Yesterday we welcomed Arnaud Deville, Sales and Marketing Manager for Taltarni in Europe. Arnaud is also the Managing Director of Domaine de Nizas, an exceptional estate in the Languedoc owned by John Goelet. John not only owns these two properties but also Clos du Val in Napa Valley and Clover Hill and Lalla Gully in Tasmania. These properties make up Goelet Wine Estates, a global fine wine alliance coordinating the marketing, sales and distribution resources of these five pioneering family owned and operated wine brands. For more information go to http://www.goeletwineestates.com/ So, yesterday was all about Taltarni. Established in 1969, Taltarni is a founding winery of Victoria’s Pyrenees wine region. The picturesque 700ha property, was purchased by John Goelet in 1972 and released its first wine in 1977. Today Taltarni has 132ha of vines.
The Pyrenees wine district is one of life’s hidden treasures – the rolling hills, sweeping bluffs and gum trees create a beautiful landscape and a great place to relax. In local aboriginal dialect Taltarni means ‘red earth', describing the rich, red soil of the region. To read more about their vineyards click here.
We have been selling wines from this estate for nearly 15 years and there is now a huge following in Jersey. Our biggest selling wine out of everything we sell is the Taltarni Brut Taché Sparkling 2007 (The wine we celebrated with at our wedding nearly 12 years ago). We sell in excess of 15,000 bottles a year of this wine alone which is more than what is sold in the whole of the UK! That just shows how popular this wine is in Jersey. Arnaud described us as a 'Champion Seller' - what an honour!
Having recently increased our range of wines from Taltarni, what better way to showcase them than with a food and wine dinner. As Arnaud is currently travelling around other merchants and restaurants in the UK, we thought it would be great for him to pop over and visit us too. Having chosen the ever popular Danny's in St Aubin as our venue, we were very much looking forward to an enjoyable evening of great food, great wine and in a great atmosphere. We all enjoyed the Taltarni Taché 2007 on arrival and there was also the opportunity to try the newly introduced Taltarni T-Series Brut Sparkling. This non-vintage Taltarni T Series Sparkling NV is a traditional method sparkling made from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier sourced from the Pyrenees and Macedon Ranges. It is a blend of 70% current vintage and 30% reserve wine that is aged in stainless steel and older French oak. A bright, fruit driven wine that shows an impressive array of citrus, melon and ripe strawberry flavours. Lovely an refershing and perfect as an aperitif, it is a great wine to enjoy any time, for any celebration. All I can say is that this went down really well indeed and at £7.95 per bottle it is a steal! (I will be adding this sparkly to the website shortly but do pop down to the shop)
After Neil's introductory welcome, Arnaud introduced himself and told us a little about the background of the properties owned by John Goelet. The first wine that we were to have with our starter of Roasted Goats Cheese with and Aussie Eggplant Relish was the Taltarni 'T-Series' Sauvignon/Semillon 2008. A recent addition to our portfolio, we just loved its fresh and lively attack with lemon, passionfruit and mango notes from the Sauvignon Blanc complemented by straw and guava flavours from the Semillon. The very easy, refreshing natural acidity was perfectly complemented by a well textured mid-palate which they gain from lees contact. These flavours and acidity worked very well against the goats cheese, cutting through its creaminess very well indeed. This wine, for the price (£6.95), is very impressive and many agreed. Not only is this wine great without food but stands up well to a complex palate of food flavours. Great start!
Sourced from a single vineyard, Taltarni Heathcote Shiraz is partially barrel fermented and matured for 16 months in American oak. It is crafted to reflect the distinctive style of the Heathcote terroir. We couldn't wait to tuck into the beautifully cooked duck, so inviting, so soft and flavoursome. The jus was stunning and added a slight sweetness to the dish which when paired with the wines really took them to a higher dimension. The Heathcote (one of my personal favourites) is rich with hints of sweeter red fruits, chocolate and vanilla oak aromas. It has exceptional structure and is very well balanced and everyone loved it. A lovely match with this dish.
The Cephas 2001, with 72% Shiraz and 28% Cabernet Sauvignon structure really, when I look back now, was the winner of the two wines. The room was almost equally split on which one was the favourite but I feel the Cephas did in fact have that edge, for a number of reasons. The Cabernet had really added to the structure and length of the wine as well as very smooth tannins on top of the body, richness and red/black fruit flavours from the Shiraz. In fact this wine was so fresh that you would be very hard pushed to guess the age if tasting blind. It tasted like an 04 or 05. The cellaring potential for this wine is therefore great and I spoke to Arnaud about Taltarni's library of wines dating back to the 1970's. Their wines are proving to age exceptionally well and Arnaud said how impressed he was when he was at Taltarni last year and had the opportunity to try some of the much older wines. I think I better check how many bottles we have left because it will be very interesting to keep a case or two to try this wine in another 10/15 year times and see what the result is. A mouth-filling, complex wine that also worked very well with this dish. A great success!
UPDATE: Today we had the opportunity to try the wines from Domaine de Nizas with Arnaud and Neil was very impressed with them. Watch this space because we will be stocking some of these wines in approximately one month.
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