{"id":17621,"date":"2014-01-31T08:13:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-31T13:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/?p=17621"},"modified":"2014-02-03T09:41:46","modified_gmt":"2014-02-03T14:41:46","slug":"robert-oatley-wines-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/robert-oatley-wines-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"Lunch with \u201cMr. Chardonnay\u201d aka Robert Oatley Wines"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AppleMark\"<\/a>By: Jane Staples, Certified Sommelier<\/p>\n

I love wine because it brings people together.\u00a0 Wine offers something for everybody\u2026whether you\u2019re interested in the viticulture, or the facts and numbers, New Oak VS Old Oak treatments, or the timeless harmony between food and wine.\u00a0 Then of course there\u2019s the concept of \u201cterroir\u201d if you like a good argument.<\/p>\n

Yesterday\u2019s lunch at the Empire Grill in Ottawa combined all of the above, plus wine economics, changing markets and considerations for the future, especially when it comes to Australian wine<\/strong><\/a>.
\n\"03\"<\/a>Chris Hancock, Deputy Executive Chairman of\u00a0 Australia\u2019s Robert Oatley Vineyards,\u00a0 introduced us to several wines of Oatley\u2019s 2012 vintage.\u00a0 Oatley’s winemaking priorities are 1) wine texture and 2) the purity of the expression of the grape varietal.\u00a0 We sat together around the table and shared a terrific meal and listened to this Master Winemaker, who not only taught, but in the fashion of a true educator, welcomed our own ideas and opinions.
\n\"04\"<\/a>With his easy-going Aussie charm, Chris, or \u201cMr. Chardonnay\u201d made us all glad to be part of the International Wine Family.
\n\"05\"<\/a>We tasted Chardonnays, Sauvignon Blancs, a Pinot noir and 3 Shiraz, including the soon-to-be-released\u00a0 Four in Hand Barossa Shiraz 2012. This newest wine was developed by Bob Oatley after he retired;\u00a0 he was restless at home and his wife told him to get back to work!
\n\"2014<\/a>My favourite wine from yesterday was the Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2012, 13.5%.\u00a0 This Pinot from the signature series shows strawberry and cherry on the nose, along with earthy and slightly spicy notes.\u00a0 On the palate, it is quite fleshy, lightly savoury, with milk chocolate flavours, subtle oak and light tannins.\u00a0 A long chocolate finish makes you smile as you pour another glass. Oatley uses the stalks as well as the grapes in making this wine, but doesn\u2019t let the stalks overpower the fruit flavour.\u00a0 They get the textural effects of oak without strong flavours.\u00a0 Chris suggested trying this Pinot Noir paired with Thai food, which is popular in Australia.
\n\"Four<\/a>I\u2019m sure I speak for all at our table when I say \u201cMr. Chardonnay\u201d- Here\u2019s to You!<\/p>\n

\"Jane<\/a> Jane Staples<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jane graduated from Algonquin College\u2019s Sommelier Program with the Gold Medal in Food and Wine Pairing and a score of 94.5% in the final exam. She completed courses in Winetasting, Grape Varieties, Food and Wine Pairing, Old World Wines, New World Wines, Vinification and Advanced Sommelier Techniques. She also has a BA from the University of Toronto.<\/p>\n

Jane is one of the most active wine reviewers for nataliemaclean.com as well as for her own site, bellovino.ca.\u00a0 Along with Shirley Plant, Jane co-authored the book Finally\u2026Food I Can Eat<\/em>!\u00a0 She provides the wine pairings for the recipes as well as occasional articles for Shirley Plant\u2019s blog. She also provides sommelier services and tastings for private functions, and is fluent in English, French, Spanish and Italian.<\/p>\n

You can also see reviews by Matt Steeves<\/strong><\/a> and Heather Wall.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Jane Staples, Certified Sommelier I love wine because it brings people together.\u00a0 Wine offers something for everybody\u2026whether you\u2019re interested in the viticulture, or the facts and numbers, New Oak VS Old Oak treatments, or the timeless harmony between food and wine.\u00a0 Then of course there\u2019s the concept of \u201cterroir\u201d if you like a good argument. Yesterday\u2019s lunch at the Empire Grill in Ottawa combined all of the above, plus wine economics, changing markets and considerations for the future, especially when it comes to Australian wine. Chris Hancock, Deputy Executive Chairman of\u00a0 Australia\u2019s Robert Oatley Vineyards,\u00a0 introduced us to several […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[314,313],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australia-wine","category-australian-wine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17621"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17752,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17621\/revisions\/17752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}