Yacca Paddock Vineyards

Wine Spectator Online:

Unfiltered
No Reservations teaches us something about wine (surprisingly), a green wine merchant forgets to recycle, a sommelier heads for the auction house and wine by the tank load in England

Posted: Wednesday, August 01, 2007

• Unfiltered watched a screening last week of the romantic culinary comedy No Reservations, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones as the work-obsessed Alain Passard-trained chef, Kate, and Aaron Eckhart as the free-spirited sous-chef, Nick, hired while Kate is out tending to her recently orphaned niece. Our attention was captured by a staff wine tasting during which restaurant owner Paula (played by Patricia Clarkson) introduces a Dolcetto. When Paula asks where it likely came from, one waiter quickly replies, of course, "Piedmont." But no, Paula says, this one is from Australia. What?! How did that unlikely choice end up in the film? The mystery was cleared up when Sirio Maccioni and Martha Stewart hosted a lunch at Le Cirque for the film's leads, Bob Balaban (who plays Kate's therapist) and director Scott Hicks, whose other films include Shine. (Also in attendance were a long list of other foodie celebrities, such as Jacques Pépin, restaurateur Drew Nieporent and Le Bernardin chef Eric Ripert.) Hicks put in a plug for the unnamed Dolcetto, which turned out to be a reference to his own wine; he and his wife, Kerry Heysen-Hicks, own Yacca Paddock Vineyards in the Adelaide Hills. Now the question is, will their Shiraz-Tannat blend put in an appearance in his upcoming film, The Boys Are Back in Town?

"Yacca Paddock Vineyards
PO Box 824, Kent Town, SA, 5071

Winemaker:     Mr Riggs Wine Company

Established:     2000

Cases:              500

Region:            Adelaide Hills

Filmmakers Kerry Heysen-Hicks & Scott Hicks have left little to chance in establishing Yacca Paddock Vineyards. The vineyards (22ha) have been established under the direction of leading viticulturalist Geoff Hardy, and the wines are made by the equally illustrious winemaker Ben Riggs. The vineyard is at an altitude of 350m in the Adelaide Hills, and all of the vines are netted; grazing and guns alike are banned from the remaining 25ha of bushland on the property, which is rapidly regenerating. In descending order of size the rainbow selection of varieties is chardonnay, pinot noir, tempranillo, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, riesling, sauvignon blanc, shiraz, arneis, dolcetto, tannat & durif.

Adelaide Hills Shiraz Tannat 2003
Fragrant but intense and powerful; predominantly dark fruits; surprisingly silky palate; very impressive debut. Shiraz 80% Tannat 20%
Rating: 92
Drink: 2013
Price: $50

Adelaide Hills Dolcetto 2002
Elegant, light-to-medium bodies style; spicy, peppery, cedary mix with red cherry fruit and lemony acidity. Still youthful; good length. Cork.
Rating: 90
Drink: 2010
Price: $25"

James Halliday

James Halliday’s 2007 Australian Wine Companion

2006

"90. Yacca Paddock 2003 Shiraz Tannat (Adelaide Hills) This is an excellent red, and further evidence of the Hills' success with unusual grape varieties. Tannat (20%) gives this Shiraz more grip on the midpalate than most other regional Shirazes have. Good acids, plum and blackberry fruit, and black-pepper notes makes this classy wine a winner."

Daryna Tobey

Wine Enthusiast Magazine

August 2005

"Yacca Paddock Vineyards Adelaide Hills Dolcetto 2002

"Tar and roses" are the buzz words for the classic wines of Italy's Piedmont region, and if you're on the hunt for Australian versions, here's a handsome option. An enticing nose of rich, black Satsuma plums, liquorice, vanilla, tar and roses launches a finely-structured and well-fruited palate with firm, savoury tannins.

Ben Riggs is name behind the winemaking and Scott Hicks and Kerry Heysen-Hicks of "Shine" fame are the names behind the label.

91 out of 100 points. Very good wine.

Best drinking around 2005-2010

This bottle was closed with a cork. It sells for around $25."

Tyson Stelzer.

www.tysonstelzer.com

July 2005.

"Creative few still romancing the vines
04 July 2005
SCOTT Hicks's latest production is very easy on the gums. The Adelaide-based film-maker who has become internationally renowned with Shine and Snow Falling on Cedars has just produced his own wines from his vineyard at Kuitpo, in the Adelaide Hills.

As well as being distinctly more-ish, the Yacca Paddock wines are graced with an appropriately funky label, a kangaroo behind an old-fashioned movie camera on a tripod. The celluloid connection extends to the winespeak behind the label: "The hunt for the perfect location is the filmmaker's obsession." Hence the Kuitpo location, 24ha of vines and 24ha left as native bushland with the prolific native yacca grass tree, hence the name.

"The success of Shine showed us how films can be a way of making dreams come true. What better proof than Yacca Paddock Vineyards?" he adds with a bit of Hollywood-style hype. On another bottle, a blended red: "For film-maker and winemaker alike, casting is an elusive blend of alchemy and balance."

Wife Kerry Heysen-Hicks, men of wine Geoff Hardy and Benn Riggs and colleague Dale Ampsberg completed the team. There are two reds and those looking further are directed to info@yaccapaddock.com

Scott Hicks's enthusiasm for his new love has not affected his day job. He is in Montreal (location, location and location) making a TV commercial. These days, TV commercials attract the same talents and budgets as feature movies.

Interestingly, this is the second case this year of an overlap of South Australian wine and the world of Hollywood and the Oscars. Sideways is one of the latest and unexpected hit movies. A dark comedy with a wine theme, it featured, among the Santa Barbara winery locations – that word again – in California, the Kalyra winery of SA brothers Mike and Martin Brown, sons of an Adelaide surgeon.

All this is offbeat but not entirely surprising. Wine has always been an irresistible lure for a certain kind of creative romantic. The opportunity to make a quid comes into it directly or through tax advantages. But there are other, better and quicker ways since the wine business is, so to speak, hard yacca.

A link between vine and scalpel also is especially strong. Penfolds was founded in 1844 by a young English doctor. The venerable Riverland winemaker and distiller, Angove's, was started in 1886 when Dr William Angove produced port and brandy for his patients.

Those were the days. One of the cult wines from the Hunter in New South Wales was the brainchild of surgeon Dr Max Lake who endearingly dubbed it Lake's Folly. Back in the Adelaide Hills, painter David Dridan created his winery.

Palate and palette are another tandem with a long history.

Today it's oh-so-corporate, seemingly all conglomerates and takeovers. But Scott Hicks is the latest to show that the romantic tradition persists."

bakera@adv.newsltd.com.au

The Advertister Newspaper

"Yacca Paddock Vineyards Shiraz Tannat 2003
93 Points
Tannt is being pulled out in the south of France – there are only 3000ha left. But this black soot bomb does brilliantly in the new Kuitpo vineyard of filmmakers Scott Hicks and Kerry Heysen-Hicks. A dash has given this knockout blend outstanding intensity and depth: it’s an opulent inky, velvety wine which will live for many years. Big black field mushies in amontillado sherry with reduced spinach."

Philip White.

The Advertister Newspaper

June 2005.