Holy cow, Tasmania, you kept quiet about this one!

My partner and I recently got back from a fantastic trip around Tasmania, the lovely land of excellent wines and cheese (and apples, apparently, but I wasn’t really in the market for them). We did some wine tasting in the Tamar Valley which was heavenly.  Being winter, a lot of the wineries close their cellar door for a few weeks, to concentrate on bottling, and because there aren’t enough visitors coming through for it to be worth their while to keep the cellar door open: but we still managed a pretty good range of wines for the day!  Heaven.  The last winery we touched on was Velo, just outside Launceston. We were greeted at the door by a jolly black labradoodle (whose name was, I think, Ellie — if she’s reading this, hi! Good girl!) who escorted us inside where we met Michael Wilson, cofounder of Velo wines and ex-tour de France cyclist.

We had a wonderful tasting and bought a few bottles — but the big surprise of the day was the Shiraz.  Tasmanian wine producers, being in a cold-climate wine area, tend to focus more on pinot noir and merlot in their red wines, with occasional forays into cabernet merlot blends.  Shiraz is almost completely absent, and as a shiraz-loving girl, I am embarrassed to say how surprised I was.  I think I tend to treat shiraz as a default wine, so its absence, however logical, surprises me.  But I was not saddened: the merlot and pinot noir from Tasmania are good enough to melt your heart; they’re simply beautiful. (I’ll write more about these when our wines arrive: we shipped a mixed dozen home from the Tamar Valley, and then carried a coouple of rogue bottles in our checked-in luggage when we came home.)

The Velo Shiraz was thus a surprise: a cold-climate shiraz?  And it’s only a limited release, too. There were only 200 cases made for the 2007 release, and, I tell you what, I’ll fight you for them.  The tannins were remarkably restrained, but still detectable in providing a firm structure to the flavours of dark red berries and moderate spices. I realise this is fairly tautological, but I’ll say it anyway: Velo’s shiraz is not like a Barossa or Coonawarra shiraz.  It is far more restrained and delicate, but is nonetheless full-bodied, warm and complex. There is a gentle fruitiness reiniscient of cranberries and redcurrants to the very front palate, which subtly gives way to the notes of allspice and (I think) oak.  The lingering notes are savoury and soft-edged.  I have noticed that some wines have extremely fruity — almost sweet — opening notes, and then very savoury, almost acidic, final notes: not this one.  This wine displays skillful moderation through the whole palate, creating a subtle and delicious, unified flavour, whose range from front to back palate is gentle and controlled without compromising the strength and full-bodiedness of the shiraz tones.

I was hugely impressed, and I’m thinking of trying to procure a few more bottles.  You can’t order the shiraz through their online order form, so if you’re interested in trying it, you will need to contact Velo wines and ask specially.  I can’t recommend it enough.  I’ll be reviewing a couple of other Velo treats when they arrive, and frankly, I can’t wait.

Velo Wines
PO Box 1162
Legana, Tasmania
Australia
7277
Telephone: 03 6330 3677