Distraction Hill ?

Interviewing people can be difficult. Occasionally people are rude or dismissive. Sometimes they're shy and you can't get them to speak. Sometimes they talk too much and you're left with mush where your brain used to be. Fortunately you quickly learn how to deal with these types of interviews.

But then there's the other type of difficult interview. The 'distracting', or as we now call it, the 'Natasha and Tony' type interview. This is where you end up covering everything other than what you are supposed to and by the time you realise, it's too late.

These types of interviews seem to involve a lot of "now where were we?" or "but I digress" and our favourite "that's a really funny story shame we can't use it!". It would be very easy to blame Natasha and Tony for the fact that an hour of chat resulted in lots of stories but nowhere near enough about the wines from Goaty Hill. In fact it is so easy that's what we'll do. 

The distractions started with the magnificent view from the vineyard. Goaty Hill vineyard manager Marcus spent some time explaining what effect changing rainfall patterns had on the quality of their fruit. Unfortunately none of it really sunk in. Looking at the view you can see why.

This kind of set the tone for the afternoon. Sensible questions were asked but somehow funny stories intervened. The result was a lot of laughing and some interesting insights but not as much in depth understanding of the Goaty Hill wines as expected. As an example,  asking about the 09 Riesling somehow elicited the interesting fact that Queenslanders are strange cattle ...

"What have they done this time?" we hear you ask. Well, according to Tony, they like to put ice cubes in their wine. In fact one enterprising lady from far north Queensland turns left over wine into ice cubes and uses them to cool her next glass of wine. If you are keen to try the "Queensland method of temperature control" remember that only sickos would add white wine ice cubes to red wine and vice versa.

Just when it looked like a proper interview was going to break out some other story would surface.

It turns out Tony and Natasha ended up joining the Goaty Hill team after meeting Marcus and Kristine at ante-natal classes. This lead to a discussion of that little known horror movie genre 'baby is coming'. If you haven't seen any of these films be relieved. They are graphic and have an unrelentingly confronting nature that turns 'real men' into shell shocked blubbering idiots.

Pointing out that spice is something you'll taste on a number of Goaty Hill wines and wondering if it is the Goaty Hill style resulted in the conversation moving to another movie genre. The Chicksploitation movie.

Tony admitted that he knew the name of the guy who drove the bus (Meatloaf ... er I had to look that up - Ed) in the Spice Girls movie. Realising that he had revealed more of himself than he perhaps wished he went on to explain that this was because he has an 11 year old daughter and he watched the movie to impress Natasha (lies, all lies - Ed). 

Even the timing was conspiring against us. The Goaty Hill cellar door is supposed to be closed June and July each year. But you wouldn't know it from the number of punters who kept turning up for a tasting. No may mean no but it appears closed doesn't mean closed.

Despite the distractions a lot was learned from the conversation with half the Goaty Hill team. It's a fact that Tony and Natasha are fun people to be around. This, and being part of the wine industry, makes them sought after dinner guests. "I have a theory (of popularity)" Tony began "there are Rock stars, Sports stars and then wine people". "Yeah" laughs Natasha "we're popular because people think we might give them free booze" (we're not like that .... really! - Ed).

But you need to be more than 'fun people' to make a successful wine label. Behind the personality sits people with business brains and a very well thought out strategy. All the Goaty Hill team come from successful business or senior corporate backgrounds.

So it's no surprise that over the last 12 years Goaty Hill has made the transition from a contract fruit growing operation to a rapidly expanding wine label. Tony and Natasha freely admit that this transition hasn't always been smooth. They have been on a very steep learning curve. 

This pressurised learning environment formed the basis for their wine label motto "Educated Enjoyment". "That first year we were like rabbits in the headlights" Tony admitted. "We knew nothing but over the years we've learnt a lot". "We've had a lot of fun learning about wine along the way" Natasha added.

They haven't forgotten the first time they saw people swirling their wine and thought "what the hell are they doing?". This is why they are so active in promoting wine as a fun and everyday part of life. 

So what will you find if you head on up to Rowella in the Tamar Valley and walk into the Goaty Hill cellar door? Well you'll find it's always open even when it's not. You'll find out about the Spice Girls and the Gee Wizz Tram Driver. You'll notice the very distracting view but once you get past all that you'll find some very tidy wines.

You see it wasn't all Spice Girls, horror movies and bizarre behaviour. Along the way the current range was sampled. These wines have been made by either Fran Austin or Jeremy Dineen from fruit grown so that it needs minimal wine maker intervention. Looking at each in turn .....

2009 Goaty Hill Riesling

This is one of the wines building the Goaty Hill reputation and it recently picked up it's first gold in Queensland. It is the result of a very low cropping year so it's flavour is quite intense. This wine is a favourite with Tony and Natasha thanks to it's plentiful acid, dry style and mineral touch to the finish.

Look for a full road test soon but our initial impression was very favourable. What struck us was the sharp citrus nose. The nostrils fill rapidly for those of you in a hurry. We also liked the fact that its good to go now but the acid levels will mean that it will age beautifully.

2009 Goaty Hill Sauvignon Blanc

This wine is a vegie. It reminded us of a 'green tomato paste on toast'. This is because the grapes took a long time to ripen. Tony admits that this is his least favourite variety but he drinks this one because "it's not a big tropical, passionfruit (one) you tend to get from the mainland".

"It's still got those traditional sav blanc characters .... its a thought provoking sav blanc" Natasha added. Early on it had too much acid but "It's drinking really well right now and will be very good for at least 12 months more" Tony stated. We suspected they were being cautious about how long this wine can be cellared and confirmation came when Tony told us they are saving some of this vintage to see how it ages.

In any case, we liked its very clean taste, background acid and long spicy/ peppery back end.

2009 Goaty Hill Gewurztraminer

Tony calls it the "Gee wizz tram driver" to help people get their mouth around the name. We think that anything that makes people more willing to try this fantastic food wine variety is a good idea. The team at Goaty Hill are obviously trying to increase the popularity of Gewurztraminer by taking the risk and producing a small amount. They were pleased and more than a little relieved with the reaction. "It does well with our climate and people have been loving it" Natasha said.

We noticed that the tasting notes mention spice but the sav blanc is far more spicy. This wine is like the one spice girl people can't remember. As if his earlier efforts weren't enough Tony proved his spiceability by rattling off all the Spice Girls names (real and band) without missing a beat.

We love a GT and enjoyed the bigger mouth feel, and getting bombarded with roses. 

2008 Goaty Hill Chardonnay

This is the only wine from the 08 vintage left but is regarded by Tony as one of their very best wines. "We absolutely love this wine ... chablis style, nice acid and it came from lovely fruit" Tony said. Natasha is happy that people are returning to chardonnay and believes that the quality of Tassie cool climate chardonnay is largely responsible.

We tasted both spice and toast in this very very good wine. It has also benefited from the fact that the Goaty Hill team are more knowledgeable about oak. Ordering oak barrels can be a modesty minefield. Tony once had to order a barrel with the immortal phrase "medium tight, slow and deep".

2009 Goaty Hill Pinot

In a vain attempt to impress, Tony put this wine in "a very sexy pinot glass", however the finer points of alluring glassware got lost as Natasha exclaimed "it's a cracker" in her best winepunter impersonation after tasting the pinot. Obviously we are rubbing off on people in the industry.

The question as to whether this pinot was being sold too early came up. "We had no other choice .... we're probably tasting the wine at it's worst to be honest" Tony confessed. The early release of the 09 pinot was the result of 2008 being such a poor year in terms of grape volumes that the 08 pinot sold out much earlier than anticipated. 

It's a very mature wine despite being so young. This wine wouldn't be asked to show id at a nightclub! Now you've had the teaser go and read the full road test.

If you want to know more or order their wines head to their website 

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