Don't know what a mollydooker is? Not to worry - I didn't either until recently. It's Aussie for left hander. Which, I am! So I really am a mollydooker! Mollydooker is also, however, the name of an amazing winery in Australia. Thanks to the combined powers of Twitter and a recommendation by my favorite local wine merchant, I discovered Mollydooker wines about a year ago. Since then I've had the opportunity to interact with them on Twitter, learn more about their wines and - most importantly - attend one of their winemaker dinners in San Franciso last week. Lemme tell you - those Aussies sure know how to throw a party!
So, I came to this dinner prepared with my camera and a notebook for tasting notes. My honorable intentions to take pictures and notes so that I could intelligently blog about the wines later lasted, oh, maybe five minutes. Because as soon as Sparky started talking and encouraging us to drink, and the more we drank, well, let's just say I was far too busy sipping and laughing to bother with notes and photos. Funnily enough, that isn't stopping me from blogging about it.
First, a little history. Sarah and Sparky Marquis created Mollydooker in 2005. The grapes come from the premier regions of McLaren Vale, Langhorne Creek and Padthaway and the winery and vineyards are located on a ridge which historically produces iconic wines. In 2006, the Wine Advocate rated their Lefty Wines the 1st, 2nd and 4th best value wines in the WORLD under $20, and their Love Wines received 99 and 96 point scores. In 2007, the Wine Advocate rated the 2006 Lefty Wines among the best value wines in the world, and Velvet Glove (sigh!) became the fifth Mollydooker wine to be awarded 99 points. In 2008, Wine Spectator chose the 2007 Velvet Glove as a "Classic" wine and five other Mollydookers as "Outstanding". No matter your opinion on the 100-point rating system, that's pretty impressive!!
At the San Francisco winemaker dinner, we had the privilege of meeting Sparky, Janet (Mom), Krissy and Sean. They had just arrived from Australia at lunchtime that SAME day but you never would have known it! We were greeted with some appetizers and a glass (or two) of The Violinist. Made from Verdelho, this is the only white wine that Mollydooker makes. Lovely, fruit flavors and a creamy texture, it was a nice start to the evening.
Upon entering the meeting room, we found a table with eight other people. I have to say, we got so lucky with our dinner company! The entire table was so much fun that it made a great experience even better. Sparky started the evening off by explaining the Mollydooker Shake. You see, because many people are allergic to sulfites, Mollydooker adds as a little as possible to their wines. Instead, they bottle their wines with nitrogen gas as a natural preservative. When the wines are still young, nitrogen can flatten out the flavors and shorten the finish of the wine. So, when you do the Mollydooker Shake (see the video on www.mollydookerwines.com for instructions), you release the nitrogen and allow the young wines to show their full flavor profile. (Note: the Mollydooker Shake is performed only on wines less than two years old.) We were then able to do a taste test with The Scooter - one having had the Mollydooker Shake and one without. The difference in flavors was astounding!
Doing the Mollydooker Shake
Preparing our perfect blend
We then tasted the 2010 Two Left Feet, which is a blend of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The percentage of each varietal changes with the vintage. Each couple then got to create their own blends using The Scooter (Merlot), The Maitre D' (Cabernet Sauvignon) and The Boxer (Shiraz). We then tasted each of the five blends created at our table and chose a favorite, which was difficult! We had so much fun playing mad scientists - not to mention tasting all those great blends.
After that, we moved on to tasting the Mollydooker Party Wines - Gigglepot and Blue Eyed Boy. If I loved the names and labels of the Mollydooker wines before, after hearing Sparky explain how they were named and what the labels signified, I was even more smitten (okay, I admit, I'm a little smitten with Sparky now, in addition to his wines!). Somewhere in here we were served dinner, but that was merely sustenance to keep us upright while we finished drinking. By this time, I was feeling very....happy. We then moved on to the Love Wines. If you ever have a bottle of Enchanted Path and Carnival of Love in your hot little hands at the same time, be sure to put them next to each other. Each lable is two parts of a whole, which you can see when you put them together. I won't bore you with tasting notes for the nine Mollydooker wines we had up to this point (plus the five differebnt blends from our table, la la la la). Suffice it to say that there was not a bad sip in the bunch, the wines deserve all the praise and high scores they have received, and I was completely and totally in love with Mollydooker. And then came......
Velvet Glove. Words fail me. Perhaps you heard recently about the forklift dropping $1 million worth of wine in Australia while loading it for shipment here to the US? Well, that was the 2010 Mollydooker Velvet Glove, the ultimate Mollydooker wine. About one-third of the 2010 vintage was lost that day (a moment of silence, please). Thank goodness, it was insured and, since there really is no such thing as bad publicity, hopefully, this debacle had some benefit in bringing Mollydooker wines to the attention of more folks here in the US. Anyway, Sparky was generous enough to share some of what was left of the 2010 Velvet Glove with us at the dinner. We had all been waiting for that moment all evening....the moment when they brought out the beautiful, unique bottle with the real velvet label printed in silver foil, the beautiful purple juice being poured into our glass. A hush fell over the room. We sipped, and then angels sang. Okay, not really but there was a whole lot of ooohing and ahhhing going on. This was the perfect end to a wonderful evening - this gorgeous, complex Shiraz with flavors of fruit that go on forever. Honestly, drinking this was definitely a wine epiphany I will always remember.
Bottom line, really, is that if you have the opportunity to taste any of the Mollydooker wines, run, do not walk, to take advantage of the opportunity. Mollydooker does have a warehouse in Napa so if your local wine merchant doesn't have these wines, you can order from their website and have it delivered here in the US. I promise, you won't be sorry. In the meantime, I will be anxiously awaiting International Mollydooker Day (September 15th) and the release of the 2010 wines, and particularly delilvery of my order. Trust me, there will be a party!
Many thanks to Mollydooker for the wonderful experience (with special thanks and a shoutout to Krissy!). You have new fans for life. We can't wait to see you again next year.
Many thanks to Mollydooker for the wonderful experience (with special thanks and a shoutout to Krissy!). You have new fans for life. We can't wait to see you again next year.
End of evening carnage. The sign of good times!
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