“Bubblies are wines for fun, celebration . . . and seduction!”, said Peter Althaus, owner and winemaker at Stoney Vineyard, as he presented three Tasmanian sparkling wines at a Table Club food-and-wine matching class at Cow last month. But beyond bubblies, Peter’s takes his wines very seriously indeed.
As Hill Street Grocer’s wine consultant, Peter selects the wines we stock at Hill Street Grocer. His emphasis is on wines that go well with food, rather than stand-alone show wines. Peter supports and highlights the individuality of smaller vignerons and winemakers in Tasmania, and discusses the terroir of their vineyards and the characteristics of their wines.
The other impetus that brought Peter and Table Club together was the shared love between Hill Street’s owners, Marco and Nick Nikitaras, and Peter, for the wonderful foods available here in Tasmania. The opportunity to taste food and wine in good company seemed too good to miss! In August, Claudio Radenti, winemaker at Freycinet Vineyard shared his insights and special wines in a wonderful afternoon with Table Club. This month, Peter introduces Fred Peacock from Bream Creek Vineyard.
Peter also chooses the wines that we co-label – meaning that our name and the winery’s name appear together on the specially designed label. The philosophy behind the Hill Street Grocer wine label was to be able to present to customers individual wines, such as the Stoney Cabernet Sauvignon 1999, with which you are by now familiar, which are purchased in parcels, but are not cleanskins. Rather, these are wines that are labelled exactly under the vintage and variety of the vineyard.
In order to be chosen as a Hill Street wine, the wine in question must meet all of Peter’s usual criteria of quality, and represent good value to our customers. We are currently on the hunt for a riesling, chardonnay and pinot noir. Tasting all of the samples is of course long and arduous. Peter is a member of the Tasmanian Slow Food convivium, a movement whose take on life matches his own. He detests the rat race, where everything has to happen now, the world of fast food, quick bucks and snap decisions.
“We don’t have time any more to reflect upon the good things of life, to enjoy the quality of things that are not so immediately obvious to us, like art, music, the theatre, good wine,” he says.
Peter and Ruth quit the fast lane when they moved to Tasmania from Switzerland, where he was a department head of IBM. They bought Stoney Vineyard in the Coal Valley in 1989, and proceeded to make wines inspired by the classics of Burgundy and Bordeaux with estate-grown fruit from mature, hand-tended, low-yielding vines.
Domaine A is the premium label from the vineyard. It’s not made every year; none was made from the 1996 vintage for instance, which Peter felt was not up to the quality demanded, and about 70% of it is sold overseas.
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