Author Archives: Rosemary Shisler

Taltarni Pyrenees Estate Shiraz 2009

Taltarni Pyrenees Estate Shiraz 2009

 93+ Points!

“Easy to forget that Taltarni have some length of history having been established in 1969. I do anyway. Likewise, this shiraz has been produced since 1977, in various guises and styles I imagine. Still has a cork in it too. Historical, in some respects also.

“Mmm, spicy. Pure and lifted fruit expression in the bouquet, much more floral and fruity and fresh than expected with a liberal dusting of sweet cinnamon sugar spice. Super form in the palate – a bolting, slender, luscious slit of red and dark fruits given a dose of pepper with silky but enlivening acidity and ripe, supple tannins. Great shape, in your face, for immediately appreciated drinking, even with the fortitude of pencil-shavings-oak-with-nougat-sweetness. Finishes again with pencil shaving kind of smoky savouriness and a touch of eucalyptus. Stood out in a long bracket. Personality.”

Rated : 93+ Points
Tasted : AUG12  Alcohol : 14%  Price : $40  Closure : Cork  Drink : 2012 – 2032

- Mike Bennie, The Wine Front
http://www.winefront.com.au/taltarni-pyrenees-shiraz-2009/

Click here to purchase Taltarni Pyrenees Estate Shiraz 2009

Taltarni Pyrenees Estate Shiraz 2009

 

Taltarni Pyrenees Estate Shiraz 2009

Taltarni 2009 Pyrenees Estate Shiraz, Victoria

Taltarni Pyrenees Estate Shiraz 2009

“A few years ago, while attending a wine lunch in the Adelaide Hills, I came across one of the most sublime food and wine pairings I’ve ever tried. It was beetroot and pinot noir. The sweet earthiness of the beetroot seemed to perfectly complement the same flavours in the pinot and I made a note to self on the day to try it again. Since then it’s always seemed to work. But it’s freezing at the moment and to be honest, I’m looking for reds with a little more stuffing to warm up my dinners.

“Enter the Taltarni 2009 shiraz, a medium to full-bodied wine with some enticing lifted aromas of violets and pepper. The palate is full of blackcurrant and rich plum with a touch of marzipan. There’s some lovely cedar oak in the background rounding out the finish with fine grainy tannins. I’m sure it will be an excellent accompaniment to this week’s tart and probably a little more satisfying than most pinot noirs too. Of course if you feel like a pinot noir don’t let me stop you, it’s a great match for beetroot, but I’ll be going for another glass of this Taltarni shiraz while you do.”

- Fergus McGhie, Canberra Times (July 14th 2012)

Purchase Taltarni Estate Shiraz 2009

Taltarni Estate Cabernet 2009 is “all the rage”!

Taltarni 2009 Estate Cabernet

“Cool-climate shirazes and cabernets from West Victoria are all the rage right now. This single-vineyard wine offers a bet each way – drinking beautifully on its release but its pedigree suggests it will also cellar well. Rich brambly notes on the nose lead to a palate with varietal blackcurrant/dark chocolate/undergrowth flavours in harmony with some classy French oak. This has excellent structure but probably needs to be paired with food to be seen at its best.”

- Winsor Dobbin, Ciao Magazine (July 6th, 2012)

Purchase Taltarni Estate Cabernet 2009 now

Seduction by Tastebuds | Taltarni, Saturday, September 22nd

Seduction by Tastebuds

Now in its seventh year, the Pyrenees Wine Region’s annual Seduction by Tastebuds matches Victoria’s top chefs with Victoria’s top winemakers for a series of slow wine lunches.

Join Taltarni’s senior winemaker, Robert Heywood, and Nicolas Poelaert, chef and owner of Carlton’s French-flavoured Embrasse Restaurant and The Age Food Guide’s Best Young Chef of 2009, at picturesque Taltarni at 1pm on Saturday, September 22nd for a deliciously slow and indulgent wine lunch.

Chef Nicolas Poelaert’s signature dishes will be matched with Taltarni’s French-inspired still and sparkling wines.

Cost: $130 all inclusive

Click here to book tickets online.

Alternatively, please phone the Avoca Information Centre on 1800 206 622.

Chef Nicolas Poelaert, Embrasse Restaurant

Chef Nicolas Poelaert, Embrasse Restaurant

http://www.embrasserestaurant.com.au/

Taltarni Estate Shiraz Wins Gold at RASQ

Our Taltarni Estate Shiraz 2009 won Gold and Best in Class at the Royal Agricultural Society of Queensland 2012 Wine Show

Taltarni Estate Shiraz 2009 Wins Gold & Best In Class

 Click here for more info on the 2009 Taltarni Estate Shiraz.

Cin cin Karina Dambergs | Galli Wine Scholarship Dux

We’re thrilled to relay that our recently appointed group sparkling winemaker, Karina Dambergs, was announced as the winner of the prestigious 2012 Galli Wine Scholarship at a dinner held at Union Dining last night in Melbourne.

Now in its fourth year, the Lorenzo Galli Wine Scholarship was set up by Pamela Galli in honour of her late husband.  It’s designed to celebrate and explore the diversity and richness of Italian wine, while showcasing the latest Australian interpretations and trends with regard to Italian varietals.

Karina’s essay application was one of ten selected by scholar convenors Jane Faulkner and Michael Trembath, with those shortlisted attending a 2-day Masterless at Galli. The group’s examination yesterday comprised a rigorous blind tasting of around 150 top wines as well as a written component.

As the awarded dux, Karina has won a trip to Italy valued at $10,000. Cin cin, Karina!

Pamela Galli presents Karina Dambergs with the 2012 Galli Scholarship

Karina Dambergs - Group Sparkling Winemaker, Clover Hill & Taltarni

 

GWE’s Australian Winemakers | Same Faces, Different Places

Press Release – Thursday, June 14th, 2012

GWE’s Australian Winemakers | Same Faces, Different Places

Goelet Wine Estates (GWE), the umbrella company for both Taltarni Vineyards and Clover Hill here in Australia, has recently undergone an exciting new restructure to better utilise its existing wine-making talent for the betterment of all its key stakeholders.

With the departure of much-loved chief operating officer and chief winemaker Loïc Le Calvez, former senior winemaker Karina Dambergs and former winemaker Robert Heywood are enthusiastically taking the wine-making reins.

Karina Dambergs, in her new role as Clover Hill Operations Manager and Group Sparkling Winemaker, has relocated permanently down to Clover Hill and, with a passion for both sparkling wine and Tasmania, finally feels like she’s “home”.

“The thing that excites me the most,” says Dambergs, “is getting to make a portfolio of sparkling wines from fruit planted and grown exclusively for that purpose. I’m also excited to try and help push the reputation of Tasmanian sparkling wine. I think it has the potential to be a world-class wine style as Tasmania becomes more renowned as a premier cool-climate region.”

The fruit from Tea Tree, GWE’s new Southern Tasmanian-based vineyard in the Coal Valley, provides Dambergs with the opportunity to blend regions to make wines that truly express Tasmania, while also showcasing single-vineyard wines from two very different Tasmanian micro-climates. “With 14 years experience making sparkling base, we have no doubt she’ll do justice to both as well as Taltarni’s flagship sparklings,” says CEO Adam Torpy.

Having already given a sparkling master class at this year’s ICCS in Hobart, Karina will now be on location to represent Clover Hill at Wine Tasmania and Tamar Valley Wine Route events.

Back at Taltarni Vineyards, the wine-making talents of Robert Heywood will be focussed on Taltarni’s pedigree reds in his new role as Taltarni’s Senior Winemaker. With an interest and an aptitude for making still reds, in particular Shiraz and Cabernet, Robert is in his element. Having been actively involved in the direction of Taltarni’s still wines for a few years now, the 2009 Estate Shiraz and Cabernet in particular are an early indication of what we can look forward to with Robert at the helm.

“One of the things I love about making reds,” says Heywood, “is seeing the potential in the wine you have in your glass post-vintage and being tasked with realising it two or three years down the  track. Seeing the wine grow and improve with age while knowing that it’s a reflection of the hard work of all those people involved in creating it is really fulfilling.

“My goal is to continue to reward Taltarni’s existing loyal customer base with beautiful cellar-worthy reds, while making more approachable innovative wines for a whole new generation of Taltarni consumers to enjoy. Knowing the potential of this vineyard, it is a great honour to be tasked with realising it.”

Robert is looking forward to meeting and greeting the media and the trade at a number of upcoming Taltarni events, both here and overseas.

For more information, please contact Rosemary Shisler
Marketing Manager Australia/Asia, Goelet Wine Estates rshisler@goeletwineestates.com | 0437 394 637

Taltarni’s New Taché Ambassador Amber Wyatt

– Press Release (24/05/2012) –

Amber Wyatt | Taltarni’s New Taché Ambassador

Gold Coast personality Amber Wyatt is the new brand ambassador for Taché, Taltarni’s flagship sparkling rosé.

Ms Wyatt will be hosting a series of Taché events nationwide. At her recent debut event, “Make a Splash” at Shuck Restaurant and Bar on the Gold Coast, guests who donned a “splash of pink” were rewarded with a complimentary glass of Taché upon arrival.

According to Taltarni’s Marketing Manager, Rosemary Shisler, “Amber is the epitome of a ‘Taché Girl’: intelligent, glamorous and charismatic. She’s the perfect representative for the brand.”

As part of her brand ambassadorial role, Ms Wyatt will be promoting Taltarni’s ever-expanding Cellar Key and Dusty Bottle wine clubs (www.taltarni.com.au/wine-club).

Dubbed the “next Leila McKinnon”, when Amber’s not out and about enjoying a glass of Taché, she is busy as a freelance journalist, often seen on Nine Win Gold Coast News and heard on SeaFM.

To join Amber Wyatt at her next Taché event, keep an eye on Taltarni’s Facebook page for details (www.facebook.com/TaltarniVineyard).

Taltarni Tache Brand Ambassador Amber Wyatt

Taltarni Tache Brand Ambassador Amber Wyatt

For more information, please contact:

Rosemary Shisler | Marketing Manager Australia/Asia | Goelet Wine Estates
rshisler@goeletwineestates.com | 0437 394 637

Vintage – A Key Moment for Winemaker Karina Dambergs

Here at Taltarni HQ we try and make wine for all the key moments in your life.   One of the key moments in a winemaker’s life is vintage.  It’s long, tiring, frustrating, sticky, fraught with compromise but if any winemaker denies they love it, it’s time for them to hang up their juice-stained steel caps.

Winemaking sounds like a job that involves numerous occasions for imbibing – that it does – but the great aspect of the job for me is how many different roles it encompasses.  Our job as winemakers is incredibly seasonal; we sound like farmers when it comes to the weather at this time of year.  This is also our one time of the year to craft our product and the one time of year we can get away with expressing the crazy, temperamental artist in ourselves.   Like any good parent we are incredibly sleep deprived, but the reward, after hard work and dedication, is being proud of our creations no matter what.

 

Here, in no particular order is what I love about vintage.

 

  • The Fruit

I’ll deny this if the vineyard guys are present but it’s all about this.  Even for sparkling.   As the old saying goes, “You can make a bad wine from good fruit, but you can’t make a good wine from bad fruit.”  This is the one time of year we can taste it, work with it, manipulate it.  Every year is different, so it always keeps you on your toes.

 

  • The Camaraderie

Like most people these days, we find ourselves stretched and time poor.  Vintage is the one time of year we really spend time with the people we work with.  Well, you have to with the hours that you work in vintage.  We’re focused; we’re concentrating on the job at hand (even if we miss the eagles soaring).

 

  • The Sunrises

I think any shift worker would tell you the hardest time to stay alert is in is the pre-dawn light, but it’s worth it when you see the sunrise.  You really can’t complain about an office that looks like this.

 

  • The Sunsets

You saw the sunrise; you’re seeing the sunset.  If you’re really unlucky you’ll see the sunrise again.  But there’s nothing like a freshly hosed off pad knowing you’ve loaded the last press for the day whilst you watch a beautiful sunset – you can almost taste that knock-off beer.

About Karina Dambergs

Taltarni Taché, The Pink Diamond of Sparkling Rosés

Press Release (16/05/2012):

Taltarni’s fully integrated trade- and social media-driven “Your Moment to Sparkle” competition for Taché, Australia’s number one selling sparkling rosé within its category*, came to a climactic close on Tuesday, May 1st.

Competition entrants were required to describe a sparkling moment in their life, in 20 words or less, to win a Holloway Diamonds pink diamond pendant valued at over AU$8,500.

There were three pink diamond pendants to be won in one of three ways:

1. The “People’s Choice”, as voted by fellow Facebookers

2. “Taltarni’s Choice”, as voted by Taltarni Vineyards

3. Random Selection, as chosen by a random generator

The competition response, both in size and calibre, exceeded expectations. With just under 4,000 “sparkling moments” submitted, the entries ranged from personal, intimate moments to proud moments of achievement to celebratory moments with loved ones.

The winner of the “People’s Choice”, an award designed to bolster the competition’s virality, generated 2,189 Facebook “shares” (recommends and sends) and 404 unique comments. The monthly minor prize draws, each involving 100 entrants being selected at random to receive a Taché Sparkling Moments Gift Box, also created surges in competition interest and excitement throughout the campaign. The winning entries can be viewed at http://www.taltarni.com.au/sparklingmoments/winners .

The competition homepage was “liked” by 6,055 Facebook users, while the competition entries as a collective generated a phenomenal 15,000 Facebook “shares” and 8,000 Facebook comments. The total brand reach of these figures equates to approximately 4.5 million targeted Facebook eyeballs.

It was a nationwide competition, with promotional stock available in all Dan Murphy stores as well as other fine wine retailers. Each bottle of Taché “wore” a pink diamond neck pendant, advertising and promoting the competition via QR code at an in-store level. The competition was also supported by online advertising, window displays and in-store POS. It ran from February 1st, 2012 to April 30th, 2012, covering Valentine’s Day, Easter and “diamond month” in April.

Both Taltarni and Holloway Diamonds are aspirational, lifestyle brands that produce some of the finest pink sparkling products within their respective field. Taché is the French word for “stained”, which refers to the fact that the wine is “stained” with red wine. A sparkling pink diamond pendant promotion helped to reinforce that Taché is, in actuality, a pink sparkling within the minds of consumers.

To view Ann Smedley, the “Taltarni’s Choice Award” winner, receive her prize diamond pendant, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/watchv=wGkCFRl_vfc

To view the competition, please visit: http://www.taltarni.com.au/sparklingmoments/

Taltarni Tache and Holloway pink diamond pendant

Taltarni Tache & Holloway Diamonds - Both For Life's Sparkling Moments

* AC Nielson; sparkling rosé $20 – $30 price category.

For more information, please contact: Rosemary Shisler
Marketing Manager Australia/Asia | Goelet Wine Estates rshisler@goeletwineestates.com | 0437 394 637