Wine writer RICHARD CALVER takes a longer look at a “nouveau” wine from Tumbarumba with lots of slurpability! 

To accompany a recent Sunday night dinner, my son brought a 2022 Mount Tumbarumba Vineyard On the Fly Syrah Nouveau. 

I’d made a fish and prawn curry so we had a glass of this wine as an aperitif rather than risk losing its flavours amongst a spicy, fishy dish. 

Despite the name of the wine ($29 from the winery), they would be swimming in different currents. It was light, fruity, very easy to drink and seemed to me to be a wine you’d take to a barbecue in summer where it could even be slightly chilled if you wanted to accentuate its fruitiness. 

A wine labelled “nouveau” is released in the same year its grapes are harvested. One website that purports to know the “hottest” trends in wine in 2024 mentions the growth of chilled reds is a category that’s “gaining momentum” and indicating a “transition from traditional reds to bright, crunchy and slippery reds, perfect for sipping in the summer heat”. 

I spoke about this trend and his range of wines with Richard Cottam, joint owner/operator, who runs Mount Tumbarumba Vineyard with his wife Elvie Yates

I had noticed that the label discloses that Alex McKay, of Collector Wines fame, made this wine.

“Yes, I’ve known Alex for a long time,” Richard said. “I had managed the Quarry Hill vineyard for 12 years and, over that time, I got to know Alex.

“He knows how to make wine and, with this syrah blend, I told him I wanted to capture the flavours of the ripe grapes I was tasting when I walked the vines just before harvest.

“That’s what I got. The tempranillo really stood out in the blend. It cries out to be matched with protein, it had slurpability, a joven, juicy style.” 

Slurpability?

“Yes, it is a good descriptor for a wine like this,” said Richard. “It is all about preserving the fruit flavours and aromas, and not overpowering the fruit with oak tannins. 

The percentage of varieties used in this blend isn’t disclosed on the label. I asked Richard for a break down.

“The syrah is 70 per cent, then 15 per cent merlot and 15 per cent tempranillo,” he told me.

“The shiraz is from Billinudgel Vineyard, Lankeys Creek at 330 metres above sea level so they can ripen shiraz most years. The merlot and tempranillo are from our vineyard in Tumbarumba which is at 680 metres. 

“I chose to call it syrah rather than shiraz, firstly because syrah is the correct name for that grape variety but secondly because it is cool-climate fruit and I wanted to differentiate the wine from traditional big-oak, big-tannin, big-alcohol shiraz. 

And what’s the significance of the name On the Fly? 

“We developed our vineyard in Tumbarumba starting in the late 1980s while we were having a family and working full time in Canberra,” Richard said.

“So On the Fly is a pretty apt description of those years. It also helps that I am a keen fly fisherman. 

“I am often asked how we came up with the name and the label design. I tell people that it didn’t come easily. It took me 30 years of driving up and down the Hume Highway between Tumbarumba and Canberra to come up with a name that’s now on all our wines and the current label design.” 

And that reminds me of the exchange between the fly fisherman and a shop owner:

Can I have a fly rod and reel for my daughter?
Sorry sir, we don’t do trades.