By John Rozentals.
Peter Logan: Winery in Mudgee but heart in Orange.
These days, Peter Logan produces wines and has a spectacularly located cellar door on the outskirts of the NSW town of Mudgee, but still continues to seek out grapes from high on the slopes of Mount Canobolas, near Orange.
And I’m glad because the city and surrounds have some of the country’s coolest vineyards — vineyards that produce delicate, but full-flavoured wines that are highly suited to consumtion with food.
When I first met Peter, quite a few year ago, he was largely dependent on those cool slopes for his output.
Since then, Orange has been declared one of the world’s few — perhaps only — Geographic Indicators or appellation systems largely dependent on altitude.
To describe themselves as from Orange, wines must be made from grapes grown at at least 600 metres in Orange, Cabonne or Blayney — and that altitude must apparently be contiguous from Mt Canobolas, something which as caused concern in some parts of Manildra.
But, heck, they had to draw the line somewhere, as some vineyards straddling the 600-metre contour have discovered.
I’ll consider the wisdom of the name ‘Orange’ in a future article.
WINE REVIEWS
Castle Rock Estate 2019 Porongurup Riesling: Porongurup, a small part of the much larger West Australian Great Southern wine region, is rapidly gaining a significant reputation for its reasonably restrained, high quality rieslings with considerable aging potential. Look for riesling hallmarks of floral and citrus characters. Drink with grilled white-fleshed fish or share over a plate of oysters.
Logan 2019 Orange Sauvignon Blanc: I much prefer wines from the easily overcropped variety grown on more elevated sites such as Orange or the Adelaide Hills than around New Zealand’s Marlborough region. It tends to develop more palate texture and richness, and more easily pass the second- and third-glass tests. This is a ripper dry white with plenty of upfront passionfruit flavour yet showing lots of mid-palate oomph as well.
WINE OF THE WEEK
Logan 2017 Orange Shiraz: This dry red hails from some of Australia’s highest, and therefore coolest, grapegrowing country, so don’t expect a big Barossa-style ball-tearer. You won’t get it. Instead, you’ll get a more savoury, European-style red which is generally more subtle, food friendly and, I reckon, better. It’s lovely and will certainly match most mid-flavour-range meat dishes. Or, do as I did, and drink with a fine pasta dish of bolognese.
