While our focus is on Canberra wine tours, we don’t want to limit ourselves to just drinking Canberra wine (as good as it is!) and tonight’s wine is from the southern part of the Yarra Valley in Victoria which is the higher bit of the valley.
Hoddles Creek have been operating since the late 90s. The farm has been in family hands for ages now and Franco is the Viticulturist and Winemaker. He’s doing a good job as far as I’m concerned.
Hoddles Creek speak about their ‘minimalistic approach’ and when I first read this I thought how wineries just have to set themselves aside now days to compete – organic, biodynamic etc. Hoddles Creek add no acid to their juice, the grapes are de-stemmed and not crushed (gravity does the work) and all wine has a percentage of oak added.
I`m glad it`s only a small percentage because I remember those bad ‘ole days when our Aussie Chardonnay was battered as they were oaked to the max and tasted like you were eating wood chips. At least that`s what anyone North of the equator say. Now days, our Chardonnays in my humble opinion, more than compete with Californian Chardonnay and the Frenchies. Don`t knock me, just my opinion as I say.
Drinky time – I get lime and pear. The pear can indicate cold fermentation. These are the two dominant notes on the old nose. After coating my mouth, I get bags of flavour, medium level of natural acidity. Subtle oak. Elle says she gets `lime tart` and a texture on the mouth like custard. Nice and creamy!
We`ve just eaten some fresh prawns and Elle is making a nice Mediterranean style salad and some calamari and crumbed fish. I paid about $20 for this wine at Urban Cellars at Curtin Shops. God I love wine!
Suits.
