Parish notices from Yalumba, Tasmania

I arrived in Tasmania yesterday to catch up with developments – a good many – since I was last here in 2012.  Later that very year, Yalumba’s Hill Smith family acquired the Frogmoor Creek Vineyard in Coal River Valley (re-named Parish Vineyard), southern Tasmania, adding to their already sizeable interests at Jansz and Darymple, both in Pipers River in northern Tasmania.

I had my first taste of the Parish Vineyard yesterday.  Mostly planted to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, fruit goes into Jansz sparkling wine.  However, a small parcel of mature Riesling gilds Chief Winemaker Louisa Rose’s reputation for this variety (she also makes Pewsey Vale Riesling from Eden Valley).  I thought the 2016 release (the third Parish Riesling) was stunning.  You’ll find my note below, but first some other pics and my top picks from an afternoon touring and tasting with Rose at Jansz and Darymple.

Rose told me that sparkling sales are on the up across the globe.  As you can see, to keep up with demand, new plantings are underway at Jansz (the original Chardonnay vines suffered from Eutypa). In the warmer, drier south, the Coal River site is a real boon.  With more rainfall and strong winds at Jansz – just 5km from the Bass Strait – Pipers River yields are much lower.

These trees at Darymple give you a feel for the strength of the wind in Pipers River

But the advantage of being so near the sea is the expression it gives to the sparkling wines (and Darymple Chardonnay) –  sea spray and chalky oyster shell.  For Rose these characteristics, combined with the low pH of Jansz fizz, increase the perception of acid and freshness, allowing Jansz to make a style which she says can look “a bit soft” in a line up with other sparkling wines from the island.  But much as acidity and freshness are important, she believes sparkling wines “need to delicious and drinkable…not wrinkle your nose.”  Base wines see (old) oak and undergo malo.

It’s hard to select just one wine from the Jansz range.  It is consistently good and the house style  – drinkability with lovely fruit but no shortage of complexity (sea spray, nougat and honey) – shines.  The 2010 very complete, complex Jansz Vintage Cuvée 2010 just gets pipped to the post by new-to-me Jansz Late Disgorged 2007.  It was indeed thoroughly delicious and eminently drinkable.  Lots of autolytic complexity and a palpable sense of dry extract – toe stubbing chalky oyster shell. A raft of acidity beneath teased out a long finish.

Darymple Cave Block Chardonnay 2013 is a subtle Chardonnay – a real creeper – with a good smack of sea spray and clever lees-work – very silky and textural.  Again, well served by a raft of lingering acidity.  Subtly savoury and fruity, beautifully textural, balanced and long.

Just 10 minutes down the road from Jansz the Darymple site is pretty marginal for table wines.  The Pinots are fine framed and aromatic, with flashes of green – the 2015 quite stemmy.  I preferred the nose to the palate.  Darymple Swansea Pinot Noir 2014 from the warmer, drier East Coast (made with grower’s fruit) made an interesting contrast.  Black (instead of red) fruited.  Much broader – more muscular – of frame.  Kelpy, as opposed to oyster shelly (the vineyard is a stone’s throw from the sea).  It was my pick of the Pinots.

Parish Riesling 2016 (Coal River Valley Tasmania)

The brown flute bottle signposts the style.  For me, quite Germanic (Großes Gewächs), with a very textural charge of talcy, floral (Turkish Delight) and tangier warm volcanic/slatey minerals.  Yeah, yeah, I know we writers have been chastised for talking the M word, but I suggest you suck it (well sup it) and see!  Great palate presence and persistence, with an undertow of steely, grapefruity acidity.  Stunning.  I hope this comes over to the UK.

I ought to add we enjoyed the Riesling over dinner (excellent, at Geronimo) with former Jansz winemaker Natalie Fryar who recently took on making Kreglinger sparkling wines.  Her very own fizz is still under wraps but, meantime, she has been toying with another passion to great effect – Essence and Quintessence Gin, made with foraged botanicals.  If your roses are missing a few petals, look no further than Essence – the prettier more classic style (Fryar calls it her daytime gin).  Quintessence is spicier – the night time gin – great for Negronis, adds the wine/gin-maker.