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We have all been there before, experiencing a hot summer. Pokolbin is said to derive it name from the Hungarian Pokol, which means purgatory or hell. Early European vinedressers who made their way here in the 1840/50s thought the summers were “Hot as Hell”. A theory expressed in Max Lake’s book, Hunter Wine Makers, based…
Read More →Not surprisingly most of us who enjoy good food also love a good bottle of wine to go with it. Sometimes we have the opportunity of having extended experiences of enjoying the two over a long lunch or dinner. Our local Legends Lunch, organized by Ian Napier, is held at a number of Pokolbin restaurants…
Read More →‘Good wine starts in the vineyard’ is a familiar quote and certainly holds true when it comes to quality, but what does it mean. We were recently asked to make a short video for the Around Hermitage News Desk about spring in the vineyard and there were many facets that came to mind that we…
Read More →It used to be that the characteristic of Hunter Reds was a “sweaty saddle” nose that would signal Hunter! Not any more, with great perseverance the Hunter wine industry has got rid of Brettanomyces (Brett) – the organism that was spoiling our wines. Although for years it wasn’t recognized, the flavour can be attractive to…
Read More →About 25 years ago, not long after buying our block on Hermitage Road, I was invited to help write a book on Carotid Artery disease (my special interest) on the island of Cyprus by Professor Andrew Nicoladies of London- a Greek Cypriote. It was a successful collaboration and importantly for me an introduction to the…
Read More →With the recent announcement of the reopening of Lindeman’s Ben Ean winery by the McGuigan and Peterson families I thought it might be timely to look again at Henry Lindeman and his family and their great contribution to the Hunter and Australian wines more generally. Restoring the Ben Ean property to its early roots is…
Read More →Standing in the courtyard of Estate Tuscany at the opening of the Hermitage Road Cycle Way on 30th August 2017, I mentioned to George Souris, Chairman of the Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association, that we were overlooking the old Rothbury Estate owned by David Scott Mitchell (1836-1907) of Mitchell Library fame. Mitchell was Australia’s…
Read More →“To know the vineyard is to know the wine” When Max Lake took his spade and bucket to dig up soil samples before settling on the block we know as Lakes Folly, he was digging up more than soil, he was turning the sod for a whole new generation of wine drinkers. In the early…
Read More →It is not by any accident of fate that the Hunter Valley was established as a fine wine producer. From the early days wine making was modeled on the French example and Fine table wines were the object of our pioneers. The exchange of experiences and ideas was a key reason for establishing the Hunter…
Read More →While this is stating the obvious it is becoming more important than ever to define our region as a fine wine producer in order to distinguish us from the flat land large acre industrial vineyards that produce so much of the “brand Australia” every day drinking wines. Following on from my last blog where I…
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