Friends of Jimbour - Jimbour e-Newsletter

Newsletter December 09

WELCOME to the Friends of Jimbour e-Newsletter.

IN THIS ISSUE

WINE NEWS -MEMBERS SPECIALS
from Jimbour Sales Manager Brian Madden

FROM OUR MASTER OF WINE –
Peter Scudamore-Smith

News from Jimbour Station Manager –
Karl Graham

Queensland’s best performed Merlot

Jimbour’s Ludwig Leichhardt Reserve Merlot 2005 has picked up another heavy-weight award, with a Gold Medal at the Sydney International Wine Competition (SIWC) recently. This takes the wine to lofty heights, as its medal bag now consists of a Silver at the biggest wine show in Asia (Korea), a Silver in the Winestate Magazine’s Annual edition, this Gold medal in the SIWC and, some would say, its biggest accolade - winning critical acclaim by the Australian Sommeliers’ Association.

Needless to say this wine is running out! It is obviously drinking fantastically at the moment, so get it while you can and enjoy the best performed Merlot to ever come out of Queensland! Click here for details, or phone 07 3236 2100.

And please note, the 2006 vintage is also now available and has already rated 87 points in James Halliday’s 2010 Wine Companion. Click here for details, or phone 07 3236 2100.

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New Release Chardonnay

The new 2008 vintage of the Ludwig Leichhardt Reserve Chardonnay has just been released and it already has begun to earn strong acclaim.

“Winestate”- the leading wine magazine in Australia - has just given the wine 4 stars in the December edition (equivalent to a Silver Medal). Winestate placed it in the top 20% of all Chardonnays presented to the magazine for the whole of 2009! This is a sensational result for a wine so new to the market – and still has so much more to give! Click here for details, or phone 07 3236 2100

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Members - Special Offers

The new vintage of the Ludwig Leichhardt ‘Summer Pruned’ Reserve Shiraz will be released to the general public in January 2010. However, as members of Friends of Jimbour, you can access this wine NOW!

This is the wine that follows on from the amazing success of the inaugural 2007 vintage, which won a Gold Medal at the San Francisco International Wine Show earlier this year. The 2008 vintage has already picked up a bronze at the Qld Wine Awards shortly after its bottling. It is a big, rich and velvety smooth wine with some unique characters due to its specialised handling. Click Here for details, or phone 07 3236 2100.

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2009 – ‘Changes, Challenges, and Chest Beating!’

What a whirlwind year! Everyone involved with Jimbour needs to get a pat on the back this year I reckon. Starting with you the consumer and supporter of Jimbour – thanks for your help. We wouldn’t have a business without you.

The crew at the House, the team at Cellar Door, Karl at the Station, and everyone involved in the wine side of things have had a massive year. 2009 included no small things - the Opera, changes at Cellar Door, a new website, new labels for our Jimbour Station wines, new content in the bottles (multi award winning content that is!), not to mention the most challenging sales environment I’ve seen in 20 years of dealing with alcohol! Any one of these would be a challenge to complete successfully on its own, but together we’ve managed to do all this in 1 year. Quite a feat.

We have also made ‘The Gold Book’ for the first time in Jimbour’s history. This handy publication by Rob Geddes is a widely read publication of only the best wines in Australia, as well as offering some wine tourism information.
2009 has also been the most successful of the company’s history in terms of Awards and Accolades. This year alone we have received 2 Golds (1 International, 1 National), 2 Silvers, and more than a handful of Bronze Medals, as well as many impressive 3rd party reviews.

I hope you agree that our direction of making ‘less wine, but better wine’ is reaping rewards.

Jimbour Station wines and the Summer Pruned Reserve Shiraz will be taking an unavoidable small price rise early in the New Year. Platinum Members will be spared the price rise for the first 6 months. My apologies, but we’ve been absorbing other increasing costs for as long as possible. I’m sure you’ll agree that these wines are still wonderful value!

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Blind Taste with a Friend

Finally, here is an interesting opportunity for FOJ Members. Next time you have a friend around who likes their wine, conduct your own ‘blind tasting’ and compare our wine against one of theirs. Let me know the outcome via an email or a phone call, and I’ll send you a bottle for your efforts! Email brian.madden@jimbour.com or phone me on 0403 237 080.

Alternatively, if you ‘Twitter’, send us a tweet at www.twitter.com/jimbourwines

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MASTERING FOOD WITH WINE

Drinkers are changing their food preferences as Australian wine styles expand. Although there has been a groundswell of movement towards drinking sauvignon blanc with any food style there is more to this story.

Information is coming out of the USA now that most consumers neither agree with nor follow the advice of experts who rate wines with high points as idealistic drinks when their own taste speaks differently. They prefer sweeter or lighter wines.

This develops because public taste buds fall into three categories; those with thousands of taste buds per cm2, those with hundreds and those with a handful. Therefore we are often tasting and sensing something different from our neighbour when sitting down to drink and eat.

To one participant a wine will be enjoyable-meaning that it is not acidic (older generations are dogged by acid in their gums), too dry (less sugar) or too bitter. Alongside another participant will disagree and find the same wine unpalatable for reasons of differing taste buds.

In my house it is not uncommon to have two bottles open such is the disparity of the wine preference.
This discussion could not come at a better time when over-production and binge drinking of sweet concoctions sees the need to grow wine consumption among more Australian households. There are still many who do not drink wine and if it is presented in the wrong way I can understand lack of modernity discourages new buyers.

Tim Hanni MW from Napa says “we have introduced a new wine show system to cultivate and connect with all consumers. There will be no expert judges but we will select and mentor 100 people to take responsibility for these awards-the Consumer Wine Awards at Lodi in 2010”.

And he has some strong support from UK wine commentator Jancis Robinson MW and the US online star of the moment Gary Vaynerchuk.

Of the Jimbour Wines range I regard the Jimbour Station Verdelho 2009 as the company’s most consumer-friendly light white drink for summer. Please enjoy.

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Well no one can accuse 2009 as being a boring year at Jimbour; with the first part of it proving to be a reasonable result in both summer cropping and cattle sales then drying off throughout most of the winter months and some relief rains in October.

We did, however, manage to grow some reasonable wheat and barley (2.4 tonnes per hectare and 3.4 tonnes per hectare respectively) on minimal moisture as well as fatten cattle off oats to meet budget. A good result given the conditions.

Currently we are waiting for planting rain to sow 320 hectares to sorghum, feeding out silage to bulls and cull heifers, renewing some old netting fences and general maintenance. All of these duties haven’t been pleasant during this heat-wave!

Even though the recent heat has taken its toll on man and beast, Tony and his team have got the garden and grounds looking a picture.

Kate and her team at Cellar Door have welcomed many visitors who have come out to experience country hospitality at its best. The have all contributed to a great year.

As 2009 comes to an end (way too fast for my liking) I would like to wish all a very happy and safe Christmas and a healthy and prosperous 2010.

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