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The Stranan Podcast
darlington_conversation_part1.mp3 (9.27mb 13:30 min duration)	In this part of our conversation we find out about Paul's background, we hear about the vineyard's history and we learn a lot about the trials and tribulations of owning a small vineyard and we finish with Paul telling us about how he handles tourists who don't like wine.
darlington_conversation_part2.mp3 (10.8mb 15:46 min duration)	In our final part we ask Paul to tell us about the wines that are on offer at Darlington, we reminice about Houghton's White Burgundy and then get a potted history of Paul's drinking career, we then find out how Paul ended up on the East Coast of Tasmania.  Finally hear about Paul's strategy for the 'ordinary' vintage years.

Darlington Vineyard - The trials and tribulations of small vineyards.

 Paul Stranan has traveled a long way to end up on the East Coast of Tasmania.  He was born in Canada but his family originally came from what's now known as Slovakia, however winemaking is definately in the genes. He was telling us that both his grandfathers were conscripted into the German army at the start of World War One and ended up making wine for their fellow POWs out of anything they could get their hands on.  Hmm, potato peeling chardonnay anyone? Paul's father also made wine, using many and varied ingredients, which Paul described as "pretty terrible".

After having met Louise (a fine Tassie lass) on his travels Paul went from the cold of Canada to the drought of the East Coast.  PJ praised Paul on his 'immaculate' timing in taking over a vineyard at the start of the worst drought in modern Tasmanian history.  After thanking PJ for that cheery thought he said "I make a habit of that, I remember losing a major contract on the day I took over a trucking company".  Despite the hardships, and possibly thanks to the winemaking gene, Paul and Louise Stranan have been able to build an enviable niche with their wines.

To our mind Darlington is the quintessential small Tasmanian vineyard and has everything we like - friendly dedicated owners, good wines and a relaxing cellar door.  We have already posted a podcast and article about the wines so we don't need to go on anymore on that topic.  But there is more to Darlington than the wine. Talking to Paul gave us a very interesting insight into the operation of a small but viable vineyard. 

  We're impressed with anyone who starts or takes over a vineyard, particularly those people who have no prior experience.  We have thoroughly enjoyed (in a slow train wreck kind of way) the recent story on the television show Hot Property which followed a young couple in their attempts to turn a machinery shed into a cellar door with the 'wow factor' (whoever invented that term needs hanging from their toes - Ed). We are sure they will be ok - after all they only went $500,000 over budget and all of this was borrowed money.  Hmm, lashings of debt in the current economic climate - no I am sure they will be fine - no really.

Happily while Paul and Louise lacked prior experience they have taken a more modest and dare we say practical approach.  To start with Paul made sure Louise was 'on board' (another toe hanging phrase - Ed). "Its the only scheme of mine she has liked" he quipped.  Next they took over an existing operation, didn't sink all their capital into the venture and asked the previous owners to help them over the first 12 months.  Obviously such sensibleness will probably prevent them from ever appearing on reality television but it does help to guarantee their long term success.  As Paul pointed out, Darlington vineyard has to keep him from going mad in retirement after he leaves his teaching job in the near future.

Still Paul and Louise have embarked on a risky enterprise.  Any agricultural business means accepting that the major determinates of your success are beyond your control.  Paul talked about how the drought resulted in a major crop loss caused by the local wildlife having to eat his grapes since their usual food was non-existent.  Going from a harvest of 7 tonnes to 700kg in one year would try anyones patience. 

 

Added to this is the fact that it is not easy making a living from a 5 acre vineyard.  Paul calls this 'an awkward size' and he believes that you can only make a living on 5 acres if most of your wine is sold on a retail basis.  Currently his income from teaching is helping to pay the bills but when he retires he acknowledges the pressure will be on.  Luckily the cellar door is showing signs of promise.

Being on the edge of Orford means that during the summer Paul and Louise get a number of tourists visiting the cellar door.  Interestingly many of these visitors are people who don't like wine but because Orford is more of a shack area than a tourist area people come to the vineyard because they are looking for something to do.  Being a teacher converting these 'bored, non-wine liking' punters just gets Paul's blood a pumpin'.

Having covered the history and learned a lot about running a small vineyard, the conversation moved on to the wine varieties grown at Darlington.  But to hear about that you'll have to wait for the second part of our conversation.

The final bit of our conversation

While we covered the Darlington wines in our wine tasting podcast we wanted to hear a little more so we started the second part of our conversation by asking Paul what varieties existed at Darlington.  Like many Tasmanian vineyards Darlington's white wines predominate but they also produce an "easy drinking, comparatively light" pinot. 

 

Paul told us that Riesling grapes grow extremely well at his site. While the riesling vines produce twice the tonnage as his sauvignon blanc vines this is a double edge sword. As Paul said "it's a shame because we could sell twice as much sav blanc as the riesling".  The sweet riesling is called the TGR (thirty grams residual) and came about because Paul found the Frogmore Creek FGR (forty grams residual) too sweet and he liked the name TGR.  You can read our thoughts on the Darlington Rieslings here.

We were very interested in the Darlington Gwertztraminer partly because it's a small volume wine but also because Paul and Louise elected not to use the folks at Frogmore Creek, their usual winemaker.  This, their first commercial vintage of Gwertztraminer was made by Steve Bently who owns Wildside vineyard.  This unusual 'food' wine is going to be hard to come by as there are only 10 cases.  While we suspected that such a small amount would go straight into Paul and Louise's personal stash Paul assured us it was selling "not too badly".  

 

Actually getting Darlington wine at all isn't the easiest thing to do.  In addition to the cellar door Darlington wines are available at a couple of resaurants in Orford and at the new Spring Vale Wine restaurant "The Terrace".

While we talked about restaurants we wanted to know if Paul had any food and wine matching rules.  He responded that "we almost never open a bottle for ourselves ... what ever is open in the cellar door that's what we drink ... so if riesling is open and we are having steak guess what?" "I am rarely disappointed" he added.  This part of the discussion ended with Paul telling us about an article he read pointing out that the 'best wines' have as much to do with the company or social event in which they are drunk as the quality of the wine.

Interestingly this article was apparently written by the little known English wine writer Jancis Robinson. "I have never heard of her so she can't be that famous" he quipped.  Now before you rabid Jancis Robinson fans start emailing.  PJ swiftly pointed out to Paul that, yes, Jancis is just a tinny winny bit famous.

Leaving controversy behind and moving on to people's journey through alcohol we found out that both Paul and PJ have drunk a lot of Houghtons White Burgundy.  Despite the fact that some people say they would rather drink metho out of a paper bag PJ stoutly defended the virtues of this wine.  Paul agreed and said "it's still a very quaffable white wine and not a bad place to start". "I have followed it over the years and it gets very good reviews as far as value for money is concerned".

 

Paul took advantage of our conversation to make some quite funny jokes, even one to do with the stockmarket. But we did manage to get him to take a break from the standup to talk about how he handles those years where the vintage is not great and not terrible but just not quite good enough. Paul doesn't have a clear strategy, mainly because he hasn't been in this situation, but he has obviously given it a lot of thought.  Having a premium and quaffer labels may well end up being his approach.

To finish we did ask a couple of personal questions. To begin we wanted to know about his name.  Paul's family moved from Slovakia to Canada in the 1920's and we wondered if his name had been shortened or anglosised.  Paul said that no it hadn't but he wasn't sure if the pronounciation was the same in Slovakia.  If you have been listening to our podcasts you would know we ask a few "what's your favourite ..." questions. Paul did say that he is not a 'favourites' kind of person but when asked who he would most like to have a glass of wine with Paul nominated Richard Flanagan and Bob Brown.  In response to the theme song question he nominated Ramblin' Man by The Allman Brothers.

Finally Chelle, our resident sparkling wine expert, wouldn't let us leave with out asking when Darlington would produce a sparkling wine.  Paul pointed out that because sparkling takes a couple more years to make than other wines they would need to be in business a little longer before heading down that road (so Chelle has to wait. Hmmm patience, not Chelle's strong point - Ed).

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