Mary Dowey on viticulturist's droop in South Australia, and other wine news
I thought I'd viewed the wine world from every possible angle until I met Barossa Valley winemaker Anita Bowen. Now I see the harvest in a new light. "It has a huge impact on relationships," she says. "Post-vintage, the whole valley is full of frustrated wine-widows and wine-widowers whose winemaking partners are too knackered to move." As an experienced sex therapist, with a practice in the small Barossa town of Nurioopta, Bowen knows the score.
She also knows about wine, having learnt about it first from her husband (who now works with Beringer Blass), then from studying oenology at Roseworthy, in between the births of her two sons. The couple bought their vineyards in 1998, and Anita Bowen is solely responsible for Balthazar 2001, the first vintage of her stirringly rich Shiraz, which you will find in Berry Bros & Rudd, €26.95.
She admits that more than a thimbleful of powerful Barossa Shiraz may not be a good idea for people with amorous intentions.
In case you are curious, the biggest problem Bowen encounters in her clinic is "desire discrepancy". I suppose that could be seen as the sexual equivalent of one person wanting a whole bottle of red and the other one preferring half a glass of white?
DOON ROAMIN'
I've always liked Randall Grahm, the philosophising Californian winemaker whose precepts include "Wine should be as much fun as government regulations allow" and "We should champion the strange, esoteric, ugly-duckling grape varieties of the world". The easy-going wines from Bonny Doon, his winery near Santa Cruz, enshrine both rules.
Like many other winemakers from far-flung places, Grahm flitted through Dublin recently en route to Vinexpo, the mammoth wine fair in Bordeaux. But that was only half the story. "First I'm going on a fact-finding mission to the south of England," he revealed. Global warming has boosted English winemaking, delivering some pretty dazzling sparkling wines. Could this be what our Californian craves? No, his mind is set on red. "I think it could be the place to plant Pinot Noir." So he is still obsessed with the tricky variety that caused him so much grief when he set up his winery decades ago.
Having recently adopted biodynamic principles in his vineyards, Grahm was also planning to visit Château Viret in the Rhône - an estate embracing "cosmoculture". "It's the next step on from biodynamics," he said, going on to describe how large stone menhirs direct magnetic forces in the vineyard. "I suppose you could call it viticultural acupuncture."
Grahm's newsletter, stuffed with provocative musings, is on the way back after a lapse. Read this wacky winemaker's views on screwcaps, strange grapes and more, on www.boonydoonvineyard.com. His wines are in off-licences and restaurants throughout Ireland, or from www.jnwine.com.
ORGANIC GROWTH
I have written a good deal about Mary Pawle Wines, the Kenmare-based organic wine specialist, but have only recently discovered some delicious bottles on offer from a newer all-organic company, Vendemia Wines. Urs and Helen Tobler, Swiss and Irish respectively, met in Uganda while working for the Red Cross, and settled in Switzerland, developing an interest in environmental issues before moving to Kilkenny in 2002. As Urs had maintained a love of wine from the time he spent working with a Bern wine merchant, and the couple had noted the growing popularity of organic wines in Switzerland, they decided to establish themselves as niche importers. "The innocence of it all!" Helen exclaims. Besides wholesaling to off-licences, they have their own retail outlet in Kilkenny and sell all their wines at the Dublin Food Co-op market in Pearse Street on Saturdays. They are also building up sales via their website, www.vendemiawines.com. In addition to the tasty red Bottle of the Week, I particularly recommend the honeyed and mineral biodynamic Alsace white, Domaine Valentin Zusslin Pinot Auxerrois Vieilles Vignes 2002 (€12.95). Vendemia Wines, 24 Hebron Road Industrial Estate, Kilkenny, 056-7770225.
SOAKING UP HISTORY
My current bedtime reading is The Kingdom of Wine, a handsome new book by Ireland's leading wine historian, Ted Murphy. An avid collector of wine artefacts who became fascinated by Irish links with wineries the world over, Murphy presents a fascinating assortment of Wine Geese, besides chronicling the history of the corkscrew and Irish glassware. This would make a superb present, especially for Irish wine-lovers abroad. €60, available only from www.onstream.ie.
APPLE APPEAL
With Viennese blood in his veins, Paul Dubsky was honouring his heritage when he held a Dublin tasting of the Austrian wines he imports into Ireland, mainly for sales to private clients. But by far the best bottle on offer was his Archers Strong Organic Cider.
Dubsky created the Archers brand in the early 1980s - hoping to replicate the rustic appeal of the popular BBC radio programme of the same name. Two years ago, he decided to go organic. Made exclusively for him in Herefordshire, the new Archers, produced from cider apples and matured in old oak vats, has all the earthiness of an artisan product. "It got a better reaction at a recent fair in the RDS than I've ever witnessed for any wine - and I've gone to wine fairs all my life," he says. Try it: it's top class. €2.69 for a 500ml bottle, from a rapidly expanding list of stockists nationwide.