Basking In Light Of Moon
Newcastle Herald
Wednesday January 31, 2007
BRUCE Tyrrell this month is savouring two significant milestones that coincide with the launch of the Tyrrell's 2006 Moon Mountain Chardonnay.
The $20 wine marks the 10th anniversary of the first Tyrrell's Moon Mountain chardonnay, the 1996, which made its market debut in 1997, having won the Dr H. J. Lindeman Trophy for the best 1996 dry white at the 1996 Hunter Valley Wine Show.In the Hunter judging the Moon Mountain outpointed the Tyrrell chardonnay flagship, the 1996 Vat 47.The second milestone is the 35th anniversary of the 1972 release of the Tyrrell's 1971 Vat 47, recognised as Australia's first commercially released chardonnay and the trigger of the chardonnay boom.Bruce Tyrrell, who now heads the 149-year-old Tyrrell family wine enterprise, says the 1996 Moon Mountain began a decade of "non-interventionist" Hunter chardonnay winemaking by Tyrrell's.Chief winemaker, Andrew Spinaze, explains that this has meant a more restrained use of oak and an emphasis on elegance and fruit delicacy."Moon Mountain has been instrumental in turning perceptions of Hunter chardonnay around in the 10 years since it was first released," he says. "People are constantly surprised that it is as lean and fine as it is."The inaugural Moon Mountain chardonnay was a single-vineyard wine made from grapes grown on the Moon Mountain vineyard in Broke Road. The vineyard was then owned by orthodontist Dr Alan Burgess, who grew the grapes and gave Tyrrell's the right to use the Moon Mountain name. Tyrrell's subsequently leased the vineyard from Dr Burgess and acquired the rights to the Moon Mountain brand.Three years ago, after Dr Burgess's death, Moon Mountain property was sold to high-profile developer Duncan Hardie, who has now put it up for auction at 10.30am on February 22 by Jurd's Real Estate, Cessnock. The Tyrrell's 2006 Moon Mountain Chardonnay reviewed today in Uncorked is no longer a single-vineyard wine based on Moon Mountain fruit, being made from grapes from a number of Hunter premium dryland vineyards. Bruce Tyrrell tells me that, having acquired the brand name from Dr Burgess, Tyrrell's will continue the Moon Mountain wines as part of its individual variety range.The Moon Mountain story dates back to the 1970s, when Alan Burgess bought the eight hectares of land, which then contained no vines.Alan was then practising in Sydney and he was one of the founding directors of Len Evans's Rothbury Estate. Because the property faced a peak dubbed Moon Mountain, Alan Burgess named the property Moon Mountain and sought the advice of Murray Tyrrell on its suitability for winegrowing. Murray declared that it had suitable soil and at the same time, Alan's radiologist brother, John, also a founding director of Rothbury, bought the Peacock Hill property. Both Moon Mountain and Peacock Hill were to operate as satellites of Rothbury,which managed the vineyard and took the grapes. The deal provided that Rothbury would return some of the resulting bottled wine for Alan Burgess to boast his own Moon Mountain label.Later Alan moved his practice to Maitland and in 1992 he and his wife retired to the house they had built on Moon Mountain. He remained on the Rothbury board almost up to its bitterly contested 1996 takeover by the Mildara Blass arm of Foster's Group Ltd. Rothbury's involvement in Moon Mountain ended in 1984 and the Burgesses leased the vineyard to Tyrrell's, maintaining the arrangement whereby they received a certain amount of wine to carry on their own Moon Mountain label. In 1996, when the tonnage of Moon Mountain chardonnay permitted it, Tyrrell's decided to make it the basis of a new wine.
© 2007 Newcastle Herald