Great visit to BVE, famous for E&E Pepper Shiraz

Barrossa Valley Estates (BVE)

In early March, we had a wonderful visit at BVE, producers of one of our favourite wines, the E&E Black Pepper Shiraz. Winemaker Stuart Bourne and his two-year old assistant Hamish were very generous with their time and tasting samples. They are avid Toronto Maple Leaf hockey fans from afar and hope to see a game when they visit our town next October.

After a tour of the modern, gravity-fed facilities, we tasted several samples from different blocks of the future 2007 vintage, some only one to four days old. Amazingly complex fruit juice! BVE is almost finished the 07 harvest, four weeks ahead of their previous best. The quality of the fruit is excellent with wonderful concentration, but the quantity is down 50% from “usual.” We tasted the 2003 Black Pepper Shiraz and, while young of course, it is a powerhouse of black fruit and pepper, its trademark. While it will be smoother and better integrated in 10 years, it was delightful and very approachable at 11:30 am on our visit in early March 2007!

Stuart explained that the best fruit that goes into the Pepper shiraz is almost entirely sourced from blocks “above the road,” referring to the regional road that runs north of most of the wineries. Most of the fruit for Grange is grown in the same small area. Even within this small mini-region, the grapes from blocks that are side-by-side can have very different characteristics. I asked if it was the soil, but he wasn’t sure what caused such big changes. He just identified the different blocks/plots, and kept them separated through the winemaking process.

The separation is also partly to accommodate the 65 different grape-growing partners. "You have to like jigsaw puzzles in this job," he laughed. That's because BVE has a unique corporate structure. It is owned 50% by Hardy’s and 50% by a co-operative of 65 local growers. Must make for some fun decision-making in the boardroom! There are three board members from each side, the winemaker and the winery manager, and “they just close the door til they get the job done.” Because the growers get a share in the final profits, the structure ensures that the fruit growers get better compensation because their profits are tied to the bottom line and it protects them when the price for the fruit is low such as during the recent drought.

They are still shy of the screw cap, much to the dismay of the winemaker, but that could change in future as most Australian wineries have embraced the screwcap for all but their most premium wines.

The best grapes go into the Black Pepper shiraz, next into the Ebenezer, then the Spires which is general list in Ontario and quite a good quaffer at $13.20. Both are delicious and excellent value for the money -- they could easily become our new house wines!

Thank you Stuart for your hospitality, and we know you'll want to chant "go Leafs!" when you come to Toronto next fall!