Magic Mike - Magical Cab

We'd completely intended to take in Magic Mike - the recent movie about male strippers - while it was still playing in the theatres.  Some movies just require that you take advantage of the big screen action. We never did see the movie in the theatres, even though we tried one night.  Turned out that the theatre had already sold out by the time we arrived.

Our miss at the big screen just meant that we got a more intimate showing at home when it came out on DVD.  The screen might not have been as big but watching it at home did mean that we could drink throughout the show - something that never would have happened in the theatre.

1284.  2004 Skillogalee - Trevarrick Single Contour Cabernet Sauvignon (Clare Valley - Australia)

We were expecting big things out the movie (pun intended); so, I grabbed a big Aussie that I figured would go with our lamb chops.  I just have a natural tendency to gravitate to Aussie wines whenever lamb is on the table and this bottle certainly lived up to expectations.  Indeed, I think it even outdid them.

This is one of those bottles that I must have picked up some time ago and then forgot the details about how, when, why or where.  Something tells me that I must have tried it at some tasting or another because it looks like it sells in the $60+ range.  Despite Boo's protestations that I buy way more wine than we need, I can honestly say that I don't lightly buy $60 bottles of wine - especially just to forget about them.

With the provenance of the bottle being hazy, I figured I needed to try and discover a little bit about it.  Skillogalee was established in 1970 in the Clare Valley - one valley beyond the Barossa and North of Adelaide.  With production still limited to approximately 15,000 cases, it's interesting that the winery is even marketed in Vancouver.

I'm glad it was (is?).  This was one extremely expressive Cab - quite reminiscent of the big, fruit forward reds coming out of Australia in the previous decade.  If the wine wasn't labelled as coming from the Clare Valley, I'd have guessed that it was from the Barossa.  I can't claim to know my way around the Clare much, but I generally hear and expect that Clare Valley wines are more restrained as the Clare is a touch more on the cool side than the Barossa is.  I usually think Riesling first when I hear of the Clare.  Riesling is more of a cool climate grape and, for that reason, I would have expected a Clare Cab to be more akin to a BC or French Cab.

The fact that the label says that the Cab vines struggle mightily in the vineyard and harvest is limited to about one ton per acre.  That certainly helps explain the exaggerated profile. I'm not going to hold that change in perception from a Clare Valley wine against this Trevarrick though. The load of dark fruit is pretty much what attracted me to Aussie wines in the first place and it would appear that this wine pleased a number of other folks as well.  The label sported five little gold medals on it and James Halliday - one of Australia's best known wine writers - awarded the wine 95 points.

Too bad I don't have another bottle laying around.  Surprises like this, I like.  And, it seemed to suit the brashness of Magic Mike.

With all the movies coming out in 3-D nowadays, I would have thought it a no-brainer to do up a movie about male strippers in that format.  I'm not so sure that it would have saved the movie but, if nothing else, it would have given the audience a little more something to grab onto.  Indeed, it could have given a whole new meaning to "two thumbs up."

Movie aside, I'm happy to say that the wine was a four-star production.  Two Thumbs up.  Way up.

Mitchell - A New Take on GSM

One of the last things I need, having just recently returned from the annual BC Wine Appreciation Society Bus Tour, is a wine tasting. Notice of an impromptu opportunity to meet with the proprietors of Mitchell winery in the Clare Valley proved a little too tempting though. Attendance was limited to a dozen people and it was being held at Everything Wine. AWAS had never met at this location before and I knew nothing about Mitchell.

Jane and Andrew Mitchell established the boutique winery in 1975 and pre-eminent Aussie wine writer, James Halliday, calls them "one of the stalwarts of the Clare Valley." Mr. and Mrs. met with us and recounted many intriguing stories about their experiences and about winemaking in the Clare Valley. Plus, they walked us through four of their wines that are now being offered in the Vancouver market.

The Clare Valley is a narrow, 40 kilometer valley located a couple of hours North of Adelaide. It's home to more than 40 wineries and is probably best known for dry, crisp Rieslings. Mitchell definitely has its Riesling; however, they complete their limited production with plantings of Semillon, Shiraz, Merlot, Grenache and Cab Sauv. Mitchell's vineyards are totally organic or biodynamic and are in the process of being certified. The grapes are all dry-grown and, therefore, vine yields are low. Jane was particularly happy to announce that it's taken six years; however, the vineyard soils are now laden with worms. As the group continued to talk about the idiosyncracies of biodynamics, Jane confessed that when she started life as a winery owner, she never envisioned spending a good part of her Sunday's "shovelling cowshit to make compost sprays."

It's no mistake that Jane heads up the marketing and brand promotion aspects of the winery. She can weave a story with the best of them.

Everything Wine's delivery schedule hadn't worked out as planned. So, there was a limited selection of wines available for purchase (probably a good thing for both Boo and I), but I did grab a couple of bottles and thought I better let Boo try one right away so that he wouldn't be too upset with me having picked up the bottles that I did.

935. 2007 Mitchell GSM (Clare Valley - Australia)

GSM wines are well-known as Aussie Rhone-like blends of Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvèdre and they're chock-a-block in South Australia. The "S" in Mitchell's GSM doesn't stand for Shiraz, however. Rather, it's an "S" as in Sangiovese. Before, the Mitchells started producing this GSM, they had only made a straight Grenache varietal. When they decided to try a blend, they found that the Shiraz overwhelmed the softness that was their cooler climate Grenache. So, they experimented with a small percentage of Sangiovese with the Mourvèdre.

Like Jane, I found it to be enjoyably soft with a bit of spice to it. Jane says that she even chills it and serves it like a Rosé during the hot summers. As opposed to the bigger Barossa GSM's, she finds it to be more Spanish in its taste. They are continually told that people say that this isn't a wine that they'd expect to come from Australia.

Production of all their wines is limited. They might be able to totally max out at 25,000 cases; however, it's more usual to see a vintage of 12,000 cases. With 70% of Mitchell's output staying behind in Oz, it doesn't leave an awful lot of wine to make its way around the world. I'm glad to see that Vancouver is now going to be getting a share. I look forward to trying the couple varietal wines that I was able to grab as well.

An Australia Day Conundrum

We had nothing but gorgeous sun on this Australia Day - despite the fact that we're really still in the middle of winter. Granted there were no Aussies in sight of our Vancouver household but that doesn't stop us from flying an Aussie flag and opening a bottle of wine from Down Under to celebrate. There may not have been any footy on the TV and no Merlot Boy not to drink Merlot with, but Boo and I had a nice long toast to our friends and all things Antipodean just for the heck of it.

I grabbed a bottle of wine that's been in the wine rack for some time now and, to be honest, I have no idea how we came about it and it's not a wine that we've had before. I can't recall whether I ran across it at a tasting or at the Playhouse Wine Festival or I grabbed it just because I saw it in a bottle shop and didn't recognize it at all.

Even after having finished it off in quick order, I don't know much more than when I started - except that both Boo and I quite enjoyed it.

713. 2002 Barletta Shiraz (Clare Valley - Australia)

I generally start most of my internet searches for Australian wines on James Halliday's website Australian Wine Companion. I didn't see any mention of Barletta on the site. I didn't do a whole lot better just doing a regular search either. I'm not so sure that the winery still exists. I did find a reference to brothers Ben and Mario Barletta who are Adelaide retailers and there are references to wines from the early 2000's that were being produced occasionally as boutique winery affair in the Clare Valley. From what little I saw, however, it appeared to be more of a garagiste operation - where they purchased grapes and made the wine with the assistance of another winery.

That assistance appeared to be in the form of a relationship with winemaker Neil Pike who operates Pikes with his brother Andrew. It looks like there is still a partnership happening between the two sets of brothers in the form of the small Gaelic Cemetery Wines. The operation is limited to a single vineyard and to the production of approximately 500 cases of a premium Shiraz.

I don't know if this Barletta Shiraz is the pre-cursor of Gaelic Cemetery but I'd sure like to find some more or something just like it. The wine harkened back to the big, full bodied Shiraz wines that are dark, concentrated and fruit forward that helped make Australia's advance into the world's wine markets. There's no mistaking this for a "critter wine" though. Since I don't remember where we got it from, I rather doubt that it goes for the price of a critter wine either.

It looks like I might never know though. However, if this is the only bottle of Barletta I'm ever going to run across, I'm glad we did and that it made it to The List.