Wilson Vineyard | NEWS AND TRIVIA FILE

We weren't unhappy with the old style of our cabernet sauvignon label, however with this one wine emerging as something of a flagship, it seemed that the time was due to change the package so that it stood apart a little from the rest of the range.

Some love it, some hate it, but there are none in between. We are the first to admit that these artwork labels are becoming rather commonplace, and the time may not be far away when a trip to the local bottle shop may inject more artistic culture than a walk down North Terrace.

Our intention is to commission a new painting each year, and that will form the label for the cabernet sauvignon. Each year will feature a different artist, and only artists from the Clare and adjacent areas will be invited to participate.

The specification for the artists is quite simply to make a trip to Polish Hill River, and then produce a painting that represents an impression of the area.

This inaugural work has been produced by Murray Edwards from Watervale. Murray works in pastels, and for this label has incorporated four features that impressed him about Polish Hill River; vines, tall eucalypts, old stone cottages, and winding laneways.

The knockers will say that we have pinched the idea. True; it was Baron Philippe de Rothschild who commissioned a painting for the label of his 1945 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, and the Chateau has continued that tradition each year.

Having just done our fifteenth vintage with rhine riesling, albeit the first nine not on a commercial scale with the variety, I am starting to understand the complexities of flavour that the wines show with time. This experience relates to wines from Polish Hill River only, although there may be a common thread with many other Clare wines.

The interesting thing is that these rhine rieslings go into a hole at about 3 years of age, and then emerge after another year or two showing a complexity of flavours that were not evident in the young wine.

Typically these wines emerge from vintage with citric flavour (predominantly limes), and a steely backbone. Very quickly they acquire flavours of tropical fruit (passion fruit, pineapples, monstera fruit), and reach a peak between one and two years old. The steeliness starts to fade early, and by two years the fresh tropical flavours are declining. There seems to be no change in the apparent level of citrus flavour over time.

With age a honeyed character emerges, although it appears that the intensity of this may be related to the sugar content of the wine, and possibly the level of ripeness at which the grapes were picked.

Later still, there appear cedar-wood characters; bear in mind that these wines have no wood contact at all.

Last edition's story about Ned Kelly and his hideout near Clare created considerable interest and discussion, that flushed out a few more Ned stories.

Meredith Baker phoned to say that Steve Hart, who was one of the notorious gang, had an uncle, Thomas Hart, who lived in Clare. It is believed Hart accompanied Ned to Clare.

Everyone knows that Steve Hart and Dan Kelly died at the shootout at Glenrowan, and that their remains, burnt beyond recognition were recovered from the Glenrowan Hotel; or did they? From other sources comes the amazing story that Steve Hart never returned to Victoria with Ned, changed his identity, later went to the Boer War, and remained in South Africa; and Dan Kelly made a new life in Western Australia.

Clare businessman, Tod Sanders, recalls that as a lad, during the 1920s,. he used to walk out to Rocky Glen, which is where the Clare Drive-In theatre is now located. In those days it was all scrubland, and there was an old timer called Johnny Regan who lived in a hut. Regan claimed that he was one of the gang that rode with Ned: we assume that this was the Watervale gang, with which Ned is believed to have associated.

There is a supporting legend that on one occasion Ned rode his horse right into the front bar of the Hotel at Overland Comer, and another story of the South Australian Police scouring the Julia Ranges near Eudunda, looking for Ned.