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August 2, 2014
It’s taken 17 years but the South Burnett finally has a five-star winery the equal of the best anywhere in Australia … and Clovely Estate co-owner Susan Mercer couldn’t be happier.
Well-known wine writer James Halliday released the 2015 edition of his Australian Wine Companion on Friday (August 1) and Clovely was delighted to find it had been rated as one of Queensland’s nine top wineries, alongside seven from the Granite Belt and one from Mt Tamborine.
As Queensland now has 177 wine producers, getting five stars is a significant achievement.
Clovely’s Moffatdale vineyards and olive groves were first planted in 1997 and since then the company has gathered a raft of awards for their winemaking talents, regularly taking gold, silver and bronze medals at State and national competitions.
Their winery, which is located in Murgon’s Old Butter Factory, also produces wines for many of the South Burnett’s vineyards who use the Clovely facilities – and the talents of chief winemaker Sarah Boyce – to process their own grapes.
Clovely also exports its wines to customers in Denmark, Taiwan and China, and has a satellite cellar door in Brisbane’s Red Hill to service capital city clients.
Several years ago they were given four stars by Halliday’s annual guide, and made it to 4.5 stars a few years ago.
But 2015’s five-star grading is the first achieved by a South Burnett winery.
Susan says it’s a tribute not only to the company she and her partner Brett Heading founded almost two decades ago but to the South Burnett wine region as a whole.
“A five star rating for a winery really puts the South Burnett on the map,” she said.
When Clovely began, the company started with the traditional mix of shiraz, merlot, chardonnay, semillon and cabernet sauvignon that most of the region’s wineries kicked off with in the late 1990s.
The thinking at that time was that the South Burnett’s climate was very similar to the Upper Hunter in NSW, and these wine varieties not only did well there but were well-accepted by consumers.
But in the 2000s, the company began to expand into lesser-known Mediterranean varieties, experimenting with trial plots to see if other grape varieties would do better in the region’s warm climate.
It also began to experiment with lesser-known wine-making techniques, including double pruning and whole-bunch drying.
Those gambles appear to have paid off, with Halliday singling out five of the company’s wines as top buys in the 2015 guide.
Two of them – Saperavi (from Georgia) and Petit Verdot (from France) – aren’t widely known outside small circles of Australian wine connoisseurs at the moment.
The full tasting notes for two of the five Clovely wines Halliday selected as being the most outstanding that Halliday tasted this year are:
- Polyphemus Passito Shiraz 2012 – The European technique of drying whole bunches after harvest has been used here. The technique leads to greater flavour, tannin and alcohol levels, here from 13-15 per cent alcohol, which of itself doesn’t suggest a large shift from the dehydration. Be that as it may, the palate has layers of flavour well beyond that of the Estate Reserve, and has to be regarded as a success. Screwcap. 15 per cent alcohol. Rated 94/100 to 2027. $90.
- Kartlis Deda Saperavi 2012 – In case you, like me, have no idea what Kartlis Deda is, the answer is she was guardian goddess of Georgia with wine and sword, Georgia being the putative birthplace of saperavi. Has the density of colour for which saperavi is famous; the wine is rich, full-bodied and well balanced, with a mix of dark berry and plum fruit seasoned with a pinch of spice, the finish pleasing. Screwcap. 14.5 per cent alcohol. Rated 94/100 to 2030. $90
Three other Clovely wines which achieved special commendations in Halliday’s 2015 Companion were:
- Left Field South Burnett Semillon 2010 – Rated 93/100 to 2025 – $20
- Left Field South Burnett Petit Verdot 2012 – Rated 91/100 to 2027 – $22
- Shiraz 2010 – Rated 90/100 to 2018 – $15
[Updated with correction]
