Inaugural Wine Dinner at Noosa's Blue Angel

It was always going to be a special night – obviously over excited Donny and Mac on holidays after a tough few months, made for a couple of hosts ready to celebrate.

And celebrate we did. A sold out pig-loving audience of 70 came along on a Tuesday night in Noosa not quite sure what to expect, only to encounter two blokes not quite sure what to deliver. It was, in so many ways, the perfect match.

So we did what we know best, some might say, all we know. We told a few lame jokes, we opened plenty of bottles of great wines, we snuck in an option's game (won by the lovely Judy) and we finished with a few Coopers. All in all, a pretty tame Tuesday in God's country.

The food, from chef Daniel Mosedale, was superb, including crispy-fried local school prawns with smoked tomato aioli, roasted whole wagyu sirloin with bearnaise and watercress and the hero, slow-roasted Bangalow pork belly with parsnips and apples.

And the wines on show were delicious. The 2007 Yarra Valley Chardonnay, which has improved out of sight since release, is drinking superbly now and will improve for a few more years yet.

We then tasted the 2005, 2006 and 2007 DGM Shiraz and what an interesting little trio they turned out to be.

The 2005 is developing very nicely. It's a little lighter than the two successive vintages as we used some younger vine fruit in that wine. That said, if you still have some it's looking lovely now and has many more years in front of it – it's a smooth, succulent bugger.

The 2006 was looking pretty damn good, too. It is still bright, tight and young but the fruit expression is extraordinary – in a decade this wine will be unbelievably good but I can also tell you in a couple of years it will really start hitting its straps.

The 2007 is a young bugger. We double decanted the wines an hour before guests arrived and it looked delicious, intense and quite firm. It's a baby and we encourage you, if you must drink it today, to follow our lead and pour it into a jug and then back into the bottle before you start attacking it. Otherwise leave it for a few years or at least 12 months.

Perhaps the wine of the night was the new 2007 Cabernet from the Yarra. Good always thought this was the wine of the vintage for us (hey we only have three) and not for the first time it appears she might have been right. It is lifted with lovely aromatics, great suppleness and classic cool-climate cabernet character – damn straight we love this wine and FYI its Donny's wife's pick of the current releases and she topped sensory evaluation at Roseworthy so she must be believed.

First Ever Donny GoodMac Wine Dinner

For those of you lucky enough to find yourself on the Sunshine Coast on Tuesday, 14 October please join Donny and Mac for the first ever Donny GoodMac wine dinner.

The evening will be hosted by Stuart and Cameron and will feature three vintages of their iconic and much sought-after Pyrenees shiraz, a wine sourced from one of Australia's finest old-vine shiraz vineyards. The 2006 vintage sold out in less than a month and leading wine author, Campbell Mattinson, wrote in his Big Red Wine Book, 'You could call this the perfect Australian shiraz – it drinks like a champion now, yet it will age. It's brilliant - 95 points.'

We will also taste the new 2007 Donny GoodMac Yarra Valley Chardonnay and our first ever Yarra Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Each of these wines will be available exclusively to our guests on the night at special Donny GoodMac Noosa prices (we have to, Stuart's parents and sister live in Noosa!).

The night will, of course, feature the brilliant food of Daniel Mosedale and rest assured, it will be a wine dinner with a difference – Stuart and Cameron will host one of their legendary wine options games (where the less you know the better you perform), there will be mystery wines, stories of dubious taste and execution, much hilarity and great times.

7pm
Tuesday, 14 October
Blue Angel
235 Gympie Terrace
Noosaville
Booking enquiries to Angela on
07 5473 0800 by Friday, 10 October
Cost $95 including wines, canapιs on arrival and a bountiful, family-style feast

Pigs in Space

See, we are serious at Donny GoodMac. Every now and again we'll bring you updates on our piggy friend, news of the "old but strong" Key Largo Lad and plenty of other useless information.

Most importantly, however, the 2007 chardonnay is flying out the door so if you want to order some of this "terrific value" wine, you better get in quick. Visit our website to download an order form and to check out another terrific Pig review.

Make sure you also preorder the 2007 shiraz and 2007 cabernet sauvignon due for release at the end of the year. If you don't order now, it's likely your wine will be shipped to prestige outlets such Becco in Melbourne, the Bentley Bar in Sydney and Pier Nine in Brisbane where the shiraz stars on the wine lists. Becco even have the red and white quinella - the Golden Pig is on by the glass!

On the 07 vintage, our award-winning winemaker, Kate Goodman, reckons we managed to dodge all the bullets that mother nature fired. "We were free of frost and fire and had enough water to get by where needed. Our dry-grown vineyard in the Pyrenees produced concentrated shiraz grapes and the Yarra chardonnay was pristine with great acidity. Basically it was a blockbuster!"

Kate, who also makes the top gear at Punt Road Wines (www.puntroadwines.com.au), was recently given the thumb's up by Huon Hooke in the Good Weekend magazine. "Thanks heavens for Kate Goodman and the folk at The Yarra Hill Winery who produce Punt Road Wines. These are consistently good and the prices are moderate. In short, these are wines for the punter - good wines that most of us can afford." Top stuff Kate and Cameron.

We're also planning a pig roadshow in October, where we'll be bringing the latest releases and sought-after museum stock to a posh restaurant near you. Watch this space.

As for our Lad, his prizemoney has topped $22,000 - Dapto Dogs here we come.

And just so we can end with a loud OINK, here's the 2006 shiraz review from Campbell Mattinson's latest book, The Big Red Wine Book. As you can imagine, we're happy as pigs in mud!

"Rarely do you find a wine with all the components so well balanced, and at the same time so charming. You could call this the perfect Australian shiraz. It's not too big, but not thin and wimpy either. It's a medium-bodied, plum-centred, cherried red wine, exotic notes of five-spice, sandalwood, cedar, sap, and toast pitching it just right. It drinks like a champion now, and yet it will age. It's brilliant." SCORE 95

Until next time

Donny, Good and Mac

2007 Donny GoodMac Chardonnay

This is from the Coldstream sub-region of the Yarra Valley and as with the most recent Donny Goodmac Shiraz, it's both a terrific wine and terrific value. It's lean, long and well flavoured, its spine of lemony fruit aided ably by flavours of grapefruit and spicy cedarwood. Balance and length are its calling cards, and while it's a fairly clinical display it's got just enough happening to keep it interesting. Drink: 2008-2012. 92 points.

Campbell Mattinson
Publisher, The Wine Front
www.winefront.com.au

The Golden Pig

The Donny GoodMac team absolutely bloody loves chardonnay. Chardonnay from the Yarra, Margaret River, Tassie, Burgundy, even the Mornington Peninsula for heaven's sake. If it's not the greatest white grape then it's pretty bloody close. So if we were ever going to make a white wine it was always going to be chardonnay.

And then we found out 2007 was the Year of the Pig... well in fact, even better... read on.

According to our local Chinese soothsayer (okay, the waiter at Golden Century), 2007 was the Year of the Golden Pig which occurs every 60 or 600 years depending on who is telling the story, and how much chardonnay and MSG is in the system when you hear it. Children born in a Golden Pig year go on to make huge successes of themselves so Donny and Good did their bit by producing our first white wine, while 'Mac' did the real thing and produced baby Eliza (she'd want to be successful, if only to show up the failings of her father).

So we started our Search For a Suitable Chardonnay Vineyard (soon to be featured on Arena and hosted by Good) and came upon a gem: a 25-year-old chardonnay vineyard in the heart of the cool Coldstream sub-region of the Yarra.

We know a lot of people have a lot of views about chardonnay. For instance, there are stupid people who believe that Australian chardonnay is the red-headed stepchild of the Australian wine industry. And there are stupider people who think that all chardonnay is oaky, buttery and fat. And these misconceptions (well, yes, there was some degree of reality a few years back, granted) have become so bad that everyone is drinking New Zealand sauvignon blanc for Christ's sake! Let's face it, if the Wallabies really turned to shit (and it's not far off), would we just start following the All Blacks? Especially if the All Blacks smelled like the train trip on the way home from the Melbourne Cup – cheap perfume and sweat?

So back to the inaugural Golden Pig.

The fruit was all hand-picked in early March at very moderate sugar levels, resulting in a wine of just 12.5% alcohol (not fat, not alcoholic, not Donny). The fruit was whole-bunch pressed and a third was allowed to ferment 'wild' in the best Burgundy barrels we could get our hands on. This means, we think, that Good ran out of cultured yeast and just let one barrel run 'feral' and by gum, it has certainly added a certain 'funk' and groovy sort of mouthfeel to the wine that the three of us are having quite a time trying to describe. The wine is a little bit 'out there' by any measure, there is only 30% new oak and the wine was stirred on lees for around 10 months before bottling.

It won't appeal to everyone, particularly not to stupid people who don't like chardonnay, but it will appeal to people who like white wine of real character, flavour and interest. And it will only get more interesting with a couple more years in your cellar.

As for the price of the wine – well Donny and Good had yet another blue over this. Good reckons it's bloody brilliant (she would, she made it) and thinks it should be $50 a bottle. Donny thinks it's nice, but likes the idea of people actually being able to afford to taste the thing and it is, after all, just our first attempt.

So it's $260 per dozen, delivered to your door. That's good value there.

So what else is going on in our world?

Well, as most of you probably know, the 2006 Pyrenees shiraz sold out in a month. A couple of very useful reviews from Campbell Mattinson (95 points) and Gary Walsh (93 points) certainly got a few people talking. The wine was also snapped up by Nick Hildebrandt of Sydney's Bentley Restaurant & Bar, where it continues to prosper and be savoured alongside some of Sydney's best food and in the midst of Sydney's most eclectic and challenging wine list. We hope you, our loyal customer, got your little piece of the action because the wine is absolutely bloody tops and will be even better in a few years.

The 2007 reds look pretty good too. The Pyrenees
shiraz will be bottled in August 2008 and available in
November. Again, supply will be short and demand will
be high, so if you want to put a reserve on a case or
two (max), please make sure you mark your order form
appropriately.

We will also be releasing our first ever cabernet
sauvignon later in the year, sourced from the same
vineyard (well, not the exact same vines) as the 2007
chardonnay. This cabernet vineyard is around 30-yearsold
and again, being the counter-cyclists we are, we just
reckon Yarra Valley cabernet is tops – why not make up
your mind for yourselves?

And vintage 2008? Well, it was certainly a challenge. Our
yields in the Pyrenees were lower than ever and as such,
we will probably have only around 100 dozen for sale in
late 2009. The Yarra fruit fared okay, and in addition to
the chardonnay and cabernet, we decided to have some
fun and co-ferment some Yarra shiraz and viognier, so
we will have another little piggy to add to the portfolio
some time next year. At the moment this wine, sourced
from a vineyard up towards Kangaroo Ground, looks
really interesting. We will keep you posted.

And please note in October or November 2008, the
Donny GoodMac roadshow is planned for the first ever
time. Yes, we thought we might unleash ourselves on
Sydney, Melbourne and Noosa for one night only in each
market. Quite what we will do remains undecided, but
at the very least we will pick a reasonable restaurant
and open all our shiraz from 2002-2007 and everything
else we have made, too, including sneak previews of
our new wines. And we reckon we might show you the
wines we really love to drink as well. Keep your eyes out
for an email invitation around September and again, act
quickly as you can be sure it won't be real big but it will
be real fun.

And also if you lose your order form make sure you
visit www.donnygoodmac.com.au where you can
download another and also maybe see a few pictures
and things if we get our act together some time in the
next couple of months.

So that's it from us... almost.

Of course you want to know about Key Largo Lad, our
beloved greyhound. Well, at April 10, 2008 his stats looked like this: 64 starts 10 wins, 14 seconds and 13 thirds – that's running a place exactly 50% of his starts. That, my friends, is
a dog as honest as the day is long. He is a champion.
Oh, and prizemoney of $17,325 doesn't hurt either,
considering he cost four grand!

Thanks for being top people and great customers.

This Little Piggy Went to Paris

Finally, the much anticipated 2006 Pig is ready for release. Those who have followed the Donny Goodmac triumvirate over the last year will know that we have been banging on about the 2006 shiraz as being something special. Since our first vintage in 2002, we've changed regions a few times….slept around if you like. First it was the Yarra, then Heathcote and last year we settled in the Pyrenees region of Western Victoria, a stunning region for spicy, savoury shiraz.

While we cannot name the vineyard we have sourced fruit from, it's fair to say that it is the envy of every grower in the Pyrenees. Beautiful, old and low-yielding, this vineyard produces some of Australia's finest shiraz and we have been bloody lucky to buy two tonnes in 2006 and in 2007. Once again the Pig was matured in a combination of new and one-year-old French oak barrels – expensive and very flash!

The 2006 Pig is a blinder and easily our best wine so far (yes, I know we said that of the 2005 vintage and get used to it because we'll probably say it every year). But this year the proof is in the bottle. The colour is a youthful dense red/purple. It has brooding aromas of dark berry, liquorice and spice supported by stunning French oak. A full-bodied palate shows layers of the same flavours and as always we recommend decanting the wine and giving it a bit of air to really open it up. Bottled under screw-cap, in a snazzy new bottle, we reckon it will cellar for at least 10 years, probably more.

Enough of the serious mumbo jumbo. What else has been happening in our world?

Many of you have enquired about our greyhound – Key Largo Lad – the one with leukaemia, track paw, torn monkey muscle, kidney transplant and slightly stumpy tail. Well we are happy to report that the journey continues! Just as we were about to let him loose in a National Park somewhere Donny came up with the brilliant idea of sending him to Perth. A new trainer and a fresh home has done the trick because he has won five races in WA (mainly against labradors and dachshunds but we don't care, a win is a win and there will be vision on the website shortly).

Donny recently spent a bit of time in France cheering on the Wallabies – money well spent, wasn't it? No doubt he has also did some extensive wine 'tasting' too. The big news is that he was invited to present a wine at a tasting at Australian Embassy in Paris on the day of the World Cup semi-final. Guess what wine he served? That's right, the 2006 Pig was launched and enjoyed by Deputy Chairman of Australian Rugby, Peter Cosgrove, CEO of Vodafone, Russell Hewitt, and Pat Howard who was heading up the search for the new Wallabies' coach. Vive la piggy!

Good has been busy this year and what a year it has been. We've had drought, frost, phylloxera and a Spice Girls reunion tour – almost too much to handle. On a positive note Good was accepted into the 'Future Leaders Program' run by the Winemakers Federation of Australia. This basically means that she will one day run the whole wine industry in Australia, possibly the world. Let's hope she doesn't forget the little people.

Mac hasn't been doing much (as usual) just cleaning up after the other two and welcoming his daughter Eliza into the world. He has also done a bit of travel this year – US, Canada, China, Singapore and Healesville. That's right, after years of driving from Brunswick to the Yarra every day he has packed up the family and moved to Healesville. His carbon footprint has now reduced to the size of Brazil.

And what's on the horizon? Well, plenty actually. You see 2007 is the Year of the Pig and not just any pig, but the year of the Golden Pig which only occurs every 600 years! What better year to produce our first ever chardonnay. Earlier in the year we purchased a tiny amount of fruit from our friend David Millard who has the most gorgeous small vineyard in the Yarra Valley – the vines are 23 years old. We also grabbed his cabernet which is tucked away in barrels and due for release in the middle of 08. At this stage we anticipate the Golden Pig Chardonnay will be released in January but as there are only 90 dozen, we suggest you reserve a case on your shiraz order form. This won't be a run-of-the-mill Aussie chardy but rather a fine, elegant, textural little number. Giaconda here we come.

Thanks for shopping with us, tell your friends about us, buy early to avoid disappointment and remember get some pork on your fork and a Pig in your glass. Enjoy the 2006 Donny Goodmac – RRP$30 and available only through mailorder or at selected restaurants around Australia.

"Pretty young and cheeky now, but if your tastes run towards spicy Victorian shiraz then you'd do pretty well to order up a few slices of this – 93 points.'

Gary Walsh
Winorama
www.winorama.com.au

Pork Talk

The 2004 vintage of Donny GoodMac is our best ever by a considerable margin. We found an especially good vineyard in Heathcote that yielded just over 2T/acre and we were lucky to get two tonnes for ourselves when Kate did one of her 'special' deals with the grower in question.

For the second year in a row we were also 'lucky' enough to buy a brand new Sirugue oak barrel. Sirugue is one of the finest cooperages in France and imported exclusively to Australia by Rick Kinzbrunner of Giaconda fame.

The result is a 'Pig' with a little more body, a fatter, fuller pig if you like. The colour is deep and wonderfully bright, helped no end by the screw cap that sits atop the bottle. The aromatics are dominated by plum and cherry with a hint of spice and just a tiny savoury note courtesy of those bloody expensive French barrels. The palate is medium-full bodied (we go up a notch each year) and the tannins are soft without a hint of bitterness.

This is a wine that shows our evolution from hapless amateurs (deciding on picking dates not due to ripeness but wedding dates in 2002) to semi-serious winemaking try-hards. And we know things are just getting better as the 2005 sits in oak and looks likely to be a wine of immense power and concentration.

2003 Donny GoodMac Shiraz
The 2003 Donny GoodMac Shiraz was hand-picked from one of Heathcote's finest shiraz vineyards.

The wine was fermented in a small open vessel, hand-plunged several times a day, before being basket-pressed with great difficulty into a combination of new and seasoned French oak barriques where it rested for 12 months before bottling in June 2004.

Only 90 cases were produced.

The result is a full-bodied, spicy shiraz with richness, complexity and structure. We reckon it goes well with Donny's special pork, fennel and spicy sausage, Schultz's double-smoked bacon, or suckling pig. But let's not get too prescriptive – drink it with whomever or whatever you want.

'Excellent value – 89 points'.
Gary Walsh
Winorama
www.winorama.com.au

Trotter Tales - The History Donny GoodMac

In 2005, the triumvirate that is the Donny GoodMac decided to change regions from Heathcote to the Pyrenees in Western Victoria. The opportunity to buy two tonnes of shiraz from two of Australia's finest vineyards was simply irresistible and while we were happy with our two attempts from Heathcote, we are going to try even harder to make a spicy, savoury shiraz with real substance and we like the Pyrenees for this – and after all the great Dalwhinnie (which the Good has helped make for the past few years) has long been one of our favourite wines.

Once again we sourced new Sirugue French oak barrels, imported exclusively to Australia by Rick Kinzbrunner of Giaconda fame and we stuck the 05 Pig into one two year old barrel, one one year old barrel and one brand spanking new, bloody expensive barrel. If you taste the wine with enough concentration and skill you will notice a real flavour of highly expensive French oak character somewhere around the three-quarter palate.

The 2005 'Pig' is without doubt the best we have produced. Bottled under screwcap, the colour is vibrant and bright, showing excellent depth. Fragrant and spicy on the nose with loads of dark berry fruit characters lifted by beautiful French oak. The palate is medium-full bodied in the style we like to refer to as 'particularly drinkable, perhaps dangerously so'. One word of advice to our drinkers would be to give the wine a bit of air if you are drinking it in the next couple of years. You don't need a fancy crystal decanter, just slosh the bottle into a jug and you'll be amazed how quickly it improves. We'd back it in to be a 'rip-snorter' (Pig joke) between 2009-2015.

In 2004 we described ourselves as 'semi-serious winemaking try-hards' - harsh but fair! With the 2005 vintage we tried bloody hard…..and we couldn't be more serious!

But if serious is not your thing – here are a couple of funny things that have been happening in our world.

The greyhound we bought with the proceeds of our first three vintages has actually won three races, two at Warnambool and one at Horsham. The great Key Largo Lad failed in his first attempt at Geelong but we have faith in 'Dog Biscuit' to come good again before 2006 comes to an end.

If you feel you need a bit of 'Pig' while you're out dining in Melbourne's finest restaurants feel free to order proudly and loudly at either of our two favourite joints where the pig is stocked – the brilliant Becco on Crossley Street and Fifteen (yes Jamie Oliver's joint) down a little laneway at 115 Collins Street.

Speaking of the great Jamie, our mate Matty Skinner is Jamie's wine bitch and now something of a celebrity himself in Europe and the USA with several books to his name, including the brilliant 2007 wine guide called 'The Juice'.

In 'the Juice' Skinsy spends most of his time de-bunking over-hyped wines from all over the world but what, pray tell, does he say of the 2004 Donny GoodMac?? Simply 'Believe the hype'. True story. He also says other stuff about strippers and slow greyhounds but hey, we made the book at least!

In November 2006, Donny becomes the second of our triumvirate to wear the regal title of Len Evans Scholar after Good was accepted into the world's greatest wine finishing school in 2004. So what's with the Mac? When will he be up to the task?? No-one can be sure, he hasn't shown many signs of improvement these past 12 months outside the area of stand-up comedy for which he is gaining something of a reputation. He might be funny but we wouldn't mind so much if he learnt a little more about wine!

And what is on the horizon? Well we're thinking about chardonnay for next year and Donny wants a pink wine, but he would, wouldn't he?

Thanks for shopping with us, tell your friends about us, buy early to avoid disappointment and remember get some pork on your fork and a Pig in your glass.


Enjoy the 2005 Donny GoodMac.

Donny GoodMac is born

The 2003 Donny GoodMac Shiraz was hand-picked from one of Heathcote's finest shiraz vineyards.

The wine was fermented in a small open vessel, hand-plunged several times a day, before being basket-pressed with great difficulty into a combination of new and seasoned French oak barriques where it rested for 12 months before bottling in June 2004.

Only 90 cases were produced.

The result is a full-bodied, spicy shiraz with richness, complexity and structure. We reckon it goes well with Donny's special pork, fennel and spicy sausage, Schultz's double-smoked bacon, or suckling pig. But let's not get too prescriptive – drink it with whomever or whatever you want.