THERE were some excellent snowfalls around the Orange district in July.
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Snow is great - it looks pretty, it fills dams and snow puts moisture deep into the subsoil.
With over 150mm of precipitation, half of which was snow, the soil moisture profile is close to saturation.
This is very good for vine growth as we head into spring.
The only downside is that these classic Orange winter conditions mean that pruning is challenging.
Last month alternative varieties were on the tasting bench. Continuing the trend, I enjoyed recently another lesser known variety - gruner veltliner.
The flagship white variety of Austria, it is in the riesling mould but can also have spice, floral and ripe fruit characters in abundance.
The marketers in the room thought it would struggle because it’s difficult to pronounce but there are a few Australian producers, Lark Hill from Canberra district among them, that are making some fine wine from gruner. Austrian producers to look for include Brundlmayer, Nigl, FX Pichler and Schloss Gobelsberg.
At the Strawhouse kitchen bench, the slow cooked food is having a field day.
Moroccan chicken, a jointed whole chicken being preferred as you get to gnaw the bones, slow cooked with prunes, olives and almonds and gentle spice from cinnamon, garlic and ginger is mouth-watering. It matched some younger Montoro shiraz and some older Philip Shaw No.89 Shiraz very well indeed.
Cheers.