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Most people would know about South Australia's Coriole vineyards from their award winning
wines. However we're better acquainted day to day with the Coriole olive oils.
For a year or two we've had Coriole's olive oil as our table oil of
choice. We try a lot of olive oils for just two people (one of the plusses
of being recent empty nesters), and we 'retire' them as
they get older than a few months when opened (it's an excuse to try
another). We were proud of our local Canberra region Capital Olive oil and give it
away as regional product Christmas presents, but their 2002 pressing just didn't hold up
in a side by side tasting against a bottle of 2002 Coriole we bought last year. So we set aside the local oil
and headed for the McLaren Vale one.
A few months ago we tried the 2003 Coriole EVO. It was very different from the
2002 extra virgin, more peppery, strong and green. We used less of it and grew to appreciate its stronger flavour
especially when cooking. With more and more local oils to choose
from, the process of our olive oil education and selection is going to be
an important one. So when I heard that Mark Lloyd from Coriole was in Canberra (he's
visiting Melbourne and Sydney as well) for a
tasting of their wine and other farm products, I made a call to Jan Gundlach
at Flavours where the event was to be held, and I was welcomed to
take some photographs.
Mark Lloyd, CEO of Coriole Vineyards.
Mark was generous in sharing his obvious interests with the small taster group
and gave us background stories and a guided tasting through the range of
products from what they're calling their Fattoria. There were
almonds, kalamata table olives (both available in vacuum packs, great for
storing in a pantry) the olive
oils, vinegar, verjuice and the Coriole wines. Some of the products are from their
own property, others sourced from the region. Coriole also distribute the
Woodside Cheese Wrights cheeses (a family company now run by Mark's
sister-in-law Kris Lloyd), not strictly 'fattoria' in the Italian sense of
being from the same vineyard and farm, but close by and starting to win lots of awards.
From a position of world respect for their wine (the Coriole Shiraz is much sought after), Mark told some stories about their struggle
to convince the market place that the extra quality of their almonds and
olives was worth the small extra price. He also was concerned about the process where the
traditional small farmers in the area had been pushed out as the land became more
valuable and the bigger estates had taken over production.
Coriole Sangiovese and Lalla Rookh a
grenache/ shiraz/ mourvedre blend.
Coriole were the first to plant the Italian Sangiovese grapes commercially in McLaren
Vale. Mark says it will be as successful a varietal for the area as the
shiraz. Sampling the 2002 vintage showed a lighter, smooth, bright tasting
wine that has a less of the fruit that is so strong immediately in the shiraz,
but comes around in its
finish. It's a wine that's far to easy to drink on a Saturday morning in winter. Mark says it a perfect accompaniment to food especially Italian. (Sangiovese
is the grape variety in Chianti so that's a safe recommendation.)
Coriole has trial plantings of
Sagrantino grapes, the very old Italian variety that Jan and I were
introduced to, when it was undergoing a revival in the Montefalco region in Italy. (We had
a holiday in
Umbria seemingly a hundred years back). Coriole are very keen to
introduce and develop wines from other grape varieties and they're lucky
to have the stable award-winning Shiraz base to experiment from.
There's a quote on the Coriole website from critic-wine-god Robert Parker
who said
("One of South Australia's finest Estates, Coriole
rarely stumbles regardless of vintage conditions").
You'd expect that this same attention will be applied to the new varieties, and
if the Coriole estate
restaurant and cellar door are really as pretty as their photographs, then
'Umbria-schumbria!', holidaying in South Australia next time is a much cheaper
option!
Fred Harden
Thanks to Jan Gundlach at
Flavours
Fyshwick Fresh Food Markets
Corner Dalby & Mildura Streets
Fyshwick ACT 2609. Ph: 02 - 6295 7722
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A
Woodside Cheese Wrights' Charleston, ripe and just running
away.
The Charleston is a cows milk, brie style cheese. Sourced from a small
Jersey cow dairy in the Adelaide Hills, it is rich and buttery with hints
of what Woodside call 'farm-yard/ mushroom' characters. That's the earthy
brie mould development that you miss in a young cheese. Russell apologised that was still a bit cold
from the Mart Deli's cool room. A portion I purchased and let warm up
for Sunday lunch was much better, and would have disappeared totally at
one sitting if I hadn't
also bought a small tub of ...
...Woodside Goat Curd cheese, just as the label says. This is a mild,
fresh-on-the-tongue goats cheese that Mark said they enjoy more after a
visiting Italian couple tasted it and said, 'Of course you wouldn't eat it
without some of your best oil and cracked pepper on top" and that's how
Mark now recommends, and how he served it for us. There's none of the strong
goat flavour of say, an ashed chevre, and Mark suggested it is just as
good 'dolloped' on as a topping for sweet desserts.
Jan Gundlach the chef/owner of Flavours was the host of the tasting, and
kept the guests supplied with glasses, bread and bowls as they dirtied
them up. He was obviously interested in some of the comments Mark made
about changing public tastes and the 'dumbing down' of stronger flavours.
It's the so called 'McDonalds effect', keep it bland and consistent.
It was as a challenge to this that Coriole released their 'First Oil'
unfiltered olive oils, 1stO. These come from the first weeks of
harvesting and are always the strongest tasting and freshest of their oils.
This gives an immediate benchmark to their Coriole EVO extra
virgin which follows, and to their premium extra virgin, Coriole Diva.
Mark stressed the need to educate people to avoid using old, 'flat' and
sometimes rancid oils, and feels this is made easier when the new season's
oils are clearly marked and promoted. He believes that soon people won't buy an
'old' vintage and that will force the market to offer fresher oil.
Also on the tasting table was also an aged sweet vinegar ASV, (you've
probably grasped the label shorthand by now) and their pale red
Verjuice.
Mark Lloyd with Russell Smith of the Mart-Deli in the
dining area at Flavours.
Links
Have a look at
the Coriole website and you'll see where to find their products in
your area. In Canberra, Russell Smith usually has Woodside cheeses
available at the Mart-Deli in Fyshwick markets, and The
Essential Ingredient in Kingston stock the oils, olives and
vinegar.
On the Coriole website
you'll find a lot more of the
things Mark talked about there, such as the misunderstanding about olives not
needing irrigation (they do), and the fraud that led to security
numbering on their Lloyd Reserve and a new label.
There's also a story about the origin of the Lalla Rookh name in my
Another Country Diary if you're interested.
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