Stories Behind The Bottles

Posted by Andrew Barrow, 9:31am 16/07/2007. Leave a comment

During my merry trawl through the wine list - updating the products with tasting notes and photographs - several interesting tales and fables surrounding the naming of several wines came to light.

For example the Rozendal Estate owns two cows, Marigold and Pearl, who are 'essential members' of the wine-growing team. They produce the homemade manure which is used in the 'compost tea' to spray the vines.

Producer Coriole have a vineyard named Lalla Rookh. She was the exotic heroine of Thomas Moore's famous 1817 poem and was the name of an early sailing ship who brought settlers to South Australia.

And then there is a legend that the first white settlers arriving in Western Australia believed that they were sailing through the gates of Hell as they watched Saint Elmo's Fire light up the sky above them. They named the area Hellfire Bay. St. Elmo's Fire is an electrical weather phenomenon in which visible plasma is created by a coronal discharge originating from a grounded object in an atmospheric electric field (such as those generated by thunderstorms).

St. Elmo's fire is named after Erasmus of Formiae (also called St. Elmo), the patron saint of sailors (who sometimes held its appearance to be auspicious).

In addition to grasping the edges of history there are perhaps traditions in the making too - The Ata Rangi Celebre, for example, has been subbed 'Stella'. This not only marks the exceptional quality of this Merlot-Syrah-Cabernet blend but also celebrates Ata Rangi winemaker Helen Masters beautiful baby Stella, born on Christmas Day. A lovely story I hope you agree.

Rozendal Estate Merlot/Cabernet £12.25
Lalla Rookh from £12.50.
Hellfire Bay £6.99.
Ata Rangi Celebre £17.99

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