Adnams Ghost Ship

Ghost Ship is a ghostly pale ale which takes its inspiration from Adnams 600-year-old haunted pub, The Bell.

As well as having its own resident ghost, The Bell sits in one of England’s most haunted villages, Walberswick, where George Orwell famously spotted the spectre of a small stooping man, prompting a lifelong interest in ghosts. Walberswick’s shore is littered with the eerie wrecks of smuggling ships, much like the one on the pump clip. And just out to sea, now under the waves, lies the ghost town of Dunwich. Previously one of England’s biggest ports, Dunwich was washed out to sea in 1286.

Legend has it that the bells in the church tower can still be heard ringing on calm winter nights…

More news on Ghost Ship coming soon.

This is the first of many blog articles I’ll be writing over the coming year, as Adnams adds distilling to its grand drinks portfolio.

John McCarthy, Adnams Head Distiller

As this is such an important, and historic, new project for Adnams, I’m really keen to document the whole process from the start.

So, here’s where the journey from brewing to distilling begins.

In 2008, our Chairman, Jonathan Adnams, started exploring the possibilities of creating hand-crafted spirits alongside our brewing activities. Jonathan, as a Brewing Engineer, has always found the production of high-quality artisan spirits fascinating, and with the complete modernisation of our brewery complete, we found ourselves not only with the space, but also the resources to turn Jonathan’s innovative vision into reality.

After months of research and studying the feasibility and practically of incorporating a distillery into our brewery, Jonathan and I travelled to Michighan State University to undertake a course on Distilling. We already knew that we have access to some of the finest raw materials from East Anglia, and with our engineering expertise could commission the finest hand-made tanks, distillation and rectifying equipment. In line with our brewing philosophy, we always aim for the highest quality. Many commodity spirits are made by re-distilling neutral grain spirit, but with top quality malted wheat, barley and oats growing locally in East Anglia, we could start off with the best possible base product.

So, we knew what we wanted to achieve, it was just a matter of getting everything planned, designed and implemented! The old Coppers were removed from the brewery a few years ago (they can now be found in the Southwold Cellar & Kitchen Store café seating area), leaving a perfectly formed space for a distillery. At the moment, as many Southwold residents and visitors can attest, the Adnams Copper House Distillery is merely a shell. We’re pulling out the remains of the old brewing equipment, and stripping everything down to start afresh. Once all the equipment is installed, we’re going to have one of the finest views in Southwold! Here’s what it looks like now.

This is the stills room. There will be plate glass windows here soon.

Empty now, but these rooms will soon be transformed to the filtration and bottling rooms

The Adnams Copper House Distillery will command one of the best views of Southwold

Next month, we’re having the alcohol storage vessels delivered, and in September we’ll have the pot still, two rectifying columns and a beer stripping column delivered. I’ll explain more about these hand-made engineering wonders later on – there’s lots to say! Next-door to the Stills room, we’re creating a chilling and filtering plant, plus a bottling room where we’ll hand-bottle gin, vodka, and eventually whisky. We’re not planning on releasing the whisky for a while, as it needs to be matured in oak casks until it develops the required colour, aromas and flavour. We’ve already bought some French oak barrels, which will be stored in the brewery’s ancient underground cellars – perfect conditions for maturation.

Some of the many botanicals used in the Gin trials

I’ve spent the last few months experimenting in the brewery laboratory re-distilling vodka with a variety of different botanicals. Like any recipe, we’ve taken many attempts to get it right. We’ve held many blind tastings, and combined different botanicals in varying quantities until we’ve come up with something our tasting panel all love. The recipe will no doubt be tweaked further when we begin to create our own vodka from local raw materials, but through research, experimentation and tasting, we now know the flavour profile we wish to achieve.

John McCarthy working on an experimental trial in the Adnams Brewery laboratory

One of the many gin trials

I’ll keep this blog updated with all new developments, and over the next few months will help to explain in greater detail what we’re doing, and more about the equipment and the processes we’ll be using to create our Adnams Copper House Distillery vodka, gin and whisky.

Jonathan will receive either a Champion Beer Box or a bottle of Adnams White Burgundy as his prize. Congratulations!

Why produce a Tuscan red, having had such success with the French range of wines?

The simple answer is that my 18-month old son Arthur is at nursery school in Tuscany, and I am the one who takes him to nursery every day, having first dropped his Italian mum Silvana off at the railway station. Getting to Roussillon from Italy takes me longer (and costs more) than flying to New York. As I’d much rather spend time with my son than travelling it made sense to start a wine project in Tuscany.

I first came to Tuscany at the end of 2004 to do a crash course in Italian because I had been asked to write a travel guide called Discovering Wine Country – Tuscany (Mitchell Beazley, 2005). Although my Italian is still pretty poor (I speak English in front of Arthur, while Silvana whose English is almost better then mine speaks Italian), at least the book did pretty well.

The one thing I learnt during my time in Tuscany was that Tuscany’s main red grape, Sangiovese, can work as a single varietal in a red wine (ie “100% Sangiovese”) but rarely does so to brilliant effect.

Brunello di Montalcino, one of Italy’s most famous red wines, is supposed to be 100% Sangiovese (Brunello by the way is another name for Sangiovese), but quite a few wine critics and Italy’s investigating magistrates (who are questioning a host of Brunello wineries about their 2004 wines) are not so convinced that the “100% Sangiovese-only” rule is always being obeyed.

The problem with Sangiovese is it can have brittle tannins, aggressive acidity but only moderately intense fruit flavours. I say can, because if you grow Sangiovese in the right way you’ll find that it can start to become a little like Pinot Noir, showing ethereal red fruit flavours with an intense rather than weighty mouthfeel (which I like because it means you don’t get tired out after drinking just a single glass). Sangiovese rarely has much depth of colour and will always have a certain crispness to it which means you really only get the best out of it while drinking it with food (like the Italians do).

So, how do you grow Sangiovese “right”?

The thing that bowled me over when I was visiting the Tuscan vineyards during my book research was how maniacally Tuscan growers ploughed the soil between the vine rows. They seemed to live on their tractors. The main reason for this I discovered was that Tuscany is such a tourist hot spot, and as most Tuscan wineries have agriturismos or holiday accommodation which provide vital funds, the winery owners want to keep the tourists happy. As they think tourists want to see vineyards with a “weed-free” look they plough or chemically weedkill any and every weed in sight with a quasi-religious fervour (Tuscan vineyards are among Italy’s heaviest users of weedkillers).

Nothing wrong with that you may say, and from an aesthetic perspective you might be right. But as Tuscan soils are generally pretty heavy marine deposits (50-150 million years old, Tuscany once being the sea floor) the worst thing you can do is to keep churning them up to remove weeds. Ploughing initially can have a beneficial effect, aerating the heavy soils allowing rain water to penetrate so the vines don’t get stressed in the heat of summer. Heat-stressed Sangiovese produces especially anaemic wines. However, constant ploughing soon starts to have the reverse effect, leading to soil compaction. This is because worms and other soil organisms get fed up of being churned around by tractor ploughs, and it’s these organisms which keep soils healthy and friable by making tiny air pockets or galleries, to give otherwise heavy, impenetrable soils the necessary airy lightness to cope with extremes of heat and rain.

So, the more you plough, the more you compact because you literally pound the life and air out of the soil. The soil then becomes more acid, making it harder for vine roots to get the soil minerals they need to produce healthy grapes. Taking the weeds away also removes a food source for beneficial insects – pollen and nectar – above ground; and below ground remove a food source from the worms, because weeds release food into the soil via microbes living on their roots. This is the so-called soil food web. Weedkillers and excess ploughing destroy the soil food web. The result is minerally-deficient vines more open to insect attack.

So, you don’t need to be a mind-reader to work out that the only kind of Tuscan Sangiovese vineyard that I’d be interested in working with would have lots of weeds and no weedkillers. There are two types of weeds: weeds which grow naturally and weeds you choose yourself. The latter type are called cover crops. Cover cropping is simply sowing a mix of seeds on the soil to cover the bare soil with greenery (thus cover crops are also called green manures). The advantage of sowing your own is you can chose different cover crops for different situations. On Tuscany’s tough soils it makes sense to sow a mix of grasses and clovers. The grasses produce fine rootlets in the topsoil which prevent erosion whilst clovers provide nitrogen for the soil microorganisms who then pass it to vine roots. Clovers also produce flowers which provide food for beneficial insects.

One of the first Tuscan vineyards I visited during my book research was Stefano Grandi’s Canneta in San Gimignano. This is one of Tuscany’s oldest certified organic vineyards. My car was very low on fuel but I was so keen not to be late for my appointment with him – on a Sunday morning – I decided to risk it and fill up after my tasting apointment. Of course I ended up running out of fuel at the bottom of Grandi’s drive – which is very steep and over a mile long. Luckily, Stefano came to fetch me on his tractor with a jerry can of fuel for my car. “No one turns up on time in Italy,” he said. “It’s polite to be a little bit late. You’re so English!”

I’d first met Stefano at Millésime Bio, the world’s biggest organic wine fair, in 1999 and really liked his San Gimignano whites (from the Vernaccia grape) and Tuscan/Chianti reds. The wines were clean, refreshing, and with zippy, elegant, clear fruit flavours. Stefano came to Tuscany in the late 1970s having worked as a teacher and in farming. “I was into the whole hippy thing,” he says, “but one day you wake up and realise you’ve got to get a job and do some work.” He and his partner Valeria bought the run-down estate of Canneta, and set about renovating and extending the exisiting vineyards and converting outbuildings into a small winery.

What makes Canneta extra special for me is that every single one of the surrounding vineyards in the valley have followed Stefano’s lead and are now certified organic. There is thus no risk of chemical spray drift from non-organic vineyards. Stefano knows and informally advises some of his neighbours on organics, which makes sense for everyone. Organics is all about prevention rather than cure, so if farmers start talking to each other rather than always competing with each other warnings about possible pest attacks can be passed on and acted upon, reducing the need to spray, and therefore reducing costs both for the planet and for wine drinkers.

As far as winemaking goes the key with Sangiovese is not to push it too hard. If you ferment too hot, and extract too much, you’ll end up with a sexy-looking deepish coloured wine which may appeal to the dumber wine critics for whom everything must be “blockbustery” but one which risks being out of balance by being too powerful, and too tannic. The Sangiovese grape has notably tannic pips (seeds) and as these go into the fermenting vats along with the juice and the grape skins, pushing the fermentation too hard means these potentially aggressive seed flavours will end up in the wine. Easing off gives you more, for less.

The 2009 vintage was a good one in San Gimignano – rain at the right time in spring, plenty of summer sun, coolish nights at harvest – but by easing off on the extraction the result is a wine which is ready to drink now and over the next three (even five) years. Also, by picking the grapes at perfect ripeness and not over-extracting there is no need to fine the wine (using egg white or casein or other animal by-products) to smooth over rough edges. The BBC’s “Really Disgusting Food” team were here last week filming me taking to presenter Alex Riley about winemaking additives, aids and agents. As things stand winemakers do not have to list what they use during winemaking. Using no fining agents means Monty’s Tuscan Red is suitable for vegans (and therefore by implication for vegetarians too).

Blending in 30% Merlot is another way of rounding out the Sangiovese. Merlot at its best has lush red fruit and a fuller body than Sangiovese, so they work well as a pair. I have been a consistent critic of Merlot in Tuscany because invariably Merlot gets planted on really hot sites where it produces really fat, doughnut wines: wines with a hole in the middle. I have never had a decent Merlot from the Maremma (Tuscany’s Mediterranean coast) for example where soils are sandy, free draining and too hot for this grape. And Maremma Merlots are some of Tuscany’s most highly priced wines. The power of Merlot, I guess.

In San Gimignano, however, there is plenty of the kind of water-retaining clay that Merlot likes (Pomerol in Bordeaux is a clay-rich soil, for example). I also think that if you are going to blend Sangiovese with Merlot (or other French grapes) in Tuscnay you should be open about it and say so on the label. Plenty of Italian wines – Chianti for example – are allowed French grapes but you’d never know this from the label.

In Brunello di Montalcino (where, to repeat, Merlot or any grape other than Sangiovese is not allowed) for example the suspicion is that Merlot has sometimes been blended in to “sex up” the Sangiovese but as this is against the rules no one who did such a thing would be foolish enough to say so on the label. In San Gimignano however Merlot is allowed. In fact Monty’s Tuscan Red could essentially have been labelled either as a Chianti or as a San Gimignano Rosso (as opposed to Vernaccia di San Gimignano, the town’s world famous dry, brisk white wine) but I chose to label the wine simply as “Tuscan” because I think San Gimignano Red is too confusing for San Gimignano’s white wine fans, and Chianti is just too chaotic – there are around 20 types of Chianti according to the rules if you could be bothered to count all the sub-regions and riserva denominations permitted; the rules are badly written and badly policed because there are so many factions in Chianti fighting for control; and consumers are confused because Chianti can be both one of the cheapest supermarket wines you are likely to find and one of the most expensive in a good wine shop. What is Chianti? The answer is no one really knows. So, Tuscan Red it is.

Monty Waldin

The Bell Walberswick

We’ve introduced a special package this summer at The Bell, Walberswick. If you book a stay from Sunday to Thursday inclusive, between the beginning of June and the end of September, you’ll enjoy dinner, bed and breakfast for just £150 per room per night. And for a little something extra we’re also including a free ferry crossing to visit Southwold. This offer is subject to availability so make sure you book soon.

To book, call The Bell on 01502 723109

Thousands of festival-goers are arriving at Henham Park this afternoon for the 5th edition of the brilliant Latitude Festival, so it’s appropriate that we’ve got some great new music to share with you, too.

Every month, Peter Clitheroe, founder of Suffolk and Cool, is putting together a selection of exciting new music for a member of the Adnams team to listen to and choose their favourite. Peter’s selection is diverse, which is great, because we’re a mixed bunch here at Adnams, so we can look forward to hearing some super new tracks over the coming months.

June’s Artist of the month has been selected by Fergus Fitzgerald, our Head Brewer (who was brought up on a sturdy diet of Radiohead and Nirvana). Fergus has chosen ‘You little Fruitcake’ by Ingi, who’s based in Reykjavik, Iceland, and sounds nothing at all like Nirvana.

Check out Fergus’s choice on the Suffolk and Cool website.

In partnership with British Gas and the National Grid, the facility will start injecting renewable gas into the gas grid later this summer. It will generate up to 4.8 million kilowatt-hours per year – enough to heat 235 family homes for a year or run an average family car for 4 million miles. In the future the facility will produce enough renewable gas to power the Adnams brewery and run its fleet of lorries, while still leaving up to 60 per cent of the output for injection into the National Grid.

By using brewery and local food waste to generate biomethane, the plant will make a contribution to decarbonising the gas grid by delivering renewable heat to households through the existing gas network and central heating boilers. It will also prevent the release of highly-polluting methane to the atmosphere, through diverting the waste from landfill.

Biomethane is produced from organic material such as food waste.  It is very similar to natural gas and, once upgraded to grid specification, can be injected into the gas network for end use by customers.  According to a study by National Grid, it could account for at least 15 per cent of domestic gas consumption by 2020.

The Adnams Bio Energy plant consists of three digesters – sealed vessels in which naturally-occurring bacteria act without oxygen to break down up to 12,500 tonnes of organic waste each year. The result is the production of biomethane as well as a liquid organic fertiliser.

In addition, following an agreement with Centrica – the parent company of British Gas, Adnams Bio Energy has deployed British solar thermal panels and will shortly install cutting edge photo voltaic cells, which will in effect create a mini energy park.The deal will ensure that all of the site, including the Adnams Distribution Centre, will be using renewable energy generated on-site with some surplus energy available for export. This is another groundbreaking feature for the facility.

Funds from RBS in Cambridge and grants from the European Regional Development Fund (EDRF), East of England Development Agency (EEDA) and the Department of Energy and Climate Change have provided a vital financial contribution to the construction of this groundbreaking renewable energy facility on the Adnams Distribution Centre Site.

Cambridge-based Bio Group specialises in renewable energy and has a vast amount of experience in design and construction of processing plants across the UK. Steve Sharratt, Group Chief Executive said: “This facility has been designed using our groundbreaking technology as the first stage of a national roll out of AD plants. We use innovative, low carbon building techniques to produce energy through a completely organic and natural process; nothing is wasted.”

Chief Executive of Adnams, Andy Wood said: “We are delighted that Adnams Bio Energy is located on the site of our eco-distribution centre. For a number of years now, Adnams has been investing in ways to reduce our impact on the environment. The reality of being able to convert our own brewing waste and local food waste to power Adnams’ brewery and vehicles, as well as the wider community is very exciting.

“The industrial ecology cycle is completed when the fertiliser produced from the anaerobic digestion process can be used on farmland to grow barley for Adnams beer. This facility will have a major impact on the reduction of carbon emissions in the region and the production of renewable energy. The food waste would otherwise be destined for landfill, but processing it through the digester will save an estimated 50,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalents from landfill.”

Gearóid Lane, Managing Director of Communities and New Energy at British Gas, said: “This project demonstrates how local communities can help us move to a low carbon energy future. Using waste that would otherwise end up in landfill to produce renewable gas is mutually beneficial for the environment and homes and businesses”.

Having completed the main construction stage of the Adnams Bio Energy plant commissioning is now in progress.

Some facts and stats:

Adnams Bio Energy (ABE) is wholly owned by the Bio Group, Adnams has licensed its brand name and is providing feedstock.

The average home uses 56 kWh/day gas, which requires the waste from brewing approximately 600 pints beer to produce.

The average home uses 20,500 kWh gas/year. The facility will provide enough gas for 235 homes per year.

28m pints of beer a day are consumed across the UK. If all of the associated waste was used to produce biomethane, it would produce enough renewable gas to heat 47,000 homes.

The development costs are £2.75m

About the partners:

Adnams

the brewer and retailer, is an independent values-based business committed to a sustainable future. It has been brewing from its base at Southwold on the Suffolk coast for over 100 years and produces a range of cask and bottled beers which are available in pubs and supermarkets nationwide.  The company has an estate of pubs, hotels and self-catering accommodation and a chain of successful wine and kitchenware stores.

Bio Group

Bio Group exists to make a difference. As the UK’s leading business of its kind, Bio Group has built facilities across the UK and is now rolling out its latest AD technology incorporating low carbon techniques and materials. Bio Group is committed to the delivery of community based facilities, dedicated  to generating renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

British Gas

British Gas, the biggest energy supplier in the country and part of the Centrica group of companies, has the lowest carbon intensity of any of the major UK energy suppliers in terms of tonnes of CO² emitted per megawatt hour of electricity supplied to customers.

About the European Regional Development Fund

The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is a seven-year investment programme part financed by the European Union. Its objective is ‘towards low carbon economic growth’ in the East of England and €110.9 million has been allocated to our region.

The fund aims to help small and medium size enterprises respond to the challenges of climate change and the huge commercial potential behind a low carbon economy.

With more funding available until 2013, the ERDF programme is set to play a big role in helping our businesses and communities seize the opportunities of a low carbon economy.

For more information visit www.eeda.org.uk/erdf

About the East of England Development Agency

The East of England Development Agency (EEDA) is the driving force behind sustainable economic regeneration in the East of England: Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. EEDA’s vision is for the East of England to be an ideas driven region that is internationally competitive, harnesses the talent of all and is at the forefront of the low carbon economy. For further information visit www.eeda.org.uk

EEDA’s impact

An independent report from PA Consulting and SQW published on 31 March 2009 showed that EEDA has had a positive impact on the region’s economy. The report drew on evaluations of over 60 per cent of EEDA investment between 2002-07. It found that for an investment of £142 million, between £525 million and £820 million of wealth has already been created for the region. This represents a return on investment of £3.70 to £5.80 for every £1 invested – with a mid point of £4.75.

Learning all about beer at The Anchor in Walberswick

You don’t have to be into making home-brew to appreciate the flavours and ingredients that make great beer. On this journey through beer you will visit a hop farm, a malting barley farm, and get an in-depth tour of Adnams brewery from head-brewer, Fergus Fitzgerald. We’ll wrap up the day with a tasting dinner at The Anchor at Walberswick where you’ll learn how beer and food matching works at its best.

Read more about the Beer Safari experience.

15% off if you quote ‘East Green’ when booking two or more places.

Beer Safari, Friday 30 July – book here
£150/person – includes lunch and a hearty tasting dinner with beer matching at The Anchor in Walberswick

Fergus in the barley

Every year around this time I take a day out and go on a barley walk with Simpsons malt. (Before I go any further I should say hello to Charles Halliwell, who also supplies us with malted barley. I think Charles felt left out when I mentioned Peter Simpson in a previous post so Hi Charles).

I really love this day, it’s a chance for us to talk to the farmers who grow the barley, to the Grain merchants who buy it and to the Maltsters who malt it for us. They all have their own take on how the season is going, how the lack or abundance of rain or sunshine is affecting the crop, and usually a bit of banter about who’s robbing who. It gives us some clues to what the malted barley we will use next year might be like, we find out a bit more about malting barleys place in the crop rotation and whether it is being supplanted by other more valuable crops. We get to know the farmers who grow it for us and hopefully we get to understand each other a bit more.

You might be thinking that this sounds all well and good and may be useful but hardly a reason to love this walk in a field and the truth is you’re right, these aren’t the reasons that I love it.

You’ll remember me when the west wind moves
Among the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in fields of gold

What I love about the day is that it connects me with our raw material and the idea of brewing as a craft rather than an industrial process. It reminds me that I can attempt to control as much as I like at the brewery but nature will always have it’s say.

I grew up on a farm so I suppose it also feels a little like coming home when I’m walking through the field with the heads of barley brushing the palms of my hands.

The song, ‘Fields of Gold’ always gets stuck in my head the day of the walk, which would be fine if I actually remembered the words and not just “among the fields of barley” in a seemingly endless loop.

We went to Somerleyton estate where Chris Lockhart showed us around several fields. The barley was looking good but was a bit dry in places. It was the first year in many years that Chris has had to irrigate his barley and we could plainly see which fields had been irrigated and those that hadn’t. Those that were well watered were taller and the grains were plumper which should mean better yields. There are several weeks between now and harvest but Chris is praying for a little rain (but not too much) over the next week or two. If you pass by the brewery and you see me dancing around in a circle and waving my hands about then you know what I’m doing.

Thanks to Peter and Trevor from Simpsons, Cyril and Chris from Adams & Howlett and Chris from Somerleyton for organising the day, and to the Dukes Head for a great lunch.

I love this vine creature peering from a doorway near Rainer's winery

Rainer Wess concentrates on making wines from Wachau, bar his Pfaffenberg Grüner Veltliner and Riesling. At present, he rents vineyards and sources fruit from selected growers, but his long term goal is to buy his own vineyards. His first step to self-sufficiency has been the purchase of a ‘new’ winery – an old building with cool cellars, that will be perfect for steady, undisturbed maturation when modernisation work has been completed.

Rainer Wess's 'new' old cellars

I enjoyed Rainer’s Riesling Terrassen 2009, redolent of limes and fresh Coxes apple flavours and a touch of lime. It was interesting to taste the huge differences in style betwen the Riesling Pfaffenberg 2009 (lime blossom, subtle lime flavours and a crunchy minerality) and the Riesling Loibenberg 2009 (soft in texture, almost soapy, with green apples and a warm finish – it will probably evolve well over the next few years).

Rainer Wess

 The Riesling Beerenausele 2008 has gentle aromas of apricots and cumquats, with crisp acidity  – sweet, but refreshing – I imagine this would be a lovely accompaniment to apricot tartlets.

Stadt Krems

Tasting at Stadt Krems

On the day of our visit, the staff at Stadt Krems were dealing with a disaster. One of their cellars had collapsed, which has meant they have lost a lot of wine. Kindly, and brilliantly, Franz Josef Gansberg (aka Goosey) and winemaker Fritz Miesbauer carried on as if their world had not suddenly changed, and treated us to a fantastic tasting with grace and calmness. I felt very grateful for this.

I enjoyed every wine tasted, but here are a few highlights. The 2009 Grüner Veltliner Weinzierlberg, Kremstal, is perfumed and peachy, with nice open aromas with a round, rich, spicy and peppery finish that lasts well in the mouth. The 2009 Grüner Veltliner Wachtberg, Kremstal Reserve, displays mineral characters with lots of ripe peach and a toasty character with a warm, round mouthfeel yet with a grape skin grip at the finish.

The Riesling 2008 Kögl, Kremstal Reserve is delicious. Really attractive aromas of stone fruits with tropical (pineapple) and ripe apple with good depth of flavour and a lovely texture, finishing crisp and dry.

I love the 2009 Riesling Grillenparz, Kremstal Reserve. This is really perfumed with notes of honeysuckle and yellow fruits – so pure and lemony – incredibly fresh. Yum!

Fritz Miesbauer, winemaker at Stadt Krems

We also tasted a couple of old Grillenparz Rieslings from the 1990 and 1979 vintages, which was a real treat. These wines were made before the current team were in place. The 1990 reminded me of walking into a car garage, where there’s that distinctive mix of metal, oil, petrol and grease – it doesn’t sound attractive, but it is, especially when mixed with a bit of lemon and apricot skin. The 1979 was like smelling hot buttered toast, I imagined cheese on toast with chopped parsely sprinkled on the top.

Schloss Gobelsburg

The gorgeous Schloss Gobelsburg

Our final visit was to the spectacular Schloss Gobelsburg estate where we were greated by the lovely Peter. Lunch was served in the beautiful gardens, while Peter talked us through the considerable history of the estate.

Peter, Schloss Gobelsburg

I was tempted to kiss the frog...

Sumptuous buffet on the lawns at Schloss Gobelsburg

Delicious food; such generosity!

And as for the dessert...

I really enjoyed Schloss Gobelsburg’s Heiligenstein Riesling 2004. It has a lovely golden colour with a touch of kerosene with bright lemons and honey / lemon linctus aromas. Very fresh on the palate, it has great balancing acidity. The Riesling Tradition 2008, was lovely too. On yeast lees for one and a half years, this has nice, evolved aromas of nectarines, oranges and grapefruit with a creamy, soft texture.

The estate also produce a sparkling wine (Gobelsburg Sekt) which is riddled by hand in the cellars. A blend of Grüner Veltliner, Riesling and Pinot Noir, it has a good mix of pear aromas along with a toasty character – nice appley flavours keep the autolysis characters fresh and clean.

Stone gargoyles were lurking in dark corners of the cool cellars

Euros pressed into the crusty cellar walls

I enjoyed the Steinsetz Grüner Veltliner which has great ripeness with aromas of apricots and yellow plums. The Grüner Veltliner Tradition 2008 has an interesting nutty (almonds) nose with an oily texture – apparently it’s very good with Stilton. The Grüner Veltliner Lamm 2009 was interesting, with peaches, nectarines and a creamy, rich texture, kept fresh and grippy by a grape skin finish.

Tasting with Peter in the magnificent hall

Immaculately clean stainless steel tank hall at Schloss Gobelsburg

I loved the two sweet wines. The Eiswein 2008 Grüner Veltliner was very pure and clean, with refreshing acidity, and the Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese 2008 has a glorious golden colour, with ripe aromas of honey-baked apricots. Thick, rich and creamy in the mouth with great acidity keeping the whole thing fresh and balanced. A wonderful end to a superb visit to Austria.

Many thanks to Isabelle, Benedicte and Lance from Clark Foyster for organising everything so well; to all the generous winemakers who made our visits so memorable; and also to the superb group of people I was priviledged to enjoy such a good time with.

We were tasting inside this room; large windows let in floods of natural light