Wine and Vine?

I am not a wine judge. I am not a professional wine writer either. My only credential is that I am passionate about wine. My first encounter with wine was “Blue Nun”, a sweet Riesling from Germany that claimed to match with Asian food. It was sweet, it was Western, it was exotic, it was irresistible. Now I can’t even remember what it tastes like, other than sweet.

The Old Blue Nun. Image courtesy of boozenews.com

My first visit to a  winery was in the Mornington Peninsula. It was a simple family boutique winery, where the grapes were hand-picked, and pressed in an old-fashioned wood press. The winemaker, a sturdy middle-aged man, simply dressed in shorts and t-shirt, explained to us how the climate and the ageing process had brought the bottle to maturation. He held the glass of wine up to the light with pride. “Look at that, a red, its a real garnet colour.” I looked. “See?” he continued. “No purple flashes, no tinges of brown. No sediment either. Those are things you don’t want in a wine.” He was not merely selling alcohol, this was a man with a passion, talking about a work of art in a bottle. I tasted the wine, and it was intense, dark and resonant with soil and oak. This was new to me, I had never felt so close to the earth, so far from the concrete jungles where I grew up. This was my first experience of the wine culture in Australia,  elegant and complex, and I was instantly hooked.

Later I travelled through numerous wineries in New South Wales, and found each one to be unique, both in terms of what it produced and its atmosphere. Most family-owned businesses, perhaps producing fairly limited runs, and some try to grow new grapes, and develop new styles. Each winery is influenced by the grapes, the climate, and the personality of the wine maker (the best seem to be the slightly obsessive types). I would regularly bring back wines for friends to try, “Which bottle shop did you get this from?” they ask. I replied,  “Cellar door only, you can’t buy it in a shop around here.” Indeed, most bottle shops are locked into dealerships with major commercial producers, so the only way to really taste wine with character, is to go out there, on the road and visit some wineries. No matter how long the journey, I find the trip home with my “booty”, a joy. I feel a satisfaction,  that in an age of instant gratification, I’ve had to put in time and effort to find something I want to share in good company.