Gertie makes for thrilling and engaging company

Gertie is as vital and engaging as any cab franc I have ever tasted, says Matthew Jukes.

Matthew Jukes
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2016 Gertie Cabernet Franc by Ben Marx, Clare Valley, South Australia (£18, Oddbins).

Last September I was invited to be the international judge at the Royal Adelaide Wine Show. It was an unmissable chance to taste blind a huge number of newly released wines with some of the greatest palates in the country.

After a week of gruelling judging, which involves a special sort of concentration that I cannot put into words, and some equally heavy nights out, we adjourned for the Judges Lunch, at a particularly feral Chinese restaurant on Adelaide's Gouger Street, which marked the end of formalities. I sat next to the delightful Ben Marx, with whom I had judged sparkling wines earlier in the week.

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We were all encouraged to bring a bottle and he brought along his newly released 2016 Gertie. Made from only five rows of vines in a very special Clare Valley vineyard, Gertie is a remarkable cabernet franc with a thrilling blackberry-leaf scent and a slippery, lissom palate.

Three tonnes of fruit are split into three fermenters, one sees 40% whole bunches and a three-week post-fermentation maceration and the other two are destemmed and are soaked for even longer. Old French oak and minimal sulphur complete the picture. Gertie is as vital and engaging as any cab franc I have ever tasted. It sells out in seconds in Australia and we are lucky to have a few cases arriving at Oddbins next Wednesday. You simply must taste this wine.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (MatthewJukes.com).

Matthew Jukes
Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.

 

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