Thursday, September 3, 2009

Country Mix 106.8fm WineSpot Organic Wines 2nd September 2009




We covered organic wines in our latest tasting.
Organic wines are essentially wines made in the traditional / natural way without the use of chemicals, weedkillers, pesticides etc.. in the vineyard. We’re seeing more and more Certified Organic wines on the market and just as there is interest in organic meat and fruit and vegetables so too with wine. It’s slightly confusing with wine however, since some producers work organically, but don’t have the Organic Certification on their labels.
If you want to try a “guaranteed” organic wine look for one with the Organic Cert on the label (just to confuse things even more, there are different Certification Bodies in different countries eg. AB, Ecocert, Demeter ) Feel free to ask your friendly neighbourhood wine merchant to advise on other wines where the winemakers “work organically”.

The two wines we tried today are from a Certified Organic Winery run by the Kalleske family in Barossa Valley, Australia.
The more I read about Barossa the more I like what I find out..its one of the oldest vineyards in Australia and they have some seriously old vines from the 1800’s, still producing grapes to make great wine! There’s a Prussian heritage in Barossa, hence the slightly Germanic sounding family names like Kalleske, Schutz or Henshke. There’s a great tradition in Barossa of family-run wineries which go back many generations.
Barossa wines we stock at Nectar Wines include Kalleske, Schutz Red Nectar and Langmeil. If you’re a fan of Shiraz, Grenache or Cabernet it’s a really happy hunting ground. The wines are not particularly cheap but boy are they good.

Kalleske “Clarrys” White 2007 RRP 19.95
A tasty blend of Chenin Blanc and Semillon named in honour of Clarence (Clarry..) Kalleske, the grandfather of winemaker Troy Kalleske, who is still working away in the vineyards at 89 years of age! A lovely, fruity and smooth drop..it reminds me of limes mostly..its very easy to drink and really refreshing.

Kalleske “Clarrys” Red 2007 RRP 19.95
This is a Grenache/Shiraz blend based on classic Cotes du Rhone (one of my absolute favourites as it happens..I was weaned onto wine in France by drinking good Cotes du Rhone!) Fairly full-on this wine has bags and bags of flavour and aroma. A friend of mine described it as “liquid velvet” and I think that just about sums it up. Really smooth, with a finish that lingers on and on, you could literally drink this all night.

This was voted Red Wine of the Year by our WineClub members, so it has its fans.

If you’d like to join our WineClub and get involved in our tastings just send me an email to john@nectarwines.com

You can find all the details on Kalleske wines on their website http://www.kalleske.com/
You can listen to my weekly winespot every Wednesday morning between 10 and 11am on Country Mix 106.8fm.

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