Verasion in the vineyard
Tim looks at the current condition of the vineyard and reckons “everything is perfectly tuned – we just need a couple of months of warm weather and we could have a seriously good vintage on our hands.”
Tim Kirk
Tim tastes the 2010 O’Riada
“So much of that lovely spiciness…woven through red fruit character…raspberry, redcurrant and cherry”. Tim gives his assessment of the 2010 O’Riada Shiraz.
The 2011 Riesling
“Crisp, fresh, lovely perfume, subtle but complex”. Tim looks at another of the new Spring release wines – the 2011 Riesling.
Why do you assume it’s a distraction?
Seven words from an elderly Jesuit priest changed the course of Tim Kirk’s life and set the stage for Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier to become one of Australia’s great wines.
“It was back in the mid 90s. I was teaching religious education at Melbourne’s Xavier College. I was well and truly bitten by the wine bug by this stage and during breaks from teaching I’d drive up the Hume Highway to work with dad at the family winery in Murrumbateman.”
Burgundy & the Northern Rhone
As I write this I am preparing to head off to France to visit my two favourite wine regions in Europe: Burgundy and the
Northern Rhone.
In terms of inspiration in the world of wine, for me these two are at the top of the list.
The wine producers of Cote Rotie are a determined lot. They work the most precarious slopes anywhere in the world of wine (though the Riesling growers of the Mosel might beg to differ.) Loose granite on frighteningly steep inclines, some terraced, some not. The producers are largely family concerns, often with more than one generation working in the business. The cellars are usually to be found under the family home.