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The Sinapius wine taste Podcast
sinapius_riesling.mp3 ( 13 mb, 14:14 minutes )	We start by trying Vaughn and Linda's rieslings. Vaughn gives us a taste of the yet to be bottled 09 Riesling and discusses what style he is trying to achieve with this variety. We also learn what the term 'off dry' means and why it's different from 'sweet'. We also hear from the frogs. To finish this part we try the 08 riesling which was the first riesling Vaughn has made and find out why it was a 'no brainer' to produce.
sinapius_chardonnay.mp3 ( 11.2 mb, 12:18 minutes )	As a reward for being so nice about the rieslings we got to try the award winning chardonnay. It was even better than we remembered. We also try the 08 and decide that it is as good. This leads us to speculate if the 07 won gold and the 08 is better then it should win platinum. Along the way we find out the meaning of 'bottle shock'.
sinapius_pinot.mp3 ( 13.6 mb,  14:54 minutes )	We finish our tasting with the Sinapius Pinots. We hear about dodgy pinot making, brave pinot making and how to market wines that are out there. We taste the 06 (the wine Vaughn rejects), the 07 and the as yet not bottled 08 (bring a bit of balance).

Vaughn Dell and Linda Morice - First chardonnay - bam - first gold medal

Vaughn and Linda won a gold medal with their very first chardonnay. Blatant show offs? Bit too lucky for their own good? Or the start of a very successful career? We had to go and find out.

Sorry about the start maybe it's just our envy getting the better of us. Mind you, what can you do when someone wins a gold medal the first time they make a chardonnay? We were trying to remember what we were doing at their age and the best we could figure was at least we stayed out of jail.

We tried the Sinapius chardonnay at the last Tasmania Wine Show and, like the judges, were stunned at the quality, complexity and taste of this wine. So we were pretty keen to try the rest of the range and it was off to the Tamar to have a chat. On the way up we have to confess we worried we were going to meet a one wine wonder. Well, we took all those anti-anxiety pills for nothing.

Vaughn and his partner Linda Morice own the Sinapius label which they make from their vineyard located near Lilydale in the Tamar Valley. The area is also home to Delamere and Bellingham vineyards so they are in good company.

A man and his dog

We arrived on a beautiful day to find Vaughn and his dog Darcy at what can only be described as a fairly soggy construction site. "Keep you door closed she likes to sit in cars" Vaughn warned as he made us welcome. Darcy seemed more interested in the frogs than our car and we were more worried Michelle would indulge in a bit of dognapping so we took all the necessary precautions just in case.

Vaughn is a passionate winemaker who is working in a partly constructed winery. He and Linda are also in the process of building their home, just to make their lives even more interesting! 

Having been made to feel very welcome and spending time discussing the 'fun' of building your own home it was into the winery to try the range. We strongly suggest that you have a listen to the podcasts to hear about all the range but for all you "I only read stuff" punters here are our highlights.

Vaughn Dell

We started with a pre-bottled sample of the 09 riesling which had been made in an FGR style. Vaughn refers to the style as 'off dry' to distinguish it from a 'sweet' wine. "I prefer to call it off dry because its not necessarily sweet ... most sweet wines have 100 grams of residual sugar or more". 

 "We are trying to make a serious wine style ... we are looking at what they do in Germany and trying to model it on that style". At this stage, the plan is to place to this wine under the Bellingham vineyard label.

While the wine was cloudy it's taste is complete, rich and amazing. Vaughn agreed that it could be filtered and bottled but he wants to see how it develops a little more before going ahead. He is expecting that the combination of the residual sugar and acid will mean that this wine will age better than a classic dry white.

After enjoying the rieslings it was on to the chardonnays. As we said Vaughn and Linda won a gold medal for their 07 chardonnay and Vaughn pointed out that means he has a 100% success rate. So is making another chardonnay going to end in disappointment? The 08 Chardonnay had only been bottled a month before and was suffering from what Vaughn referred to as 'bottle shock'. This gave it a harder edge and suppressed the flavour so it was too early to tell.   

Part of what's on offer

However, based on Vaughn's description of what they had done in the vineyard to ensure the fruit was as ripe as possible and the fact that prior to it being bottled Rebecca Wilson from Holm Oak had nominated the 08 as a more complex wine than the 07, we think that this latest chardonnay has the potential to match it's successful predecessor. We want to try it again before we make our final judgement. There is going to be a bit of a wait for the 08 chardonnay since it is unlikely to be released until March 2010.  

Having dealt with the whites it was on to the pinots. The first Sinapius pinot was the 06 which put Vaughn and Linda in a quandary. "The punters liked it but we were never happy with it". Vaughn liked the wine up until it was bottled. "I don't know what happened but it came back a different wine". The experience made him determined not to use a contract wine maker in the future.  

"So what we did with the 07 was back to bare bones ... we did simple strip back winemaking where we did absolutely nothing". The simplistic approach has given Vaughn a much better idea of what is possible with his fruit. The result is a very very good pinot. It has the fruit up front and a nice solid oak finish. It is a four foot guy who punches like a 6 foot 8 guy. By the way, we did try the 06 and we think that Vaughn is being a bit harsh but the 07 is better. 

The 07 has given Vaughn the confidence to expand his winemaking approach so that the 08 pinot has been made using techniques such as whole bunch ferments.

mmmm construction!

In our humble opinion we think all three pinots have their good points. As we said the 06 is not as bad as Vaughn thinks and we understand why it is selling so well. Punters who like a light fruity pinot will enjoy it. The 07 is going to confront some punters with its oak finish. But if you like a pinot that fights back on the way down then the 07 is for you.

The 08 is going to be very interesting and we think it sits somewhere between the 06 and the 07. Certainly Vaughn is happy with its progress and we think they are really on to something. We can't wait to go back and try it again once it has a bit more age.

If you want to try the Sinapius range you can contact them at sinapius at bigpond dot com, go to the Pinot Shop in Launceston or head down to the Gasworks in Hobart.

There are more photos in our gallery.

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