Decanter World Wine AwardsNew Australia, NZ importer breaks new ground
- Friday 21 January 2011
Ocean Eight Verve Chardonnay: 'smart'
The company desribes itself as ‘an exclusive membership club’ for high end Australian and New Zealand producers.
Run by Amelia Jukes and Elodie Cameron, both of whom have a good deal of experience in the wine trade, Hallowed Ground aims to allow producers to have full control over their product, preventing brands being devalued by the deep discounting that has bedevilled the Australian wine industry for years.
Jukes and Cameron are offering about 25 wines from five estates: Tower Estate in Hunter Valley, Paringa and Ocean Eight in Mornington, Barossa’s Fox Gordon, and Te Whare Ra from Marlborough in New Zealand.
They also stress that they champion ‘modern winemaking that has an intrinsic understanding of provenance.’
Hallowed Ground takes ‘a small commission’ on every order.
They believe this is entirely in line with the stated ambitions of the Australian wine industry, whose new A+ initiative puts regionality to the fore.
Hallowed Ground’s inaugural tasting took place yesterday in London. One visitor, restaurateur Martin Lam of Ransome’s Dock in Battersea, was impressed and confirmed he would be interested in several of the wines.
‘It’s a good selection, which I’ll pick and choose from. If they are going to build a portfolio based on those criteria then they will certainly be worth paying attention to.’
Lam singled out one or two wines as particularly interesting, including the Verve Chardonnay from Ocean Eight – set up in 2004 by the Aylward family of Kooyong fame – ‘at £13 for Mornington that’s pretty smart’. He also thought the Te Whare Gewurztraminer ‘excellent’.
Have your say!
Madeline Fawcus
April 08 12:13
A sensational idea. Be great to see some more top end Australian & New Zealand wines over here. Wishing my old colleagues prosperity in this exciting venture.
Donna Rogers
January 31 09:14
Great stuff!
The homogenization of Australian wines on the UK market has been a bugbear for far too long. There are so many treasures that the Aussies (and Kiwis) have kept to themselves. It's time to see what the Aussies and Kiwis can REALLY produce, especially with the importnace of regionality coming into its own. Happy days!
Swava
January 24 21:28
what a great idea, are they interested in Central Otago wines, Gibbston area?
Jacques&Swava Pociecha
Gibbston HIGHGATE Estate
Greg Hannah
January 24 15:32
Of course it will work,exciting times ahead for those of you that can recognise vintage variation and the desired wait on each new edition of non industrialised wine.The producers of these exceptional wines [with provenance]can sometimes become a little testy if you choose similar wines from the same region.You shouldnt have any trouble finding a large variety of producers that will be very interested in this marketing model.