Friends of Jimbour Newsletter

Welcome to the latest Friends of Jimbour e-newsletter.

In this issue:

• From our Master of Wine
• Restoration of Jimbour House
• Xmas Gift Package
• Jimbour Gardens
• In the Vineyard - with Bert Biggs
• Old Monty is back!

From our Master of Wine 

Jimbour Wines have re-introduced their fortified wine-Old Monty Australian Tawny at the cellar door.

Although we harmonized our table wine naming over a decade ago-such as dropping the words Chablis, Champagne etc which are regional names in Europe, fortified labelling of borrowed European place names has continued.

The most well known are Port and Sherry.

Port is an abbreviation of the city Oporto where the wine style of Port is unique to the Portuguese wine trade.

So now you can guess it-the word Port on Australian sweet red dessert wines (fortified for short) is now earmarked to be doomed.

And many wine brands have dropped it in the past, and soon it will become law across the country.

This current release is the last to be called Port; and the next issue will be labelled Old Monty (a former bull on the property) Australian Tawny, and is non-vintage, meaning a blend of years.

Australian Tawny is the agreed wording for fortified red wines up to an average age of ten years. Wines ranging 10-20 years will be called Classic Tawny, 20-30 will be Grand Tawny and over 30 years is Rare Tawny (such as Penfolds Grandfather).

So Australian fortified winemakers are standardizing their naming in conjunction with the age of blends.

Old Monty was first blended in 2000 from base wines made in 1996 and 2000. The current blend contains 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 wines.

My calculations place the wine with an average age of 5-6 years taking into account the range of years and proportions of each wine in the existing blend.

The grape varieties include shiraz, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, ruby cabernet, grenache and chambourcin.

Such a mixture came about by identifying grapes each year which were able to hang late into the season to produce over-ripeness and hence the high sugars.

You could imagine visiting the Jimbour Cellar door-sip Old Monty as liquid sunshine accompanied by a rich short black.

Peter Scudamore-Smith MW

Restoration of Jimbour House 

October 2008 represents a significant milestone in the history of Jimbour House (circa 1877). Work is being completed on restoration to its original concept of the northern facade of the heritage-listed building.

The kitchen has been relocated to close to its original site, and the covered way between it and the House rebuilt, although to the east of the original location.The work means that todayfs custodians, Deborah and David Russell, have been able to complete the task which Wilfred and Millicent Russell commenced in 1923.

"Whilst the work associated with the maintenance and upkeep of Jimbour will never be entirely complete, the essential framework of the House is now restored,' Deborah and David said.

Jimbour Cellar Door

The restoration work will add to the historic attraction of Jimbour as a growing number of visitors arrive to the hospitality of Cellar Door and experience the gardens and "Living History Walk."

Cellar Door hosts, Jim and Sjaan Sage, are hospitality professionals ? having owned and operated a number of highly successful businesses in Queensland and New South Wales (Blue Mountains). Their approach has doubled Cellar Door business in the past year with growing interest being shown in Jimbour as a venue for weddings and a wide range of social events utilising the Grand Marquee on the lawns or the permanent Marquee now forming part of the Cellar Door.The Cellar Door interior has had a complete makeover with a new kitchen and new furniture complemented by fine food, free wine tasting and great old fashioned country hospitality from Jim and Sjaan.

Mention this newsletter and receive a free coffee if you visit Monday to Friday in November.

With Christmas almost upon us, why not choose the Jimbour Wines Mixed christmas Dozen as a special gift with a Queensland flavour.

As a Christmas bonus, every purchase of the Mixed Christmas Dozen will include a Jimbour Wines Limited Edition Stainless Steel Wine Knife (RRP $19.99).

The Mixed Christmas Dozen Includes:

2 Btls Jimbour Station Verdelho,
2 Btls Jimbour Station Chardonnay,
2 Btls Jimbour Station Merlot,
2 Btls Jimbour Station Shiraz,
2 Btls Jimbour Station Cabernet Sauvignon,
1 Btl Ludwig Leichhardt Reserve Merlot,
1 Btl Ludwig Leichhardt Reserve Chardonnay

All for the special price of $159.99 (normally $205.88).

To ensure you receive your delivery before Christmas, orders must be placed before Friday, December 5th. To make your order please email info@jimbourwines.com.au or phone
07 3236 2100.

Open daily 10am to 4.30pm

Jimbour's Head Gardener, Darryl Morris, and his team have worked tirelessly to ensure the Jimbour grounds and gardens are a delight to visitors.

There is much to see as part of the garden experience in addition to the formal plantings and landscaping that have been part of the surrounds to the House since the last century. Depending on the season, Darryl's culinary garden skills can display a wide variety of produce such as moon and stars and criss-cross watermelons, giant Atlantic pumpkins, Turkish turban, jack be little, butternut, delicate mini sweet and trombone gramma pumpkins.

Also on the list are noir des carnes, hales best, rockmelon, zucchini, squash, cucumbers and brilliant displays of sunflower and corn varieties.

Admission for public entry to the gardens applies.

Adults 5.50
Children 3.00
Students 4.00
Family 2+2 12.00
Family 2+3 15.00
FOJ (Friends of Jimbour )FREE

Walk through Living History

Jacarandas in full bloom in  November will mark the completion of the new self guided walk that will take visitors through the gardens and historic attractions of Jimbour Station.

Interpretive plaques have been positioned throughout the grounds to help visitors enjoy the
"living history" experience Jimbour provides. On arrival at the Cellar Door visitors can pick
up the self-guide walk brochure, pay a small entrance fee and proceed to the gardens and
attractions that surround Jimbour House.

There are 14 separate points of interest along the walking trail map ranging from the original
Water Tower (1870's), Chapel  (1868), the Jacaranda Avenue, Jimbour House (1877), the rose garden, Millicent Russell Kitchen Garden, the bull stalls and stables historic displays, the Bluestone building (1870) and plaques depicting past events at Jimbour including the Transit of Venus historic display and the expeditions by explorer Ludwig Leichhardt.

Head Gardener Darryl Morris and his team have excelled with plantings and landscape designs that will delight visitors. Ensure a camera is an essential companion throughout the walk.

In the Vineyard with Bert Biggs

Itfs great to see the early stages of this years crop-the buds are just out and the earlier chardonnay vines are running hard.

Their shoots are ten centimeters long already.

This is the tale of a group of plants called woody perennials, including our grape vines.

They burst into life, grow rapidly as slender shoots, flower, grow fruit, change colour, produce a crop, leaves harden then drop.

Each vine hibernates when the soil temperature drops below ten degrees Celsius. And when the soil rises again above 10 oC they burst into a new life and a new season.

Grape vines keep doing that year after year.

And even though we are in year 2008 when the growing starts, the ripening will be next January-February when the harvest taken and the vintage recorded as 2009.

European regions differ. The 2008 Spanish bud burst comes in the northern spring around March and vintage in this October, so that the whole deal happens in a calendar year.

And southern hemisphere wines are always six months older than their northern equivalents due to the opposed seasons.

Back in the Jimbour vineyard we are expecting our largest harvest ever-although we do not know until after each vine flowers.

The tiny, pea-like grapes start their journey on their bunch to grow much larger, eventually reaching around ten grams.

That means there are millions of grape berries out there.

But we never count them, just take estimates of how much is expected, bunch by bunch, then multiply out by the number of vines.

Bert Biggs
Vineyard Manager

Old Monty is back!

Hooray!

Jimbour Wines have re-introduced their fortified wine- gOld Montyh Australian Tawny
available at Cellar Door and online.

This popular drop will soon not be labelled as gPorth anymore because borrowing such European regional names is to be outlawed in the same way as using names such as Chablis and Champagne.

Port is an abbreviation of the city Oporto where the wine style of Port is unique to the Portuguese wine trade.

View details of Old Monty online here.