{"id":410,"date":"2009-02-05T18:01:32","date_gmt":"2009-02-05T18:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wine-maker-andrew-the-ox-hardy-of-petaluma-talks-to-helen-forrest\/"},"modified":"2009-02-05T18:01:32","modified_gmt":"2009-02-05T18:01:32","slug":"wine-maker-andrew-the-ox-hardy-of-petaluma-talks-to-helen-forrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wine-maker-andrew-the-ox-hardy-of-petaluma-talks-to-helen-forrest\/","title":{"rendered":"Wine Maker Andrew ‘The Ox’ Hardy of Petaluma Talks to Helen Forrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Helen Forrest Reports From The Great Australian Wine Experience 2009, 28th January.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whether you know your Shiraz from your Chardonnay or your ‘legs’ from your ‘finish’, a visit to the Great Australian Wine Experience is highly recommended.<\/em><\/p>\n

A veteran of the circuit, the GAWE has been established over twenty years and plays host to a thousand wines which are available to taste in a variety of ways.<\/p>\n

For a reasonable 25 pounds, visitors can enjoy chatting to the winemakers, taking one of the themed ‘Wine Walks’ with a celebrated expert or simply browsing the stalls and discovering new blends and labels, whilst sampling the gorgeous spread of cheese, bread and chutneys. Oh and don’t forget your free engraved wine glass on the way out!<\/strong><\/p>\n

So how does it work exactly? Upon entering you are given a wineglass and a goodie bag with information on the ‘winemaker’s choice’ wines, a map of the regions, a pocket guide to wine and other interesting bits and pieces. Then it’s up to you. We chose to go on two of the ‘Wine Walks’ which turned out to be a great decision, and if you are unsure of how to taste wine and what to look for the walks are both educational and inspiring. The stand out walk was ‘Heaven Scent’ which was led by the charming and enthusiastic Isabelle Legeron .<\/strong> Isabelle was brought up in France on a vineyard, thus beginning a passion for wine that has brought her to completing her Master of Wine and filming her TV series a ‘Journey Into Wine’ all this as well as running wine appreciation classes and judging competitions.<\/p>\n

Isabelle led a group of six of us around the room taking us through her choice of four aromatic wines. We were shown how to taste the wines, firstly swirling them in our glasses to release the bouquet and observe the ‘legs’ of the wine \u2013 how slowly it runs back down the sides of the glass, the slower, the more ‘legs’ and thus the more alcoholic. The next step is to take a sniff and then put your nose into the glass and sniff again. Take a sip and tilt your head forward and draw air into your mouth, tilt your head back and wash the wine around your mouth for a little while. This allows the flavours to develop and reach your tastebuds. After you swallow the intensity and length of the remaining taste is called the ‘finish’. Only by tasting in this way can you get the most out of the wine. <\/p>\n

Isabelle also encouraged us to try and describe the flavour and aroma of the wines. <\/strong>There was no wrong answer and the more we did this the more associations we would build in our memory banks (such as this wine is more ‘woody’ than that or that wine has tones of citrus in it). The two stand out wines for me were the second we tasted, Grossett’s Polish Hill (between 15-17 pounds), an exceptionally clean-tasting Riesling and the final wine a beautiful watermelon and rose petal fragranced Muscat called Moscato by Innocent Bystander (approx 6 pounds a half bottle).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Afterwards I spoke with Andrew ‘The Ox’ Hardy of Petaluma (so-called because of his previous career as a rugby player).<\/p>\n

Hello Andrew — Are there any new wines out there that you think are going to be the next big thing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

AH: There are a lot of new and exciting wines coming out of Australia. There are a lot of old standards such as the pinot chardonnay of Western Australia. Do we have the next big thing? No; we are all about going with the traditional, the tried and tested.<\/p>\n

What do you think of new blends? Those that don’t appear natural?<\/strong><\/p>\n

AH: I am all for trying things for the hell of it. The only way to find out is to do it! <\/p>\n

What is your opinion of Rose wine?<\/strong><\/p>\n

AH: It’s a hard drink to sell in Australia but it is very popular over here. It will probably stay in vogue.<\/p>\n

Do you think the water shortage in Australia will have an effect on prices?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No. There is too much wine in Australia anyway! Vineyards will be pulled out because there is not enough work. Wine is a luxury item after all.<\/p>\n

What do you think of the usage of GM yeast in wine making?<\/strong><\/p>\n

AH: I am all for it. I don’t think it is really necessary but with the GM yeast you have more control, so I can see a use for it.<\/p>\n

Andrew Hardy is the Senior Winemaker at Petaluma, who are based in Piccadilly in South Australia \u2013 www.petaluma.au<\/a><\/p>\n

The Great Australian Wine Experience 2009, 28th January \u2013 www.wineaustralia.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Helen Forrest Reports From The Great Australian Wine Experience 2009, 28th January. Whether you know your Shiraz from your Chardonnay or your ‘legs’ from your ‘finish’, a visit to the Great Australian Wine Experience is highly recommended. A veteran of the circuit, the GAWE has been established over twenty years and plays host to a read more …<\/span><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}