Life as a wine barrel

So, I start out as a tree, generally in a forest either in France or the USA, but nowadays I can come from some lesser known places for wine Oak like Russia.

 

I grow up and after a few years get cut into pieces and stacked up, left out to weather in the elements for a few years… They call it seasoning, but that makes it sound a little more glamorous than it really is!

 

Once it’s decided that I’ve “seasoned” enough, Mr Cooper comes and picks me up and takes me to the Cooperage, where I’m soaked in water, bent into shape and shaved so I look all fresh and new… Now imagine someone did that to you!

 

And from there it gets worse, once they’ve cut me to the right size and shape, they pack me right next to the next guy, with no regard for personal space and lock us into place with metal hoops (rings) so that me and the other guys form the shape of the barrel. They do this to the guys on the ends too, except they’re called the “head guys” (p.s. they think they’re better than us). The next part is the worst, as once we’re formed together into a barrel, they light a fire and toast our insides with a fire bucket until we’re charred just enough.

 

Having said all of this, I’m not complaining as a little hard work never hurt anyone. From here on in it’s the sweet life. Once we’re all nicely formed and toasted, we head to the winery where the Winemaker fills us with the latest nectar of the gods!

 

Now is where I really shine. My body is porous so I let micro amounts of air through which helps to develop the wine, and I give up part of myself (tannin) to build structure and complexity into the wine. In the first year, I give up the most, and year after year a little less each time.

 

Ultimately, I know I’m a key part of the process of making great wines, and that’s what makes all the hard work early in life worthwhile. I tend to stick around as a barrel for quite a few years, and once I’ve run out of tannin to give, they just let me hold the beautiful wines to age gracefully.

 

Not really sure what happens after that as I’m not there yet. I wonder if they give me a medal…. I certainly think they should!

Cheeky Mexican night

If you are anything like us, we love to entertain. Delicious food served with great company and a bottle or two of Raidis Estate wine on the table is the best way to live and is the ethos of why we do what we do.

 

Mexican food is made for the entertainers. From tacos to guacamole, it is made to share and enjoy with minimal fuss. Enchiladas are a fantastic way to feed the masses.

 

This beef enchilada recipe is sure to impress.

 

What you’ll need:

2 1/2 cups enchilada sauce
1 Tablespoon olive oil
500gm ground beef
2 fresh chilli
Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper
1/2 cup canned corn kernels, drained
1/2 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/4 cup of a soft goat’s cheese
1 1/4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
12 (6-inch) flour tortillas, warmed
3 Tablespoons chopped fresh coriander leaves
1 avocado, halved, seeded, peeled and diced
1 tomato, diced

 

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 Degrees, then pour 1 cup enchilada sauce in the bottom of a baking dish and set aside.

 

Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add beef, chilli, salt and pepper to taste. Cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks.

 

In a large bowl, combine beef, corn, beans, 1/2 cup goats cheese and 1/2 cup cheddar cheese.

 

To assemble the enchiladas, lay a tortilla on a flat surface and spoon 1/4 cup of the beef mixture in the centre. Roll the tortilla and place seam side down onto prepared baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas and beef mixture.

 

Place into oven and bake until bubbly. About 20 minutes.

 

Serve immediately, garnished with coriander, avocado and tomato, if desired.

 

To be best enjoyed with family, friends and a bottle of Raidis Estate Pinot Gris on the table.

 

 

Get to know thy Winemaker

Raidis Estate is a passionately family-run winery. At the helm of the good ship Raidis is husband and wife duo, Steven and Emma Raidis.

 

Most days you can find Emma and Stevo in the cellar door, chasing a goat or two around the vineyard, or traversing around Australia promoting their love of their wines.

 

Want to know more? Well, here is five questions in five minutes with Emma and Stevo to see what makes them tick.

 

Stevo

 

What is the strangest thing you have done to sell a bottle of wine?

I have one stockist in Sydney who always takes me out “surfing” on reef breaks. I can’t surf, so I always come out bleeding, but he is a very good stockist and a good guy.

 

Favourite food and why?

Only one??? John Rymill’s duck curry. It’s been a long time since I had it, as he banned me from it for one smart ass comment. It’s a beautifully rich and flavoursome dish that goes really well with an elegant Shiraz.   

 

What wine varietal would you love to add to your list? 

Prosecco because it's sooooo hot right now. It should grow well down here, but who knows what the next few years hold for us.

 

Where would you love to see your wine on a wine list/ in a bottle shop?

The place I love seeing our wines is on a table full of people and food shown on someone’s social media feed. That’s why we make wine; to be enjoyed with friends and food.

 

Where would you love to travel one day?

 I would love to go to Mongolia. It looks like such a harsh yet beautiful country.

 

Emma

 

What is the strangest thing you have done to sell a bottle of wine? 

I honestly can’t think of one… (But we know she’d have some good stories up her sleeves…)

 

Favourite food and why?

Hmmm – this is a hard question for me… probably any good burger made with fresh ingredients. It’s like the perfect blend of all food groups & amazing flavours!

 

What wine varietal would you love to add to your list? 

Prosecco, because I really would like a sparkling in our range, and it will grow well here which is a factor we always need to consider.

 

Where would you love to see your wine on a wine list/ in a bottle shop?

Everywhere! The more places the better… I really don’t care where they are as long as people are enjoying them.

 

Where would you love to travel one day? 

Cuba – the food, music & culture seem so rich & colourful. I would love to go there!

 

 

Pasta night is alright

Winter; the nights are long, the days are a little crisp, and your skin is turning a shade of white… It can be a little hard to take seeing all your friends’ photos of European holidays and tans on Facebook when you first check your social media in the morning… But there is one thing about winter that we can all look forward to, and that is nights by the fireplace, a bottle of red wine carefully decanted, and a delicious pasta.

 

There is not much better than a bowl of pasta and a glass of red wine, am I right?

 

So here is a recipe for a delicious puttanesca sure to warm you up.

 

What you’ll need:

1 x packet of pasta of your choosing

1 x tin of tomatoes 250gm

Half a brown onion chopped

4 cloves of garlic chopped

½ cup of pitted olives

5 Anchovies cut into pieces

1 teaspoon of olive oil

2 x teaspoons of capers

1 cup of grated pecorino cheese

Basil to garnish

 

Method:

Finely chop onion and garlic and place to the side. Also, chop up olives and anchovies into small pieces.

 

Heat up olive oil in the saucepan and sauté onions and garlic until translucent.

 

Meanwhile boil a large pot of water, seasoned with salt. Place a handful of pasta into boiling water, reduce heat and cook for the time required.

 

Add a tin of tomatoes, capers, olives, anchovies to saucepan, and salt and pepper to taste. Pour sauce over pasta to serve.

 

Serve with a delicious red wine. We recommend a Billy Goat Shiraz or Mama Goat Merlot.

 

Bon appetit!

 

Balance

Have you ever seen a gymnast perform? Carefully executing their movements on high bars, or hanging from rings while doing flips, twists and turns. The beauty of this sport relies on skill, technique and most of all, balance.

 

Wine is no different. Although it’s unlikely you’ll find Stevo anywhere near a gymnastics arena, or dressed in lycra! Wine becomes unbalanced when one thing or another doesn’t fit well into the synergy of the rest of the wine. i.e. there is too much acid, too much tannin, not enough alcohol etc. You get the picture!

 

Making great wines that people love to drink requires a lot of planning, a lot of skill, and much balance. Balancing of inputs in the vineyard and inputs in the winery all combining into the magic that is in the bottle. It’s funny how making a wine can be related to gymnastics, but just think if a gymnast puts their arm out the wrong way, or misses a critical step, they become unbalanced and can fall, hardly making for a beautiful display of perfect form. In much the same way, if all the components of a wine are not in synergy with the others or the wrong kind of oak is used, the wine can become unbalanced and doesn’t perform as well as it should or could.

 

It’s for this reason that we take special care to make sure our wines are harmonious, that all the parts and inputs are in sync and most of all that the wine is balanced because in balance there is beauty.

 

Next time you have a glass of wine, think about how well all its parts work together, and know how much care and attention has gone into making those grapes the best they can be!

 

Disclaimer: Please don’t drink wine and then attempt to do gymnastics!

A night to remember

 

There is something ultra-comforting about winter weekend escapes from the city. A chance to hit the open road, to travel and to experience all that the rugged Australian landscape has to offer, all the while on the hunt for red wine and fun times spent around fireplaces with friends and family.

 

This July we are hosting a very special dinner as part of Cellar Dwellers weekend. This event offers the perfect city escape and if you’ve never been to the Coonawarra before, now is your chance!

 

Come on a taste exploration as we open our cellars and share with you a selection of current & back vintage Raidis Estate wines expertly paired with a delicious dinner crafted by Chef Kirby Shearing.

 

This is set to be a night to remember and a perfect excuse for a weekend getaway.

 

Bookings essential

Finding your Kefi

 

Kefi - When a Greek person mentions the word, kefi, on the surface they are referring to: joy, spirit, passion, happiness, triumph, mojo, excitement, feeling good, having fun, or loving life. Kefi is more a feeling than a word.

 

Paying homage to our Greek heritage is all about making delicious wines that pair with non-pretentious, yummy food to be shared at the table with family and good friends.

 

Chris and Fran moved to the Coonawarra over 60 years ago from Greece to live and work the land. The love of the land and the love of cooking is something that has been shared across the now three generations of the Raidis family in the Coonawarra.

 

In the spirit of Kefi (also the name of one of our beloved wines), here is a recipe that is sure to impress.

What You’ll Need

THE OCTOPUS:

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 Spanish onion, peeled and diced
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
½ cup carrots, peeled and diced
1 small can tomato paste
1 cup white wine
1 medium cleaned octopus, about 2 to 4 pounds, preferably fresh
3 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
 Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

 

THE SQUID:

¾ pound fresh cleaned squid, tentacles separated from the body
¼ cup, plus 4 teaspoons, extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped
½ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
 Freshly ground pepper to taste
1 lemon, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped parsley

 

Method

Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and carrots and cook until the onions are clear about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste, wine, octopus and herbs. Cover with water and simmer until the octopus is fork-tender, about 3 hours.

Meanwhile, run a knife along 1 side of each squid tube from the opening to the pointed end. Open the flap and score each piece, without cutting through the flesh. Place the squid in a bowl and toss with 1/4 cup of the olive oil, garlic, rosemary, 1/2 teaspoon salt, pepper and lemon. Marinate for 2 hours.

 

Remove the octopus from the liquid and let cool slightly. Heat a grill, preferably using hardwood, until very hot.

 

Cut the legs off the octopus at the base of the body and discard the body. Brush the legs with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, season with salt and pepper and place on the grill for a few minutes. Remove the squid from the marinade and place the tentacles on the grill.

 

Add the squid bodies, laying them out flat. Cook the octopus legs until charred and cook the squid just until it turns opaque. Divide among 4 plates, drizzle with the remaining olive oil, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with parsley.

Oh, and you can thank us later! Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

It's all fun and Goats!

 

We love our Goats! So much so that most of our wines (and our wine club) are named after them. We’ve got the Billy Cabernet Sauvignon, Mama goat Merlot, Cheeky goat Pinot Gris, The Kid Riesling, and our Flagship Cabernet called the Trip.

 

Goats are amazing animals, who along with being funny to watch actually play a very important role in making our wines. We are not suggesting that they get involved with any foot stomping (as that’d be a bit weird), but they help keep disease pressure down in our vineyard which makes our vineyard practices more sustainable.

 

But back to some fun facts:

 

A male goat is called a buck or billy. Females are doe’s or nannies. Young goats are Kids, and a family of goats is called a Trip.

 

Goats have wine in their blood (not literally). 10,000 years ago (after they were originally domesticated in Northern Iran) their skins were used to make bottles to hold water and wine up until the middle ages.

 

Goats are extremely curious and intelligent. They can climb trees, and they can even be house trained!

 

 

Our goats are more to us than just lawn mowers. They play a very important role in making our beautiful wines, they are part of the family, and they are just hilarious to watch!

 

Come by and see our goats in action, and while you’re here be sure to visit the cellar door. And if you know something about goats that we don’t, we’d love to hear it!

What makes a wine worth cellaring?

 

There is something truly romantic about entering a dimly lit cellar to rummage through dusty bottles of wine in search of that perfectly aged bottle to share with your guests.

 

Then, once chosen you blow off the dust and cobwebs, and carefully decant the chosen wine in the hope that it has held up to the test of time and has been worth the wait.

 

So, how do you know what wines are worth buying to age in your cellar? Well, here is a general guide to starting a cellar of your own.

 

Price

Start with price point. Any wine that is $20 or under is generally made to drink within a relatively short period of time (1-2 years depending), so wines you are looking to cellar generally sit a little higher in price point.

 

This is not to say that there aren’t excellent wines under the $20 price point, but this is a good guide if you are looking to start collecting wines and cellaring as a hobby.

 

Fruit

The fruit will develop and change in the wine over time, but it won’t magically appear if it’s not there to start with, so pick wines that are sourced from quality fruit and premium wine regions as they’re more likely to age well.

 

Tannins

Tannins are a big one in ageing (red) wines. The tannins provide structure for all the other wine parts to hold on to, so imagine tannins like a spider’s web that provide the framework to hold the wine together. The more structured the wine, the more likely it will hold up over time.

 

The reason big bold red wines often fair better in the cellaring process is that these wines have lots of oak tannins that hold the wine together in the cellaring process.  

 

Acid

Acid plays an important role in preserving fruit flavours and the wines themselves (more so in white wines). Having the right amount and balance of acid in a wine will assist with the wine development over time. Tip – often the best ageing white wines will be quite acidic as young wines, but develop beautifully if cellared for a few years (or more).

 

Pick wines that you love

Most of all, pick wines that you love the taste of in the cellar door and that you can see how that wine might develop in a few years’ time, or better still try and get your hands on an older version of that wine to compare. It’ll be like looking into a crystal ball.

 

At the end of the day, there is no point buying wine you don’t enjoy just to cellar it. Oh, and if in doubt, the winemaker will usually provide some guidance on the back label of the wine on its cellaring potential.

 

 

Homemade pizza for the win

We love nothing more than delicious home-made pizza and a cracking red wine when it’s cold outside.

We want you to make the most of the treats winter nights can offer, so we’re giving you our secret pizza recipe to make winter nights fun!

 

There’s something really satisfying about making pizza from scratch, and getting the dough right is the secret to a great pizza. It’s super easy to make (so don’t be scared!).

 

1kg plain flour (or wholemeal flour if you prefer)

A generous swirl of Olive oil

Pinch of pink salt

1 sachet of Baker’s yeast

600-700ml of warm water

 

Place the flour in a bowl, pour the olive oil, salt and yeast into the flour and then gradually add the water while turning the mixture with a spoon. Continue this until all the flour is mixed in and a homogenous dough is formed. Then lay a tea towel over the bowl and let rest for 2-4 hours in a warm spot (until dough doubles in size approximately).

 

Once the dough has risen, remove from bowl and coat lightly in plain flour to make it easy to work with. Work dough into a log shape and cut into 8 evenly sized portions = 8 pizza bases.

 

Roll out as many bases as you need (to feed the hungry masses) into the desired shape and thickness, and lay on greaseproof paper before adding toppings.

 

Top pizzas with whatever takes your fancy and grab a great bottle of Raidis wine to complement the flavours.

 

Tip: Plan your toppings before laying them out, so you have the right wine open, and a glass in hand to add to the fun of loading your pizzas ;-)

 

Once you’ve finished adding toppings, we recommend using a BBQ with a hood (you can use an oven) to cook them at 200 degrees, placing a pizza stone on the grill side for the most direct heat. Cook for 6-8 minutes until the base is crunchy.

 

Bon appetite, and cheers!