French take note of au naturel process
Newcastle Herald
Wednesday March 30, 2011
KRINKLEWOOD'S reputation as one of Australia's best exponents of fully certified biodynamic viticulture attracted a visit this month to the Broke vineyard by French biodynamic winemaker Pascal Lambert.Pascal and another leading French biodynamic winemaker, and France's first Master of Wine, Nicolas Joly, are visiting Australia as part of a world tour that includes the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.Krinklewood's proprietor Rod Windrim began implementing biodynamics in 2002 after he visited France's Loire Valley in 2001 and read a book called Wine From the Sky, written by Nicolas Joly.Today Rod is a passionate advocate of biodynamics and Krinklewood hosts regular visits from TAFE colleges, secondary schools, sommelier and wine associations and gardening groups.It also runs an annual biodynamics workshop, the 2011 event being scheduled for Saturday, May 28.No chemical sprays or herbicides are used on the 19-hectare vineyard. Instead Rod and his wife Suzanne rely on sprays applied according to the alignment of the moon. The sprays are made from material produced from manure buried in cow horns.Rod said that Pascal Lambert's visit not only involved a face-to-face exchange of knowledge and experience but also paved the way for future dialogue."A lot of time was spent reviewing our composting techniques," Rod said. "It's grown to a massive scale at Krinklewood where we produce tonnes of compost continually throughout the year."It's such an important part of biodynamics and a lot of my energy is focused on this. Originally I just had cattle and chickens for their manure but now I also have sheep, ducks, geese and pigs."Pascal Lambert invited Rod Windrim and his vineyard manager Julian Richards to join him for this year's vintage at Domaine des Chesnaies in the Loire Valley.Krinklewood wines are available at the 712 Wollombi Road, Broke, cellar door and at krinklewood.com.Italy comes to BrokeAS part of the Little Bit of Italy in Broke festival, Wendy and Bill Lawson's Catherine Vale vineyard has some fun events planned for Saturday and Sunday, April 9 and 10.There will be tastings of Catherine Vale's Italian varietal wines including arneis whites and barbera and dolcetto reds, food, produce and market stalls, bocce games, Italian classic motorbike and car displays and Italian cooking demonstrations and puppet shows.Live music will be supplied by The Caballeros and there will be Italian gardening demonstrations and seed sales.On the Saturday night there will be an Italian feast with music and dancing and a wide selection of Catherine Vale wines, with food provided by Il Cacciatore restaurant.The cost is $95 a head and bookings can be made on (02) 6579 1334, by email to wine@catherinevale.com.au or at catherinevale.com.au.Finnish favouriteAUSTRALIAN Vintage Ltd (AVL) has scored a major success in a Finnish wine competition with its McGuigan 2009 Bin 3000 Merlot.The wine was judged the best new world red costing under nine euros at Finland's Wine of the Year competition.Now in its 14th year, the competition was held in Helsinki and attracted 470 entries in 19 categories.The 2009 Bin 3000 is made from South Australian Limestone Coast grapes and is available now in Australia at $13 a bottle.AVL managing director Neil McGuigan said the Finnish award was an endorsement of the McGuigan team's efforts over the past five years to make its merlot a world-class product.
© 2011 Newcastle Herald
