Here is part 2 of my interview with Nicholas Clark from Amietta in Geelong.
Questions about the region:
Cam: What influenced your decision to setup Amietta in Geelong? Did you select the region because of the varieties that you wanted to work with or was it a matter of selecting the vineyard site first and then deciding what grapes would work best? If you selected the site because you already knew what varieties you would like to work with, was there a reason behind wanting to work with them?
Nicholas: It was a mixture of practical considerations and suitability for grape growing. Amietta is actually between Melbourne and Geelong – about 1 hour 20 from the Melbourne CBD, 30 minutes from Geelong and 45 minutes from the surf at Torquay. So we saw it as a pretty ideal location for getting to Melbourne or Geelong for work or to buy equipment, spares etc for the farm and the winery. And I occasionally dust off the surfboard.
From an economic point of view, land here is a fraction of the cost of the other ‘Melbourne dress circle’ locations such as the Yarra Valley and the Mornington Peninsula.
From a grape growing point of view (our part of the Geelong region) has a near perfect climate – characterised as being about half-way between the climate of Bordeaux and of Burgundy and very similar to Margaret River. We have very dry growing seasons. That means low disease pressure, so we can manage with minimal use of ‘soft’ fungicides (seaweed powder, vegetable oil, bicarb etc) and still have disease free fruit. In 2006 growing season we only sprayed the vineyard 4 times. So what’s an ideal climate? Well apart from low disease pressure, it is warm enough to consistently ripen our chosen varieties, but cool enough (maritime influence) so that the delicate, easily-volatilised aromas/flavours are preserved in the fruit. The warmer the climate, the more of these delicate characters are boiled off. The cooler the climate, the greater the risk of weedy, unripe fruit.
The other big issue was soil type. We wanted limestone (the soil of the best red and white sites in Burgundy) and here we found the Coonawarra-type soil mix of clay over limestone on a very good site.
Cam: How was the 2006 vintage for your vineyard and grapes?
Nicholas: It was very warm and very early. The main effect of this was that we picked the Shiraz 6 weeks early (hello, climate change!) at 13.5 degrees Baumé (= 13.5% potential alcohol more or less). A lot of producers in the region didn’t see it coming and suddenly they had jammy dead flavourless fruit at 15.5 degrees Baumé. The other effect was on the Riesling – which we pick on flavour and acid levels, rather than on sugar level. It had beautiful flavours at 11.4 degrees Baumé, so we’ve made a more delicate wine (11.3% alcohol) than in previous years (normally around 12.5%). It has some beautiful floral-honeysuckle characters this year on top of the normal minerally-lemon-spice, and looks very good.
Questions about food and export:
Cam: Food forms an important part of the wine experience for most people, are your wines geared towards any particular food style? Are there any particularly good matches for your various wines that you can recommend?
Nicholas: They are all made to be enjoyable by themselves when released. That doesn’t mean they are soft, it means they are balanced. Personally I can’t stand a red that needs half a cow in your mouth as a fining agent to moderate the tannins in an over-extracted, unbalanced wine.
By and large it’s the usual suspects – lamb or beef with Angels’ Share (Shiraz-Cabernet); duck, game or quail with Shiraz, oysters or Japanese with Riesling and anything pink with Rosé. Of the 2 reds, the Shiraz has the higher acidity, so can carry a richer dish. That said, both the Shiraz and the Angels’ Share are often on our table with a nice rare steak, a baked spud and a salad.
Cam: Do you export your wine outside of Australia? If not, is international exposure a goal for the future?
Nicholas: We’ve got a fair few mailing list customers overseas (mainly NZ and Japan) where we can post a case at a time and not get slaughtered by import taxes and duties. But our production is so small that if we supplied overseas importers we’d have to cut back what we can sell here. We haven’t ruled it out, just haven’t had anyone really push us for it.