which is checked and three years allows things like soil testing to be done to actually
00:15:37
Speaker
guarantee that there's no residue in the soil and all those sorts of things.
00:15:41
Speaker
How far into the three years are you?
00:15:43
Speaker
So we're now in the second year as of this year in Moynton, Tasmania, so close to half by.
00:15:50
Speaker
I think it's gone really well thus far and I think part of that
00:15:56
Speaker
because as I say we were pretty close to qualifying for those organic concepts previously.
00:16:01
Speaker
We've just tweaked some final elements of how we're running the business in the wineries to now fully comply with the certification process.
00:16:09
Speaker
Oh, perfect.
00:16:10
Speaker
Congratulations.
Journey to Organic Certification
00:16:11
Speaker
It's so amazing and I've definitely been trying or trying to try a lot of more organic wines and I've been really enjoying them.
00:16:18
Speaker
So I'll be excited to see what they're like when they're released.
00:16:21
Speaker
Yeah, no, we're absolutely delighted.
00:16:23
Speaker
And I think it's such a good thing both for the consumer but also for people like myself and the staff who are out in the vineyards on a daily basis.
00:16:31
Speaker
It's nice to know that there's less chemicals in that environment.
00:16:34
Speaker
I think it makes it a better place to be in the bigger picture.
00:16:38
Speaker
I definitely agree.
00:16:39
Speaker
So from those two ranges, what are your favourite bottles?
00:16:44
Speaker
I probably spoiled the choice, but I think the new Chardonnay from the Tasmanian Collection range, the 2019.
00:16:50
Speaker
I'm pretty excited about that.
00:16:52
Speaker
That's our first heavy Chardonnay that we've released.
00:16:57
Speaker
Oh, congratulations.
00:16:58
Speaker
It's a really interesting wine and one that will just evolve beautifully for the future.
00:17:03
Speaker
And then in the Mornington sense,
00:17:05
Speaker
Again, sport for choice, but I think the 2018 Capella Pinot Noir, which is a single vineyard wine from the vineyard that surrounds the winery down here in Mornington, would probably be a work spot for me.
00:17:18
Speaker
It's a very special pinot for us just because it is close to home and we do put so much work into throwing it to be pure and delicate, but also have that depth and flagger and length and flagger.
00:17:30
Speaker
What are the notes of the Chardonnay?
00:17:32
Speaker
Because this is the one that we'll be doing the giveaway with.
00:17:34
Speaker
So we'll do some little notes for everyone that's listening.
00:17:38
Speaker
Well, I think being a Tasmanian Chardonnay, it's got this lovely
00:17:43
Speaker
minerality and saline edge on the nose.
00:17:45
Speaker
It's a vineyard that is grown on the Kama River but it's not that straight.
00:17:51
Speaker
You can actually see the ocean in the distance from the side of the vineyard.
00:17:55
Speaker
It also has this lovely very pure lemon fruits on the nose and the palate and I think being cool climate being down there in Tasmania you just have this beautiful acidity to it so it's lovely.
00:18:07
Speaker
Length of flavour
00:18:09
Speaker
and tension that comes from the mineral acid structure.
00:18:12
Speaker
It does see close to a year in oak barrels, so you'll see a bit of that influence with some char and toast in the background, but that's not really meant to be dominant.
00:18:22
Speaker
It's really driven by that beautiful citrus fruit.
00:18:25
Speaker
Sounds amazing because I'm not with my Chardonnay I'm not a massive fan of the super oaky ones I do prefer ones that have more of those citrus notes and the minerality so it definitely sounds like something that I would enjoy.
00:18:36
Speaker
This one should be your cup of tea then.
00:18:39
Speaker
Perfect what food would you put with this if you were doing a dinner party or having a barbecue what would you suggest pairing with it?
00:18:47
Speaker
To me it's a pretty versatile one.
00:18:48
Speaker
I think it probably depends a little bit on the person too.
00:18:52
Speaker
I think I would be quite happy to enjoy it as an imperative by itself.
00:18:56
Speaker
You know, it's got that quite salivating freshness to it which would lead you ready to start with dinner.
00:19:03
Speaker
With that minerality and the acid structure, I think
00:19:06
Speaker
it would pair really nicely with some of the richer seed foods, like maybe some scallops or I'm quite a big fan of Chardonnay with even richer meats like a cleavon steak or something like that.
00:19:20
Speaker
I think it would really capture the patiness of the cat like that.
00:19:23
Speaker
So I think a pretty versatile line, I would be happy to be experimenting with a pretty wide range of
Sustainability Initiatives at Handpicked Wines
00:19:29
Speaker
food cups.
00:19:29
Speaker
So Hampig is also big on sustainability as well, which I love.
00:19:34
Speaker
What steps are you taking to adopt a more sustainable approach and what is the Sustainable Wine Growing Australia program as well?
00:19:41
Speaker
Because I saw that on your website briefly but I haven't heard of it before.
00:19:44
Speaker
Well, I mean sustainability for us, it really has to be a concept that tries to capture the entire business and not just what we do inside the vineyards of the winery.
00:19:54
Speaker
There are certainly plenty of things that we do in those places but along with that we've also tried to make it cover things that we're doing in a general sense like when we're choosing what type of cardboard or labels or pamphlets or maybe we're using at an event.
00:20:11
Speaker
We're really trying to pursue things and have that recyclable
00:20:14
Speaker
capacity, lower carbon inputs, etc, etc.
00:20:18
Speaker
We're sport for choice in terms of what we can do in vineyards particularly.
00:20:23
Speaker
From a sustainability point of view we've been doing things like composting on site.
00:20:28
Speaker
So when you are making wine, the grapes come in and you pack the juice off the grape or the wine off the grape and you're left with the solids which we call mark.
00:20:36
Speaker
Out of the winery we take all that mark and we compost it with wood chips and straws in the mirrors to make the compost which can then
00:20:44
Speaker
be either applied directly under the vines or on properties or turning into a compost tree and strade like a mist amongst the leaves and foliage of the vines or trees.
00:20:56
Speaker
There are other things like we plant insectariums to try to encourage the native local insect populations which can be beneficial when we're growing the grapes.
00:21:06
Speaker
They prey on pests that we don't want there.
00:21:08
Speaker
So it's a diverse range of things that are disposable.
00:21:12
Speaker
In terms of sustainable wine growing Australia, that's been a relatively recent program in a national sense that's come out of South Australia.
00:21:21
Speaker
And what that's about is allowing people to drill into certain details right across their business, similar to what we've started already, and really flag areas in which you can improve on.
00:21:33
Speaker
And by making it a nationally accrued program,
00:21:36
Speaker
The idea is that you can also then benchmark yourself against other people in your region, in the area.
00:21:42
Speaker
It's a competition, but it's a competition.
00:21:45
Speaker
Everyone's trying to do the same thing and improve.
00:21:48
Speaker
That really gives you that sense of areas that you can improve on.
00:21:51
Speaker
So that might be how much water or power you're using on the site, it might be where you're sourcing your power from, it could be how much waste is generated, the landfill, this is recycling, all those sorts of things and it just provides you with this really useful capacity to measure and gauge how you're performing.
00:22:08
Speaker
No, definitely.
00:22:09
Speaker
There's nothing wrong with a bit of friendly competition as well.
00:22:12
Speaker
Which is great.
00:22:12
Speaker
How many other wineries are involved in the program?
00:22:16
Speaker
Across Australia, it's rolled out nationally this year.
00:22:20
Speaker
I haven't actually seen the exact numbers, but I know that across the board, we've had a lot of interest.
00:22:26
Speaker
So it would be measured in the hundreds, I'm sure.
00:22:28
Speaker
I certainly think it's going to be quite transformational in terms of taking the whole of the national wire industry forward on a nationally critical system.
00:22:37
Speaker
No, definitely.
00:22:38
Speaker
It sounds really fascinating.
00:22:39
Speaker
And yeah, I feel like competition, having that little bit of competition there, and it's competition for good as well.
00:22:44
Speaker
So like, who can be the most sustainable?
00:22:46
Speaker
I mean, that's definitely not a bad sort of competition to have.
00:22:50
Speaker
I think times are changing in terms of agriculture.
00:22:54
Speaker
I think in general, really has embraced all of those things.
00:22:57
Speaker
Now, I think we're not too far from, you know, similar to a hybrid or electric car in the road, where everyone's tractors used to burn diesel.
00:23:05
Speaker
I think we're not
00:23:06
Speaker
far away from electric tractors being readily available.
00:23:09
Speaker
No, definitely.
00:23:10
Speaker
Electric tractors would be great.
00:23:12
Speaker
My parents actually have a farm in England and I'm pretty sure my dad would love an electric tractor, so I'll have to see if he's over that.
Innovative Wine Fermentation Techniques
00:23:20
Speaker
We've got one round of
00:23:22
Speaker
attractive as that to be bought which would be diesel and I'm pretty sure that were the last diesel one to acquire I think so I saw something on your Instagram which I found really fascinating and it's the concept of the eggs can you explain that to me how did they work what's their purpose I saw it on someone else's as well and I was like I must find out what that does
00:23:42
Speaker
Eggs are an interesting one because obviously when we make wine we have all sorts of millions of different types of vessels and the most common ones are the oak barrels or stainless steel tanks.
00:23:54
Speaker
Eggs, I would say, you know, evolution of something that's been done for eons in various parts of the world where somewhere like Georgia, for example, they used to use terracotta vessels that were buried underground to make all their wine.
00:24:09
Speaker
and in more recent times the concept of different or alternative vessels has come to people's attention a little bit more.
00:24:19
Speaker
We've been able to actually get our hands on different types of vessels.
00:24:23
Speaker
So from a hamphlet point of view what that meant was we got three different types of eggs.
00:24:27
Speaker
So we got a terracotta egg from Spain, we got a concrete egg from France and we had a ceramic egg which was made here in Australia in Byron Bay.
00:24:37
Speaker
The idea of the egg being that egg or ovoid shape is that when you have a ferment of wine, what starts as grape juice is turning to wine and
00:24:48
Speaker
The sugars in the juice are converted into alcohol through the activity of the yeast, which generates heat.
00:24:53
Speaker
Inside the egg it means you get these currents and the idea is that the egg shape gives you this perfect circulation of liquid and suspends all the solids of which are bits of grape and also parts of the yeast and all those sorts of things so that you get this added complexity through that mixing process and that gives you an apple age and feel and texture.
00:25:15
Speaker
Okay, that's so interesting.
00:25:16
Speaker
Wow, I didn't know that they could do so much too.
00:25:19
Speaker
From the outside, you would have no idea what was going on inside.
00:25:23
Speaker
And we do see that too because what happens is when the furniture is finished and the leaves have died because there's no more food and they settle, they create what we call leaves.
00:25:32
Speaker
And if you leave it to settle over time without moving the leaves in, say, a stainless steel tank or a barrel, it would settle on the very bottom of the container.
00:25:41
Speaker
It's interesting in the eggs, what we find is that
00:25:43
Speaker
That layer, a really fine sort of dust or leaves layer that's on the bottom actually extends quite a long way up the sides so you see that real extra circulation of all those solids.
00:25:54
Speaker
On top of that, the different materials have been quite interesting because you can imagine if you have a piece of concrete, a terracotta tile and a
00:26:04
Speaker
ceramic plate.
00:26:06
Speaker
If you imagine in your mind that you then lick it and use different dusts and flavours and textures, they're quite a different mix of materials.
00:26:15
Speaker
The wine actually does respond quite differently to those materials.
00:26:18
Speaker
So if you take the same wine and put it in each of the three vessels, you get a very different texture and underlying sort of minerality to the wine depending on which wine you put it in.
00:26:28
Speaker
So which wines do you make and which eggs?
00:26:31
Speaker
Well, we do, we play around depending on the season and the different passes and how we think we're going to respond.
00:26:38
Speaker
We are making the Tasmanian Raising in the French Concrete deck, which I think has worked really well.
00:26:43
Speaker
We make a Vermentino, which we put in a mixture of all three.
00:26:49
Speaker
of a nebbiolo rose which we put in a mixture of all three depending on the year and what was going on so it's probably one of those things where i think you respond a little bit to the season and how the fruit is looking and come up with a plan on the back of that so the nebbiolo rose is that the trial batch one because i think i have one right in front of me um it's also one of my favorite rose as well so that's so interesting that it's been made in the egg that's great
00:27:16
Speaker
Not exclusively, but certainly of course it is because we're looking to get those little bits of complexity and nuances in the different ones in different ways.
00:27:25
Speaker
No, it's amazing.
00:27:26
Speaker
And it's so cool to see sort of like different ways being used and different ways being done, like aside from the norm.
00:27:32
Speaker
So yeah, I'm glad I found out what they do now because I was very interested when I saw them.
00:27:38
Speaker
Yeah, they're quite, I mean, in a winemaking sense, and that's where, for the trial batch range particularly, there's a range of wines we put together for Cillador.
00:27:46
Speaker
The idea being, you know, it's a range that winemakers can experiment and do some interesting things, and also the customers who come to Cillador can try these different wines, and we've obviously got our key wines in various ranges, but I think the idea is it's going to give the visitors to Cillador something really interesting and different to have a look at.
00:28:07
Speaker
Oh my god, definitely.
00:28:08
Speaker
So were these eggs, will you have them at the cellar door in Sydney or do you have a cellar door in Mornington Peninsula that people can visit as well?
00:28:17
Speaker
We are open by appointment in Mornington at the winery and that's where the eggs are because that's where we're making those wines and putting them together.
00:28:25
Speaker
We do a range of wines that we send to the cellar door in Sydney and very soon the cellar door in Melbourne once that opens.
00:28:33
Speaker
The idea of that is we try to give people a sense of what's happening in Wiley and that rotates every couple of months.
00:28:39
Speaker
We put something different into the tanks that are in Sydney and the barrels that we're in.
00:28:44
Speaker
So what grape varieties are you currently growing?
00:28:48
Speaker
We've kind of covered that, I think.
00:28:50
Speaker
But what seems to be the most popular, do you reckon?
00:28:53
Speaker
In terms of what we grow and make, Pinot and Chardonnay are definitely a key sort of pillar or foundation of what we do.
00:29:00
Speaker
But we do have lots of different little parcels spread far and wide.
00:29:04
Speaker
So that could be Calinot from the River.
00:29:08
Speaker
It could be Pondon, Bushcremash from the River and Barossa.
00:29:13
Speaker
It could be something new that growing in the vineyards is going to be online in a few years but we've got quite a few little projects on the side that bubble along.
00:29:24
Speaker
So in response to what we're seeing is changes in climate, as an example we've got things like the Spanish bread variety called Mantea which is going to our lower Yarra vineyards at Harbour Hill.
00:29:37
Speaker
So for everyone who isn't in Sydney, I've been to the Cellar Door so many
Creating an Urban Cellar Door Experience
00:29:41
Speaker
times, I love it.
00:29:41
Speaker
It's such a great place to go.
00:29:44
Speaker
But can you tell us a little bit more about the idea behind it?
00:29:47
Speaker
So the idea of the Cellar Door in Chippendale was that because we have wines that are spread across all these different regions, it was harder to open a Cellar Door in one of these places and have it make complete sense to people coming in through the door.
00:30:00
Speaker
You need to lock into a tertiary site in Sydney.
00:30:04
Speaker
and there'd be all these different wines from everywhere else.
00:30:09
Speaker
So that got us to thinking that it might actually make more sense to go somewhere like the city where obviously there's also a really good selection or base in terms of being close to the customers and to try to create that urban sellable.
00:30:25
Speaker
No, definitely.
00:30:26
Speaker
I love going.
00:30:26
Speaker
It's so much fun to try all the different wines and then being able to buy them there as well.
00:30:31
Speaker
It's a great concept.
00:30:32
Speaker
Yeah, and I suppose what we've tried to do is merge a few different elements there.
00:30:37
Speaker
So there's probably the classic sort of door experience where you can just purely taste wines as if you were in a wine region.
00:30:44
Speaker
Then there's also the retail element where it's probably seen through a bottle shop.
00:30:48
Speaker
And then there's for the wine bar side of things, which is more like being able to sit down, enjoy some chickpea tree or cheese and try some different wines with it.
00:30:57
Speaker
So you're also setting one up in Melbourne as well.
00:31:00
Speaker
Congratulations.
00:31:01
Speaker
There's a lot of congratulations in this because you guys are killing it.
00:31:04
Speaker
Will it be the same as the one in Sydney or will there be any differences?
00:31:07
Speaker
The concept's going to be pretty similar to what we've done in Sydney in a sense in terms of those combination of scale door, retail and wine bars and spaces.
00:31:18
Speaker
We will do little bits and pieces differently.
00:31:20
Speaker
There'll be a laneway near the Conn Street, so right in the heart of Melbourne's CBD.
00:31:27
Speaker
And the idea there is I suppose we're also going to be making it a little bit more accessible in terms of like meals that say breakfast or brunch or lunch.
00:31:35
Speaker
And the thing in Melbourne, we'll also have a coffee machine.
00:31:39
Speaker
In concept, there will be a lot very similar.
00:31:42
Speaker
Okay, perfect.
00:31:43
Speaker
But there'll be more of like that cafe, I guess, sort of element.
00:31:46
Speaker
There'll be some elements of that for sure, yeah.
00:31:48
Speaker
We've also been able to learn a few things from the site in Sydney.
00:31:51
Speaker
There will also be some areas which are more like art and space, you know, where it's like how to be using the heartland.
00:31:58
Speaker
There's a lot of businesses and elements like that that will be looking for spaces they could use to hold events or meetings of the rest during the course of the day.
00:32:08
Speaker
And who doesn't want to have a meeting at a cellar door in the city?
00:32:11
Speaker
I mean, that sounds perfect.
00:32:14
Speaker
Exactly.
00:32:15
Speaker
What wines are you drinking right now?
00:32:17
Speaker
It doesn't have to be from handpicked, but if you want it to be from handpicked, that's fine too.
00:32:22
Speaker
In a general sense, we're coming off the back of the heights of summer.
00:32:27
Speaker
For me, that holiday period always involves a fair bit of beach time and whatnot.
00:32:34
Speaker
That tends to swing towards some nice reasons.
00:32:36
Speaker
So, recent ones we've enjoyed, we've had some of the Parcel Rock reasons from Prongarups in West Australia.
00:32:42
Speaker
We've just launched our Tasmanian reason in the trial batch range.
00:32:47
Speaker
But really in Australia, there's a sport for choice, so we've probably tried a whole bunch of different ones.
00:32:52
Speaker
A recent one was the Adelina from the Clear Valley.
00:32:56
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of good ones to choose from that go really well with some of the meals.
00:33:02
Speaker
Just going to go slightly off topic, but can you describe for me or explain to me what the trial batch is for people that haven't seen it or haven't tried any of the trial batch range?
00:33:13
Speaker
So trial batch we started, we were aware that we had really loyal and regular customers coming through Semedoor and they obviously were coming back because they were loving the ones that we had.
00:33:24
Speaker
The concept of trial batch initially started because we thought we'd give people
00:33:28
Speaker
like those regular customers who are coming a couple of nights a week.
00:33:32
Speaker
Something really small parcel, a little bit experimental and really interesting in terms of some newer lines that might sit slightly differently to the core of what we were doing or
00:33:45
Speaker
Maybe we were also a little bit of an experiment on the winemakers part.
00:33:48
Speaker
So that's where the concept of trial batch was born.
00:33:51
Speaker
The cases have been really successful.
00:33:53
Speaker
So the trial batch Nebiana Rosé actually was super successful and that made us rethink how we were making rosé in the Arrow Valley.
00:34:01
Speaker
What is your favourite food and wine pairing at the moment?
00:34:27
Speaker
I think off the back of this summer was a beautiful balmy summer evening where I had one of our Maintain collection chardonnays.
00:34:35
Speaker
We had family around sitting out on the lawn around the barbecue and I actually had jointed and boiled just on some charcoal, a rabbit.
00:34:45
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:34:46
Speaker
Just with a pepper and salt and a sweet and lemon once it was cooked.
00:34:50
Speaker
I thought that for me was pretty heavenly.
00:34:53
Speaker
So coming around to the last question.
00:34:55
Speaker
This one's probably quite a hard one because it's like choosing between children.
00:35:00
Speaker
But from the handpicked wine collection, which would you take to a dinner party, a barbecue and save for a rainy day?
00:35:07
Speaker
Always a tricky question.
00:35:09
Speaker
From a different point of view, I think because of what you said earlier about Chardonnay, where people can have such diverse tastes and often say they don't like Chardonnay, I would take one that was a bit different to try to convince people that can be so enjoyable.
00:35:25
Speaker
So I would take the 19 collection Tasmanian Chardonnay to dinner.
00:35:30
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:35:31
Speaker
To a barbecue, I think, you know, we'd be doing a nice summer afternoon in the sun, not wanting something too rich and heavy, and something that's going to be, you know, put a gun into a few glasses with brains.
00:35:45
Speaker
I would choose the trial match, you know, the bottle.
00:35:47
Speaker
I'd be a lighter style of bread, lighter alcohol, quite coffee beer.
00:35:52
Speaker
And then a wine for the seller and safer Wednesday.
00:35:55
Speaker
I would probably go to one of our flagships, which would be
00:36:04
Speaker
Perfect.
00:36:07
Speaker
I feel like this question is so good for people who, when they're going to dinner parties or barbecues and they don't know what to take, it's great for them to hear what other people's and the professionals are taking and then sort of like go off that a little bit.
00:36:18
Speaker
Definitely.
00:36:20
Speaker
Sure.
Closing Remarks and Encouragement
00:36:21
Speaker
Thank you so much for joining me.
00:36:23
Speaker
I can't wait to taste all of the wines.
00:36:24
Speaker
I'm definitely going to try the Chardonnay.
00:36:26
Speaker
But I hope you have a lovely rest of your week.
00:36:29
Speaker
And thank you again.
00:36:29
Speaker
It's been great.
00:36:31
Speaker
Thanks, Harris.
00:36:32
Speaker
That was wonderful to talk.
00:36:33
Speaker
And I hope you enjoy the wines when you get to try them.
00:36:35
Speaker
I will do.
00:36:36
Speaker
Thank you so much.
00:36:37
Speaker
Cheers.
00:36:38
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening.
00:36:40
Speaker
Please rate, review, subscribe and share with your friends.
00:36:43
Speaker
I'll see you next week for another closer look into the wine industry.
00:36:47
Speaker
Now go and grab that glass of wine.
00:36:49
Speaker
You deserve it.
00:37:18
Speaker
you