Rollo and Linda recently took one year old Oscar for a trip to Spain and France. Visiting wineries, eating tapas and enjoying the local wine (not Oscar) was all part of it but of course there was an element of business to do in the UK on the way home. That is, if you could call participating in “round table” wine tastings in what was once a monastery work. To read a third party account of this, written by Stuart George of Langton’s, click here.

Click on the link to see a video interview with Garry and Rollo, conducted by a wine commentator from the UK. The video was for use primarily in the UK wine market.   http://youtu.be/mFmA3cl1g50

by Garry Crittenden
In September 1982, along with a small group of friends, I planted four acres of Cabernet Sauvignon at our newly prepared block at Harrisons Rd in Dromana. Rollo who was six years old and Zoe who was eight helped. We also planted half an acre of Merlot and a quarter acre each of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. As far as could be ascertained, we doubled the then aggregate plantings of vines on the Mornington Peninsula from 5 to 10 acres on this one weekend. Today there are in excess of 2500 acres (1000 hectares).

My earlier cimatic survey of the region using Dick Smart’s methodology and based on long term weather data from the nearby Mornington Post Office was clearly biased towards cabernet. And anyway, what was this interloper called Pinot Noir? The years went by, our vines thrived and the wines achieved success, but in 2007 when Rollo came back to the family farm he began to question my sense of allegiance to this out of fashion variety.

I once met Elio Altare in Piedmont who told me the following remarkable story of how he asserted his authority in the family business. According to Elio he waited for his father to go away on a holiday and while he was absent took a chain saw to all the big volume Botte in the cellar, replacing them with small French oak. Elio was a modernist and his father a traditionalist. He says his father didn’t speak to him for years. (personally, I’ve always taken this story to be rather apocryphal) It would be wryly amusing to tell you that when I was away onetime Rollo took a chainsaw to our entire four acres of Cabernet and greeted me on my return with a defiant grin. The truth is far more prosaic; we sat down and discussed the issue and I meekly agreed to a grafting program with the most up to date clones of Pinot Noir.

Which brings us to October 2011. The change over took place in the winter of 2009 after what turned out to be the final vintage of Cabernet from our family vineyard. This marks, for us at least after 26 consecutive vintages, the end of an era, and for all I know the end of an era for the Peninsula. The wine of course was made by Rollo. Read the tasting notes or buy some Les Adieux here.

Stillwater, our on site restaurant, has a new website. Well worth checking out!
http://www.stillwateratcrittenden.com.au/

We are pleased to announce that The Zumma Pinot Noir 2009 performed rather credibly in the Five Nations Wine Challenge. You will recall that I posted news of our being selected by Huon Hooke in July for this presitigous competition where seven wines are selected for each category from five different countries. The results were announced on 9th September and The Zumma received a gold medal. Australia on the whole performed very well and particular congratulations go to our neighbour, Paringa Estate, for winning a Trophy for their 2009 Estate Pinot Noir.

To say we were pretty pleased with the reviews we got in Halliday’s 2012 edition of the Wine Companion would be an understatement. Both of the Zumma wines scored 95 points and the 2009 Crittenden Chardonnay 94. A further five of our wines were reviewed with scores between 88 and 90. Crittenden Estate was rated a 5 star winery and most exciting, named as one of 10 dark horses for 2012. We’ve collated our results onto an easy-to-read document that you can view here. I’ve also included information on what being a dark horse means!

The prestigious Five Nations Wine Challenge is a competition where the wines are nominated by judges to enter. This year, Huon Hooke (lead judge), has selected our 2009 Zumma Pinot Noir to participate. We are honoured to put our Pinot forward and are crossing our fingers. Winners are announced in late August so we shall keep you posted. For further information about the challenge please see the following link:
 http://www.boutiquewines.com.au/events.asp?pageID=1124

On Bastille day, last Thursday 14th July, well known Melbourne food blogger Ed Charles organised his second truffle tasting dinner – of which Crittenden Estate had the pleasure of supplying the wines for. The interesting thing about these truffle dinners, this one being held at St Ali in South Melbourne, is that the truffles are all from Australia – Tasmania, NSW and WA. Scott Pickett, who was until recently executive chef at The Point and is now owner of The Estelle, cooked an outstanding three course menu, each course featuring truffles from a different state. Truffles were supplied by Australia’s first trufffle store, Madame Truffles. Matt, our assistant winemaker, was fortunate enough to be able to attend the dinner and found it to be an experience. What was also great is that the Los Hermanos Tributo and The Zumma Pinot Noir looked really good with the truffles. Have a look at these photos and menu details from the night on Jason Wright’s blog; I think you’ll feel as I do – that the next time Ed Charles organises a truffle dinner (hopefully there will be another) – I’ll jump at the opportunity to go!

An interesting post from food blogger Ed Charles about some Padrons (peppers) that Garry sent him in the mail. Click here to see.

We recently posted an article about our Zumma Pinot and how well it had done in a Gourmet Traveller Wine tasting. Now we are seeing some great comments about the Zumma range from the other side of the globe. Click here to see how England’s Decanter Tasting Panel rated the 2009 Zumma Pinot and 2009 Zumma Chardonnay when tasted against sixty nine of our peer’s wines in a mammoth Mornington Peninsula taste off. A very encouraging result!