By John Rozentals.
Maygars Hill vineyard at dawn: producing old-fashioned reds.
I obviously hadn’t read the name on the label correctly. At first I thought I’d received a couple of reds from a Germanic location in the Barossa. And there are plenty of those.
Then I realised that if that had been the case then two of the letters — y and g — would have been transposed and the labels would have referred to ‘Magyars Hill’.
But they didn’t. They referred to ‘Maygars Hill’ and the vineyard was located in the Victorian Strathbogie Ranges area, near Mansfield.
The vineyard was named after a Lieutenant Colonel Les Maygar who was awarded a VC for gallantry in Australia’s campaign in southern Africa during the Boer War, nearly 20 years before Gallipoli and probably best remembered for the wrongful — aren’t they all wrongful? — execution of one Harry ‘Breaker’ Morant.
These days the 20-acre property, which also sports a holiday cottage, is owned by Jenny Houghton and has a six-acre vineyard devoted to shiraz and cabernet sauvignon.
The vines produce heroic reds from small berries — the sort of reds that would make Les, and indeed Morant, proud.
After all, they’re all real Aussies, including the reds, whether Barossan or Victorian.
WINE REVIEWS
Maygars Hill 2017 Shiraz ($30): Vigneron Jenny Houghton describe herslf as a ‘bit old-fashioned’. So, too, is this, and the following, red, but hey there’s nothing wrong with that. Both wines have plenty of honest varietal flavour and ample drive on the bouquet and palate, and that’s more than you should get for the money. Drink this with a thick, rare, juicy steak straight off the barbie.
Maygars Hill 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon ($30): This wine comes from the 100th anniversary of Maygar’s death and the 20th birthday of the vineyard. The winemaker’s notes suggest at least a decade’s cellaring and they are right, but drinking the wine now with roast lamb. and plenty of mint sauce, isn’t out of the question. But allow this plummy number adequate time to breath, or decant vigorously.
WINE OF THE WEEK
D’Arenberg 2017 The Dead Arm Shiraz ($75): Definitely my favourite from the latest D’Arenberg releases. It’s spot on. There’s nothing quite like shiraz lovingly made from grapes ripened on nurtured mature vines from a top red area. It’s packed with spicy dark berry fruits enhanced by excellent oak. Just in time to perfectly match the meaty stews that will start emerging from southern Australian kitchens over the next few weeks.
