The vines in the Hunter Valley are now in full swing.  Lot’s of new shoots have brought some colour back to the vineyard.  We can now see embryo bunches on most varietals.  Let’s hope this wild weather settles as the vines enter their flowering stage.

‘Good wine praises itself’

The feature Hunter Valley wine this month is the 2010 Ernest HillShareholders Shiraz.  I love visiting this boutique producer.  Everything is great: the wine, the people, the ambience.
At the 2011 Hunter Valley Wine Show, the 2010 Shareholders Shiraz took the trophy for ‘One year old dry red’.  This medium bodied wine is showing mulberry and blackberry characters and a hint of pepper spice.  Maturation in a combination of old and new French and American oak barrels has further enriched the wine displaying soft tannins and a lingering finish.
Short to medium cellaring.

Ingredients  -  Serves 4

16 green prawns
12 fresh black mussels
16 fresh cockles
3 fresh squid
1 chorizo sausage
250g short grain rice
1ltr of chicken stock
200g smoked cured pork
1 Spanish onion
1 small red capsicum
2 cloves garlic
pinch of good saffron strands
salt & pepper to taste

Method:

Clean squid and slice into rings, peel prawns and devein, wash cockles and debeard mussels. In a medium paella pan or medium frying pan sauté the dice onion and crushed garlic on a medium heat. Add capsicum, chorizo, pork and sauté for another 5 minutes then add your rice, saffron and add ¼ of chicken stock. Keep adding the remaining stock and all the seafood until rice has absorbed all of the chicken stock. Season to taste and serve.

Curiosity got the better of me and on the return home I stopped by my local fish shop, Darren’s Seafood, to buy some octopus.  Unfortunately they had sold out but to my surprise when I mentioned the recipe with the wine corks, Darren said he had heard this method from numerous people.  He said he would have more octopus in tomorrow.  That night I ‘Googled’ for recipes and more information about this recipe, hoping for an scientific explanation.  There seamed to be a 50% split belief on whether this is truth or myth.

The following evening I boiled half a kilogram of octopus with a few wine corks and half a kilogram without.  After 25 minutes of boiling with lids on the saucepans I turned off the gas and let the pots gradually cool down.  A few hours later, I removed the octopus and added them to separate bowls of marinate – a little soy sauce, garlic and chilli.  The following evening both batches were cooked on the same hot plate at the same time for about 10 minutes.

The different batches were then place in front of a few friends.  I asked everyone to decide which batch was better.  The consensus was that both batches tasted the same – very tender.

The questions now are:  Was it the octopus recipe that made it so tender?  And do I need to try a different recipe where the octopus would normally end up tough to see if the wine corks makes a difference?

The tour includes a Champagne breakfast at Cuvee Restaurant, two course lunch at Margan Restaurant, and private tastings as some of the best producers in the Hunter Valley.

Classic Hunter Semillon

This particular style of wine comprises the largest percentage of wine in my cellar.  It is a unique style of wine. Due to the climate, Hunter semillon develops flavour earlier than normal. These grapes are generally picked around late January with good natural acid and relatively low sugar levels.  The end result is a delicate crisp dry wine with citrus like characters and a long finish.

One of the amazing properties of Hunter semillon is it’s ability to age (mature in the bottle).  It is not uncommon for these wines to develop for 10+ years. From about five years of bottle age, there is a notable increase in colour. The very pale, almost water like colour, becomes much more golden.  The delicate citrus characters are still evident along with buttered toast, nutty and honey flavours. It is a wine that has had no contact with oak, however takes on some qualities of wines that have.

Notes on drinking Hunter semillon:  Enjoy the young wines (1 to 3 years) chilled with prawns or oysters. Try pouring a splash of semillon in the oyster shell before eating. If you’re not a seafood lover, try this type of wine with salads, summer rolls or other delicate food.
I prefer my aged Hunter semillon a little warmer around (10 – 12 degrees Celsius). It can be enjoyed on its own but it will pair well with richer white meat dishes.
Hunter semillon can hit peaks and troughs as it ages, particularly between 3 and 5 years of age. At this stage in its life, it is not either a young refreshing wine nor an ageing complex wine.  Somewhere lost in between.

Sparkling Semillon

There are many producers in the Hunter region that make sparkling semillon. These wines can be made using traditional methods (ie. methode champenoise), secondary tank ferments or injecting CO2.  You can find straight sparkling semillon like Bimadgen’s or blended sparkling wines such as Tulloch Cuvee (semillon chardonnay) or Peterson House semillon pinot noir. There are also companies, such as First Creek, making spritzy semi sweet semillon following the Italian stlye of moscato.

Semi Sweet

Gundog Estate’s wine maker, Matt Burton, makes a semi sweet semillon by arresting the fermenting wine.  This traps natural sugar in the wine and keeps the alcohol percentage lower.  This popular and innovative style follows the SLA (Semillon Low Alcohol) success he made for Wandin Valley Estate.

Dessert Wines

There are two main types of dessert wines made from semillon found in the Hunter Valley, botrytis and freeze concentrated.

Botrytis semillon, is made in the style of a French Sauterne.  This wine relies on a mould called botrytis cinerea that grows on the grapes and draws out the moisture concentrating the juice and sugars.

Freeze concentrated semillon is made in a similar style to ice wine.  The sugar level is increased by freezing the juice and extracting the water component in the form of ice.  The extra sweet juice is then fermented to around 10% alcohol with high levels of natural sugar remaining.

Fortified/Liqueur  Semillon

Some producers such as Vinden Estate or Tintilla Estate have made ‘white Port’ wines from semillon.  The partially fermented juice has been fortified with a spirit such as brandy to about 18% alcohol.  The high alcoholic environment stops fermentation leaving natural sugar in the wine.  Some of these wines can then be aged in old barrels to mature and soften the alcohol.

For those of you that don’t know, diVine tours specialise in premium, small group Hunter Valley wine tours.  Our wine tours operate 7 days a week and are available for individuals, couples or group bookings. We offer complimentary pick up from your accommodation or place of residence within the local area.

For more information on diVine Tours, check out our Tours page. If you have any questions, please get in touch with us.

Thanks!

Roy