It seems like a long time since I last wrote a lot of water under the bridge.

RIP Gilbert Norman Ahrens, my dad passed away peacefully in his sleep following a 2 ½ year battle with metastatic melanoma. Looking back on my writings I have often talked about my influences in the wine industry but not often mentioned Gilbert. As an inspiration and teacher he was without peer, especially when it came to his piece of dirt Vine Vale. The way I farm today is a natural extension of his vision and enquiry across a lifetime of viticulture. One day we will name a wine for him but just now we have been celebrating a life lived well and missing him dreadfully.

To brighter things, you heard it here first. We are really hoping to poke our heads above the parapet this year with our 2012 release of Joven.  A stonking blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha, Monastrell, Carinena, Bastardo, Tinta Amerillia, Black Frontinac. Made and bottled with no added SO2 this is as cutting edge a wine as any I have made. To mark the launch 29th August 2012 at 6pm EST we are having a live webcast via the www.barossahq.com website. There will be a live forum for everyone to get involved and we will supply tasting stock to participating tastings across the country. At this stage we have participating venues in most of the capitals, Sydney Fix St James in the city (also holding a wine dinner focussing on back vintages of Joven and other Spanish style wines) and Delicado on the north side of the bridge in Blues Point, Brisbane is Bar Barossa and the Purple Palate bottle shops, Darwin is Parap Fine Foods, Perth is El Publico, Adelaide is Uni of SA campus focus group, Melbourne is yet to be announced but we are in discussion with Cloudwine  Cellars. The concept is that we will have tasting stock in these venues and people can visit and log on to taste with me live in our cellar door to launch the wine. As mailing list members of smallfry we would like to offer you the opportunity to host your own tasting venue in your home or workplace. If you can let us know we will send you a tasting sample of the wine so you can share the experience with your friends and workmates (or hog the whole bottle to yourself and test the theory that nil SO2 wines don’t give you hangovers). Please send an email to register as an official venue.

 

World domination continues apace as smallfry are set to colonise the “IT” country this year the UK. First the Queen’s Jubilee, then the Olympics and now this, your cup does truly overfloweth. Please talk to Milton Sandalford about getting your damp mitts on some pretty smart wines. They have ordered 2009 BV Shiraz, 2010 EV Cabernet, 2011 Barossa Riesling and 2011 Barossa Valley Semillon.

Neil, Chris and Co. were in cellar door for their annual visit the other day and lamenting the demise of the hand written label. For those of you that missed out I should explain that in the old days I was prone to tasting yet to be released wines in cellar door that (when people chose to purchase) I was obliged to sign and label with a white pen. As a special this month I will include a bottle each of 2010 vintage port (scheduled to be GNA as above) and 2012 not so sticky Riesling  dessert wine each labelled the old fashioned way as a gift with any case purchase of current release wines.

For more of my ramblings take a look at this great blog. Dedicated to wineries that are working at being earth friendly it is really well put together and interesting. http://earthwine.wordpress.com/

Current release wines are;

2012 EV Riesling,

2011 BV Riesling, Semillon $18, Joven $20

2006 EV Riesling aged release $25

2009 EV Red Blend $28

2010 EV Cabernet $28

2008 BV Shiraz $32 (from museum stock as we have sold out of 09 and are waiting for 2010)

Our wine club is a great way to keep your cellar stocked with smallfry at very keen prices as well as getting hold of museum wines and some small batch stuff that doesn’t necessarily see the light of day. You can sign up for 6 or 12 pack deliveries on a quarterly, 6 monthly or annual basis, straight or mixed, whatever suits you. As an incentive to join up this month we will increase your first delivery by an extra bottle if a 6 pack and an extra 2 bottles if 12 pack on top of our already keen prices.

Cheers

Wayne