Even before the British media’s fixation with the ‘men in tights’ (Sergeant at Arms et al) supposed to be guarding our House of Commons from invaders such as the pro-hunting brigade which managed to disrupt what passes for parliamentary business last week, I was planning to draw this super-exuberant Australian to your attention.
It’s a pink wine but not as we know it. Deep, attention-grabbing, politician’s nose pink, more like, or pale, apoplectic red. In a clear, screwcapped bottle it positively demands that you take notice of it – not least with its warning in eight point letters: (Caution, may contain traces of nuts). This is fruit with a capital F, and quite a bit of tannin too. The only pink wine it reminds me remotely of is Dirk Niepoort’s Redoma, another rose that struggles against type. Drink this wine with utter recklessness and wonderment. Well chilled either without food or with the jolliest of lunches and lunch guests. It’s made from low yielding, thoroughly virused 21 year old Malbec vines grown in the relatively cool New South Wales region of Orange about which I have written a not inconsiderable amount over the years (purple pagers, use search function). The fruit was whole bunch pressed, cool fermented to, in this case, around 8g/l residual sugar. The 2004 has about five per cent Cabernet Franc input and seems even more successful than previous vintages tasted.
I asked Stephen Doyle of Bloodwood to explain where the name came from and he freely admits: it's just a bit of whimsy on my part. I'm a great fan of the Cohen brothers' films and Barton Fink in particular. There's a scene where the emasculated New York, angst-ridden writer has to front up to the cigar-toting, leather chair-embalmed HOLLYWOOD executive and admit he's suffering from writer's block on his contracted Wrestling picture. The cigar man is not pleased and he roars something like "what the .... do ya need to know. It's a wrestling picture for Christ's sake...big men in tights." This, I'm embarrassed to admit I find very amusing, and I link the scene to the name to the wine by explaining that I have emasculated a very robust, highly coloured grape (Malbec) by subjecting it to whole bunch pressing, cool fermenting, sweety darling prissy clear glass packaging and sterile (ouch) filtration. Well it’s my story and I'm sticking to it. I find the label description a bit of mental gymnastics in that I use some controversial current event as a framework to describe the wine. All the descriptors are usually there somewhere in the text. With the caveat that in the Australian wine industry there's no money in being funny, here are a couple of previous vintages to illustrate the pointlessness of it all.
2003 - With about as much reserve as a silk shirted big city real estate agent expounding the kummunity benefits of sub division to a Shire alderman with the bum out of his King Gees, this in your face pinko lolly bag of a wine always comes up smelling of roses and spice and pristine green field sites just oozing the sweet smell of suckcess. Why wait for tomorrow when you can consume today? Stick it in the fridge, splash it in a glass and remind yourself once more, all this will pass!
2002 – With all the drama of a bruised bauxite cliff in a droughty Australian sunrise, this audacious pink stick all day sucker of a wine shouts boysenberry jujubes doused in the blood of strawberries under just a dusting of icing sugar. And if you reach deep enough into the lolly jar, you may find all sorts of spicy licorice lurking! Stick it in the fridge, splash it in a glass and remind yourself once more, all this will pass.
You may well wonder what the heck I’m doing claiming to be a wine writer when you can read such persuasive stuff as this. Perhaps a bit of scepticism is needed once in a while, but I’m sure you get the picture. Big Men in Tights is fun to drink, and Stephen Doyle might just be Australia’s answer to Randall Grahm, and slightly more comprehensible. This is clearly not a wine to be taken too seriously but it does taste good.
The 2004 will be released at the beginning of next month and goes on sale at the cellar door (www.bloodwood.com.au) for A$170 (about £67 or $120 a case) and should be reasonably well distributed within Australia. Savage Selections is Bloodwood’s UK importer though the wine is not expected to reach the land of huntsman Otis Ferry and his minstrel father Bryan, much before the end of the year.
For those who cannot or will not locate it I can thoroughly recommend Brokenwood’s Forest Edge 2002 Chardonnay, another screwcapped wine grown in Orange, though quite different in character. Very fine indeed and a fair copy of good quality white burgundy with a recommended retail price of just £12.95 from UK importers Liberty Wines. The 2001 was delicious too and the 2002 can be found at Noel Young and www.everywine.co.uk.
