Fern Gully Chambourcin

There are few better reasons to open a bottle of wine than celebration of good news (there are few worse reasons either - to me, any reason is a good one). When feeling excited and happy, the "foomp" of the cork coming out of the bottle is the icing on the cake. The same effect is not really acheived with a Stelvin cap, which is of course one of the main reasons we need to keep using cork for at least a few wines in this country.

At any rate, to celebrate some happy tidings yesterday we foomped the cork from a bottle of Chambourcin from Fern Gully, a very small winery in the Shoalhaven region which makes - and bottles - all its wine by hand. As I have mentioned, Chambourcin is a bit of a rough grape that grows well in that region, but Fern Gully have done wonders with it. The grape produces wines of rich, almost purple colour, and this particular example has flavours to match. The nose reminded me of cherries, dark chocolate and cinnamon, and the palate was full-bodied and smooth, with velvety tannins.

We made what I now think was a mistake by eating cajun-spiced lamb with it, which I think made the wine taste a bit sharp - certainly that sharpness wasn't there when drinking the wine on its own. It would be better matched with kangaroo with a plum sauce. I honestly think this is the best example of Chambourcin I have tasted in its price range, and if I had the cash and time I would nip back down to Termeil and pick up a case.