In the interest of full disclosure let's get a few things out up front. I'm a minor partner in two Adelaide restaurants and a bar (where I usually conduct my tastings) and Ollie Margan, whose family wines are the subject of this column, used to work at one of the restaurants and at the bar. Also, Joseph Wilkinson, who I will mention shortly, used to work at one of the restaurants and is now a managing partner of the bar in which I'm a partner.
So, it's a little complicated. I would never have imagined six years ago before I moved to Adelaide (for love, not hospitality), that I'd be making these sorts of declarations. But it is important to do so.
Now, on to the story.
One winter's evening three years ago I was hanging around in the restaurant and Joseph thrust a random glass of white wine in my hand and asked: "What to you think of this?"
I recall it as being a bit musky, pear-fruited, estery (suggesting it was young) and with just the right amount of phenolics to work with the, as I perceived it, lowish acidity. In short: it was pretty good and had character. It turned out to be Ollie's first wine, and I told him if he bottled it, we'd sell it.
Anniversary celebrations
Ollie had made the wine at Margan, his family winery in Broke, in the Hunter Valley. He was studying winemaking at the University of Adelaide. He would later bottle this wine under the label Smoke & Mirrors and Joe would sell it at the bar.
And so to a month or so ago, when I receive an invite from Ollie – both directly and from a public relations company – to attend the winery's 20th-anniversary celebrations in the Hunter. The PR company didn't have any idea that I knew Ollie and, for a while, I contemplated attending but it didn't work time and travel-wise.
Instead I told them I'd do a piece about it as I knew Ollie had a great palate (he just finished third in the national Jim Beam Suntory bartender competition "The Perfect Blend") and could clearly make good wine.
I'd also heard fabulous comments from others whose palates I trust about the family's restaurant – run by Ollie's mum, Lisa, and supplied by a working kitchen garden – and about the interesting things that were happening at Margan with grape varieties like the Spanish white albariño, planted by Ollie's father, Andrew, a few years ago.
As Ollie told me of albariño in the Hunter recently: "The Hunter and Rias Baixas (albariño's Spanish heartland) share the same climatic denomination, being warm maritime."
Workhorse variety
Clearly excited at its prospects, Ollie continued: "It would be just great to graft over all the verdelho to albariño; great to have a workhorse variety which is also in vogue."
Ollie and his father have also been working on a Margan family vermouth which, as you can see in "What to Drink", I rate extremely highly.
The liquorice observations are not fanciful: I learnt post-tasting that the aromatic mix includes liquorice root, star anise and fennel. The base wine is a single vineyard semillon from Fordwich.
The Margans wanted to fashion a vermouth that did not finish too sweet so that it would assist in making a drier style of Negroni.
As Ollie puts it: "When our vermouth is substituted for a rosso (vermouth), the Negroni finishes as a refreshing, light and aromatic aperitif rather than as a heavy digestive."
Despite his bartending successes, wine is Ollie's first love (he's in his final year at university).
As he confided: "Being behind a bar works for me at the moment. They're never going to be skills lost if I move on from that. But I think, at heart, winemaking is my true calling."
Later he said: "This [wine] community, it's so generous and so special. They want to impart that passion to other people. I want to be a part of that."
Joseph also told me recently: "I'll never forget the look on Ollie's face when I gave you that glass of wine … a look of apprehension that turned into relief after you'd given it a thumbs-up."
For the record, all the wines reviewed on this page were assessed in blind peer-group line-ups.
WHAT TO DRINK | MARGAN MIXED DRINKS
Margan Albariño 2016 [Hunter Valley, NSW]
Tangy nectarine, snow pea and pear. Subdued clove and rosemary resin. Has all this in the mouth along with slippery currant jelly and judicious chewiness. Excellent depth. Just 11.5 per cent alcohol. 93/100, $30
Margan Tempranillo Graciano Shiraz 2014 [Hunter Valley, NSW]
Deep, sweet-succulent smelling fruit: brandied cherries and wet terracotta. Italianate. Delicious cherries and satsuma plums on the tongue; juicy forest pips as well and a sweet-sharp edginess. Complimentary sourdough raisin-toasty oak and the finest tannins. 94/100, $40
Margan Vermouth Off-Dry 2015 [Hunter Valley, NSW]
This has fabulous aromatics, star anise liquoricey and full of candied peel. Lemon thyme, too. Tight, dry and sharp on the tongue, that liquorice again and sharp bitter peel balanced by just the right sweetness. Perfectly weighted. Rocks and soda please. 95/100, $50
Out of 100 = empirical rating
AFR Contributor
