Tom's Back Block
July 09 Edition
Canowindra 100 Mile Dinner 22nd April - Part of Orange FOOD Week 2009
What a night and certainly one that to put in the calendar for next year. The event was the feature dinner of the week for the Foods Of Orange District (FOOD) Week. The brief was simple – to have a dinner using regional produce and encourage everyone to think about purchasing regional produce.
The dinner was in the main street of Canowindra which was closed for the night. Tables were setup in the main street, decorations put up, wine and food stalls set up on foot paths and all in the space of 3 hours. Does not sound that hard but it was for 300 people and everything had to be brought in.
I will give you a quick rundown of how the night went
Ready!!
(Photo: David Isbester - River Bank Gallery)
Guest arrived and started with some local sparkling wines, apple cider or strawberry vodka cocktail. This was matched by freshly baked flat bread in a large portable pizza oven that was situated at the end of the street. It was on the southerly end of the function and as luck had it that night the wind was blowing from that direction – beautiful smoky baking aromas floating through the function.
Next we sat down for entrees (Table and seating allocation were expertly done by Mum, Dad and Margaret Wallington. I honestly think that there is nothing Dad would rather do than organise seating arrangements and them write up the master document so that everyone knew where to sit- no one missed a seat!)
Set!!
(Photo: David Isbester - River Bank Gallery)
Open platters on the tables awaited us of Oven roasted rosemary and garlic mushrooms, cold smoked Pork and Pepper thyme sausage, Manners & Borg 100 mile Terrine, Slow roasted tomatoes & Pickled Pears. There was also local olive oils with sourdough for dipping. (Big fan of the Straninero Olive Oils) That was a meal in itself, however more was to come.
The mains and deserts were provided from Bathurst, Canowindra, Orange & Mudgee. Each person received a serving or each regions mains. It seemed like a logistical nightmare looking at it – however we managed to get 300 people 4 different mains and all hot. By now I think there were not many people that were complaining of the lack of food.
Go!!
(Photo: David Isbester - River Bank Gallery)
The mains served were:
Canowindra – Daube of Wagyu & Wallington Shiraz, organic baby turnips served on organic Dutch cream mash
Bathurst- Lamb Proveneale Pie served with Spiced Eggplant Mazu
Orange- Seared Mandagery Creek Venison with walnuts, confit potato and blackcurrant jus
Mudgee- Roast Ormiston Free Range Pork with Poached Quince
Next desert! Again the emphasis was on regional produce and they did not disappoint.
Bathurst- Lemon Tartlet served with fresh Raspberries
Canowindra – Hazelnuts and Organic dark chocolate meringue with Mascarpone and figs in Syrup
Orange- Chestnut Bavarois and Apple Jelly & Apple Chips
Mudgee – Fresh Curd with Mudgee Honey and Pistachio
To go with all of this was regional wine which certainly added to the night and maybe the dancing later on- there was a great Jazz band that we had playing on the side of the street.
Altogether it was a fantastic night and we look forward to next years dinner.
If you were looking for more information there was a great interview on Classic FM the other day about slow food. Have a listen http://www.abc.net.au/classic/throsby/#listen
Also for more info on the 100 mile diet http://100milediet.org/get-started/getting-started-guide
Make sure that you try and make it next year – however be warned as tickets sold out quickly this year and we had over 200 people on the waiting list!
March 09 Edition
Yes that is me who smells but with good cause. Over the last couple of months I have been involved in an extremely interesting project. As part of an initiative in the Central West, Centroc which is a representative body for 15 councils, has been running the Compost Cook Off competition.
They selected four people representing different viticultural regions, David Lowe, Lowe Family Wines Mudgee, Justin Jarrett, Jarretts of Orange, Tony Hatch, Vale Creek Wines, Bathurst and myself.
Objectives of the project
- to raise the profile of composting to target audiences
- raise the profile of clean green vineyards
- raise the profile of the region as clean and green
- deliver a successful and fun, co-operative regional project that will position the region well for further funding
Rules for the Compost Cook Off
- The compost needed to comply with Australian Standards for Compost which includes factors such as temperature and moisture content.
- The ingredients used in the compost must be sourced locally i.e. within 50kms of the vineyard.
- Compost chefs must produce 1 tonne of final compost product (this will require starting with approximately 2 tonnes of materials).
- Compost chefs must provide a photographic and written record of their composting and what was incorporated.
- There will be two types of testing completed: a chemical assay and a microbial analysis.
- Judging will be done by an independent panel to be selected by Centroc.
- The compost must contain a minimum of 30% council green waste.
Judging Criteria
Compost will be ranked 1-4 with 1 being the best and the overall lowest score will win. The criteria for judging are listed below:
- chemical analysis quality
- microbial analysis quality
- inventiveness of method
- inventiveness of ingredients used to compost (diversity of products incorporated)
- faults in the compost. - this category is mainly a deductive category.
- Most translatable compost message
The Results
At the presentation night on 7th February we all gathered with our compost to be judged. I was lucky enough to come 2nd and was pipped at the post by David Lowe. Not a bad result considering that he runs a commercial composting facility that does approximately 2000 tonnes a year.
Where from there?
We are just in the process of delivering ½ tonne vegetable bins to the schools that are filled with a mixture of soil and compost. We are getting the schools to grow vegetables in these boxes and to learn about the produce that they are growing. The aim is to have vegetables grown by the end of April and these are going to be used as part of the Compost Ball. Unfortunately they will not be served up to the paying customers but will be used by chefs in an Iron Chef like competition. The Compost Ball is going to be held in Orange on 2nd May 2009. For more info go to www.tasteorange.com.au
The competition is going to be held next year and we are looking for more involvement from the community as we are able demonstrate the benefits of composting and the ease to do it.
December 08 Edition
As we are focusing on our wines this newsletter I thought we should look at a basic (Look, Smell, Taste) 3 step method for tasting and drinking wine.
1. LOOK
First step is a visual examination. Best done by tilting the glass and looking at the wine through the rim, to see the variation from the deepest part of the liquid to its edges.
* Clarity is an indication of the character and condition of the wine.
* Colour (intensity and hue) generally a darker colour and a difference in colour from the centre of the glass to the edge can indicate oxidation, which may be a delibrate part of the winemaking, an error, or a natural part of maturation in bottle.
* Next is the swirling. The ‘tears’ left on the inside of the glass after swirling can indicative of the amount of glycerol and alcohol present in the wine.
2. SMELL
When you stop swirling it's time to take a sniff. Agitating the wine vapourises it, and the thin sheet of liquid on the glass evapourates quickly. The result is an intensification of the aromas.
* Inhale and try and identify as many flavour compounds as possible.
* Aromas refer to the smells derived from grapes and include fruit descriptors(eg. lemon) and herbs and spices.
* Bouquet refers to smells derived from the winemaking process such as characters formed by yeasts, specific fermentation techniques or type and size of maturation vessel.
3. TASTE
Now comes the best part. Take in small mouthful but do not swallow. Roll and swish the wine around in your mouth by pursing your lips and inhaling through the wine and then chew the wine vigorously sloshing it around in your mouth.
* The texture of a wine can provide clues as to how the wine is made.
* Progression of the flavour from when the wine enters your mouth to after you swallow, is an indicator of the quality of the wine, a long aftertaste is generally a positive indication of quality.
* After looking, smelling and tasting, make an overall assessment of the wine - a lasting impression of harmony and balance is considered desirable and easiest to enjoy.
If you are keen to learn more about wine Swinging Bridge have Wine Dinners during the year to provide different levels of education.
September 2008 Edition
Budburst has begun! We are getting closer to the upcoming harvest in February - March next year. It’s a bit of a scary time as we are now at the mercy of the weather gods. At this stage I’m still thinking this could be the year that we challenge Grange - well you must aim for something! Then we are battling the elements - rain, frost, hail, drought and the odd plague as we work towards harvest. There is plenty of excitement over the next 5-6 months as we watch the vines grow and produce fruit, coaxing them into the best position for harvest and have the grapes on the front foot for winemaking.
On the weather front we are in the best position that we have been in for 6 years. We have a full sub soil moisture profile with the soil fully saturated due to the rain we’ve had over the last few months. It looks like we’ll have a good amount of water available for this season.
Pruning has been trouble free and the vines look great. We prune with a very small crew of 5 people. These guys do the same vines every year, which has enabled us to get good consistency.
It is not all work around here and we’ve been on a trip to the vineyards and wineries of Northern Victoria. The aim of the trip was to look at alternative varieties. The Australian Alternative Wine Varieties Show is on in November in Mildura http://www.aavws.com/index.php. They describe alternative varieties as those not ‘primarily made from the varieties Chardonnay, Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, the Cabernet family generally, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Shiraz, Chenin Blanc, Riesling, Colombard, Grenache and Verdelho’.
With this definition directing us, we headed south and based ourselves at Beechworth for a couple of days. We indulged ourselves in the life of Beechworth – think old style lolly shops (for the kids of course!), the famous Beechworth Bakery and the pubs and restaurants. There was also the connection with Ned Kelly and the historic courthouse. It was a magnificent place and well worth a visit. www.beechworth.com.au
The vineyards we visited were:
Freeman Vineyards
Brown Brothers
Pizzini
We are really excited about the potential that some of these varieties may play in the future of Swinging Bridge.
June 08 Edition
Many people would say we have come to the easy part of the season. The wines are in the barrel and the vines are taking a winter break. You may imagine me pruning and drinking some of the new wines while enjoying the beautiful winter sunshine (no, we haven’t had any rain yet!). If only that were the case…
Winter pruning has started in earnest and to me it’s the most important time of the season. We are setting the crop levels for the coming years, giving certain blocks that little bit of extra attention.
The two main styles of winter pruning are spur and cane pruning (click here to find out more). We prefer to use spur pruning to get just the right number of bunches on the vines. Cane pruning is mainly done with varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc where bud fruitfulness can be a problem from limited sunshine exposure during the growing season.
The bunches for next year’s vintage will be determined during this coming October – November growing period. We are able to dissect the buds and see how many bunches there are. This helps to foresee any problems and the potential yield. We can then work out how many buds to leave per vine. This determines our pruning strategy, a mixture of one, two, three and sometimes four bud spurs.
We set the yield at a level to create a balanced vine. This balance gives an optimal leaf to grape bunch ratio to ripen evenly and allow full ripeness. Too few grape bunches and the vine can be too vigorous, with a potential for disease and an inability to control the berry size of the grapes. Too much yield (too many bunches) and the grapes struggle to ripen and are susceptible to sunburn under the small leaf canopy.
In winter we introduce our organic weeding system – sheep. The sheep clean the weeds under the vines and fertilise them with their poo! The sheep are removed just prior to budburst as they find the new green shoots very tasty. So if you buy some lamb and you think that the meat is showing some citrus/melon/nutmeg characters you will know they have been eating Chardonnay vines while dark berries/chocolate/leather characters and you’ll know they have been busy munching away in the Shiraz!! Maybe it is a new marketing venture for the Ward brothers. You will not even need wine with your roast!
Winemaking
We have finished the first blending of parcels for the Chardonnay 08. All the parcels have been sulphured (sulphur dioxide is used at the end of fermentation to effectively sterilise the wine) except one, which is just finishing. The wine is showing great potential with more citrus with melon characters rather than melon to peach. We are already seeing great integration of the oak in the wines.
With the Chardonnay we have experimented with a number of factors. We have tried using fruit from different blocks from vines of different ages and using varying trellis set ups. During the winemaking we have varied the oak treatment and lees stirring (stirring the dead yeasts back into the wine at varying intervals). We look forward to seeing how this affects our final product.
All our other parcels are looking great with the reds coming to end of their malolactic fermentation (secondary ferment). We are seeing great depth in the colour of the wines as well as some intense varietal characters. We have had a play with different treatments of the wine to add some complexity to the wine but keeping it in the style of Swinging Bridge.
Note – I am always looking for topics that people would like discussed in Tom’s Back Block. Please let me know if you have something that you would like know more about.
March 08 Edition:
This edition find out why Tom rates this as one of the best seasons that he has ever seen. With harvest almost finished he gives us an update on the early stages of the 2008 vintage and plans for new varieties for Swinging Bridge Estate:
We are now coming to end of harvest and I would rate it as one of the best that I have ever seen. We still have some Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon to harvest and should be finished in the next two weeks.
Why has it been a good harvest?
Warm weather earlier in the season around flowering time (formation of berries) allowed for an even set and no berry development problems. One of the issues was the dry start to the season but we had sufficient water to supplement the vines with which enabled us to grow a balanced canopy to ripen the fruit.
In the middle of November the weather turned mild and we have seen very little warm to hot weather since.This has also been dispersed with regular rain although we have been lucky to avoid any of the extreme weather that has been hitting Sydney and the Hunter Valley. January started off a little warm but turned mild and has stayed that way until now.
This month has been 3–4 C below average on daytime temperatures while the nights have been extremely cool. This has been great for harvest although it has been a little chilly to be harvesting!
Proof is in the pudding
The 2008 Chardonnay has now finished primary fermentation (sugar to alcohol) and is in oak. It has been inoculated for the secondary malolatic fermentation. The wine is already showing the signs of the cooler season with some citrus, melon and pineapple characters. It is showing great length of flavour already and a really fine palate. It is the most promising that I have seen a Chardonnay at this stage.
The Shiraz is also very impressive at this early stage. Although we only harvested it on the 1st March and it is cold soaking on skins in the tank it is showing some great primary fruit characters as well as some fine tannins in the skins. The colour in the juice at this stage is amazing and I am excited to see where this wine will end up. We are doing a couple of ferments from different blocks which is going to enable us to do some interesting things. We will be looking at extended skin contact, different plunging of the cap and different oak barrels and sizes.
Other news
This year we are also looking at making some Verdelho and Cabernet Sauvignon. The straight Cabernet Sauvignon will be a first for us but the quality of the fruit on the vine has indicated that it will be worthwhile.
December 2007 Edition:
From recent rain and grapes ripening to presidential nominations and the soon to be bottled 2007 vintage, Tom Ward updates us on all the happenings at Swinging Bridge Estate:
Vineyards
Things are progressing nicely in the vineyard with some rain finally arriving over the last week which has been welcomed by all. We have had more rain this month (69mm) then we had for all of the months of July, August, September and October (62 mm altogether). It is the first time we have exceeded our average monthly rainfall since February 2007 and most of that rain came in one day. Before that we would have to go back to November 2005! The outlook for the weather is promising with a 75% chance of receiving average to above average rainfall until autumn. As long as it does not come during harvest! If you would like to keep an eye on what the weather is doing here and the forecasts have a look at the following sites:
General Forecast - http://www.australianweathernews.com
7 – 14 day forecast - http://wxmaps.org
Weather Records and Forecast - http://www.eldersweather.com.au
We have been lucky in that we have adequate supplies of supplementary irrigation for the season and that has enabled us to develop canopies that are going to enable evening ripening of the fruit. The irrigation water is sourced from the Belubula River which is fed by the Carcoar Dam. You can view the dam figures as well as the flow of the river on the waterinfo website. It also enable you to access the figures for the dams around the state so you are able to see how dire the situation is especially for the dams that feed the Murray.
Waterinfo - http://waterinfo.nsw.gov.au
At present we are about two weeks advanced of our normal phenological stages (ripening phases of the grapes). Colour change of the fruit (verasion) should start to occur in two to three weeks with the Chardonnay going first. Our crop levels are at about average with the bunches are nice and open and suitable berry size.
Harvest will be in February (weather dependent) and hopefully we can avoid any disasters before then and make Vintage 2008 as successful as previous vintages.
On a regional level I have just been made the president of the Cowra Wine Region. We have many exciting things happening over the next couple of years. The main one is the Cowra Sustainable Partnerships which is the development of our environmental policy for the vineyards. We have already had great interest in this with a recent visit from Max Allen (The Weekend Australian and the Gourmet Wine Traveller) who had extremely positive feedback for us. You will hear more of the initiatives that have been set out in this in the coming months and hopefully some of the benefits that will flow over into the vineyard and into the wine.
Tom Ward with Max Allen (The Weekend Australian
and Gourmet Wine Traveller)
Winemaking
The 2007 wines are coming along nicely with the Shiraz my personal pick at the moment. The fruit we picked for this wine showed some of the most intense colour we have seen while also exhibiting some intense varietal characters. This Shiraz shows some pepper and earthy notes with a full spice and blackberry palate.
The Chardonnay is being prepared for bottling in early January and we have completed the final blending on it. The wine follows in the same mould as previous years showing some beautiful integrated and stylish oak which is well balanced by the fruit. The Chardonnay is showing some lemon and nutmeg on the nose while it has a fresh citrus flavoured palate with a tight finish.
We also have some other wines in the development phase so expect to hear more about these in the not to distant future.
