Emma Shaw, wine educator and general manager of Collector Wines, recently established the Canberra Cellar Door at the Canberra Region Visitors Centre. Wine columnist RICHARD CALVER gets a surprise when he calls by… 

Perched above Lake Burley Griffin, right next door to the Marion, the Canberra Cellar Door at the Canberra Region Visitors Centre features only local wines and pops up there from 11am to 3pm every Saturday. 

Most local wineries have cellar doors but they are generally at least a 40-minute drive away from central Canberra. This initiative brings together local wines and allows those who don’t want to spend a day travelling to various cellar doors to get a taste of some local wines.

On the day I visited Emma Shaw’s new venture, she had six wines each from a different winery on taste and the cost per tasting is $10 a person. 

The wines on offer change every Saturday and Emma told me that one couple, who walk the bridge-to-bridge each Saturday, make a tasting part of their regular routine. The tasting fee is waived on purchase of wine. 

Emma generously offered me a full tasting but as it was just a nudge past noon and I was playing tennis that afternoon, I just tasted one wine: the Mada Sui Generis IX 2023 Hilltops Montepulciano ($35 from the winery). 

The label is like a stuck kaleidoscope, a mass of colour featuring what appear to be petals. On return home I looked up the wine on the Mada website and was intrigued by artist Paul Licayan’s description of the nature of the art on the label: “The piece I’ve created for this collaboration with a smooth red wine reflects this passion, using vibrant petals and abstract worms set against bold black lines and curves to explore the balance between softness and strength. 

“The colourful petals represent the rich, complex flavours found in the wine, while the black lines and curves embody the structure and smooth finish that tie these elements together.”

I know that you don’t drink the label but, particularly in this instance, the art it captures elevates the experience of tasting the wine. 

Emma indicated that the grapes had come from the Hilltops Grove Estate vineyard. Sui generis means one of a kind, in a class of its own. Mada indicates that no wine in this range is ever the same and that “we’re given an empty canvas to look at new varieties, vineyard sites and wine styles”.

I have not before tasted a montepulciano made by a Canberra winery. Montepulciano is a red wine grape variety native to Italy, particularly the central regions of Abruzzo and Marche.

Generally this varietal is medium bodied, but with strong tannins that make it a perfect match with sharp cheeses. 

However, the Sui Generis was much smoother on the finish with no belt of tannin. It was full bodied and yeasty, with the nose particularly “bready” and an intensity of red fruit flavour on the finish. 

I said to Emma that it was good that she had excellent Canberra wines on taste such as the Mada I’d experienced and she had nothing but my approbation for her new venture. 

“The problem with the French is that they don’t have a word for entrepreneur.” –George W Bush