2009 ~ No. 7
Mollydooker
It’s
become a cliché that great wines are made in the vineyard.
Yet Australian winemaker Sparky Marquis admits with mock chagrin
that it’s true.
This is not to say that Mollydooker
Wines are ordinary or dull. (They aren’t.)
Instead, Sparky’s rueful tone comes from the fact that
his dad was right.
You see, one of the things that give Mollydooker (Aussie
slang for a left-hander) wines their tasty, savory, wow-inducing
character is “the fruit weight, mate!”
Officially known as the Marquis Fruit Weight™, Sparky
describes it as “how we measure the quality of all our
wines. Fruit Weight is the silky sensation that starts at
the tip of the tongue [and determined by] how far back the
flavor goes before you feel the structure.”
What does this have to do with dad? Well, winemaker Sparky
thought that Fruit Weight comes from the work done in the
winery. Leigh, Sparky’s father and Mollydooker’s
vineyard manager, believed that Fruit Weight is created in
the vineyard.
Three years of research proved that pop’s instincts
were correct. Fruit Weight is a direct result of the Marquis
Vineyard Watering Programme™. (Warning: technical information
ahead!)
The
first seeds of this initiative were planted back when Sparky
studied wine at university in the late 1980s. “They
taught us that making ultra-premium wines required using fruit
from low yield, dry grown, old vine vineyards – but
to have one is rare,” Sparky says. So he began researching
how to achieve the same effect in younger vineyards with commercial-level
yields.
As Sparky explains, the secret lies in manipulating water
levels to mimic the ageing process and create balance in the
vine, doing over the course of a year what Mother Nature takes
ten to accomplish.
The vineyard team allows the soil to dry so that the vines
go into “survival mode,” naturally reducing the
crop and allowing the vines to focus their energy on putting
more flavor into the remaining fruit.
The Programme is quite rigorous. Twice a week, the team is
in the vineyards, physically measuring the vines and reporting
several factors like canopy growth and rachis maturation.
(Rachis is the main axis of a grape cluster, similar to the
stem on the leaf.)
The analyzed data tells the team how much
of little to water over the next three days until the vines
are checked again.
Throughout
this process, Sparky and Sarah, his wife and fellow winemaker,
taste and classify the grapes into one of four potential bottling
categories. Care of the vines is adjusted based on the classification
to bring out the best in the fruit.
Sparky and Sarah continue this tasting once the grapes have
been made into wine, with an intensive final tasting taking
place just before it is blended and bottled.
Any wine with less than 60% Marquis Fruit Weight is simply
sold off as bulk wine, while the remaining goes into one of
these bottlings: the Lefty Series (with a fruit weight of
65-70%), the Party Series (75 to 80%), the Love Series (85
to 90%) and the Velvet Glove (a singular wine and a rarity
at 95 to 100% Fruit Weight.)
“The number one word used to describe our wine is ‘wow.’
What creates that impact is the Fruit Weight,” Sparky
says, noting that this quality plus the Watering Programme
are the two factors that are “very critical” to
the wine’s success.
Making good wine is in Sparky and Sarah’s blood. Since
the pair began making Fox Creek wine in 1994 (the winery is
owned by Sarah’s parents), they have amassed an impressive
collection of accolades and high scores for their wines.
To cite a few, Sarah and Sparky were named Australia’s
Winemakers of the Year, are the only husband and wife winemaking
team to have received McLaren Vale's prestigious Bushing Award
three times, and are responsible for creating four of only
24 Australian wines to receive a score of 99 points in the
Wine Advocate over the last 10 years.
Yet,
as the “loss” to his dad’s wisdom shows,
Sparky doesn’t let it go to his head. “I wish
they didn’t have that on our Web site,” he groans
when I mention the list of awards and explains, “We
remember we are two kids in Adelaide. We don’t think
we’re bigger than we are [and] we’re not concerned
with who gets credit for the work, just in getting the work
done.”
The business is truly a family one. In addition to having
his father as vineyard manager, Sparky’s mom serves
as general manager, and his brother and several of their best
friends also work at the winery.
Started with the 2005 vintage, Mollydooker
is the fulfillment of a longtime dream for Sarah and Sparky:
“We set a goal in 2000 that within five years we would
only make wine that we owned 100 percent. By 2004, we had
the opportunity and time to take total control of our vision
and the direction it would take.”
After producing their first vintages at friends’ wineries
(they moved around as production grew), they purchased their
own vineyard and winery in McLaren Vale last year. They can
make 70,000 cases annually, though the aim is to run at about
60% of capacity in order to “keep it fun and maintain
our passion.”
Their passion is shown in a new wine called Sip it Forward,
a Shiraz, Merlot and Cabernet blend created by Sarah. Only
1,000 bottles of this special cuvee were produced with the
proceeds benefiting Transform
Cambodia, a project that provides an education
and other opportunities to the country’s street children.
Check out this
video and look for the wine when it is released
on August 13, International Left-Handers Day or, as Sparky
calls it, International Mollydooker Day!
Shake
It!
Three
years ago, Sparky was at a restaurant in Hawaii, meeting with
a potential representative for Mollydooker wines. The distributor
had to step out to take a call so Sparky took advantage of
the moment to shake each bottle of wine before pouring it
into the glass.
The distributor came back, tasted the wines and loved them.
He also noticed the state’s top wine writer sitting
at a nearby table and asked Sparky if he could offer her a
taste. Naturally, Sparky agreed.
The woman approached and said with surprise, “Are you
Sparky Marquis?” “Yes, I am.” “Oh,”
the woman replied. “I saw you shaking those bottles
and said to my companion, that guy obviously knows nothing
about wine!”
At that moment, Sparky knew he had to develop a story about
the Mollydooker Shake.
“We wanted to dispel the myth that you must be gentle
with wine and make it fun at the same time,” Sparky
says. But why shake the wine in the first place?
Sulfites naturally occur in wine, acting as a preservative.
But Sparky’s sister has such a sensitivity to them,
she had to give up winemaking. “I wanted her to be able
to drink wines with us,” he says, “but how to
reduce the sulfite level?”
In looking for the answer, they “mucked around”
with carbon dioxide but ruled it out, as it made the wine
fizzy. Then they tried nitrogen, since it doesn’t dissolve
in the wine, but found that it flattened the flavors when
the bottle was opened. Puzzling through that mystery, they
discovered that a little agitation brought the wine back to
its full flavor profile.
Instructions on doing the Mollydooker Shake follow, though
it’s much more fun to watch Sarah and Sparky demonstrate
it in this
video!
To try it at home, grab a bottle and pour out half a glass.
Put the cap on or the cork back in, turn the bottle upside
down and give it a good shake. Remove the cap to let the nitrogen
out (you’ll see the bubbles rising to the top of the
wine.) Put the cap back on, shake again, and enjoy!
Does the Mollydooker Shake really work? I happened to have
a bottle of their 2006 Boxer Shiraz on hand and decided to
give it a try. The first, unshaken pour was indeed flat, with
grapey flavors and, my husband noted, notes of earth and tar.
It’s not terribly exciting until you shake, shake, shake
and then…
The wine smoothes out, with more fruit flavors coming forward
and the earthiness subsiding. Overall, the wine seemed better
integrated, lighter and more juicy. (“It’s different,”
commented Husband.)
As I enjoyed the wine with dinner, the food (barbeque pork)
brought out notes of chocolate and a velvety feel. I enjoyed
the way the wine changed over time. It’s probably not
fair to rate a slightly older bottle, but I’ll do it
anyway: B1. For a $20 bottle, this wine really delivers!
About
McLaren Vale
South
Australia is Australia’s most prolific wine region,
home to some of the country’s best and best-known appellations
as well as several emerging areas that are making their mark
on the wine world. To describe this region as varied is a
vast understatement.
Forty-two percent of the country’s vineyards are
here, responsible for half of the country’s wine output.
South Australia is home to wineries making vast quantities
of cheap wine as well as boutique estates that make some
of the country’s best and most expensive wines.
The vineyards experience climates from hot and dry to cool
and less dry (low rainfall is a given) and are on terrain
that ranges from flat coastal plains to 600 meter slopes
– slightly less than 2,000 feet in elevation.
Within this territory is McLaren Vale, an appellation in
the rolling green hills south of Adelaide. It is home to
a hotbed of small, interesting wineries. The area’s
white wines are fresh and lively, the reds big, bold and
shot through with dark chocolate flavor.
McLaren Vale began its viticultural development in the
mid-19th century. Among the first wine pioneers were Thomas
Hardy, who converted an old mill into a winery in the 1870s,
and Bob Wrigley, who in 1895 planted 124 acres of vines
on the estate known today as Wirra Wirra. Today, more than
60 wineries call McLaren Vale home.
The region’s Mediterranean climate provides a hospitable
environment for grapes. Shiraz is, of course, the supreme
red grape though it briefly lost favor when Cabernet Sauvignon
came into vogue in the 1980s.
Today, they are the first and second most widely planted
red grapes in Australia, with 3,612 hectares of Shiraz and
1,315 hectares of Cabernet under vine in McLaren Vale alone.
(2008 statistics from the Phylloxera and
Grape Industry Board of South Australia.)
You can tell a McLaren Vale Shiraz by its berry, spice
and licorice flavors, while Cabernet reveals itself with
notes of violet, blackcurrant, plum and mint.
Chardonnay is the key white grape by far – 745 hectares
planted, versus 137 hectares of Sauvignon Blanc, the runner
up. You know McLaren Vale Chardonnay by its distinctive
ripe peach aromas and flavors of melon, fig and cashew.
