On a crisp winter afternoon, the brick-and-beam warmth of Vancouver Urban Winery and Belgard Kitchen set the stage for a Canadian first: an educational seminar and trade tasting devoted entirely to the Australian state of Victoria.
Mark Davidson with Allison.
Trade buyers, sommeliers, and media gathered not simply to taste, but to recalibrate their understanding of Australian wine through a more precise lens.
Victoria is a state of surprising scale and nuance: 21 distinct wine regions and more than 650 wineries dispersed across maritime peninsulas, elevated mountain ranges, inland lakes and historic fortified enclaves. Yet for many Canadian buyers, the narrative of Australian wine remains partial, too often defined by volume and sunshine rather than site and subtlety. Presented by Wine Victoria and led by seasoned educator Mark Davidson, this seminar offered a thoughtful corrective.
A recent trip took us down to Australia to stay with friends who live in Adelaide and tour the local wine regions. Adelaide is the largest city in the Province of South Australia, a port city on the island’s southern coast and South Australia’s capital. It is within an hour’s drive of three of South Australia’s most important wine regions. This is gorgeous real estate, rolling hills that are dedicated to grazing lands and various crops including vineyards. It is sparsely populated and still has that rural, undiscovered feel to it. And as we found, it is a terrific place to visit and taste. There is a great variety of wines to try: numerous different white and red varieties and a surprising range of microclimates, resulting in wines of many different styles. In addition to tasting some terrific wines, we also discovered an amazing foodie culture when we were there. It is a fabulous wine region to visit and we are already thinking about a return visit.
AdVINEtures was recently invited to Australia to host a group of 22 Flight Centre Canada travel consultants and show them the best of the Yarra Valley in 24 hours. Any wine lover will tell you that 24 Hours isn’t nearly enough time to discover any wine region, let alone one we had never been to before! Add the fact that we had no prior knowledge of what wine experience or interests our large group had, and we were in for an interesting challenge. Challenge accepted.
Special thanks to Flight Centre Canada, Tourism Australia, Chateau Yering, Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary, Coldstream Brewery & Yarra Valley Bike Hire for an excellent AdVINEture!
Still deep violet in colour. Lots of dark berry fruit here: blackberry, blueberry and plum with supporting notes of baking spices and whiffs of vanilla. Thick, plush and quite powerful, this manages to maintain balance despite its size. However we found it to lack complexity and be a bit one dimensional. The materials are there, but they somehow avoid coming together in a way that ordinarily we would find more impressive. Not a complaint, but not something to go wow over either.
2004 Mitolo Savitar Shiraz
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