Several readers were either old enough to remember or young and keen enough to have researched the answer for Quiz #3 properly, but the Australian wine labelled as Pinot Riesling was first made by Penfolds as its Bin 302 in 1959, coming from the HVD vineyard now owned by Tyrrells. Later it became Bin 365. It’s a testimony to the absurdities of past Australian labelling regulations, or else the absence of such, that a wine label could ever go to print with a name like this. The Pinot is actually chardonnay, since several Hunter growers used to call the grape ‘Pinot Chardonnay’, something Tyrrells still persist with, God Bless them. The Riesling is actually semillon! It’s only a few years since most Hunter growers stopped using the Riesling name for this grape. So, with logic that simply astounds, Pinot Riesling was actually a chardonnay-semillon blend! Sink me!! Since I did not specify any company in particular, those of you who answered Tyrrells, whose Vat 63 was a later version, were all eligible for the draw. Congratulations to Patrick Johnston of Port Sorell in Tasmania and his wife Helen, who managed to cover all possibilities and actually win the draw! Quiz #4 has a technological edge. A Victorian wine family pioneered the use of small bottles of wine for internal Australian airline flights. Which family? Secondly, which third generation winemaking son today makes the family’s wine? To the writer of the first correct answer opened on April 1 goes a brace of wines (750 ml) bottled under the family’s label. Send your answer to OnWine Quiz #4, 1/106 George St, East Melbourne, Victoria, 3002.
