News and Awards | Stockists | Upcoming Releases | Grass Roots | Special Offer

News and Awards

Greetings from Mark and Joanne Kozned and welcome to our first newsletter. It's less than six months since the release of our first wines and they continue to win awards and accolades. Recently the Shiraz was reviewed by The Advertiser and the Winestate Magazine.

93 Points from the Advertiser
On 29 March 2006 Philip White, the senior wine journalist from The Advertiser, reviewed 33 Adelaide Hills Shiraz wines and gave the 2004 Firebird Shiraz 93 points - the highest score of all the wines. Mr White commented that:

It has fresh, slightly briary tobacco-like top notes, settling on pleasant raspberry and dried prune fruit. It's clean, sinuous, elegant and juicy with modest balanced tannins and gentle supportive oak - particularly delicious. This is what I'd expect of the Hills.

Let's put it into perspective: Philip White gave the 2001 Grange 94 points which is considered by some to be one of the best ever released by Penfolds.

Four Stars from Winestate
In the May-June issue of the Winestate magazine our 2004 Shiraz received "four stars" and was described as an "Elegant wine with sweet and vibrant spicy fruit showing a leafy edge. Simple raspberry nose and a peppery palate that has structure and length with good acid".

But what does it all mean?

To put into perspective the different rating scales are summarised in the table below.

Who's Stocking Nova Vita Wines

Haven't seen our advertisements in the papers then you're not looking hard enough! Good quality wines and some good reviews and you're a 'Must Stock' wine all of a sudden. Our wines are now available from the following places:

• Fassina Liquor Merchants - 37-39 Oaklands Road, Somerton Park (08) 8295 7707
• Goodwood Cellars - 125 Goodwood Road, Goodwood (08) 8271 7481
• Booze Brothers (Norwood) - 97 The Parade, Norwood, (08) 8366 5100
• Cellarbrations Flagstaff Hill - Memford Way, Flagstaff Hill (08) 8270 4333
• Sussex Hotel - 68 Walkerville Tce, Walkerville (08) 8344 1500
• Parade Cellars - Shop 15, 161 - 175 The Parade, Norwood (08) 8332 0317
• Scuzzi North Adelaide - 99 O'Connell St, North Adelaide (08) 8239 2233
• Manna Café - 12 Waymouth Street, Adelaide (08) 8231 6003
• Porters CBD (Sydney) - 382 Pitt Street, Sydney (02) 9264 0464
• Shorty's Liquor Merchants (Sydney) - Rhodes Shopping Centre, 1 Rider Blvd, Rhodes (02) 9743 5333

Tasting the Upcoming Releases

In early May Joanne and I visited David O'Leary and Nick Walker, our winemakers from O'Leary Walker Wines in the Clare Valley, to taste the 2005 Shiraz and the wines from the 2006 vintage. We were extremely pleased with the quality of the wines from both 2005 and 2006.

2005 Firebird Shiraz (expected February 2007)
There is only one word for the 2005 Shiraz - SPECTACULAR! The wine is excellent and continues to develop in new and one-year-old French oak barrels. A taste from the barrel showed raspberry, cherry, cigar box and white pepper on the nose while the palate has lots of spice with juicy fruit balanced by good tannin structure and supportive oak.

Look out for the 2005 Reserve Shiraz! The quality of the 2005 Shiraz is so good that we have decided to establish a reserve and have selected the best three barrels to spend a further 18 months in oak and a further two years in bottle. The Reserve Shiraz will only be released in years when the quality of the wine meets our high standards.

Look out Robert Parker Nova Vita Shiraz is coming!

2006 Sauvignon Blanc (expected August 2006)
The Sav Blanc is a cracker. We were knocked over by lots of cut grass, green bean and herbaceous notes on the nose. The palate has good complexity with moderate alcohol, lots of tropical fruits and well balanced acids.

2006 Chardonnay (expected September 2006)
The Chardonnay is an excellent example of cool-climate viticulture exhibiting typical Adelaide Hills characters of white stone-fruit, melon, green apple and pear balanced by a mineral and citrus finish with good acid and moderate alcohol aiding complexity. We have also put aside enough chardonnay to fill six new French oak barrels for a reserve Chardonnay (expected February 2007).

2006 Shiraz
Consistent with our aim of creating wines of high quality and similar to what you could expect from the Rhone Valley in France the grapes were hand picked relatively early but flavour ripe at a moderate Baume of 13.3 avoiding the heavy rains experienced in the Hills this year.

The wine was tasted before secondary fermentation (malolactic fermentation) was complete and the wine had only just started to open up. Consistent with the 2005 Shiraz it had a spicy nose accompanied by raspberry and dried prune. The palate was soft with juicy fruits, well structured tannins and lively acids.

Grass Roots (Or 'On the Farm' as Joanne calls it!)

The 2006 vintage can be best described as challenging. Too much rain when we didn't want it and not enough when we did but we got through in the end with some fantastic results, especially in the whites. We set up the year by employing a conservative pruning regime in the winter which meant that our vines were in balance and could cope with whatever Mother Nature dished out.

Budburst occurred early September for the Chardonnay followed by the Shiraz and Sauvignon Blanc. A cool and wet spring delayed growth but a moderately warm and dry January and February pushed vine growth and fruit development. A relatively cool summer with only one intense heat wave allowed for the development of high quality grapes with intense flavours and balanced acidity.

Shoot and bunch thinning was employed during the year to intensify and concentrate the flavour of the grapes. The benefit of this strategy came home to roost as we were one of the first vineyards to pick our Shiraz missing most of the cold and wet weather in April.

Harvest began one week earlier than 2005 commencing with hand picking of the Chardonnay on the 8th of March and finished on the 5th of April. The Sauvignon Blanc was picked on two separate days being the 17th of March and 24th of March. The Shiraz was picked on the 5th of April two weeks earlier than 2005 due to the low yield.

Special Offer

Stocks of our Shiraz and Sauvignon Blanc are running low and we expect to be sold out soon. We have allocated 20 dozen of the Shiraz and 20 dozen of the Sauvignon Blanc for a special offer to our friends and wine club members that won't be repeated. Due to the limited nature of the offer we would encourage you to order before 30 June 2006.

This is your last chance to buy the award winning 2004 Shiraz and the 2005 Sauvignon Blanc at these prices.

Here's another reason to buy some wines.

Buy any two dozen and go into the draw for a magnum of the 2004 Shiraz drawn 30 June 2006. This is a rare item as there are only four left of the original 24 magnums that were ever made.

To order, please download our order form [[65 Kb PDF].