We've heard plenty of names and descriptions applied to wines good and bad over the years – some nice and some not so nice (and, yes, some just plain rude) – but never before have we had a winery tell us about a wine they call their “dyslexic,” and what’s more, do so with something of enthusiasm.
But that’s the moniker given by Chief Winemaker at Briar Ridge in the Hunter Valley, Gwyn Olsen and her team to a drop officially labelled The Briar 2014 Vineyard Blend. While made from fruit from one vineyard, rather than being a single variety, that vineyard had somehow been wrongly planted with a collection of “odds and ends” because of what Gwyn calls a “misunderstanding in communications.”
This “dyslexic lot” included Semillon, Verdelho, Chardonnay, Vermentino and Sauvignon Blanc, leaving no choice other than to pick everything at the one time, and to process their fruit together and independently of other blocks. The surprising result is an enjoyably rewarding drop that Gwyn says “is a showpiece for the vineyard and for the Mt View area” (where Briar Ridge’s vineyard are located.)
Crisp, citrus-fresh and savoury, relish it at $28 with prawns off the barbie.
Watch this one: Long have we held that you don’t need a special occasion to enjoy a good bubbly, and one fizzy red for anytime dining, or simply on its own for that enjoyment, is Chandon’s Pinot Noir Shiraz.
Fruit for this came from diverse cool climate Victorian vineyards, the 70% Pinot Noir from several in Green Point in the Yarra Valley and Strathbogie, and the 30% Shiraz from Heathcote, the Yarra Valley and the Pyrenees.
