A week loaded with various tasks and business concerns to attend to deserves a relaxing Friday evening. A glass or two of wine is a wonderful way to cap the work week and welcome the weekend. EO Melbourne recognises this as the chapter recently held virtual wine-tasting events for its members.
To start our virtual wine tasting journey, EO Melbourne Member Hugh Jones and his wife Raquel, the couple that established Weathercraft Wines, hosted a wine-tasting night where participants enjoyed three of their wines: 2018 Limited Chardonnay, 2019 Rosé, and 2017 Shiraz.
Hugh and Raquel shared the story behind each wine, its characteristics and how they are processed. Produced from the Weathercraft Wines vineyard in Beechworth, their wines are a result of fruits handpicked from painstakingly managed vines.
But there’s more to just the bottles of wine that the group enjoyed. They were also inspired by the journey that the Jones couple took in turning Weathercraft Wines into a reality. “In 2016, my wife Raquel and I fulfilled a long-held dream and purchased an established, premium vineyard, at Beechworth in North East Victoria. We immediately started producing our wines from the site. Raquel focuses on the winemaking, whilst I focus on the business side,” Hugh revealed.
“Vintage dependent, we produce around 1,800 cases of wine per year from our little winery, and we are very fortunate to be located within spitting distance of some of Australia’s most iconic producers, such as Giaconda, Savaterre and Castagna, to name but a few. Although our focus is on Chardonnay and Shiraz, Raquel’s European heritage has inspired us to grow alternate Spanish varieties best suited to the climate, rainfall and soil composition of our site,” he added.
The following wine-tasting event was a Wine Masterclass brought by Willow Creek Vineyard & Jackalope Hotel and Brad Hampel, EO Melbourne Member and Director of Solution Entertainment. Attendees learned more about the art of winemaking and food pairing during this virtual event.
Glass-in-hand, winemaker Geraldine McFaul walked guests through the winemaking process and shared her viticultural secrets. Participants were also led to a guided wine tasting experience with Jackalope Hotel’s Food & Beverage Director (and Sommelier), Ollie Tucker.
McFaul’s understanding of the terroir and its subtleties is instinctive. When working with exemplary fruit, McFaul says the biggest challenge is “doing less rather than more”. For the wines from the Willow Creek Vineyard, it’s all about letting the vineyard shine through.
With a fastidious focus on cool-climate chardonnay and pinot noir, McFaul makes some of the most elegant single-vineyard wines on the Mornington Peninsula. Under the expert hands of original viticulturists Robbie O’Leary and, more recently, Ant Davenport, Willow Creek Vineyard’s fruit is hand-tended, block by block, which includes pruning, canopy management, yield control, and harvest. The vineyard consistently produces the fruit of excellent quality, lending itself to minimal intervention and manipulation in the winery.
Members additionally experienced a wine and cheese night with Austin’s Wines, who delivered a virtual pairing of 2018 Austin’s Chardonnay and 2018 Austin’s Pinot Noir as well as L’Artisan Cheeses & crackers in the comforts of their homes.
Austin’s is a family-owned vineyard in Victoria’s beautiful Moorabool Valley. They have been producing wine since 1982 and is now owned by the second generation of Austins.
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These virtual wine-tasting events have been popular among members of the EO Melbourne chapter where they were able to connect online and enjoy the experience amid restrictions imposed due to the pandemic.
How about you, what activities do you engage in to relax your mind and body after a hard day’s work? We’d love you to share your story with us.