Howard Park, MadFish and Marchand & Burch Wines | |
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Location | Cowaramup and Denmark, Western Australia, Australia |
Wine region | Margaret River, Great Southern, Côte de Beaune, Côte de Nuits |
Other labels | Madfish, Marchand & Burch. |
Founded | 1986 |
First vines planted | 1974 |
First vintage | 1986 |
Known for | Howard Park Riesling, Howard Park Abercrombie Cabernet Sauvignon, Howard Park Leston Shiraz & Cabernet Sauvignon, Howard Park Scotsdale Shiraz & Cabernet Sauvignon, Marchand & Burch Chardonnay, Marchand & Burch Pinot noir, MadFish Gold Turtle Shiraz. |
Varietals | Sauvignon blanc , Shiraz , Cabernet Sauvignon , Chardonnay , Riesling , Pinot noir , Tempranillo , Carnelian , Rosé , Muscat , Meursault , Gevrey-Chambertin , Chambertin-Clos de Bèze , méthode champenoise |
Other attractions | Sony Tropfest short film festival, Concerts, winery tours. |
Distribution | International |
Tasting | 364 days a year 10am to 5pm. |
Website | Burch Family Wines |
Howard Park Wines are Margaret River and Great Southern wine specialists and a family-owned winery owned by the Burch family, [1] which is responsible for such brands as Howard Park, MadFish, and Marchand & Burch. With an established winery based in Margaret River, Western Australia and vineyards in the Great Southern, [2] [3] the Burch family are the first Australians to gain ownership in the production of a French Burgundian Grand Cru. [4] [5]
Margaret River Winery is located outside the small town of Cowaramup, the birthplace of what is now the Margaret River Wine Region. [6] [7] The vineyard that surrounds the winery named after the owner of Howard Park Wines father, Leston Burch Leston Vineyard is the vine-producing property and home of Howard Park Wines in Margaret River. [8] The vineyard currently consists of about 157 acres (64 ha) of vines including Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Carnelian varieties. [9] [10] [11] [ page needed ]
The Margaret River wine region was chosen for what was at that time a highly experimental exercise through studies undertaken in 1955 by Professor Harold Olmo. In 1961 Dr John Gladstones from the University of Western Australia, published a paper in the Journal of the Australian Institute for Agricultural Science which stated in part "As far as the writer is aware, the Busselton–Margaret River region has never been seriously proposed as suitable for commercial viticulture. Nevertheless, a study of its climate shows that it definitely warrants consideration." [12] [13] The climate of Margaret River is more strongly maritime-influenced than any other major Australian region and has been described as similar to that of Bordeaux in a dry vintage. [11] [ page needed ] [14] The region produces just three percent of total Australian grape production, although produces over 20 percent of Australia's premium wine market. [15] [16]
Great Southern Winery was established in 1986 in the coastal town of Denmark. [17] The Scotsdale Vineyard established in 1974 is located at the foothills of the Porongurup range and at 200 to 380 meters above sea level it is among the highest vineyard sites in Western Australia. [18] [19] In 1955, Professor of Viticulture at the University of California Harold Olmo was in Western Australia studying climatic limitations of viticulture in the Swan Valley. Olmo spent eight months in Western Australia at the invitation of the Western Australian Vine Fruits Research Trust. [19] When he published his report in 1956, one of the recommendations put forward was that Mount Barker and the Frankland of the Great Southern area of Western Australia showed great promise for making table wines in the light traditional European style. [19] [20]
The Great Southern wine region in Western Australia, is Australia's largest wine region, a rectangle 200 kilometres from east to west and over 100 kilometres from north to south. It has five nominated subregions for wine, namely the Porongurups, Mount Barker, Albany, Denmark and Frankland River under the Geographical indications legislation as determined and authorised by the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation. The climate is maritime-influenced Mediterranean, with significant differences reflected between the sub-regions although considerably cooler than other Western Australian wine regions and is known for Riesling, Sauvignon blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot noir and Shiraz. [8] [11] [14] [16] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26]
Howard Park 'Abercrombie' Cabernet Sauvignon a multi-award-winning wine at the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles [27] [28] [29] [30] in 2005 was included in the 4th edition of Langton's Classification of Australian Wine at the "Excellent" level. [31] [32] [33] A single barrel of Howard Park Cabernet can fetch as much as $20,500, ranked in the top 20 results at Langtons auction for Western Australian wineries listed equal first place in 2003 receiving $20,000, and in 2005 ranking 3rd place at $20,500 per barrel. While a single imperial bottle of Howard Park Cabernet can fetch as much as $6,000 in 2008 ranking first place for auction results among wineries from Western Australia. While in 2003 a Howard Park imperial was ranked at 12th place at $3,200. [34] [35] [36]
The Howard Park Riesling is listed as Australia's 4th most collected Riesling from surveys conducted by Wine Ark from an analysis of over 3 million bottles of wine worth A$250m held in 8,500 private collections across Australia. [37] [38] [39] [40] The Howard Park Riesling is listed among the wines of the world as one of the '1001 Wines You Must Try Before You Die' as selected by a panel of 44 contributors. [41]
Marchand and Burch is a wine making joint venture between Burgundian winemaker and biodynamic ambassador Pascal Marchand and Jeff Burch, Vigneron and owner of Howard Park & MadFish Wines. Pascal Marchand is famous in wine circles for his performance taking over from Comte Armand in Pommard as winemaker at Burgundy's Premier Cru 'Clos-des-Épeneaux'. [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] Marchand is also known as ex-regisseur for Boisset's Domaine de la Vougeraie. [49] [50]
The first vintage for Marchand & Burch was in 2007 where a Chardonnay, Pinot noir, and Shiraz was produced in both Margaret River and the Great Southern Western Australia and a Meursault, Gevrey-Chambertin, a Grand Cru Chambertin-Clos de Bèze and Grand Cru Mazis-Chambertin were produced in Burgundy. The wines have been well received in the Australian wine press, listed in James Halliday's 2010 Australian Wine Companion in the Top 10 Best New Wineries in Australia [50] [51] and judged as Australia's top Chardonnay of Australia in 2010. [50]
Howard Park Wines first released the MadFish label in 1992 with the MadFish Premium White, soon followed by the MadFish Premium Red in 1993. The name Madfish is derived from a local seaside inlet based 15 kilometres from the town of Denmark called Madfish Bay, so called because of often seen desperately jumping fish, seeking to escape hungry feeding dolphins whilst the bay's calmness is broken when two tides meet. The artwork for the label was originally designed by the late Maxine Fumagalli, a Noongar artist from Western Australia's Great Southern. Awarded a Double Gold Medal and listed as one of the top four label designs in the International San Francisco Wine Competition. Her design reflects the native viewpoint of unity between land, sea, stars, animals and people, hence the inclusion of all these elements in the label's design. This traditional aboriginal water turtle design on the label is a symbol of perseverance and tolerance. Since its release the label has grown into one of Australia's most recognized wine brands, with an extensive range of contemporary style wines made from cool climate fruit. [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] [57] [58] [59]
The Margaret River winery has received acclaim for its architecture winning the commercial category award from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in 2000, [22] [ full citation needed ] [60] [61] also judged among Australia's top 12 buildings, [22] [62] [63] [64] [65] incorporating traditional feng shui principles with contemporary Australian design. [3] [22] [60]
The design and exact orientation of the winery was fine-tuned by the use of Feng shui under the direct supervision of Professor Cheng Jian Jun of the Department of Architecture in South China University of Technology, and lecturer at Guangzhou University, China. Professor Cheng is the author of several books, and has designed over 10 traditional Chinese Temples around China. [66] [67] [68]
In 2009 Howard Park was asked to join Australia's First Families of Wine (AFFW) a multimillion-dollar venture to help resurrect the fortunes of the $6 billion industry highlighting the quality and diversity of Australian wine. [69] [70] Howard Park Wines is the only representative from Western Australia to be included in the AFFW. [71]
The 12 member alliance includes Brown Brothers, Campbells, Taylors, DeBortoli, McWilliam's, Tahbilk, Tyrell's, Yalumba, D'Arenberg, Jim Barry, Howard Park, and Henschke. The main criterion is that the family-owned companies need to have a "landmark wine" in their portfolios as listed under Langton's Classification and/or 75% agreement by group that a wine is considered "iconic". Others are they must have the ability to do at least a 20-year vertical tasting, have a history going back a minimum of two generations, ownership of vineyards more than 50 years old and/or ownership of distinguished sites which exemplify the best of terroir, commitment to export and environmental best practice, appropriate cellar door experience, and be paid-up members of the Winemakers Federation of Australia. [69] [71] [72] [73]
Margaret River is a town in the South West of Western Australia, located in the valley of the eponymous Margaret River, 277 kilometres (172 mi) south of Perth, the state capital. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River.
Burgundy wine is made in the Burgundy region of eastern France, in the valleys and slopes west of the Saône, a tributary of the Rhône. The most famous wines produced here, and those commonly referred to as "Burgundies", are dry red wines made from pinot noir grapes and white wines made from chardonnay grapes.
The Côte de Nuits is a French wine region located in the northern part of the Côte d'Or, the limestone ridge that is at the heart of the Burgundy wine region. It extends from Dijon to just south of Nuits-Saint-Georges, which gives its name to the district and is the regional center. Though some white and rosé wines are produced in the region, the Côte de Nuits is most famous for reds made from pinot noir. The Côte de Nuits covers fourteen communes. Six produce grand cru wines, in the central district between Gevrey-Chambertin and Nuits-Saint-Georges, with four lesser villages either side. The Grand Crus of the Côte de Nuits are some of the smallest appellations in France, less than a hectare in the case of La Romanée.
Washington wine is a wine produced from grape varieties grown in the U.S. state of Washington. Washington ranks second in the United States in the production of wine. By 2017, the state had over 55,000 acres (220 km2) of vineyards, a harvest of 229,000 short tons (208,000 t) of grapes, and exports going to over 40 countries around the world from the 940+ wineries located in the state. While there are some viticultural activities in the cooler, wetter western half of the state, the majority (99.9%) of wine grape production takes place in the shrub-steppe eastern half. The rain shadow of the Cascade Range leaves the Columbia River Basin with around 8 inches (200 mm) of annual rain fall, making irrigation and water rights of paramount interest to the Washington wine industry. Viticulture in the state is also influenced by long sunlight hours and consistent temperatures.
Harold Olmo was an American viticulturist and professor at the University of California, Davis where he created many new grape varieties known today as Olmo grapes. In the 1950s, he helped to establish California's first quarantine facility on the UC Davis campus to permit California growers to import foreign vines. This led to an expansion of California's wine industry as more Vitis vinifera was introduced to the area.
Tahbilk Winery is a historic Australian winery with National Trust certification. It is located 120 km (75 mi) north of Melbourne between the townships of Seymour and Nagambie in the Nagambie Lakes a sub region of Goulburn Valley Wine Region. It was established in 1860, and is the oldest family-owned winery and vineyard in Victoria. In 2022 it was ranked the eighteenth largest Australian wine company by production, and the tenth largest in terms of total revenue. The winery is part of Australia's First Families of Wine, a prominent Australian wine alliance.
Margaret River is the major geographical indication wine region in southwest Western Australia, with 5,840 hectares under vine and 215 wineries as at 2012. Margaret River wine region is made up predominantly of boutique size wine producers; although winery operations range from the smallest crushing 3.5 tonne per year to the largest around 2,500 tonne. The climate of Margaret River is more strongly maritime-influenced than any other major Australian region. It has the lowest mean annual temperature range, of only 7.6 °C, and as well as the most marked Mediterranean climate in terms of rainfall, with only 200 millimetres of the annual 1160 millimetres falling between October and April. The low diurnal and seasonal temperature range means an unusually even accumulation of warmth. Overall the climate is similar to that of Bordeaux in a dry vintage. Although the region produces just two percent of total Australian wine grape production, it produces over 20 percent of Australia's premium wine market. The principal grape varieties are split 40/60 between red and white; Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Sauvignon blanc, Sémillon, Shiraz, Merlot and Chenin Blanc.
Australia's First Families of Wine (AFFW) is an Australian wine initiative to promote Australian wine.
Henschke is a family-owned, 156-year-old Australian winery, located in Keyneton, South Australia in the Eden Valley wine region. It produces the 'Hill of Grace', one of Australia's "cult wines", and was considered Australia's second best wine by James Halliday in 2009.
Western Australian wine refers to wine produced in Australia's largest state, Western Australia. Although the state extends across the western third of the continent, its wine regions are almost entirely situated in the cooler climate of its south-western tip. Western Australia produces less than 5% of the country's wine output, but in quality terms it is very much near the top, winning 30 percent of the country's medals.
Grosset Wines is an Australian winery based in the Clare Valley wine region of South Australia.
Leeuwin Estate is an Australian winery and restaurant based in the Margaret River wine region of Western Australia.
The Great Southern wine region is in Western Australia's Great Southern region. It comprises an area 200 kilometres (120 mi) from east to west and over 100 kilometres (62 mi) from north to south, and is Australia's largest wine region.
Cullen Wines is an Australian winery based in Wilyabrup, within the Margaret River wine region of Western Australia.
Bass Phillip is an Australian winery based in Leongatha, within the Gippsland region of Victoria.
Cape Mentelle Vineyards is a wine estate in the Margaret River region, 274 km, south-west of Perth, Western Australia. The winery was founded by David Hohnen, a third-generation farmer who studied wine making and viticulture in California in the 1960s, and his brothers Mark and Giles. Cape Mentelle is one of the ‘founding five’ wineries in Margaret River, was established in 1970, and came to prominence by winning the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy in 1983 and 1984 for their Cabernet sauvignon.
Voyager Estate is an Australian winery located in the Margaret River wine region of Western Australia. James Halliday gives the winery his highest ranking, five red stars, in his "Halliday Australian Wine Companion". According to Ray Jordan, wine writer for The West Australian, the winery produces excellent wines.
Forest Hill Vineyard is an Australian winery business based in the Great Southern wine region of Western Australia. Its vineyard is west of Mount Barker, and its winery and cellar door are further south, at Denmark.
Woodlands Wines is an Australian winery at Wilyabrup, in the Margaret River wine region of Western Australia. Established in 1973 by David and Heather Watson, it held its first vintage in 1978, and by the end of 1982 had won trophies at wine shows in Mount Barker, Perth and Canberra with its "Andrew" Cabernet Sauvignon 1981.
Deep Woods Estate is an Australian winery at Yallingup, in the Margaret River wine region of Western Australia.
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