Yvonne Lorkin: Bourbon barrels add to quirky glow

Bernard Hickin is very pleased with the success of the Double Barrel range.

If you're a purist who believes that the only things that should go into a bottle of wine are grapes, grapes and more grapes, then it's best you go and feed the cat, make yourself a Milo or wipe the crumbs out of the cutlery drawer, because this news could send you sideways.

Two wineries, on opposite sides of the Tasman, are pushing the oenological envelope by bringing the likes of beer, berries and bourbon into the equation.

Here's what's happening. Alan Scott Wines in Blenheim has embraced the craft brewing talents of their winemaking director, Josh Scott, to create a wine that is made from sauvignon blanc grapes and green, "sauvin" hops from Nelson.

Josh Scott felt like having a bit of fun with grapes.

It's the first in a series of "craft wines" from the company.

Scott and his team, on a mission to keep things innovative, felt like having a bit of fun by using their own Marlborough grapes, combined with hops from over the hill, all harvested in the same year, to blend into a hoppy, herbaceous taste sensation which weighs in at a demure 9 per cent alcohol.

The other wine in the range is a pinot noir and strawberry blend called the Phat Jam. Phat by name and fat by nature, it packs a punch at 15 per cent alcohol.

But these wines aren't destined for the bottle, at present they're available only from the keg at Scott's Twelve Trees restaurant.

But Scott hopes that soon you'll be able to fill your glass from the tap at craft beer bars throughout the country.

Other craft wines include a Belgium beer yeast-fermented gewurztraminer, a full-berry ferment sauvignon blanc, plus quirky takes on chardonnay, pinot gris and riesling.

Orlando Wines launched Jacob's Creek on the scene in 1976 with a distinctively soft, plummy, easy-drinking shiraz cabernet malbec.

And now the Creek has become a colossus and is as distinctively Australian as Akubra hats and shrimps on the barbie, a symbol of affordable quality wines that can be relied on year after year.

But at Jacob's Creek they're not ones to rest on their laurels.

They want to excite, innovate and take a few risks, which is why they've taken to using bourbon barrels for a new range of wines.

"We found that cabernet worked best in the Irish whiskey barrels and shiraz worked best in the Scotch whisky barrels," chief winemaker Bernard Hickin said at the New Zealand launch of the Double Barrel range.

Two years ago their winemakers sourced old barrels that had held premium whisky for as long as 20 years, and began experiments which used them to mature premium cabernet sauvignon from Coonawarra and snazzy shiraz from the Barossa Valley.

The wines mature in French and American oak for 18 months and, Hickin said, "at that point we could easily bottle those wines as premium reds, no problems at all.

"Then we finish them off with three months in the whisky barrels before bottling."

The barrels are first used to age bourbon, then Scottish and Irish distilleries buy them to age their spirits. Bourbon barrels are "fired" as opposed to wine barrels, which are "toasted", a key difference.

In wines the whisky influence is very subtle and soft, but I love the way the caramelisation of the wood sugars in those old barrels imparts delicious sweet, smoky flavours to the wines and gives them a smooth, nutty finish. "We launched these two wines in Oz back in August 2014 and they just bolted," Hickin said.

"I've seen some new releases in my time but this one has just blown us away with how people have embraced them."

SIPS OF THE WEEK

Jacob's Creek Double Barrel Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2012, $25

Classic wafts of menthol, intense dark fruits and mint chocolate lead the way to a burst of upfront sweetness and a dusting of pepper on the palate. It's a stylish wine, very elegant, but also easy, fleshy and generous to drink. There's an attractive, smoky, wood-sugar and vanillin character sneaking through on the finish too. Nicely made.

Jacob's Creek Double Barrel Barossa Shiraz 2012, $25

I love the white pepper and blackcurrant notes on the nose, cuddly cocoa and smoke - all gorgeous things that soak through on to the palate, leaving a warm, soft, velvety mouthfeel. You can also detect some whisky. It's very subtle, but the extended firing of the old bourbon barrels definitely adds fullness, spice and complexity.