30 NEWCASTLE HERALD Wednesday, May 27, 2015

food&wine

Schooled in thewineartsA second generation is helping take

a family wine business to newheights, writes JOHN LEWIS.

Christian, Dennis, Hayley and Christine Canute with sales manager Craig Phillips.

IT all began with Russell andDennis, two school-teacher mateswho shared a taste for a good drop ofred but whose financial resourcesdidn’t match their vinousaspirations.

Soin1992thepairteameduptomakeabarrelof theirownBarossaValleycabernetsauvignon,whichwasbottled,proudlylabelledRusdenandconsumedwithgreatgusto.

Russell Gehling and DennisCanute followed up in 1994 with ahome-made Rusden shiraz, whichearned considerable localappreciation and was nicknamed‘‘Black Guts’’ and ‘‘alcoholicRibena’’.

Russell Gehling didn’t continuehis involvement, but the wines set intrain a much more ambitiousventure by the Canute family.

Dennis and his wife Christine bothhad careers as school teachers butChristine was steeped in wine-growing, having come from the Hagefamily – pioneer settlers andvignerons in the Bethany area.

In 1979 this influenced the coupleto buy a 16-hectare property with arun-down vineyard at Vine Vale. Theoriginal idea was simply to have ahobby farm on which the schoolteachers could relax and theirchildren could run free.

But Christine’s background as afifth generation of vigneronschanged that comfortable concept.She set to work to rejuvenate thevineyard, which included some oldgrenache and shiraz vines that hadescaped the South Australiangovernment vine pull scheme of the1980s.

Soon she quit her school day job,leaving Dennis to teach on andprovide funds for vineyardimprovements that produced grapesthat were sold to big Barossawineries.

Small batches of the vineyard’sgrapes went into the 1992 and 1994wines made by Dennis and RussellGehling and proved to the Canutesthat they were able to grow fruit thatcould make the Rusden label morethan a home-made sideline.

They were dissatisfied with thegrape prices offered by the bigwineries and the corporate ‘‘we’llgrow the quality, you grow thequantity’’ attitude.

And so in 1997 Dennis and

Christine and their son Christian,who was then working at Rockfordwinery, produced the firstcommercial-release Rusden labelwines.

Christian, who gained ‘‘at thecoalface’’ wine experience from achildhood on a vineyard, from acellar rat job in the Yalumba winery,a sales post in an Adelaide bottleshop and then working with ChrisRingland at Rockford, is nowRusden’s winemaker.

With his mother, now 65, stillkeeping an eagle eye on thevineyard and his father, now at 67retired from teaching and in chargeof Rusden export sales, Christianhas developed a remarkably widerange of wines from the up-marketTraditional Series to the moreaffordable Nine-Pane label.

The wines can be bought atrusdenwines.com.au and from thewinery at 221 Magnolia Road, VineVale, Tanunda.

Infamously named redBLACK Guts, says Christian, was thenickname given by locals to theoriginal 1992 and 1994 reds made byDennis and Russell but, when theCanutes made their first commercialreleases, they didn’t put the BlackGuts name on the shiraz label.

This earned such ire from

customers that the name was quicklyrestored next vintage.

Christian, now aged 38, and hisBarossa artist wife Amy, have fourchildren who all enjoy vineyard life,and his sister Hayley also works inthe family business.

He says the family is dedicated toproducing top-quality, hand-madewines sourced from its own vinesand made in its on-site winery.

There is certainly an interestingvarietal line-up.

The Nine-Pane winesinclude the2014 Christian CheninBlanc ($28) the2014 PocoLoco Rose, a $24blend ofgrenache, mourvedre,cinsault andugni blanc, andthe 2012 GoodShepherd CabernetMalbec ($38),which isreviewed today inWine List.

The flagship of the TraditionalSeries is the Rusden 2006 SandscrubShiraz, which comes in apresentation box and sells for $395 abottle. The range also includes the2012 Christine’s Vineyard Grenache($40), which I reviewed inWeekender on March 14, the 2013Chookshed Zinfandel ($49) and thepowerful $85-a-bottle 2012 BlackGuts Shiraz.

Raisin a good wineITALY’S highly prized Amarone-style wines are made by taking theripest grapes harvested during

October and placing them on canemats inside winemakers’ cellars.

The grapes are left there until thefollowing January, when theraisined fruit is pressed and thejuice placed in small oak casks for atleast four years.

Former Charles Sturt UniversityProfessor of Wine Science BrianFreeman produced the dried fruitcomponent of his recently released$35 Freeman 2010 Secco RondinellaCorvina by putting some of therondinella and corvina grapesthrough a neighbour’s solar-poweredprune dehydrator.

Brian has the only Australianplantings of the rondinella andcorvine varieties, which are thebackbone of Italy’s Amarone andValpolicella wines.

It’s the eighth vintage ofrondinella corvina made by BrianFreeman and I reviewed it inWeekender on April 18. It’s availableat freemanvineyards.com.au or byphoning 6384 4299.

The Tinkler’s tippleUSHER Gordon Tinkler, the manwho launched his family intowinegrowing, is remembered in theTinkler wine portfolio.

The Usher Gordon Muscatfortified sells for $25 a bottle and isavailable at tinklers.com.au and at

the Pokolbin Mountains Road,Pokolbin, cellar door.

The great-grandson of the firstTinkler to come to Australia, UsherGordon planted the muscat gordoblanco vines that provide the grapesfor the wine.

In 1968 McWilliam’s asked theTinklers to plant wine grape vines tomeet the neighbouring MountPleasant winery’s demand for extrafruit. Usher Gordon formed the Uand I Tinkler partnership with histwo sons, Usher William and IanGeoffrey, to establish three hectaresof shiraz. It was a planting thatthrived and has now grown to40.5 hectares of shiraz, semillon,chardonnay, verdelho, merlot,traminer, viognier and muscat gordoblanco vines.

After initially selling all theirgrapes to McWilliam’s and otherproducers, in 1996 the Tinklersdecided to retain some of theirpremium fruit for their own-labelwines.

Now, with their own winery in theskilled hands of sixth-generationfamily member Usher John, theTinklers’ wine operations havegrown alongside the family grazingproperty at Merriwa, its peach,plum, nectarine and avocadoorchards and its PokolbinMountains Road, Pokolbin, cellardoor, fruit and vegetable stall.

Margan 2013 Hunter ValleyMerlot, $22MADE from grapes grown onAndrew Margan’s Ceres Hillvineyard at Broke, this juicy drophas 14.5 per cent alcohol, is rubyred and has berry pastille andlavender scents. The front palatehas ripe mulberry flavour, themiddle rhubarb, spearmint, spiceand cedary oak and earthy tanninscome through at the finish. It is atmargan.com.au, at the 1238Milbrodale Road, Broke, cellar door,and in some wine stores.DRINK WITH: curried lamb neckchopsAGEING: four yearsRATING: ●●●●

Voyager Estate 2014Margaret River SauvignonBlanc Semillon, $24

HERE’S a Margaret River sauvignonblanc-semillon blend that bringsrelief to my sauvignon blanc-jadedpalate. It is green-tinted straw andhas passionfruit aromas. Zestygooseberry flavour features on thefront of the palate and lemon,gunmetal and basil chime in on themiddle palate. The finish has slateyacid. Get it at capementelle.com.auor in fine wine stores.DRINK WITH: prawn and whitebaitfrittersAGEING: three yearsRATING: ●●●●●

JOHN LEWIS jlewis@theherald.com.au

WINE LIST TOPSHELF

Rusden 2012 Good ShepherdCabernet Malbec, $38THIS multi-faceted Barossa blend of 74 percent cabernet sauvignon and 26 per centmalbec has 14 per cent alcohol and glowsdeep purple in the glass. Rich, ripeblackcurrant flavour rolls on to the frontpalate, plum, caramel chocolate and clovesfruit characters meld with savoury oak onthe middle palate and minty tannins showat the finish. It can be bought atrusdenwines.com.au and from the wineryat 221 Magnolia Road, Vine Vale, Tanunda.DRINK WITH: char-grilled kangaroo filletAGEING: eight yearsRATING: ●●●●●