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A big welcome to Delatite Winery - Upper Goulburn, Victoria

We are a medium sized family vineyard and winery in the high country of Victoria. We consistently produce some of Australia's best aromatic varietals - Riesling, Pinot gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Gewuerztraminer.

Late Picked Riesling (2005)

To make this sweeter style of table wine, the fruit was picked on the 20th April 2005, at the end of a very early season, after the fruit for the 2005 Riesling had been harvested. The aromas are of perfumed grapefruit and lime, combined with tea-rose and a hint of musk, while the palate has rich fruit flavours and a delicate sweetness which is balanced with tangy acidity. Delicious to drink when young or cellar for up to 10 years.

Deadman's Hill Gewuerztraminer (2008)

We picked this fruit from late February through to mid March which was two weeks earlier than usual. After de-stemming the must was chilled and held in the press on skins for several hours to extract the delightful and enticing flavor and aromas of musk sticks, rose petals, turkish delight and lychees typical of this grape. Post fermentation, the wine was left for four months in tank on its lees to enhance the full palate which is simply delightful. It's a spicy wine matched with well balanced acid. This wine can be enjoyed now or cellared with confidence for up to 10 years.

VS Riesling (2005)

This wine is named after Vivienne Ritchie, the co-founder of Delatite who planted the first blocks of Riesling here in 1968. It is from these blocks that this fruit was picked in the first week of May; the cool dry weather preceding harvest and the slow ripening conditions has developed the depth of flavour in this variety. The wine shows intense aromas of citrus flowers, limes and hints of floral and musk tones; it has great strength of flavour and beautiful structure, the limey/citrus flavours, balanced with a mineral finish and fresh acidity. It has great finesse and will cellar well for up to 15 years.

With Gratitude,

Josefine
Boutique Wineries

Green House Gases Reduced With Cork!!

The first shot has barely been fired but already the battle of the bottle top is shaping up to be a corker. The Australian wine industry is preparing to resist a grass roots campaign to market cork as the ethical choice for wine drinkers.

Teaser newspaper ads, billboards and T-shirts asking people to "save Miguel" are in fact a plea by the beleaguered Portuguese cork industry to persuade environmentally conscious consumers to choose cork over plastic stoppers or metal screw caps.

Next week the world's largest cork manufacturer, Amorim, will write to winemakers and retailers telling them why cork is the greener option.

The forests of Portugal, which produce most of the world's cork, offset nearly 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year. Producing a tonne of aluminium screw caps generates four times more greenhouse gases than a similar quantity of cork, according to industry analysis.

The ads will argue that if Australian consumers continue to choose caps over corks then the forests, along with 60,000 jobs and the rare flora and fauna that depend on them, will disappear. Seven out of every 10 bottles sold in Australia use screw caps, more than any other country.

Experts doubt drinkers will be convinced. By next June the production of Australia's most popular still wine, Wolf Blass, will move to screw caps. The chief winemaker at Foster's, Chris Hatcher, ruled out a return to cork. "There's absolutely no resistance by consumers [to screw caps] and really the argument for returning to cork is an emotional one," he said.

Winemakers also criticise cork producers for failing to eradicate cork taint, the mould found in corks that can spoil a wine. Rick Kinzbrunner of Giaconda winery said most bottle shop customers wanted screw caps because they did not want to risk cork taint.

Paul Bradbury, of Whybin TBWA/Tequila, the agency behind the campaign, said: "We'd lose if we were to mount a rational argument so the emotion that surrounds the environment plus the heritage of the industry is really all we've got."

This article is courtesy of Julian Lee, Marketing Reporter from the Sydney Morning Herald, August 2, 2008