Mornington Peninsula Accommodation > Winery Mornington Peninsula Victoria
Nazaaray Estate Winery
Mornington Peninsula,
Victoria
Australia.
NAZAARAY Estate Winery,
Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
NAZAARAY ESTATE WINERY
MORNINGTON PENINSULA
AUSTRALIA
Victoria – Australia’s garden state has a burgeoning wine industry. The Mornington Peninsula, Westernport / Hinterland region is a rural region of rolling hillsides, small villages and spectacular sea views, vineyards, orchards pastures and over 60 cellar doors. The Mornington Peninsula extends south into the treacherous waters of the Bass Strait dividing the water into the protected Port Philip Bay and Oceanic Westernport Bay which blesses our valley with some of the coolest climate on the Mornington Peninsula.
The lady with the falcon is from a Rajasthani miniature. We chose this to represent our Indian heritage and the refined taste of our premium wines produced here in Flinders.
History: The history of Nazaaray wine is being made by two migrants who immigrated to Australia in 1981 without an extended family around. After numerous day trips from Melbourne they decided to buy their own patch of dirt to scrabble around in every weekend. The site fulfilled an inner urge to meld with the land of their adoption by farming and nurturing a portion of it. The land was bought in the days when if you said you lived in Flinders people looked at you quizzically and said: “where ……Flinders island?” After five years of counting cattle every weekend and admiring the view we needed something a bit more challenging and took the quantum step forward (or backward – depending on whose opinion you take) and planted vines in 1996. It is the story of Param’s determination to make a good drop of wine in spite of being an Indian and having his taste buds sharpened by decades of spices. Is this a Furphy?
What we lack in local history we make up for in sensational delightfully different wines. NAZAARAY winery, vineyard and cellar door are all situated on Meakins Road in the rural part of Flinders, Mornington Peninsula. You can see all stages of the grapevine to wine process at the one location. Cool winds sweep over the valley blowing all the way from the Antarctic and the site is windy 300/365 days!! The soil is fertile red basalt clay slopes. Selwyn’s fault line runs along the stream below and separates us from the opposite hill which has a sandy profile. The rainfall varies between 650 – 840 mm per year and spread through out the year and makes irrigation unnecessary for the now established vines. Spring and summer are generally humid increasing fungal disease pressure. To ensure maximum flavours we hand prune to 16-20 buds per vine which is then followed up by shoot thinning soon after bud-burst. This helps increase flavour intensity and complexity. Our Pinot Noir is cropped at less than two tons / acre. The long ripening of the valley produces exceptional high quality fruit and good material to produce artisan quality wines. The grapes are lovingly hand harvested and hand sorted to remove any unripe or damaged clusters. All wine making is very much hands on, gentle and very labour intensive. The reds are oaked in French oak barrels which impart gentle tannins.
Vineyard
The site is 160 metres above sea level and about four kilometres inland from the nearest shoreline. The vines are largely placed in rows running North South. In 2007 Paramdeep decided to focus on quality all the way- after all terroir / the vineyard is where 90% of the wine characteristics develop and so all fruit is grown onsite. Merlot and chardonnay have been deleted from our repertoire of wines in favour of a wider clonal variety of pinot noir and cool climate Shiraz to make the blended end product more complex, tantalising and distinctive wines with a strong sense of place of origin (check also our Pinot Gris and Sauvignon blanc).
Philosophy: Small batches
Wines
Pinot Noir: The wine is delicate light and aromatic and a beautiful expression of the single vineyard and varietal typicity. Ripe fruit flavours with high natural acidity. 60-80% whole berries are crushed to give a good colour and mouth feel and spiciness.
Pinot Gris
Sauvignon Blanc
Shiraz
Chardonnay
Cellar Door
Our cellar door is in a 1930s “red” rattler. painted green. The 90 foot long carriage is the cellar door plus a third of it has a dining area. The cellar door is surrounded by picturesque picnic spots which harmonise with the landscape where we encourage you to taste our wines at your leisure and enjoy the soothing quiet atmosphere. You are welcome to bring along a picnic lunch (food, no drinks) we provide a gas barbecue. Every couple of months we have catered lunches by Chillipadi. They are a secret known by just a few of the locals and need to be pre-booked to avoid disappointment.
Email wine@nazaaray.com.au
Tel: + 61 3 59890126
Fax+ 61 3 59890495
Awards
Our Pinot Gris 2007 was Voted as the People’s choice for best white wine at the Federation Square wine tasting in December 2007 for the Mornington Peninsula Region.
Press releases
VINTAGE REPORT
TASTING LIST
Events:
Roughly each quarter we celebrate with a function whether it is either a wine maker’s dinner or a catered lunch on site or a street food hawkers market with a distinct Indian flavour .
TRADE TOOLS:
Tasting notes
Labels
Photography
Reviews
Shelf talkers
Logos
Stockist- Cafes, Bars and Restaurants:
Chillipadi @ Melbourne Central
Cloud wine cellars, South Melbourne
La Petanque, Main Ridge
Babka Café , Lygon Street Melbourne
Ashiana, Manly
Retail outlets:
Cloudwine Cellars, South Melbourne
Chillipadi wine bar Melbourne Central
Flinders Pub
Flinders General Store
The Nazaaray Estate Winery is a micro boutique winery.in Australia. It is arguably one of the smallest andsouthern-most vineyards on the Mornington Peninsula.The Mornington Peninsula is one of Australia’s premier cool climate wine regions. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, the two classic Burgundian varieties, are planted on a gentle north facing slope that sits around 750 feet above sea level and about 3 kilometres inland from the ocean. Most of the vine rows run north-south to get maximum exposure to the sun. In keeping with our philosophy of creating a natural environment we have planted over 2500 trees - mostly Australian natives - as wind-break protection for the vines and to encourage the local fauna.
Winemaking Philosophy: Our main desire is to capture and present in our wines the truly unique Australian flavours and character of this small pocket of small rolling hills. Our practical focus is quality not quantity. The strategy is to use traditional Burgundian wine-making methods, (for example low yields per vine, open vat fermentation) to produce wine that best represents the meso-climate of Greens Bush on the western side of the vineyard and the ocean to the south. Family and friends gather to hand pick the grapes and help to process the fruit into fermentation vats while Paramdeep personally handles all wine handling procedures. Minimal intervention is practiced in facilitating the natural miracle of wine, while employing knowledge of fermentation science only to avoid any reduction of quality. All our wine has been made and bottled on our estate.
The vines are spur pruned by hand such that yields are reduced and the resultant fruit flavour is highly concentrated. We rigorously hand select the low cropping vines.The relatively high rainfall in the area and the deep soil make irrigation unnecessary and this accentuates the intense fruit flavours.
We use traditional natural fermentation with wild yeasts.
Winemaker: Paramdeep (Param) Ghumman.
Meaning of the word :Nazaaray in Indian means beautiful visions sometimes the sort that you see after haveing a few glasses of our wine!! In East Europe the words "Nazdravlje" or "nazdraviye" mean good health or heaven..
Winemaking has been documented as far back as 4000 years. It is documented in India back in the early Aryan times around 3000 BC. Good wine making is about taste and timing. Yeast ferments the sugar in ripe grapes to alcohol. Wine drinkers want clear wine (looks good) with a good aroma (smells good) and a good palate (tastes good).
To make good wine you want to start with the right grapes- right variety, nicely formed disease free bunches. The grapes should be picked at just the right time (some times staggered over several days as different patches mature at different times). The picking time is determined by the balance between acid and sugar reached in the grape berries. Handpicking ensures stalks and leaves are left out and bruising of the grape berries is avoided - problems that are common with machine picked grapes.
White wines - a wine press squeezes out the juice and then the wine is left to ferment in large steel tanks.White wine is fermented without the skin since the skins make the wine taste bitter.
Red wine gets more flavour and colour from skin contact. Being a small boutique winery our reds are gently basket pressed. (Basket pressing is a manual operation that is still practised in Burgundy in France.) Since the pips are not crushed during the process our wines are low in tannins (the taste of strong black tea) .They are left to ferment in large vats and then a few days later the juice is pressed out and put into oak barrels to ferment over the next few months.Ripe fruit flavours.We use natural wine making.
New wine barrels are imported from France and America. These are toasted by a cooper to the requirements of the winemaker. To ensured sustainable oak forestry the French government has restricted barrel manufacturing to being made only from 100 to 200 years old trees. This limits the number of barrels made per year and since demand outstrips supply they are expensive.
Additives: Often in cooler climates it is harder to get the grapes to ripen to the level of sugar required. In Europe often sugar is added to the grape juice before fermentation. In warmer regions of Australia due to early ripening the sugar concentrations tend to be high but not the acidity - so often acid is added as tartaric acid- which is a permissible additive. We at Nazaaray are fortunate enough to often not require the addition of either sugar (Inot allowed in australia)or acid.
Wine gift service : Beautifully gift boxed for a small fee is available.
Activities
Newsletter:
Nazaaray Estate Cellar club: Formed to better serve our customers needs. Free membership. 10% off recommended retail prices. Newsletter regarding new releases, special offers invitation for special events. Special deals- Receive by email or in the mail.
Our Cellar Door:
Unique cellar door in a 1930s renovated train carriage. Let the wine maker personally introduce you to our range of premium wines made from our single estate grown fruit.
Originally a dairy farm with a chequered history of being a cattle grazing property and at some stage also having a vineyard planted and then being pulled out but now replanted. The direction of planting is on slopes angled to gather all the sunlight to maximize the slow ripening of grapes in a cool climate maritime environment. Consistent quality and depth of flavour.
REVIEWS: Australian Wine Companion 2008 by James Halliday
Mornington Peninsula Sauvignon Blanc 2006 Rating 90
Mornington Peninsula Pinot noir 2006 Rating 90 To 2010
Reserve Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir 2004 Rating 89 to 2010
Mornington Peninsula Pinot noir 2004 Rating 89 To 2009
Mornington Peninsula Pinot Gris 2006 Rating 88 to 2009
Mornington Peninsula Merlot 2004 Rating 87 to 2010
Awards:
Pinot Noir 2003 Highly Recommended (equivalent to a Silver Medal) at the 2003 Lilydale Wine show
Pinot Noir 2003 Bronze Medal Winner at the 2003 Red Hill Cool Climate Wine-show.
Outdoors
Eat alfresco style under the pine trees or around our train carriage cellar door in picnic areas provided by us. Enjoy the warmth of our old style red rattler train carriage painted an environmentally blending brunswick green. Peninsula wine region. Open for wine tastings and sales.
PRIVACY....plenty of it.....you could even practise purdah and go for a walk on the roads around the farm without meeting anyone!
Cellar door sales:
First weekend of every month 11am - 5pm.
Other times by appointment.
or order by mail order.The wines:
Premium range:
Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir 2006 : A light bodied, fresh and lively palate; not complex but has length. Screw cap Alcohol13.7 . Due for release first weekend October 2007
Mornington Peninsula Sauvignon Blanc 2006: A clean, bright and lively mix of herbaceous, gooseberry and passionfruit flavours; good length and balance closing with crisp acidity. Screwcap Alcohol 13.5
Reserve Mornington Peninsula Pinot noir 2004: Savoury/foresty/ earthy aromas and flavours; light to medium bodied; good structure, though the tannins are still to finally resolve themselves.Screw cap Alcohol 13.5
Facing the stormy Bass Strait with winds coming all the way from the Antarctic we had a slow cool ripening period.
Bottled after barrel ageing for 29 months this wine has been made in the Frenh style. Its nose is spicy with cloves mixed with berry flavours and tannins.
Colour: Deep crimson.
Aroma: Spicy - fruit flavours mixed with cloves and hints of cinnamon.
Palate: Complex flavours of toasty-oak, berries and spices. It has a substantial and mouth-filling palate with a pleasant finish.
Date Harvested: 21April 2004
Bottled: October 2006 after barrel ageing for 29 months Released: December 2006
Cases produced: Only 81 cases of this wine was made.
A wine to enjoy on its own or with food from now for the next 3-4 years.
The Quaffers range:
2004 Merlot
This wine was made with handpicked fruit taken mainly from a single neighbouring vineyard and blended with a small quantity of our own fruit. Facing the stormy Bass Strait with winds coming all the way from the Antarctic we have a slow cool ripening period. The windy site ensures a natural low fruit set which is then pruned down to an average of a mere 1.5 kilograms of fruit per vine The grapes were picked at a sugar level of 24 Brix and then fermented in two batches – one with natural yeast and the other with cultured yeast. Only three barrels of this elegant wine were made.
Tasting Notes: Handpicked fruit and careful sorting and de-stemming ensured the absence of green-stick flavours so common in mass-produced Merlot. The wine was aged for 14 months in new and old oak barrels to integrate the tannins gradually over time. Patience was rewarded with a wine that has structure and finesse and which will no doubt be a very good accompaniment to food.
Colour: Dark red..
Aroma: Plum and berries
Palate: Plum and berry fruit flavours, elegance and structure defines the 2004 Merlot
Cellaring: The wine will improve in the bottle for the next 3-5 years or longer.
Bottled: September 2005
Released: October 2005.
Wine maker: Paramdeep Ghumman
2004 Chardonnay
Blended from unoaked Chardonnay and form wine fermented and aged in 1-year old oak barrels for almost 5 months, this wine has developed very nicely in bottle since bottling in May 2005. A yellow colour with a greenish tinge, it has a complex nose of figs and melons with a hint of vanilla. It also has the usual natural acid that is almost becoming a signature of Nazaaray Chardonnays. This has developed very well in the bottle and should reach its peak in the next 1-2 years.
2006 Pinot Gris
This is a wine for those people wanting a wine with plenty of up-front fruit on the nose to enjoy with hot Asian or Indian food. With les than 5 gms / litre of sugar most some palates may not even notice the sweetness – just a pleasantly balanced wine that is a good accompaniment to hot food. I suggest that you try it with tandoori chicken or Thai sea-food.
2005 Sauvignon Blanc
Made in the French style with very well integrated bouquet of goose-berries and passion fruit it is perhaps one of our most popular wines SOLD OUT
Price List and order form
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Item Description (All wines that are not in screw-caps are indicated below).
Price per ½ case (6 bottles)
Price per case (12 bottles)
Price per bottle
No. of bottles
Total Amount
2004 Pinot Noir Reserve
$180
$360
$35
2005 Pinot Noir (D2V5 Clone)
$135
$270
$25
2004 Merlot (in cork closures)
$110
$220
$20
2006 Pinot Gris.
$110
$220
$20
2006 Sauvignon Blanc
$150
$300
$25
2004 Chardonnay (Oaked -in cork closures)
$110
$220
$20
2005 Merlot (as cleanskins min order=1 case)
$100
$10
Mixed Case (includes 6 P/Noir 2004, 2 Merlot 2004, 2 P/Gris 2006, 1 S/Blanc 2005 and 1 Chardonnay 2004) Save $35
$280
Sub-Total (Minimum Order is one case.
(2 boxes X 6 bottles each = 1 case)
Delivery $15 (or by arrangement)
Total Amount due
Payment by CASH / CHEQUE / MONEY ORDER / CREDIT CARD NUMBER:
(Bankcard / Visa Card / Master Cards only)
Expiry Date: ____ / _____ Signature:________________________________
Name on Card:__________________________ Dated: ________________
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For all enquiries regarding Mornington Peninsula wine or accommodation please contact:
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NAZAARAY Country Retreat
266 Meakins Rd Flinders
Mornington Peninsula
Victoria Australia
Hosts: Raymun & Nirmal
Phone:
(03) 5989 0126
0416143439
Email: info@nazaaray.com.au
© Nazaaray Country Retreat - All Rights Reserved
When searching for wine on the MORNINGTON PENINSULA please take care note to use any of the following misspellings: peninsular penninsula