Talking wine with one of the world's most awarded winemakers

Ti Gong

Australia’s Wakefield Wines, honored as the most awarded winery in the world for 2017 by the World Ranking of Wines and Spirits, last month lunched Wakefield The Legacy as a limited collection to mark their 50th anniversary.

Considered one of the world’s top Cabernet Sauvignons, it was limited to 1,080 bottles and unveiled in China for the first time.

“Wakefield The Legacy is the culmination of 50 years. This is a great tribute to the past and to the future,” said Mitchell Taylor, managing director and winemaker at Wakefield.

As a special deal, iDEALShanghai is giving six lucky readers a bottle of Wakefield Estate-Shiraz 2017 each, which is already a gold medal winner at the China Wine & Spirits Awards.

Wakefield Taylors Family Wines began in the 1960s, when Australian wines barely existed in the international market. Founder Bill Taylor sought the most ideal location across Australia, and eventually started the business in South Australia’s Clare Valley in 1969.

The picturesque Clare Valley’s winemaking history spans more than 150 years, making it one of Australia’s oldest wine-producing regions.

It has also been described as one of the prettiest in Australia, with rolling hills and sweeping gullies. The unique combination of geography, geology and climate results in a terroir that is perfect for producing world-class wines.

In order to know more about Australian wines, iDEALShanghai had spoke to Mitchell Taylor, sharing his wine tips with our readers:

Mitchell Taylor’s Tips on enjoying “the Right Wine”

• Food is always the priority. Try to choose the right wine to complement your food and enhance your dining experience. What I love about Shanghainese food is its richness. It’s got lively texture and qualities. It’s very innovative and diverse. I think it pairs exceptionally well with Australian wine.

• Always enjoy wine with family and close friends, because wine is for sharing.

• There’s no standard answer for “good wine.” Tasting is quite subjective. That’s the real thing about enjoying Australian wine, it’s known for its great diversity.

• Try to find your own palate and taste, take some notes when you meet a good wine, which will help you to find your right bottle.

• Importantly, price doesn’t fully indicate quality.

• To taste the flavor and aroma from the wine, you need to be familiar with the winemaking process. When it comes to the reds, you actually get all the flavors from the skin, which gives tastes of blackcurrant, blackberries, raspberry or cherry.

Ti Gong

Taylor talks about grape varieties for wines

Riesling

Originally grapes from Germany. Planted in Australia — one of the most ancient soils; and some of the oldest vines — it gives us interesting characteristics like lively lime flavors.

Riesling not only has that beautiful aromatic style, but is also excellent for enjoying with spicy food because its acidity cuts through the spiciness. It’s also great when you have multiple cheeses, because the cheeses are all different, and the beauty of Riesling is that it cleanses your palate in between the cheeses.

Chardonnay

It’s got this lovely melon-pitch characteristic that really shines with different fruit flavors. Luscious hints of white peach, citrus and tropical fruit overlay toasted cashew and creamy nuances from fine French oak.

Cabernet Sauvignon

The king of grapes has plenty of tannins. The wine has got blackcurrant flavors and lots of other lovely characteristics.

It’s got length on the palate, which goes well with various foods, particularly rich meat dishes, such as pork.

When I’m having a lovely Chinese Peking duck, it always matches great. It’s like a match made in heaven.

Shiraz

More full-bodies grapes, like Shiraz, give us those lovely blackberry, rich chocolate characteristics.

It’s a very diverse grape with a nice silky palate, so it goes very well with seafood and dishes that are popular here in Shanghai.