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Posts tagged ‘design’

May 19

A Mollydooker Moment

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Bright, ecclectic labels, enchanting names, and bold flavours.

I’ve been slowly working my way through the variety of wines in the Mollydooker collection for some time. This company has the user journey nailed – from the bottle store to the bottom of the glass.

Based in McLaren Vale, the Mollydooker vineyard grows Shiraz primarily, as wells as Cabernet, Merlot, Semillon and Chardonnay. I love that their philosophy is all about bringing out the ‘wow’ factor in the wine – it’s all about character, as opposed to the quest for excellence. Labels within the Mollydooker family are bright stars among their pale rivals on the shelf, with bubbly graphics and names like ‘Two Left Feet’, ‘GigglePot’, ‘Enchanted Path’ & ‘Carnival of Love’. Furthermore, each wine has a story to tell.

The 2009 Maitre D’ Cabernet Sauvignon that you see pictured above was named after the winemaker himself (‘Sparky’), who, according to the website, put himself through winemaking college working as a left handed Maitre D’.

This wine is beautiful example of the rich, bountiful flavours produced by Mollydooker. A very sweet red, you’ll be able to taste berries, chocolate, vanilla and spice. It makes for a smoother mouthful on the second day of opening – I would recommend running this one through an aerator if you want to drink it straight away, or leave the cap off for 1/2hr so the first mouthful is as wonderful as the last.

The Maitre D’ would add heart to any meal. I enjoyed it with a slow cooked Lamb, Date & Spinach tagine, and then later with a block of dark chocolate as dessert.

If you have a few minutes to spare, take a wander through the Mollydooker website – it’s a treasure trove of information about the winery, it’s produce and the people behind it. My favourite was the story of Sparky & Sarah and how the success of their winery came to be, among other things ;)

Finally if you’re in the mood for decadence - their 2011 Velvet Glove looks divine. At $185 this is one for a special event – but it’s so beautifully packaged, I’m already thinking about the next occasion that would justify a bottle!

Mar 3

Dark Side of The Moon

Dark Side Of The Moon

One balmy night, about three years ago I bought a dusty bottle from a dusty little bottle store,tucked away in a little nook behind a cranny somewhere at the back of Glebe Point Rd. Hungrier than a harras of horses, my companion and I found a homely BYO Italian place to dine right next door, whereupon the contents of the bottle were sipped greedily between large mouthfuls of fresh wood fired pizza.

At the time I didn’t know whether it was the pizza, or the fact that I was already a little tipsy from the cocktails I’d drunk an hour before, but the wine tasted like a drop of heaven. Magically labelled ‘Dark Side Of The Moon‘, this wine left a mysterious mark on my memory.

I didn’t think I’d ever find the same bottle again – I went back to the same place a few weeks later, only to find they’d run out of stock. I searched for it in other popular liquor stores to no avail. Ironically, the pizza place also closed down a few months later, which was sad because their food had heart, as did the people that worked there.

Fast-forward to a couple of days ago when The Dark Side of The Moon decided to come out from the shadows, and wave at me from the Shiraz isle at non other than Dan Murphy’s. The vintage I’m currently drinking is a 2011, so it’s only aged by a year or so, but it’s as rich and subtle as I remember. It’s made by Claymore Wines, of the Clare Valley in South Australia. Check out their website for more on The Dark Side of The Moon (2010 tasting notes only), and their various other wildly-named varieties. Titles like Black Magic Woman, Saltan’s Swing, and Purple Rain, this winery seems to ooze both intimacy and imagination. I thoroughly look forward to trying some of the varieties…

May 20

Wine By Some Young Punks

Brain Food…

Selecting a good wine is a complex & intriguing process.

Navigating your way through a sea of shelves and bottles, hundreds of tiny little question marks bubble happily in your brain…vintage? grape variety?  price? recommendation? label? taste? region?
Eventually, all these puzzle pieces struggle together to form a seemingly coherent thought, upon which a bottle is plucked triumphantly from the shelf and whisked away to the counter, Happy as Larry.

It is with this in mind that I must tell you I’ve been slightly naughty – the other day I bought some wine based purely on the look of the label.

Love them or hate them, all label designs by ‘Wine By Some Young Punks’ will have the same effect on you – they’ll jump out at you as if you’ve been smacked over the head.

Bursting with colour and character, each variety has a design, and subsequently a story inimitable to any other.  This story is communicated through a variety of visual languages, whether this be Pulp Fiction, Gothic Romance, Graphic Novel or Street-style Graffiti art. The concept behind each label is documented on the Wine By Some Young Punks website, which is well worth a visit.

I very much admire these winemakers for their bravery in breaking the traditional mould, and founding a contemporary winemaking ethos:

“We make charismatic wines that are true to what we think ‘wine’ should be about… Each wine, each vintage, and each label is a moment that will never come again… We believe that awesome wine is a powerful aid to creativity; there is always the danger that while drinking a bottle of Punks you may also be pushed to random acts of winemaking, it definitely keeps us ticking over…” 

Tasting The Story:

Monsters, Monsters, Attack! 2011 Riesling is a sweet, musky and seriously enjoyable sensation from the Clare Valley. Its feminine and floral aromas will tickle your nose, and its complex palate of apple, musk & lychee-like flavours will tease your tongue.
It’s fairly sweet, but not overpoweringly so; I’d pair it with a vegetarian meal, chicken, or salmon.  If you’re a fan of moscato, you might also enjoy this Riesling as an after-dinner wine. It retails for about $23 a bottle.

Fierce Allure 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon is a bio-dynamic, single vineyard drop from the McLaren Vale.
As the name suggests, some serious tannins will hit your mouth during that first sip. But once the wine has been aerated, the tannins will soften and open your palette up to exquisite red fruit flavours, laced with the spiciness of herbs, cinnamon & liquorice.
Enjoy it with a hearty winter meal…making sure there’s a nice portion of succulent red meat somewhere on your plate. I recommend cracking the lid a day or so before you intend to drink it. It retails for about $30 a bottle, so you may as well get the most out of every drop!

Post Script

The story behind each of the Young Punks is an interesting one. I’d recommend doing a cheeky Google search on Jen Gardner, Colin McBryde and Nic Bourke for a little bit of background, as the Young Punks website doesn’t really give you too many details.

Apart from that, all I can say it that their ‘new world’ winemaking ethos has seriously impressed me – I look forward to seeing what the Punks come up with in years to come. 

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