Hear It On The Grapevine

The Age

Tuesday February 12, 2008

Jane Faulkner

Never mind the food, what about the wine? This year's festival is soaking in it, as Jane Faulkner reports.

YOU could go Italian and be perfectly content drinking sangiovese and barolo exclusively. But then you would miss out on some smart Greek wines and very smooth Victorian pinot noir. Oh dear, decisions, decisions. It's not going to be easy.

At long last, the wine component of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival has been revved up thanks, in part, to the input of Sommeliers Australia, which has created a program to complement the dinners, lunches and tastings that are already regular features of the festival.

The Cellar Door at Southgate is back, to be held on the first weekend of March. It's all about the country coming to the city, with the chance to taste wines from at least 65 Victorian producers including Willow Creek, Innocent Bystander and Shadowfax, for $25. They will be set up cellar door-style along Southgate, to create an informal and fun day out.

While Sommeliers Australia is all about promoting the profession, don't worry, you're not expected to be an expert to take part in its new so-called satellite events. The only prerequisite, really, is a love of wine.

For starters, there's the inaugural sommelier long lunch at Ormond Hall in the city (February 24, $100).

Join some of Melbourne's top (and usually very young) sommeliers at a lunch prepared by chefs from Taxi Dining Room, Verge, Circa the Prince, Rockpool and the Montague Hotel, matched to some equally fine wines.

Another event, staged at the kooky and fabulous Madame Brussels bar in Bourke Street (February 25 and March 3, $25), is entitled: How Not to Drink Wine like a Wanker. To avoid such a pitfall, you will have to join the persuasive Miss Pearls from Madame Brussels and sommeliers including the suave and sexy Raul Moreno Yague from Vue de monde. They will help navigate and interpret wine lists, teach you how to pronounce properly the names of difficult grape varieties and ensure you don't turn into a wine bore, or worse.

One international act worth seeking out is Swede Sophia Bergqvist whose family has owned the Portuguese winery Quinta de la Rosa for three generations. We've embraced Spanish wines, now it's time to turn to Portugal and what better way to have insight into these wines than from Bergqvist? The vineyard was given to her grandmother as a christening present in 1906. Bergqvist will hold an informal tasting at the Montague Hotel (February 23, $35) with equally well-informed Spanish and Portuguese wine importer, Scott Wasley.

The Langham Melbourne Master- Class returns with Ben Edwards, president of Sommeliers Australia, hosting the global wine experience, on both Saturday and Sunday (March 1 and 2, a full day pass costs $400 with individual sessions between $65 and $120).

In the four sessions you can taste excellent riesling from the dry to the very sweet with talented winemaker Emma Wood from Seppelt and Patrick Walsh, importer and distributor of some superb rieslings.

There will also be cabernet sauvignon wines from Australia and Napa Valley winery Stags' Leap and you can trace the evolution and global perspective of chardonnay with Oakridge's winemaker David Bicknell and the equally perspicacious James Halliday, founder and former owner of Coldstream Hills.

And finally, explore Chianti without having to go to Italy by tasting the sangiovese of Fattoria di Felsina, with its director Giuseppe Mazzocolin.

However, if you're all wined out by this stage, there's always beer to cleanse the palate. Plenty of hoppy, yeasty, delicious tastings will be on offer with a highlight being the dozen or so Victorian microbrewers showcasing some 50 beers at Federation Square ($25) over several days.

Don't forget to check out the regional events - there's the Under the Radar dinner on Saturday at De Bortoli in the Yarra Valley (February 23, $110). It has nothing to do with cheating a speed camera, rather a group of young winemakers including Luke Lambert, Timo Mayer, Bill Downie and Sarah Fagan, who are "putting soul back into Yarra wine".

Their wines will be matched to a four-course dinner prepared by talented young chef Tim Keenan.

Stay in the valley on March 8 for a dinner at Healesville Hotel ($115 phone: 5962 4002) featuring craft beers from Hargreaves Hill and Punt Road wine matched to each of the four-courses.

Or head Macedon way for a lunch in the Holgate Microbrewery (March 1, $70 phone 5427 2510).

Seven beers will be served during a four-course leisurely lunch, followed by a tour of the brewery.

For bookings of Sommelier Australia sessions go to sommeliers.

com.au for other events, visit melbournefoodandwine.com.au

© 2008 The Age

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