Wine: The Grape And The Group
The Age
Tuesday March 11, 1997
Learning the complex ways of wine can be an educational and entertaining experience, writes JENI PORT.
SUNDAY evening and upstairs at an inner Melbourne bistro, 10 men and two women ponder the meaning of life inside a wine glass.
Before each of them are two reds. They are told the grape variety is the same and the vintage too, but how to identify the peppery, spicy contents of each glass?
This is a Master of Wine Tasting Group - or rather a group of serious students hoping for a place in a world order numbering just 223.
In a town that treats its wine as religiously as its footy, this monthly meeting of wine heads is not unusual. In upstairs rooms and behind closed doors in restaurants across the state, Single Bottle Clubs, Monday Tables and Friday Groups meet regularly to sip, swirl, swallow and savor their hobby.
Numbers are usually restricted to how many glasses can be comfortably filled from a single bottle (up to 12). Membership is generally by invitation only, but the eclectic makeup of many groups reveals that wine appreciation follows no socio-economic rules.
In the Master of Wine Tasting Group, retailers, restaurant sommeliers and wine makers have joined together to taste the world's wines. Many, like wine maker Martin Williams of Yarra Valley Hills and Virgin Hills, say they aren't ready to sit the MW exam but take the opportunity to broaden their tasting knowledge.
The one among them who is "going for it" is Michael Trembath, a wine importer who will sit the three-day practical and theory tests in May.
Being part of the group, he says, helps with the cost of buying wines, and the discussions hone his already considerable skills.
Visiting Master of Wine, New Zealand wine maker Michael Brajkovich of Kumeu River, near Auckland, is sitting in this night to lend guidance. "The Masters of Wine actually want people to pass," he insists.
But as the night progresses, it seems the two anonymous, spicy reds waiting to be identified conspire against such success for some.
Talk of indigenous yeasts and malolactic fermentations is a world away from the smoke-filled front bar at Jimmy Watson's in Carlton, where one of the city's longest-running wine clubs, the House of Lords, meets.
Here, with a clutch of masked bottles, an older generation of wine lovers celebrate the fruit of the vine among the noisy lunch-time throng.
Reflecting its colorful mix of Melbourne University academics, medicos and retirees, the House of Lords is deliberately derisive in name and nature. Its members need only be born with a taste for big, heart-thumping, toe-curling reds.
A lover of pinot noir would have a hard time with the cabernet sauvignons and shirazes from central Victoria, the north-east, Barossa, Coonawarra and Clare Valley, which are invariably revealed after a round of guessing games each Tuesday.
Original members like retired Melbourne University biochemist Max Marginson, and medico Dick Gutch enjoy what can only be described as a traditional appreciation society.
A Central Victorian cabernet sauvignon is a "Ruben's wine with lots of everything", while a 1989 Taminick shiraz is "gorgeous with a beautiful future".
Cliff Booth's rustic north-eastern Taminick red speaks with the wrong accent for the serious wine collectors who make up Walter's Table, run by restaurateur Walter Bourke.
"We rarely put on Australian wines," he admits. "The last time we had one would have been an old Chambers' muscat."
Tonight at Walter's Wine Bar it's the Table's Options night. All seven male members either boast fine cellars or know where to get a bottle of the choicest grand cru Burgundy or exceptional Bordeaux or Rhone.
A filled glass is placed at each setting and the wine's owner then asks a series of questions of the others. With each question lost $1 is thrown into the silver bowl in the middle of the table. The glittering dregs go towards the purchase of more great bottles, which, considering the cost involved, takes some time. But this is a good night for the treasury.
After mixed success with the 1978 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Richebourg, Guigal's 1990 La Landonne and a '59 Vosne-Romanee from Jayer, the players are looking a little piqued.
"I'm in a couple of groups," says wine importer Gary Steel, "but this is the one I like to go to. It's a good group, with good people, good wine knowledge. You can have a bit of fun but it is serious as well."
And whether $800 or $8 has been spent on the wine, that sums up the appeal of belonging to a wine club.
© 1997 The Age