Crittenden Wines Reviews

Wine Legend is the Full Bottle

Zoe — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:58:09 +0000

Crittenden Wines

Crittenden Estate 2010 Pinot Noir

Zoe — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 23:13:53 +0000

Lifted nose with a slightly stalky character. Crunchy fruit core of freeze-dried strawberries, a touch jammy but with vibrant acidity and firm texture. A little brutish and broad but great mouthfeel.

Mark Hughes, Selector Magazine, Autumn 2012.

The Zumma Single Vineyard Pinot Noir

Zoe — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 23:11:55 +0000

Delicate and restrained on the nose, a ripe velvety mouthfeel with subtle supporting oak and ripe grainy tannins. A delightful feminine structure with complexity, a touch of stalk, a warm finish and good acid backbone. A well packaged Peninsula Pinot. … Continue reading →

Ten Great Getaways

Zoe — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 23:09:52 +0000

Lakeside Villas At Crittenden

It’s a crisp, bright evening as I stand on the expansive timber deck adjoining Stillwater At Crittenden, the vineyard cafe that underwent a complete transformation last year and has reopened as an upmarket dining spot.

The restaurant, in the grounds of Crittenden Estate vineyard on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, is headed by local boy Zac Poulier and his wife Jacqui, and we’re shooting the breeze over aperitifs before Poulier has to nip back into the kitchen to start cooking. As I gaze across Crittenden’s gardens, edged by a sea of grapevines and three wooden villas perched over a lake, it occurs to me there are much worse places to work. It’s an impressive vista indeed.

Poulier tells me he left the Peninsula in 1998, when you could count the number of decent restaurants on one hand, but returned seven years ago after stints at London’s Oxo Tower and as Russell Crowe’s private chef on film locations. Today, the area is a thriving culinary destination and the pair are making the most of it, incorporating the fruits of local producers’ labour into Stillwater’s menus. For supper, we tuck into the likes of poached asparagus, Main Ridge goat’s curd and slow-cooked free-range egg drizzled with truffle oil, parsley and lemon pangrattato; and to drink, Crittenden’s 2010 pinot gris. There’s little chance of running out of wine, what with Crittenden Estate’s cellar door on site, and that age-old problem of who’s going to drive home disappears with the reassuring presence of the three luxury villas just a few steps away.

These chic, one-bedroom oases, with fully-fitted kitchens, open-plan living spaces (with flat-screen digital TVs) and private decks on which one can watch the ducks float past while stok

Seeking the perfect match

Zoe — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 22:54:19 +0000

Garry Crittenden has been making wine on the Mornington Peninsula for 30 years.
Mr Crittenden’s contribution to the industry was recognised recently when he was inducted into Melbourne Food and Wine Festival’s Legends Hall of Fame.
Having planted cabernet, chardonnay and pinot noir grapes at the Dromana (now Crittenden) Estate, he believes the only way wine can be appreciated is when it is matched with food.
“Matching food and wine is constantly on my mind.“ Mr Crittenden says.
Although his latest favourite cuisine is Spanish, he has always loved Italian food.
“I introduced the Italian grape varieties—nebbiolo, barbera and sangiovese—to Australian wine drinkers back in 1992,” Crittenden said.
“I was always very committed to the wines of northern Italy because they are more refined.”
One of his all-time favourite dishes is called bollito misto.
“It’s a classic dish and is perfectly complemented with a barbera or sangiovese wine.”

Deborah Morris, Frankston Standard Leader, 19th March 2012.

2011 Los Hermanos Txakoli

Zoe — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 22:47:24 +0000

The Crittendens, dogged pioneers of the Italian varieties in Australia, are probablly finding uptake and interest in Spanish-inspired wines like this a lot easier to sell these days. Although not easy to pronounce, Txakoli or Chacoli has series of a DOs (Spanish for appellations) in the Basque country of northern Spain, and is a very different style comnpared to Australian whites – and one that the makers have nailed. In this case it’s probably good to mimic the style, as this wine, typically the house wine of northern Spanish tapas bars and the like, is neither strongly aromatic nor richly textured. Crittendens use the main grape variety found in Txakoli, Ichitota Tipia, or Petit Manseng in French, to recreate a wine which although austere in its aromas of sage, grapefruit and straw, is delicious and widely food friendly, especially as it finishes with a quite unique tangy tightness and slight spritz.
David Ridge, The Melbourne Review, Issue 05 2012.

Los Hermanos 2011 Saludo al Txakoli

Zoe — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 02:35:37 +0000

The Crittenden crew has been on the frontline of broadening our varietal wine perceptions. This is looking to mirror the refreshing tapas bar whites of Spain. In its first outing it comes as a solo grape production of petit manseng that excites with its spritzy zing of tasty acidity and mouthful of lively white grapey juices.
Tony Love, The Courier Mail, 22 February 2012.

Best of 2011 – The Prequel

Zoe — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:15:38 +0000

Pinots performed exceptionally, Crittenden’s The Zumma 2009 nudging out 13 others with a score above 9/10, with 9.2/10.
Max Crus, The Daily Examiner, Saturday January 21st 2012.

Los Hermanos 2011 Saludo al Txakoli

Zoe — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 03:15:38 +0000

The Los Hermanos (The Siblings) wine range focuses on the various styles of the Iberian Peninsula. Made from petit manseng grapes grown in the King Valley in Victoria, this wine doffs its cap to the Txakoli wines of the Spanish Basque region, which are often enjoyed with snacks known as “pintxos”. This is a very different style for Australian drinkers, a spritzy but savoury, dryish white that is a beautiful food match with anything from gazpacho to anchovies. It’s also a great lunchtime wine with just 11.5% alcohol. Try it with tapas.

Winsor Dobbin, The Sunday Examiner Magazine, February 5th 2012.

Los Hermanos 2011 Saludo al Txakoli

Zoe — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 03:12:32 +0000

It was 2000 and the night was hot and gritty in the town of San Sebastien, the coastal town in the Basque region known for its food, wine and beaches. The tapas or pintxos bars, as they are known to locals, were heaving. Rollo Crittenden, second-generation wine maker from the Mornington Peninsula, at the beginning of what would become his ongoing ‘viaje espanol del vino’ or Spanish wine journey, took a seat at one of the wooden stools. The long bar was lined with tasty clusters of morsel size tapas– squid and shrimp, ham and potatoes, anchovies and tomatoes—which customers ate with as much gusto as they spoke. Behind the bar, the barman grabbed a bottle of local wine in one hand, a short stout glass in the other which he held out at waist height, and reached the wine bottle high above his head, turned it up side down and poured a liquid arc of the wine into the glass, the force splashing wine onto the floor.

“At first I had no idea what it was,” says Rollo of his first encounter with the wine. “There was this fantastic theatre with the arm held high and this amazing ability to pour the wine out at a right angle and drop straight into the glass. It just looked so enticing. But it was only being pouted for the locals. I had to ask specifically for some of this exciting wine.”

The wine was the local Basque white wine Txakoli (pronounced shark-o-li), a slightly spritzed, highly acidic, lower in alcohol wine. The wine is poured from a height to aerate the wine and encourage the slight spritz, which is a feature of the local drink.

“The most exciting thing was how Txakoli matched with food. I was blown away by how it brought the palate back to life after each piece of tapas, preparing the palate for the next piece. It was an incredibly enticing wine and food experience,” says Rollo.

Though Rollo’s first experience with Txakoli was a lasting one, some years would pass before he made his own. It was not until Garry Crittenden, Rollo’s father and founder of Crittenden Estate, went to Spain and came back talking about this fantastic Basque wine that they got into action. “Having established the Los Hermanos range with my sister Zoe, it seemed like a perfect wine to introduce to the range. So we started researching where to source the grapes in Australia and went from there.”

Translating as the siblings in Spanish, Los Hermanos is a range of wines that explores and celebrates Spanish wine varieties and styles. The 2011 Saludo at Txakoli (salute to Txakoli) is the fourth wine in the range—all are wildly food friendly and approachable.

Says Rollo of the new addition; “The Txakoli is a nice counterpoint to the rest of the range. It has a different profile—fantastic acid and a nice spritz, and now means we have wines from four Spanish regions: Rioja, Catalonia, Galicia and now with the Txakoli, the Basque region.”

Traditionally, three varieties are used to make Txakoli—Hondarrabi Zuri, Hondarrabi Beltza and Petit Manseng. However, the first two varieties are not available in Australia as yet so the 2011 Los Hermanos Txakoli is made from the third, Petit Manseng, from the King Valley.

The result is a fitting salute to the Basque wine—a light and lemony coloured wine, with a gentle waft of fruit and lovely floral notes as well as lashings of enlivening acid. However, as Rollo points out, the taste is not what the wine is about.

“It’s a lovely wine but it’s not so much about the flavours but about the experience. It’s designed to make food taste better. Food is not an accompaniment to this wine; it is an accompaniment to food.”

And yes, for maximum drinking pleasure be sure to pour from the wine from a height.

Andrea Frost, The Melbourne Review, February 4th 2012.