Recently I attended a wine masterclass with Nick Farr of By Farr and Farr Rising (hosted by Randalls Cellar.) This is the sort of event that I, as someone with more than a passing interest in wine, absolutely love. A chance to talk to winemakers about how they make the wine, what they intend for it and where it will go in the future. I hate it when you go to a cellar door and you are told what is written on the tasting notes of the wine and not about what was involved in making it. Thankfully the focus of these sessions is very rarely about the wine itself and more so about the wine as a journey.

Nick was going to be a sports teacher until his father Gary sent him to an industry wine tasting before he started university. He cites the unlimited supply of oysters, beer and wine as what turned him onto the track of winemaker. Gary was the perfect mentor for a young winemaker, sending him straight to the United States and Burgundy to be taught in what he considered to be the wineries of the best Pinot Noir producers in the world. You get the impression that after countless vintages around the world and his own label from the Geelong area, Gary has finally handed over some semblance of control to Nick. He has headed overseas for a holiday and has only called to have more money put in the account.

Nick’s passion for wine is captivating. He has a great grounding in the new and old worlds of winemaking and shares his knowledge of wine and his own vineyards with ease. So much of the focus on wine today is on terroir and this case is no different. The sites for the vineyards have been carefully selected for their soil, aspect and locations and it wouldn’t surprise me if Nick has walked every inch. The particular site that Nick was most excited about was their “Tout Pres” vineyard. This site has 3 types of soil and 3 different slopes each with different facings.

The By Farr winemaking style is particularly standoffish, with the least interaction from the winemaker. Pinot Noir grapes are fragile and overworking them will make the wine tired. Instead, the winemaking is done in the vineyard tending the vines. The hand picked grapes are whole bunched pressed, and very little is done after the wine is barrelled. The whole bunches add tannins (hopefully not too much herbaceousness) creating a wine with great structure and funkiness (sic).

This structure, perfume and funk is evident in the flavours of all of the wines. The Pinot Noirs are rich and complex with great tobacco flavours throughout. The “Tout Pres” is particularly interesting with the quartz in the soil bringing through a minerality rarely tasted in Pinot Noir. My choice however was the “Farrago” Chardonnay/Viognier. This white has exceptional mineral flavours and an oily but not overdone mouthfeel. Interestingly, the blend is 50/50 but the apricot flavours of the Viognier are surprisingly subdued.

This introduction to the By Farr winery has me really interested in Geelong Pinot Noir and anything that Nick Farr is involved with. The prices on this label ($50-$90 a bottle) are sadly well out of my price range and having this opportunity to taste them was amazing; given the chance I would love to buy a case or 2.

The theme for this month’s Mixology Monday is “Hard Drinks for Hard Times” hosted over at the recently laid off Matthew Rowley’s blog. His thinking is, that in the current economic climate a lot of us are having trouble drinking well – actually, he says he is drinking better than ever due to having stockpiled huge amounts of booze over a long period of time. This is pretty much the complete opposite to me, I’ve been a student for just about as long as I can remember and drinking cheap is something I’ve become pretty accustomed to.

I’ve got a heap of tricks for getting on the booze cheap, but thinking about how to make some cheap cocktails got me thinking back to drinks 2 of my friends have told me about. Both of them involve mixing wine (generally very cheap wine) with something to make it slightly bearable. The beauty of this is that wine here in Australia seems to be getting cheaper and cheaper due to the rise of cleanskins. What can be better, grabbing a $5 bottle of wine that wasn’t too bad to begin with and making it better.

The first is known as Calimocho, Jameses assures me that when he was in Spain he used to buy a 2 litre bottle of red wine and mix it about 50/50 with red wine. Cheap, nasty but tasty. The second drink was recently introduced to me by my French housemates, known as “Kir“, it is a dry white wine mixed with creme de cassis, peach liqueur or blackberry liqueur. This is really quite tastey and can just top off a ridiculously cheap bottle of Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay. The other option is to use sparkling wine instead.

I fully support the cuting of costs in regards to boozing, but remember. Friends don’t let friends drink Grants or Pipers.

There are places in Melbourne that make you feel as though you are in another place, or another time and sometimes you stumble down an alley or a laneway and you could well be in both another place and another time. Walking down Celestial Ave, in the heart of Chinatown at any hour of the night or day is precisely one of those experiences. If it wasn’t for the multi-storey carpark towering over the street you would easily expect to see Woo, of Deadwood fame, sitting down beside of one of the stores with his pigs, and his whores. Yet, he isn’t there and in his place is an overflowing dumpster and an angry asian chef having a sneaky cigarette perhaps a beer.

Who can hold it against him though, when the Supper Inn advertises its opening hours until 2:30am and you would have to think that if there were people there wanting to order at half 2 the kitchen surely wouldn’t be closed. The food is great, it certainly isn’t the cheapest between the red gates of Chinatown but it doesn’t seem as jam packed with artificial flavours as other restaurants. $20 will net you the barbecued suckling pig which was very tastey, but quite a small portion and $18 will get a Szechuan Beef and a Sweet and Sour Pork. Of particular note was the sweet and sour pork which was not only extremely tasty but also a great sized portion. The menu consists of traditional style Chinese food, all sitting around this price range. It’s probably the best food in Australia that money can buy at 2 in the morning.

Working our table was an older chinese man who’s lack of conversation was refreshing, considering our conversation was hilarious to us, but almost certainly less so to him. He was happy to pour our cheap ‘Bulli Bulli’ Shiraz which was quite a surprise but nothing compared to how he wielded the spoons when he served us our special fried rice. This was something that has to be seen to believed, the spoons were snapping faster than a pitbull in a cattle yard and before we could say, “Cheers mate” our bowls were overflowing with rice.

Service with a smile and a nod.

Surrounding the towns of Hastings and Napier Hawke’s Bay is a unique part of New Zealand. Driving through New Zealand you start to grow accustomed to the site of vineyards and wineries on all sides, but you certainly won’t get used to the geometric ornaments and motifs of the Art-Deco style of architecture. Rebuilt almost from scratch after a 1930s earthquake, Napier (and to a lesser extent Hastings) gives you the feeling you are in the Truman Show. This strange feeling continues when you seemingly the majority of restaurants and bars are closed for business.The places that aren’t shut are busy until late at night despite them being expensive, pretentious and in my experience the service being below par.

In stark contrast to the City of Napier, the wineries in the surrounding area all emit a vibe of passion and love of wine. Great red wine is the order of the day in Hawke’s Bay with wineries growing Bordeaux varietals (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Syrah) and the odd Pinot Noir. The region is not without its Whites with award-winning Chardonnay and complex aromatics (Mainly Pinot Gris, Riesling and Viognier). The climate provides great wine-making for the rich flavoured reds with hot summer temperatures, low rainfall and long sunlight hours.

Add to this a large number of micro-regions which provide the wines of this area a great deal of diversity. The most renowned of these micro-regions is the Gimblett Gravels region which has very gravelly soil providing a perfect fast-draining basis for the Bordeaux varieties. A number of wineries in the area own vineyards in this small apellation and produce single vineyard and reserve labels from them with amazing results.

We only spent an afternoon and a morning tasting wines in the area but we left wishing we had a whole lot more time, more space in the luggage and some sort of expense account. The wineries we stopped at were:

• Elephant Hill
• Clearview
• Kim Crawford
• Craggy Range
• Te Mata
• Vidal
• Matariki
• Trinity Hill

Having spent a fair bit of time in and around Central Otago wineries and seeing a small part of Marlborough, Hawke’s Bay’s wineries really were something special. Each of the wineries was unique, the staff were passionate, the wines were beautiful and there was a feel of history and of something special in the air. While it may not be the major draw card of New Zealand wine, it for me is what I will remember when thinking of the people and the feel of New Zealand wine.

No self-respecting wine lover, or even drinker, who is travelling New Zealand should miss the opportunity to check out the wineries of the Marlborough region. This area is New Zealand’s largest wine growing area and probably it’s most famous. The Sauvignon Blanc’s grown around the Wairau River are becoming known as some of the finest in the world and by visiting any cellar door in the area anybody will see why. Each of the wineries I visited was unique but there was one common theme, the people here love wine and they love to talk about it.

Marlborough is the largest wine growing region in New Zealand with over 11,000 hectares of vineyards growing mainly in the Wairau Valley. The weather is predominantly sunny and dry (when we were there however, there was torrential rain) with hot days and cool nights, this coupled with fast-draining alluvial soils makes this an excellent area to grow aromatic varietals. Sauvignon Blanc is the most respected of these and as Riesling, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris are gaining in popularity more of these aromatic styles are being planted and grown.

The majority of wineries are located west of Blenheim around the town of Renwick, there are more cellar doors than you could possibly visit in a day and you would struggle to do it in two. Many of the wineries have restaurants and cafes on site, and you are welcome to picnic on the grounds at others. The whole area is perfectly suited to sitting in the sun (or torrential rain) and enjoying a bottle of the local poison, a few olives and some pancetta amongst the vines. Before you visit it is well worth checking out the Marlborough Winegrowers Association website which has a heap of maps and information about the area.

During our visit we visited 6 and wished we had more time, a driver and a whole lot more money able to spend on sending wine home. The wineries we visited were:

• Wairau River
• Hunters
• Saint Clair
• Cloudy Bay
• Mount Riley
• Montana

Recently we sat down for about 3 months with DrinkPlanner and asked him a few questions about his site, about himself and about what he drinks. Certainly the most interesting thing about him is his uncanny ability to uncover the most random drinking inventions known to man. I hope you enjoy the interview.

So DrinkPlanner, if that really is your name, why did you start DrinkPlanner? It’s definitely a noble cause but do you think one man can make a difference to the worlds drinking?

It was originally conceived to be strictly a drink specials site, and there wasn’t going to be any writing on it at all.  After several early permutations and lots of talking, we decided to add a blog to it (mostly because I’m really whiny when I want something).  It was just going to be a place to post videos and reblog stuff from other sites, but once I started writing it really took on a life of its own and things have taken off from there.  I’d always enjoyed writing, and as you can tell I’m a fan of drinking, so it just sort of happened.
Can one man make a difference?  Maybe, but I feel like my mission is more to rally others to be better drinkers, try new things, and stop being scared of being proud of drinking.  Drinking is awesome, and you shouldn’t let anyone make you feel bad about it.

I notice there are still a few drink specials on the site, what’s the deal with them? Are they still current and are you still “doing” that?

They are, for the majority of them, current.  As I said, the site was originally conceived as a drink specials site, so that’s why they’re there.  We definitely keep in contact with as many of the bar and restaurant owners listed, and are adding new ones on a regular basis.  With the way the economy is going people are very interested in finding deals on quality drinks, so we do our best to make sure everyone knows where the best deals are.   Hopefully we’ll be able to continue to branch out and serve more areas so everyone can benefit from that part of the site.

I love the review side of DrinkPlanner, sometimes I wonder where you find the stuff you write about. Where do you find it?Some of it is sent to me by people who want me to review their products.  I don’t make any guarantee of a positive review or anything, I review each product based solely on whether or not I like it, and if I would recommend it to someone else.  If I’m not honest in my reviews, then what are they worth, right?  Some of it is just booze I happen upon while browsing through the liquor store and find interesting, so I pick up a bottle.  There’s one store in particular near me that sells single bottles of beer, which is fantastic for someone like me who only needs a bottle to do a review (and for people looking to try out something new).  I feel like the more varied my drinking experiences are, the more things I try, the more I can bring to my site and to my overall drinking experience.  I get more knowledgeable and my readers get a more informed opinion from someone who’s done more than drink rum and cokes their whole life.  Everybody wins!

I’m interested in knowing what a little bit quieter night out for you is like? We know you love smacking the sauce hard, but what do you do when you don’t want to wake up with a sore liver?

Oh I’m absolutely fine with just relaxing, watching a movie with friends or…I don’t know, bowling?  While I’m definitely passionate about drinking, I’m more than content to let it simply enhance whatever it is I’m doing, it doesn’t need to be the main event all the time.

I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for dining out, what about yourself? And what about wine? Are you a red wine or a white wine man?

I eat out pretty regularly, but I’m something of a creature of habit, so I don’t get out and try new things as much as I should.  I’m more interested in the total experience.  If I’m with good friends, having fun, enjoying a few drinks, and the food is only mediocre…I’m totally OK with that.

I’m actually a White Zinfandel guy.  It’s like…finally, a wine for me, you know?  KIDDING, I’m definitely a red wine guy.  White’s are alright, I’m just so generally unimpressed with chardonnays and pinot grigio and sav blanc that I haven’t yet branched out into some of the less common grape types which I’m sure are some of the more interesting ones.  I have been trying new red varieties lately, definitely digging Malbecs and some of the new Portuguese wines coming out, and I’ve got a syrah/mourvèdre/viognier blend sitting next to me that I’ve been meaning to try. 

There are a heap of good cocktail blogs introducing people to new cocktails and ingredients but do you know of any good wine blogs that cater to the average punter?

Definitely.  Since our site covers not just cocktails, but beer and wine as well, I like to keep up on all of it.  The one I read most regularly is Joe Power’s site Another Wine Blog.  He’s just a regular dude from Texas who happens to be into wine and food, and has a very down-to-earth style that I really relate to.  I’ve also been known to listen to the Winecast podcast when I have the time.  I also enjoy the ever bombastic Gary Vaynerchuk over at Wine Library TV, because while he’s crazy and larger-than-life in his own way, he seems to come from a very honest place, and I totally respect that. He knows his craft and has a serious passion for it, and while it’s can be a bit much to watch 2 or 3 episodes in a row, I think what he’s saying is great for the wine industry and booze in general.  Get to know what you like, explore new things, and develop your palate and you’ll increase your love for the spirit.

Tell me what’s your favourite drink when you are trying to get smashed? I know you love whiskey, but is that really at the top of your list when you are trying to get smashingly drunk?

When I’m really trying to get face-numbingly hammered, it’s all about making something that’s easy to drink while still being high in alcohol content.  Straight whiskey is great, but I prefer to take my time with it rather than pound it, so it’s not as effective when I’m going for the gold.  I don’t necessarily have a go-to drink, but it’s probably going to be rum or vodka mixed with something.  Really, whatever is around depending on where I am.  Beer is ok, but it just requires drinking SO MUCH of it that I simply can’t drink that quantity of liquid, alcohol or otherwise.  Pretty much the techniques I lay out in my Guide to Getting Hammered have all been field tested and approved by me.

You definitely have a lot of good drinking “techniques”, what about curing a hangover. How do you deal with a heavy head in the morning?

I’m in the process of putting together a complete guide to beating a hangover, so I don’t want to give too much away just yet.  I will say that most people underestimate the value of water when they’re trying to beat (or prevent) a hangover.  It’s the one thing your body needs most, to clean things out as well as rehydrate.  Can’t be said enough, DRINK WATER!

Well we’ll definitely read that when it comes out. Thanks a heap for your time and keep up the good work.

Wine is one of these strange things that a lot of young people drink and love but they don’t become passionate about it until they get older. Peregrine winery, however isn’t the sort of place that is stuck in the same old stereotypes of old people, old buildings and old traditions. It’s hard to expect anything of the sort as you drive down the driveway, the massive white roof of the winery catches your eye, sticking out in a strange harmony with the landscape.

It’s quite difficult to actually see what you are looking at until you get closer, the judges of some bigwig architecture prize described it as “an elegant blade of light” and that “the age-old process of making wine has been radically reinterpreted for our time”. Not really sure how a building reinterprets the wine making process, but each to their own. I think the beauty of the building is it’s multiple purposes – not only does it reduce the cooling costs of the winery, but it acts as a concert stage.

Concert stage you may ask? It turns out that Central Otago summer is perfect for producing wine as the number of awards Peregrine has won attests to. The summer is also perfect for sitting on the lawn, enjoying some good wine, taking in the scenery and listening to awesome bands, Fat Freddy’s Drop and Jose Gonzalez in recent times. Needless to say, the wine flows freely and the weather is great.

Peregrine Winery is a must stop on your way through the Gibbston Valley, preferably in summer when a band is playing but if it’s winter and the mountains are snow capped the wine will still taste great.