Tony Love – National Wine Editor for taste.com.au and The Advertiser Newspaper, SA.

Wholesome Flavour $12
H by Haselgrove 2009 Cabernet Merlot

With a winery based in McLaren Vale, most of the fruit for this crackingly good wine comes from around the same region, with a decent splash also from the Adelaide Hills and Padthaway.  It’s worth noting its great fruit too, beautifully blackcurranty with a satisfyiung wholeness, good structure and backbone to develop for a few years yet.  A brilliant bargain.

Rating:  4 glasses – A cut above
Value:  Sensational
Food:  Black olive braised beef

Ross Noble – Wine Writer for The Courier Newspaper, Adelaide Hills, SA.

Eighteen top wines for Father’s Day
Salute:  Bella Vigna Shiraz

Haselgrove was acquired by four Italian Australians in 2008.  Greg Clack is chief winemaker.  The Haselgrove Bella Vigna Beautiful Vineyard Shiraz 2009 is sourced from some of McLaren Vale’s best vineayrds and it shows in the depth of flavour.  There are ripe raspberry and blackberry aromas and falvours and well intergrated oak.  It is a rich, and rewarding wine that deserves prime beef or game, or maybe full flavoured cheeses.
$25 – Mail Order

In 2008 the business was acquired by four Italian-Australian wine stalwarts:  Don Totino, Don Luca, Tony Carrocci and Steve Maglieri.  The wines are released in four ranges:  at the top, the Il Padrone The Boss Series; next the Bella Vigna (Beautiful Vineyard) Series; then the Primo Taglio First Cut Series; and at the entry level, the ‘H’ by Haselgrove Series.  Exports to Europe and Asia.

Four Glasses out of Five

Bella Vigna McLaren Vale Shiraz 2008

Right in the mainstream of McLaren Vale style; sumptuous blackfruits, dark chocolate and cedar are intertwined with ripe tannins; good length and balance.  Screwcap.  14.5% alc.  Rating 93.  To 2020.  $25

Il Padrone The Boss McLaren Vale Shiraz 2007

Some colour development; the complex bouquet of blackfruits, mocha oak and dark chocolate leads into a medium- to full-bodied palate with more of the same; a barrel selection, but all new French oak, made only in exceptional vintages – curious, because ‘07 was certainly not exceptional, rather the reverse.  However, hyperbole to one side, this is a very good wine.  Screwcap.  14.5% alc.  Rating 93.  To 2027.  $48

Bella Vigna Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc 2009

Light straw-green; a thoroughly appealing mix of citrus/lime and tropical fruits; the finish lingering and long in the mouth.  Screwcap.  12% alc.  Rating 90.  To 2012.  $20

Rusty-coloured leaves have mostly fallen from the vines in the Barossa Valley but, at many vineyards, great dark masses of shrivelled fruit remain. Most grapes are probably Grenache because it was a shocker year for this variety in the Barossa. Even those vignerons able to harvest clean, rot-free grapes found the flavour so dilute it was doubtful even for making rose´. That’s the bad news. Not much Grenache dry red from the Barossa in 2011. The good news is there are more great Grenache dry reds being produced in South Australia than ever, writes Huon Hooke in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Go to http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/top-drop/growing-appeal-of-grenache-20110625-1gk88.html to read more about the Grenache styles of South Australia and click http://www.haselgrove.com.au/2010/10/bella-vigna-grenache/ to read about our Single Vineyard McLaren Vale Grenache

Best McLaren Vale Shiraz + James Rogers trophy for Best Wine in its 1st Year of Production

Due to a huge response from the International Wine Challenge trophies, the Bella Vigna 2008 McLaren Vale Shiraz has now sold out. 

Be sure to look for it in your local outlet (see information below) and we look forward to the release of the 2009 Bella Vigna Shiraz and Cabernet in November – they’re sure to be crackers!

NSW Outlets
IGA Supermarket, BALGOWLAH HEIGHTS
Copacabana Cellar, COPACABANA
North Epping Cellars, EPPING
Wine Haven, KILLARNEY HEIGHTS
IGA Supermarket, LINDFIELD
Harris Cellars, PYRMONT
Callaghan Street Liquor Store, RYDE
Clareville Cellars, SYDNEY
Toongabbie Plaza Cellars, TOONGABBIE

VIC Outlets
Tica Teras, CARLTON
Casavini Restaurant, DONCASTER EAST
Il Duca Restaurant, EAST MELBOURNE
Barrio Cafe, IVANHOE EAST
Chillipadi, MELBOURNE CBD
Randalls, the Wine Merchant, NEWTOWN
Toorak Thai, SOUTH YARRA

NEWS FLASH

The Haselgrove Bella Vigna 2008 McLaren Vale Shiraz has surpassed all expectations and has taken out the title of…

BEST McLAREN VALE SHIRAZ in the LONDON INTERNATIONAL WINE CHALLENGE for 2010.

The Bella Vigna Shiraz was blind tasted by over 350 judges and as a result, Haselgrove was judged as the producer of the best Shiraz McLaren Vale has to offer.  Only 12 Australian producers won trophies at the competition this year, so it is a huge accolade.

Congratulations to Greg, Matt and the whole company on this fantastic achievement.  May there be many more.
Things are looking up for the 2010 Winestate Shiraz of the Year…

First the 2008 Bella Vigna McLaren Vale Shiraz was awarded a gold medal at the International Wine Challenge in London.

Then it was awarded 5 stars by Winestate Magazine in their Shiraz Challenge.

Now it is in the running for Winestate’s Shiraz of the Year… only time will tell. 

Look for the results in the September issue of Winestate Magazine, but I’m sure that if we win, you’ll all know about it through the grapevine!

Meanwhile, you can purchase the Bella Vigna Shiraz from The Edinburgh Cellars at Mitcham for around $25 per bottle, or it’s available direct from the winery.  Just let us know if you’d like a case!

A famous McLaren Vale winery now boasts Italian magic, writes Tony Love

The Advertiser – Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Today we’ll speak only Italian.  The words, a wicked smile, and a jab in the ribs come from prominent Italian businessman Don Totino, who owns the food-and-wine distribution company Festival City. Don also owns a wine company, Totino, based in the Adelaide Hills, and in the past two years he has joined three other southern Italian-Australian business identities in breathing life back into Haselgrove, set in the midriff of the McLaren Vale wine region.

The Haselgrove family brand has a history stretching back a century, but in the past two decades it struggled and found itself taken over by Bankwest in 2002, until early 2008. Grasping the potential of the name, Don and his colleagues-fellow Calabrians Don Luca, Tony Carrocci and Campobasso-reared Steve Maglieri-joined forces to rebuild the new Haselgrove into a successful wine company which highlights its Italian personality on its labels but remains securely attached to traditional varieties and blends.

While winemaker Greg Clack works with sauvignon blanc, simillon and chardonnay in his white spectrum, the classic shiraz, cabernet and merlot in reds, the new Haselgrove range includes the titles Primo Taglio (First Cut), Bella Vigna (Beautiful Vineyard) and the flagship IL Padrone (The Boss) shiraz in table and sparkling styles. No sangiovese. No nebbiolo. No vermentino.Good, straight, mod-Oz varieties that begin in a very smart $9-$12 value range, packaged “H” by Haselgrove.

Step up about $5 into the Primo Taglio label and the shiraz outguns a sauvignon/semillon combo. What they do show also is the commitment from Haselgrove general manager Gordon Grant to focus on whites from the Adelaide Hills and reds from McLaren Vale. “If we can’t make a really, really good bottle of McLaren Vale shiraz for $25, then there’s something wrong,” Gordon  says.

The camaraderie between the quartet is endearing, and their appreciation of wine as a part of daily life is heartening.
Two of the men are brothers-in-law: Don Totino and Don Luca both coming from the same Calabrian village. Both are now successful businessmen, with their fingers in the wine business as well as other successful venturs. Don Luca is in commercial and industrial property and building supplies, as well as his Hills-based Totino label.Tony Carrocci, another post-war Calabrian immigrant, is in commercial, industrial and residential projects with his firm Build Tech Group.

Perhaps the most familiar wine figure is Steve Maglieri, from near Naples, who in 1977 started Maglieri Wines. He has been named McLaren Vale Bushing King twice for making the regions’s wine of the year, then sold to Beringer Blass in 1998. He retained huge swather of vineyard, before beggining over again in 2002 with Serafino Wines in the old McLarens on the Lake complex, expanding that into an impressive local production centre.

How the four work their family, business and wine matrixes is anyone’s guess, but their love of soccer, food and wine, and their cultural family values, are binding elements.And they can never get away from the grape. “Wine is part of our everyday lives,” Don Totino says. “It’s an essential part of social relaxation.”

His father, at 93, still helped work up a batch of homemade wine last year and the boys are plannin to let him ferment some more juice this vintage-just like they all did in Calabria.”My father’s wine is, how you might say, horrible,” Don Totino says. “But he still drinks it. “On his 80th birthday, the lads took dad bottles of Grange and Dom Perignon. But he rejected them. “You can drink this rubbish – I’ll drink my own wine” he said.  Being the boss, the boys bowed to his wishes. “Of course we made him happy,” Don Totino recalls. “We simply drank the Grange ourselves.”

On Saturday 23rd January from 9am to 4pm, Haselgrove Wines will be in Willunga at the ONKA Village as part of the 2010 Tour Down Under ProTour Cycling Event.

Haselgrove will showcase the whole range of wines, giving local punters the first chance to taste and buy the new ranges in a ‘cellar door-like’ atmosphere since their release.

As we do not have a Cellar Door open at the moment, we thought it a great opportunity to show off our wines to the cycling enthusiasts.  The following wines will be available for tasting on the day:

H by Haselgrove Semillon Sauvignon Blanc
H by Haselgrove Chardonnay
H by Haselgrove Shiraz
H by Haselgrove Cabernet Sauvignon

Primo Taglio Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc Semillon
Primo Taglio Adelaide Hills Chardonnay
Primo Taglio McLaren Vale Shiraz
Primo Taglio McLaren Vale / Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon

Bella Vigna Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc
Bella Vigna Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon

The event is free of charge and children are welcome.  There will be food and craft stalls, as well as a couple of other wineries, kids entertainment and live music.  Come and join the fun, we’d love to have your company!

For further details, go to www.onkaparingacity.com and follow the links via ‘What’s Happening’ to the ‘2010 Tour Down Under’ ONKA Village.  See you there!

SERVE THIS WINE AT ROOM TEMPERATURE WITH BEEF RAGU OR A PLATTER OF MATURED CHEESES.
Enjoy now or cellar for up to ten years to enhance complexity.

REGION

The Coonawarra

COLOUR

Deep cherry with a cherry red hue.

AROMA

The aroma displays blackberry, red currants, cassis with underlying menthol and eucalypt.

PALATE

Fresh blackberry, clove and spice abound on the palate with an underlying tone of menthol, Matured in new and old French oak barriques for 15 months, this Cabernet Sauvignon was selected by the method of barrel classification and has a smooth tannin finish with great length.

ALCOHOL  13.5%

PRICE  $25 per bottle, $300 per dozen

SERVE THIS WINE AT ROOM TEMPERATURE, DELICIOUS WITH RACK OF LAMB, STUFFED ZUCCHINI FLOWERS AND FRESH GREEN BEANS.
Enjoy now or cellar for up to ten years to enhance complexity.

REGION

McLaren Vale

COLOUR

Deep plum with a plum red hue.

AROMA

The aroma displays mulberries and plums with nuances of cigar box and cedar.

PALATE

Mulberry, blackcurrant, plums and hints of blackberry compbine with chestnuts and cashew.  Matured in a combination of new and seasoned French & American oak barriques for 18 months, this Shiraz was selected by barrel classification and has a smooth tannin finish with great length.

ALCOHOL  14.5%

PRICE  $25 per bottle, $300 per dozen