Hundreds of wines under one roof

In the weekend of 24-26 February the Cellar Door Wine Festival took place in Adelaide and as announced here the Drover and I went to have a look around, together with his parents. I was really curious to get an idea about all those South Australian wines and to see what good products there would be for taste and sale on the Regional Farmers Market. We had a lovely day out and certainly enjoyed a wine tasting or two... Or maybe... alright, a few more than that!

The location of the Cellar Door Wine Festival is absolutely beautiful. The event took place in the Adelaide Convention Centre that is situated along the River Torrens that crosses the city. When you enter the building you have a great view of the river, the park around it and the city centre. Che bello! At the entrance we received a Riedel wine glass to use for all the tastings, and to take back home afterwards - yeay, a little gift! The venue was divided into areas representing the various South Australian wine regions, being the Adelaide Hills, Barossa Valley, Eden Valley, LimeStone Coast, Clare Valley, Coonawarra, Padthaway, Kangaroo Island, Langhorne Creek, McLaren Vale, the Riverland and Southern Fleurieu. Jep, that is a fair bit of wine regions to explore in one day, especially because they together made up for more than 150 wineries! Of course this was way to much so the Drover made a selection in advance (since he is much more into wine than I am) to make sure we would taste some things a bit different and special.

Last year I gave the Drover the book 'The Future Winemakers' of Australian wine connoisseur and wine writer Max Allen. In this books Allen focuses on the impact of climate change on the Australian wine industry and how winemakers could or should be prepared for a warmer climate and more extreme weather conditions in the next years to come. He strongly believes in the good results of organic and biodynamic wine production and presents many a winemaker in Australia that is already working in this specific field, or towards more organic practices. The Drover is studying Max Allen's book and very clearly is inspired by the small scale wine producers that choose for more environmentally friendly ways of wine making. So he checked the book, looked at the list of wineries at the Cellar Door Festival and made an interesting selection of wine producers to explore (not all mentioned in Max Allen's book though):

• Casa Freschi, Langhorne Creek/Adelaide Hills
• Paracombe, Adelaide Hills
• Penfolds, Barossa Valley
• Bremerton Wines, Langhorne Creek
• Cape Jaffa Wines, Limestone Coast
• Redden Bridge Wines, Limestone Coast
• Battle of Bosworth, McLaren Vale
• Zema Estate, Coonawarra
• 919 Wines, Riverland
• ShowBlock Estate Wines, Southern Fleurieu

What a lot of these wineries have in common is that they grow their grapes organically or that they aim for as little interference in the vines as possible. They choose to let the nature and the wines speak for themselves. What I noticed is that various winemakers told full of passion about their wine production process and their natural wine making approach, but consciously made the choice not to get certification for organic or biodynamic practices. The reason that these small scale wine producers choose for their organically or ecologically crafted wines without certification or labeling is because the paperwork involved is way to much to be practical for small family wine makers. And that is a separate story from the costs involved.

Since I am not an expert (yet?) when it comes to wine and I just mostly like to enjoy a good glass of wine for an aperitivo or with dinner, I will not try to pretend here that I can analyze the wines that I have tasted and give recommendations for your next bottle of wine to choose. If you like this kind of advice you are much better of with the Drover who has a nose and a great memory for wine. But I do have a view things that I would like to share with you, that I tasted, noticed and observed at the Cellar Door Wine Festival. Here we go:

• Winemaker David Freschi is the most friendly, passionate and reserved (in a good way) wine maker that I came across at the event. He has a great philosophy of letting his grapes struggle a bit by planting many vines per hectare and by growing them on locations that are not the easiest to begin with. I absolutely loved his Signora, a Nebbiolo (memories of Piemonte!) that he grows in Langhorne Creek and his Signorina, a blend of riesling, gewurztraminer, chardonnay and pinot grigio, coming from the Adelaide Hills. But his lighter Ragazzi Nebbiolo and his more complex Profondo, made from the older cabarnet and shiraz vines, were really beautiful wines too.
• When I stuck my nose into my glass to smell the red wines that we tasted from Paracombe Wines I all of a sudden had a moment that I thought I could do wine analyzing too... I was convinced that I could smell licorice in the Malbec, that the winemakers themselves described as a 'bouquet of violet flowers and plums that lead to a palate of rich, dark cherries, earthy notes and cinnamon spice.' Right. Oh well, I thought it was good and hey, some licorice contains some cinnamon too, so maybe I was not too far off after all...
• I was not so impressed with the different Shiraz' of Penfolds that we tasted that day. Penfolds is a very big wine house with their wines for sale all over the world and with one very famous wine in particular, the Grange. Of course the best of the best was not available for tasting (would cost many dollars for a small tasting anyway), but the selection of wines that they did bring along did not impress me as much as some of the wines I tasted from the small family owned producers. Is this because I have not developed a taste for the big Shiraz wines that are so popular around here?
• What do you think of when you hear the name Regional Farmers Market? I think of a farmers market, you know, a place where different farmers come together to show, promote and sell their products. My definition for a farmers market is already a bit broader these days, because a lot of farmers markets here contain many stalls with value added products from small producers, which I think is a great thing to see. Anyway, what I do not think of when I hear about a Regional Farmers Market is that this is a buffet style cafe, where you can pick sandwiches, salads, cakes and drinks. That is what the Farmers Market at the Cellar Door Wine Festival was, and that was a little bit disappointing. Luckily there was another corner of the venue where you could actually find some regional products and local shops, like the Smelly Cheese Shop (with many French cheeses!), Bracegirdle's House of Fine Chocolate (sooo good!), Biodynamic Farm Paris Creek (with their dairy products), the Spice Girlz of McLaren Vale and Barossa Fine Foods.
• In the area about Kangaroo Island there was a stall representing the Kangaroo Island Farmers Market. A lady of the market was really happy when we had a chat and talked about living in Italy. She is making plans to go on a trip and could not get enough information about where to go and what to see. In return she told us everything about life on Kangaroo Island (KI), what the Drover and I have been curious about for a while now. All this was combined with a tasting of the beautiful honey's of the last pure strain Ligurian bees in the world. These bees were introduced to the island in 1880 and since 1885 the island has been a sanctuary of the ligurian bee, making it the oldest sanctuary. That alone is a reason to visit KI at some point. Yummie! Oh, and they make quite a few good wines there as well of course.
• The Varietal View turned out to be a bit disappointing. According to the website and the 'passport to excellence' that we received at the entrance, there would be wine experts to tell more about the wines for taste. Each hour there would be a specific variety, but at other moments it would be possible to taste all the different wine styles as well. It turned out to be a bar with all the wines and wine styles put next to each other, and some young girls without wine knowledge poured anything you were interested in. For more information you were being redirected to the winemakers in their stalls. What I thought sounded so good about it was the idea that you could compare various wines from the same style and with help of a wine expert learn more about it. Oh well, the girls were very sweet and friendly and tried really hard to have their biggest smile all day long! But hopefully this will be done differently next time.

The Cellar Door Wine Festival was a great day out and is absolutely a good opportunity to get an idea of different South Australian wine styles, wineries and wine producers all under one roof. Without having to take the car and drive from one cellar door to the other, you can talk with the producers and taste their wines, and if you are really getting excited buy a bottle or two as well. I would definitely make sure that I will be attending the third edition of this great and young event next year again.