Canberra Wine Week is back for 2019, and with this year’s theme "Expect the Unexpected", it’ll have you rethinking what you know about the region’s cool climate drops and coming way even more in love with our local wines and food.

Running from April 5-14, the 2019 program includes more than 40 events, from wine-matched dinners, wine tours, meet the maker experiences, live music, family friendly activities and plenty of opportunities of course to taste great Canberra’s wines.

Canberra Wine Week is an annual initiative of the Canberra District Wine Industry Association and its members. It’s the annual showcase of the best wine, food and wine tourism experiences the Canberra region has to offer in and around the city in Autumn.

The program has a wide range of events to showcase aspects of our winemakers that may be new, little known, or given behind the scenes access to come away inspired by the talents of our winemakers. In fact, the program is so full of activities to choose from, a week isn't long enough so it runs for 10 days with events both in the city and around the beautiful Canberra region.

We had a glass of wine with some of the region's wine people and found out more about them.

How and did you get started in the wine industry?

I took part in a short wine course while I was at university and totally loved the experience and toyed with the idea of being a winemaker but at the time lacked confidence in taking such a bold step so I put it aside and continued in my chosen medical science career. After graduating with two years post grad experience, I travelled overseas and worked as a locum in London Hospitals as medical scientist in microbiology departments. for a bit of fun and extra money, I worked in a wine bar in London in the 1990s, fell completely in love with a

Mt Macedon Shiraz and marvelled at the amazing differences between wine varieties and countries. Thinking back, this wine bar was well ahead of its time, I remember they had a Malbec from Argentina by the glass which was also wonderful and intriguing - interestingly Malbec is now back in favour. When I returned to Australia I enrolled in the wine science degree at Charles Sturt University distance education and completed the degree in 2004 just after my daughter was born.

Tell us a little bit about your wines and what you're trying to do?

My wines are totally made according to what I like in a wine. Every wine is personal, important to me is texture, complexity and balance. All my current release wines, rose, pinot gris, riesling, shiraz viognier and pinot noir displays these attributes completely.

How proud are you of making wines in the Canberra region?

Extremely proud - so glad I picked Canberra as a region to make my wine. There are many things that make me proud - the welcome I received when I first joined the region 12 years ago, the quality of the fruit and the excellent quality of the resulting wines, Canberra is up there with the very best this country has to offer.

What's the best way to enjoy a wine?

For me, nothing beats being immersed in nature. My best wine memories are camping by a river cooking a meal with family and friends and enjoying a beautiful glass of wine matched with a simple meal made from quality ingredients in front of the fire under the stars. I feel so lucky and grateful.

saplingyard.com.au

How and did you get started in the wine industry?

I was born and raised 30 kilometres south of Adelaide on the range of hills due east of McLaren Vale, which was our main shopping/financial centre. Family friends included the owners and relations of Pirraminna, D’Arenberg, Wirrawirra and Amery vineyards. I began learning wine enjoyment and structure, and how it complemented food from these dedicated wine professionals from my early teens.

When I finished university in geology and geophysics, I worked for Basedow’s in Tanunda during the 1973 vintage under the tutelage of Bill Crappsley, and made my first wine, a vintage port, which is still drinking superbly. My profession brought me to Canberra in mid 1973 and progressively I joined wine tasting groups. Finally in 1980 I enrolled in wine science at what became Charles Sturt University and made my first Kyeema wine in Canberra in 1986 from fruit sourced from Barwang in the Hilltops region. Within a few years I was sourcing only Canberra fruit and in 2000 bought the vineyard, which was already selling its crop to BRL Hardy, particularly the shiraz and chardonnay, the wines from which were often blended into their top Eileen Hardy label, due to their quality. This vineyard had been the source of the first shiraz grapes bought by BRL Hardy from the Canberra District years earlier, which convinced them to invest in the region. Kyeema became Capital Wines in 2008 with the Kyeema brand continuing to represent a range of wines solely from the Kyeema Vineyard.

Tell us a little bit about your wines and what you're trying to do?

We are into our ninth consecutive year of five-star rating from James Halliday which gives some indication of the high quality of the wines. I try to build high quality, elegant and balanced wines where the main component is varietally ripe (not over ripe) fruit flavour, finely supported by integrated but not overwhelming structural components of tannins, acids, wood, alcohol etc. I learnt from my early experiences in McLaren Vale the importance of whole mouth presence and especially mid palate weight from physiological fruit ripeness and vibrancy, fineness of tannins.

How proud are you of making wines in the Canberra region?

The range of topography in Canberra is such that Canberra in cool enough to produce outstanding rieslings, but with the appropriate viticulture can also produce red wines with the depth of mid palate flavour, vibrancy balance and flesh to match and often surpass the quality of those from warmer areas. I am quite content and very satisfied to have been able to make wines for both Capital Wines and other wineries in such a high quality and challenging area. Especially to have manage my vineyard and helped those I make wine for manage their vineyards to produce grapes with the best flavour potential and balance, then to tune the production process to make the best wine possible from those grapes. I consider that a winemaker is really only a custodian of the inherent quality (flavour, physiological ripeness) that has developed in the grapes in the vineyard. It is his job to preserve this into the final wine, you can not make a silk purse from a sow’s ear. He can extract the quality to various degrees, supplement it, adjust the surrounding parameters, but equally he can easily destroy it. A winemaker needs to understand the basic scientific requirements of a good wine (eg like the foundations of a house), but he also needs the art (tasting skill, experience and appreciation) to be able to shape it appropriately (how to build the rest of the house and to furnish it). Capital Wines has a portfolio of 16 different and successful Canberra District wines styles and in addition as a long-term contract winemaker, in 2018 for example made more than 60 wines for other wineries from the region (and nearby regions) that demonstrate the success of the Canberra Region.

What's the best way to enjoy a wine?

When you are in the right mood, the right place, at the right time, with the right people, ie anytime, anywhere, whether that is sitting relaxing with a refreshing white after a hard or stressful day or relaxing over a meal with friends and the appropriate wine to match the food.

capitalwines.com.au

How and did you get started in the wine industry?

My interest in wine began as a youth working casually around wineries in the Coonawarra region. I became a chef which blended my knowledge of food and wine. Travelling to the United Kingdom on a two-year working holiday, I renewed my winemaking passion in the strong wine culture around Europe. I’ve been at Murrumbateman Winery since 2010.

Tell us a little bit about your wines and what you're trying to do?

Running my own winery gives me the freedom to add new exciting wine varieties to compliment the regional Canberra styles of shiraz and riesling. Alternative varieties such as tempranillo, sangiovese and malbec satisfy my creativity along with using wild yeast fermenting, extended skin contact, and variations of barrel maturation times.

How proud are you of making wines in the Canberra region?

I am extremely proud to be producing award winning fine wines in the Canberra region with its growing reputation for excellence not only within Australia but around the world. The wonderful support and fellowship I receive from the local community, fellow winemakers and local producers and my pride at our regions combined success.

What's the best way to enjoy a wine?

Drinking good wine with good food in good company. For wine tasting the conditions need to be optimal for both the wine and the taster, temperature, a pleasant atmosphere these all combine to enhance the experience. The choice of wine should always compliment the food, blending together in the mouth; not to overwhelm but make the food taste better.

murrumbatemanwinery.com.au

How and did you get started in the wine industry?

I first started in the wine industry many, many years ago but ended up choosing another (or several other) paths. My return in 2017 really stemmed from a realisation that life is far too short to spend pursuing the inconsequential. I’m not the kind of person who is prepared to lose eight (or 10 or 12) hours of my life, each day, to any activity that doesn’t inspire or excite me. The wine industry is a unique work environment, a space where the reliability of the seasons combines with the unpredictability of weather and creates this wonderfully regular yet always changing landscape. Everyday is different, every, single, one!

Tell us a little bit about your wines and what you're trying to do?

Our high altitude cool climate site is wonderfully situated to produce elegant, sophisticated wines and we wouldn’t be alone in the Canberra wine community in seeking to not just represent this style faithfully, but promote it more widely to our audience. I guess where we might differ from others is that we seek to promote not just the idea that great wine is borne of the place that it is grown, but also, that it is a reflection of the people that make it. This concept goes beyond the influence of the winemaker and the technical decisions they make but looks to wine as an experience rather than a commodity. We think that connecting a consumer to the place that a wine is grown creates the foundation for a great relationship. Beyond this, connecting the consumer to the guy that farmed the grapes, to the girl that made the wine and to all the people that helped create the experience that they are now enjoying brings friends for life.

How proud are you of making wines in the Canberra region?

I’m super proud because I am a believer. Wines of the Canberra District were a staple in my cellar for many years before I had the privilege of participating. It is great to see firsthand the enthusiasm for Canberra wines, in the broader Australian and international community growing at such an incredible rate, and to see punters and professionals alike getting excited about one of my personal passions. I also feel particularly proud to be here, right now. The Canberra Wine Region has some fantastic people, with fantastic passion, around at the moment and we are poised to see some really exciting things happen.

What's the best way to enjoy a wine?

Be brave, come with an open mind and don’t forget your friends. There are so many new and interesting things in the world of wine … alternative varietals, new wave winemaking, “natural” wine (take care, you never know what you might get ). Whilst looking forward don’t forget to look back too … Burgundy, Bordeaux, Chianti, Alsace or Mosel … these regions are famous for a reason. Simply put, try different things with friends and don’t be afraid to like or dislike anything, nor to share your thoughts (politely) with each other. Our cellar door manager at Lerida Estate, Tyce, has a saying, “You’re the only person to have come here today with your unique life experiences … so no one else can judge for you, what you might like or dislike … you can’t go wrong.”

leridaestate.com.au

How and did you get started in the wine industry?

Either luck or blind stupidity really … it had previously been a pipeline dream of my partner and myself to have a winery one day and, we always joked about how great the Lamberts property would be. Never in our wildest dreams did we envisage it would come up for sale, that we’d be in a position to put an offer on it, or that the offer would be accepted. Fate seemed to play into our hands with meeting like-minded business partners and all the stars aligning.

Prior to that I’d always had a big interest in wines, working in bottle shops to learn more about them, visiting wineries at every opportunity, collecting and copious amounts of drinking (can you say that now … we’re becoming so politically correct!)

Outside of that, until we purchased the winery I’d never made wine and I had to learn as I went, with some fantastic help from Ash at Horner Wines behind the scenes and YouTube was a wonderful supporting tool.

Tell us a little bit about your wines and what you're trying to do?

We’re really looking to make wines that you can either drink now, or for those more patient cellar, watching them get even better with age. For me it only comes down to two things when you’re drinking wine, you either like it or you don’t. I aim to make wines I like.

How proud are you of making wines in the Canberra region?

The Canberra region is amazing with some equally amazing wine makers, to have a small part in that and take on what the Lamberts originally built is a great privilege.

What's the best way to enjoy a wine?

Always with friends and family, it’s not only the wine you drink but the moments in time with who you drink it with that make it memorable.

contentiouscharacter.com.au

How and did you get started in the wine industry?

Our family has a long association with wine in various guises (and a particular fondness for drinking wine in the southern Italian tradition) hence the name of our vineyard, Enotria. Enotria is the ancient Greco-Roman name for Southern Italy and means "land of grape vines". It was always a dream to have a vineyard and when the opportunity arose to buy a beautiful vineyard in Bungendore, our family jumped at it. However, after purchasing the vineyard, the realities of what goes into producing great regional wine sunk in. So we had a glass of wine and have been on a steep learning curve ever since ...

Tell us a little bit about your wines and what you're trying to do?

Because the vineyard is small and totally family run, we go for quality rather than quantity. In addition we are keen to make wines that reflect the families tastes, such as our extra dry sparkling and our cabernet franc Wild Rose. Our aim is to grow a brand which produces interesting, high quality wine.

Our vineyard is situated high (840 metres above sea level) on the Lake George escarpment overlooking Bungendore. The vineyard is east-facing, catches the morning sun and avoids the harsh westerly winds - the ideal conditions for cool climate wines. The rocky soils and slow growth of the grapes contribute to complex, lighter bodied smooth wines. These wines do not have the "heaviness" found in warmer areas and thus can be enjoyed when matched with a variety of food styles or simply by themselves.

We grow the following grapes - pinot noir, pinot gris and cabernet franc. The pinot noir lends itself to rich reds (we currently make two pinot noirs) as well as a full bodied sparkling wine made solely from pinot noir in the champagne style. We currently make two sparkling wines, one dry, Brut, and the other extra dry, Brut Sauvage. Pinot gris makes a refreshing light white wine with a complex texture which highlight subtle citrus and pear flavours. The cabernet franc is used for our Wild Rose and two lighter bodied red wines.

How proud are you of making wines in the Canberra region?

The supportive attitude of Canberrans for local wines is really uplifting and encourages us to do more and try harder. It is a pleasure to be part of a young and vibrant winemaking region that is now being given the recognition it deserves.”

enotria.com.au