Not quite 10 years ago I was sitting in a hotel in northern New South Wales trying to unravel a wine in front of me.
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'The Idiot' it was labelled, unique artwork and produced by Philip Shaw, the Rosemount legend, now with his own label.
The wine helped draw myself, along with numerous others to the Orange wine region.
Not too long after that moment my partner and I had our bags packed and we were relocating to the Central West. A love affair had begun.
Flash forward to today and it would seem a decade on that once again the wheel has turned.
Philip has now left control of the Philip Shaw brand to his sons Daniel and Damian and begun a new project called Hoosegg.
For the first time in his 50-plus year career Philip is able to get grapes from the vine to the bottle without interruption or influence or others, for the first time Philip is making the wine that he truly wants to make.
Early last week in conjunction with Nine newspapers and the Good Weekend, Huon Hooke released his much eagerly anticipated list of top Australian wineries.
Orange proudly featured prominently throughout the list, Patina and Ross Hill both incredibly cracking the top 100.
There at number 15 however was Philip Shaw's new label Hoosegg, not only topping the list of Orange entries but beating large iconic brands such as Penfolds, Wynns, Giant Steps and Torbreck.
For Philip in only a couple of years to out place names of such magnitude, history and not to mention finance is not only remarkable, its mind boggling.
Now today as a result of Hoosegg, others around Australia are picking up their copy of the Sydney Morning Herald or the Melbourne Age Good Weekender and reading about this little mysterious little winery in Orange, NSW.
A winery that has featured in front of some of the country's biggest brands.
Sure it has a familiar name behind it to many wine lovers, but this time it is different.
This is not Rosemount, this is not Philip Shaw, this is something entirely different.
THE WINE TO WATCH
The 2017 Seven Heaven Chardonnay
I'm fortunate enough to get to taste all the great Australian chardonnays, few have left this sort of an impression on me however.
Goose-bump worthy is perhaps the best description.A classic white peach and toasty notes, but it delivers well beyond that.
The wine is ethereal and it transcends what we know of new world chardonnay, passing your lips names such as Giaconda, Leeuwin and Lake's Folly spring to mind as you wonder if his wine beats all of those acclaimed drops.
David Collins is the restaurant manager and sommelier at Charred, he has been studying wine and the wine industry for several years and will write a wine column for the CWD every second Saturday
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