Working your means by means of the checklist of vintages and varietals is enjoyable once you’re in wine nation. But this Hunter Valley vineyard takes you from the cellar door to an entire different degree of wine-tasting.
Run by the Scarborough household for 2 generations (and counting), Scarborough Wine Co within the Hunter Valley has been crafting excellent wine for over 35 years.
Christina and I first met the Scarborough household again in 2015, once they invited us to their property to get to know the model a bit higher.
Anyone who’s met the Scarboroughs will perceive how we had been instantly made to really feel like a part of the clan.
From that second, we fell in love not solely with the household and their wine, however with the Hunter Valley generally and top-level Chardonnay particularly.
Here’s extra about our time there in 2015.
And till 2022, the head of their wines was the Obsessive Range, so named due to father and founder Ian ‘Scarbie’ Scarborough’s meticulous wine-making model.
Since then, nonetheless, Sally, Jerome, and Jez’s spouse and sensible viticulturist Liz Riley have developed a brand new premium vary: Keepers of the Flame.
And with it comes a tasting expertise like no different.
A fast catch-up earlier than the primary occasion
We meet Sally and Jerome on the secluded Cottage Vineyard, the place the grapes for the Keepers of the Flame Chardonnay and in addition the Obsessive Semillon develop.
It’s a novel web site, someway cooler than the opposite vineyards which might be nearer to the foot of the Brokenback Mountains. And the advantageous sandy loam produces the distinctive fruit that Jerome and Liz knew could be excellent for this new top-of-the-line wine vary.
While we’re right here, the 4 of us loosen up on the veranda of the quaint cottage by the rows of vines for a chew to eat and a chat. Sally’s additionally introduced some lunch—scrumptious antipasto picnic containers from Our Italian Table in Pokolbin.
After lunch, Jerome prompts a transfer: “Let’s go and taste some wine,” he declares, and all of us head to the Gillards Road Vineyard and the Scarborough cellar door. It was additionally as soon as the household house the place Jerome and Sally grew up.
What’s extra, it’s right here that the Keepers of the Flame wine-tasting expertise occurs.
Keepers of the Flame Tasting Experience
As we crunch by means of the gravel of the cellar door carpark, Sally excitedly tells us about their new soil pit that Jerome and Liz have just lately dug. For some purpose, we’re simply as excited at seeing it, despite the fact that it’s actually a six-foot gap within the floor.
In the pit, Jerome takes us by means of the varied layers of soil, substrate and mineral deposits, explaining what every layer means to the vines and the way they develop in it. It’s solely fascinating and solidifies the that means of ‘terroir’, which till now was a type of misty imprecise idea we knew linked wine with soil.
From there, we stroll to the vines the place Jerome and Sally discuss us by means of the methods they use nature of their wine-making processes.
Members of Sustainable Winegrowing Australia, Scarborough Wine Co is intently centered on environmental influence and sustainability, and we learn the way they’re utilizing age-old strategies from permitting nitrogen-fixing crops to develop between the vine rows and managing the ecosystem of the vineyards to mulching vine prunings and making their very own compost.
We discuss irrigation, harvest timings, choosing strategies, pest management, grafting strategies, vine age… it’s so fascinating, and Sally and Jerome are open books with all our questions.
Back on the home, we sit all the way down to a fantastically laid desk looking over the gardens and vines of the Gillards Road Vineyard.
The tasting consists of 5 totally different wines in two vertical tastings: two Obsessive Chardonnays from consecutive vintages and three Keepers of the Flame from totally different years too.
Vertical tastings are so experiential as you get to style the outcomes of time within the bottle and in addition see how totally different vintages have an effect on the wine.
Jerome and Sally style with us, speaking us by means of the wines as we go and in addition sharing within the scrumptious cheese plate and bread that comes with this tasting.
As a part of this wonderful immersive expertise that takes round an hour and a half, you’re accompanied by both Sally or one of many specialists on the cellar door, and also you come away realizing a lot extra about wine.
What’s So Special About Keepers Of The Flame?
Sally, Jerome and Liz are very enthusiastic about this new vary of wine, and never simply because it’s new.
They’ve developed Keepers of the Flame to be a celebration of the previous and of what Scarbie’s achieved, but in addition a strategy to go on the love of wine-making to future generations.
It’s a collaboration of their totally different skillsets: advertising and marketing, winemaking and viticulture.
Each 12 months, Keepers of the Flame might be barely totally different. Jerome’s not aiming for consistency—aside from the standard in fact. He desires the wine to replicate the second in time every classic represents.
Grapes are rigorously chosen for his or her high quality and these small batches of wine are inoculated with wild yeast for a pure fermentation. From there, the cautious nurturing in chosen barrels leads to among the most interesting Chardonnays we’ve ever tasted.
On the nostril, a struck match and brioche aromas are adopted by citrus and white peach, and to style, excellent construction round extra citrus and stone fruit. Wonderful mineral qualities come subsequent with a silky texture and contours of oak that spotlight the acidity.
From the three Keepers of the Flame vintages we strive, the 2021 is the present favorite, although Jerome additionally offers us a style of the model new 2022, which could simply be our new favorite. But we’ll have to come back again to strive that when it’s prepared for launch.
Book your tasting expertise right here instantly by means of Scarborough Wine’s web site.