DAD’S VINE CUTTINGS HEAVEN-SENT FOR JULIE…

Wc27Jun11 

David Ellis

BOUTIQUE Clare Valley maker Julie Barry has come up with a stunner of a 2008 Shiraz under her quirkily-named Good Catholic Girl label, a wine that could possibly have had some Divine intervention as its fruit was picked in the midst of a fiery heatwave, yet remarkably it came through with flying colours.

Julie’s named this wine The James Brazill 2008 Clare Shiraz after her late father, Jim (James Brazill) Barry from whose superb Armagh vineyards he gave her cuttings in 1997 to start her own winemaking venture.

With such a lineage those cuttings have certainly done her proud, for despite that fortnight of over 36-degree heat she was able to create a wine that’s a veritable liquid Christmas cake of plum, blackberry and other dark fruit flavours, balanced by nice savoury notes.

Good value at $30 to share on the table with lamb shanks baked in thyme or a hearty rabbit stew with winter vegetables; if you can’t find it locally, email enquiry@goodcatholicgirl.com.au or phone Julie direct on 0419 822 909.

FIRST-ever Grange, the experimental 1951 vintage. If you can afford thelatest-release 2006 at $599, savour it with Wagyu beef.

ONE FOR LUNCH: $51,062 just paid for a bottle of the first-ever Penfolds Grange – an experimental drop made by Max Schubert in 1951 – makes the $599 asking-price for the current-release 2006 look positively cheapskate.

The 1951 Grange was amongst a number of rare Penfolds treasures auctioned online this month by Langtons; others included an Auldana St Henri, Magill 1911 (half-bottle) that sold for $1265 and a Penfolds Bin 379 Special Bottling Sauternes, Barossa Valley 1960 that fetched $1208.

Langton’s Founder and General Manager, Stewart Langton said the 1951 Grange was particularly interesting for collectors: “Grange has no parallel in the world,” he said. “No-one can collect the first vintage of the great First Growth wines of Bordeaux, yet this is possible here in Australia with Grange.”

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