Ray Jordan's new website is now live.

Ray Jordan has been writing about wines for more than 30 years and his new website showcases some of his favourite wineries and wines coming out of Australia.

Have a look at what he has to say about the 2008 TarraWarra Estate Range here

Max Allen has been writing about wine in Australia for over fifteen years. He is currently the wine columnist for the Weekend Australian Magazine and wine editor for Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine. There is no doubt he knows his stuff. 

His recent article in the Weekend Australian about Australian Rose sparked our interest.

"The most exciting development in Australian gastronomy over the past decade has been the proliferation of new, deliciously dry, pale-coloured pink wines emerging from our top vineyards and cellar doors... rather than carrying residual sweetness they finish with a lip-smacking dryness, making a better match for savoury food..."

Have a look at the full article here

A year ago this week, I was sitting in a café trying port bases with a Portuguese producer. I knew we’d got to the ‘in vino veritas’ part of the proceedings after the winemaker suddenly turned to me and said: “I hate Australia. I hate Australian wine. And I hate what Australia has done to wine.”

In my current role, I hear all kinds of sentiments about Australia, often because the speaker doesn’t realise I’m Australian. Most people aren’t as vitriolic as my man from Portugal: some are admiring and some are neutral. However, it has to be saiid that an increasing number of them are negative, from the Italian CEO who told me that Australians have no viticulture, but instead use high technology and chemicals to get the results they want, to the American distributor who said that “the Australian category stinks. You can’t sell it any more”.

TarraWarra Estate is delighted to have two wines selected in the first Landmark Australia Tutorial, commencing Monday 1st June. The Landmark Australia Tutorial is the wine industry’s most significant investment to date in telling Australia’s fine wine story to an international audience.  Aimed at celebrating Australian excellence not just in wine, but also in terms of food, hospitality and tourism, 12 of the world’s most influential wine media and educators will be hosted by Wine Australia in the Barossa Valley for five days.

ANY winemaker can tell you it's increasingly difficult to produce a well-priced wine that has a stamp of quality too, especially when it comes to pinot noir and chardonnay. Yet TarraWarra winemaker Clare Halloran manages exceedingly well at both.

What an amazing season it has been!  We started with cool weather through the budburst, flowering and fruit set periods from September through December. Christmas and early January were also very mild, but without rainfall.  At this stage it was shaping up to be a cool season similar to 2005. The latter part of January brought some welcome warmer weather, required to help the grapes mature.
 
Then came the most extreme heat we have ever experienced in Victoria, four days over forty degrees.  This occurred at the critical time of veraison, and caused the vines to completely shut down for this period, and indeed some time after.

Meet Zac, a two year old Kelpie who hails from Lismore (he's a 'stud' puppy...). Zac is the constant companion of our Vineyard Manager, Stuart Sissins, and has spent the majority of his short but eventful life at TarraWarra Estate.

March 2009 will see the release of the TarraWarra Estate Pinot Noir 2008. The coolness of the majority of the season has lended an elegance to the wines particularly the Pinot Noir, where the sugar levels ranged from 12.8 – 13.5 Baume, and yields averaged 6.5 tonnes per hectare.

Our winemaker, Clare Halloran, rates the 2008 Estate Chardonnay as one of our best. Fruit for this wine is all hand harvested, chilled overnight and all whole bunch pressed. Half of the wine is then fermented in 100% French oak barrels, while the rest is tank fermented. This gives fruit freshness from the tank fermented component, while the barrel ferment builds length and complexity in the palate.

In December 2007 we started our drive (or walk), towards being more environmentally responsible and sustainable in the WineBar, and we named three new initiatives-replacing bottled still water with local tap water offered free of charge, serving organic fair trade coffee and using organic sugar.