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William Downie is back! + MMAD + Dr Edge tasting this Saturday 3-6PM!

by Annandale Cellars

William Downie

Many of you will know the William Downie wines with their eye catching labels and equally captivating contents and you might even be aware that we’ve not stocked the wines for a while… We are spoiled for choice and constantly trying wines from producers across the country so it’s easy enough for old favourites to get overlooked and replaced but gmail declaring things as junk is all too often a deciding factor. Well… Back to Bill… Long story short, we’ve missed the last few vintages of his and after having a bottle of the Gippsland Pinot Noir recently with a few friends at Bar Vincent I knew I needed to get back in touch and see where we went wrong because that bottle was excellent. 

Bill Downie is one of those obsessed pioneers or visionaries that focussed on their passion and in the process redefined how people think about and approach Pinot Noir in Australia. His start was in wine retail, transitiong into a few years working with Phillip Jones, founder of Bass Phillip and developing a full blown Burgundy addiction. After falling out with Phillip Jones he was employed as a winemaker at De Bortoli and would be back and fourth to Burgundy honing his craft and soaking up as much as he could too. He started producing small batches of wines under the William Downie label in 2003, growing the range to focus on the Yarra Valley, Gippsland and the Mornington Peninsula and eventually settling in Gippsland to start farming his own.  

Fast forward to now and we are lucky to have three of his new wines to offer and look forward to having that be a more regular thing! - Pete L

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MMAD

MMAD takes its name from the first initials of winemakers Martin Shaw and Adam Wadewitz, and Masters of Wine Michael Hill Smith and David LeMire. Or as you may know them, Martin and Michael, the cousins and founders of Shaw + Smith of the Adelaide Hills and Tasmania's Tolpuddle, Adam their Chief Winemaker, and David, their head of Sales and Marketing.

2021 blessed the four men with idyllic conditions for their first vintage from the Blewitt Springs site. The Grenache, Shiraz and Chenin Blanc grown on the property are all from old vines, the Grenache planted in 1939, and the sandy soils of Blewitt Springs, together with the cooling sea breezes, result in fresh and aromatic wines, seductively perfumed.

Their 2022 release sees them fine tuning things, improving on the previous year and capturing the best of the 2022 season which had them harvesting fruit later than normal. Luckily with gorgeous bunches coming off the vines the 2022 vintage has been getting high praise from the entire industry and after tasting them I can see why... The decision to not rush the wines to market, helping the wines come together and fill out is also a very smart choice. This was obvious when we tried the wines as they feel more complete and offered more detail. These will age with grace and have a long life ahead of them but can definitely be enjoyed in their youth with lots of air.

They haven't missed a beat with these wines and once again delivered a very strong contender for best Aussie Chenin Blanc in my opinion too. - Pete L

 

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Dr. Edge

Saturday 13th of April

3-6PM

It wasn’t the winemaking bug that originally struck Peter Dredge; it was a discus to the head. Shattering the young athlete’s dreams of a sporting career, leaving him deaf in one ear and needing rehabilitation to regain his balance, Dredge put his sports science studies on hold to take a gap year of manual labour. It was then, working vintage at Petaluma with Brian Croser which was the catalyst to a new career!

Dredge, respectfully drawn out by his winemaking friends to the moniker Dr Edge, moved to Tasmania as the Senior Winemaker for Bay of Fires, which allowed him to gain a great understanding of the island's cool climate viticulture and diverse terroir.

And so the Dr Edge label was born, with a compass of wines to explore the diverse terroir from single vineyard sites in each the north, east and south of the Apple Isle.

I feel like the Dr Edge release tasting is a yearly thing now so it's fun to be able to debut a new wine this year and one that may not be repeated! For the first time ever there are two bottlings of the Tasmania Pinot Noir with one being aged in concrete for 9 months and the other is the usual recipe, pressed to old oak for 9 months. I have a preference but I won't spoil the surprise and will be curious to see what you think! - Pete L

We will have the following wines open to taste:

Dr Edge Tasmania Riesling 2022

Dr Edge Tasmania Chardonnay 2023

Dr Edge Tasmania Concrete Pinot Noir 2023

Dr Edge Tasmania Pinot Noir 2023

 

 

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