2010 Shiraz Roussanne Wins Gold

Just as I had recovered from the excitement of receiving a fantastic endorsement from Ben Shewry for my Verjus, I received an email from the organisers of the Australian Boutique Wine Show to tell me that my 2010 Shiraz Roussanne was the Btop pointed gold medal winner in the Shiraz class of their show!

The Boutique Wine Awards is open to all Australian and New Zealand Wineries crushing a maximum of 250 tonnes of grapes. Needless to say we fit easily into this category! The awards were judged in Sydney with a panel headed by noted Australian wine writer Huon Hooke.

There were 143 wines in the Shiraz class. Seven were awarded gold. There were some very impressive names rubbing shoulders with our 2010 Shiraz Roussanne awarded the top gold!

2010 was a beautiful vintage. Sandwiched between the extreme heat and dry of 2009 on the one hand and the cool and miserable wet of the 2011 vintage on the other, we were blessed by rain at all the times we needed it and a long, warm growing season that concentrated colour and flavour beautifully.

This is the second award that the wine has won. Late last year it was rated in the Top 10 of the French Chamber of Commerce tasting of Victorian Shiraz!

It is just a delicious drink, it has all the spice and ripe plum you expect of central Victorian Shiraz and a lovely long finish. The tiny percentage of Roussanne in the blend gives the nose a little added perfume and the palate a touch of silk and velvet.

It has been lovely to savour over winter with a slow roasted leg of lamb. It was just perfect with a Lamb Shawarma I cooked from the fabulous cook book, Jerusalem, by the chefs Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. In that dish meat is roasted on the bone in a slow oven for four and half hours! When ready it literally falls off the bone and develops wonderful sweet caramelised crust from the potpourri of middle eastern spices it had been marinated in overnight. I served it with a cucumber and tomato salad, some Israeli couscous and fresh home made tzatziki.