Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Special Event - 'Side Projects' with Steve Flamsteed & Dave Mackintosh

Swirl Sniff Spit is excited to bring you the opportunity to spend an evening with Steve Flamsteed and Dave Mackintosh and some seriously good wine.
Steve and Dave met while making wine together at Giant Steps and Innocent Bystander in the Yarra Valley, but along with other leading winemakers who work under the collective 'Side Projects', they're creating edgy, dynamic, non-interventionist wines -  together with their 'Salo' label and Dave's own, 'Ar Fion'. 
Moving away from wines produced for mainstream audiences, these winemaking side projects allow exploration of ideas, techniques and expressions resulting in new and exciting wines for a more tightly focused audience.
This tasting will take an in depth look at their Salo Yarra Valley Chardonnay and Salo Hawkes Bay Syrah over multiple vintages along with skin contact wines, benchmark wines that inspire their winemaking and a couple of dark horses from other winemaker's side projects - wines from Bill Downie and Dave Bicknell that you won't see anywhere else. 
Spend an evening exploring this exciting group of wines with Steve and Dave as our guides.

When: Tuesday July 30, 6pm for 6:30pm
Where: 1889 Enoteca, 10 - 12 Logan Road, Woolloongabba
How: Register online (ticketed event) at www.swirlsniffspitsalo.eventbrite.com.au

Bracket 1 - Salo Chardonnay 
2008 Salo Yarra Valley Chardonnay 
2009 Salo Yarra Valley Chardonnay 
2010 Salo Yarra Valley Chardonnay 
2011 Salo Yarra Valley Chardonnay 
2012 Salo Yarra Valley Chardonnay 

Bracket 2 - Side Project Skin Contact Whites and Inspiration
2012 Smokestack Lightning Pinot Grigio by Ar Fion (Yarra Valley) 
2012 Breakfast Wine by Patrick Sullivan (Yarra Valley)
2005 Gravner Ribollo (Fruili, Italy)

Bracket 3 - Side Project Yarra Valley Pinot and Inspiration
2012 Ar Fion Pinot Noir 
2011 BicknellFC Pinot Noir by Dave Bicknell
2004 William Downie Pinot Noir 

Bracket 4 - Salo Syrah and Inspiration
2010 Salo Hawkes Bay Syrah  
2011 Salo Hawkes Bay Syrah  
2012 Salo Hawkes Bay Syrah  
2006 Bilancia 'La Collina' Hawkes Bay Syrah

Our venue for this event will be the beautiful and intimate 1889 Enoteca cellar room. 
Our hosts at 1889 Enoteca have put together a special menu for the event and guests will have the option to order meals which will be served during the tasting. 

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Session 25 - The NZ Files

New Zealand launched itself on the wine-making scene with some radically different wines back in the late 70s and early 80s. It's industry was largely focussed on the Marlborough region and Sauvignon Blanc was its key variety.

It still is in many respects, with 80%+ of its exports coming from that variety. However, it is much more than a one-trick pony, with areas of production ranging from around Auckland in the North down to Central Otago in the centre of the South Island.

As ever with Swirl, Sniff, Spit we're looking to show diversity, quality and to introduce some producers you may not have heard of.

Bracket 1 Sav Blanc
2012 Catalina Sounds Sauvignon Blanc @Catalina_Sounds
2012 Te Whare Ra Sauvignon Blanc @TeWhareRaWines
2012 Geisen 'The August' Sauvignon Blanc @GiesenWines

Bracket 2 Aromatic Whites
2011 Te Whare Ra Gewürztraminer
@TeWhareRaWines
2012 Maude Pinot Gris @MaudeWines

Bracket 3 Martinborough Pinot
2010 Escarpment Pinot Noir @LarryMcPinot
2009 Kumeu River Village Pinot Noir @ n/a

Bracket 4 South Island
2011 Terra Sancta Estate Pinot Noir @TerraSanctaWine
2010 Pegasus Bay Pinot Noir @PegasusBayWine

Bracket 5 - Syrah/ Cabernet
2009 Ata Rangi 'Celebre' @Ata_Rangi
tbc