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September 12, 2023 14 mins
Who wants to “go on a roadie and crack open some bonzer wines in the arvo.” That’s Australian lingo for “Let’s take a road trip and open some fantastic wines in the afternoon,” says Pia Merrick, Lead White Winemaker for Australia’s Barramundi Wines. Merrick shares a few Barramundi “ridgy-didge beauts” (Aussie-speak for genuinely good wines): Weekender White blend, Trailblazer Red Blend, Barramundi Sauvignon Blanc, and Shiraz. Available in the U.S. www.barramundiwines.com

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(00:03):
Welcome to the Connected Table SIPs oniHeartRadio. We are your insatiably curious culinary
couple Melan A Young and David Ransom. We bring you the dynamic people who
are front and center and behind thescenes in food, wine, spirits and
hospitality. Ours is a delicious lifeand we want to share it with you.

(00:26):
Welcome to the Connected Table SIPs.We're your hosts Melan A Young and
David Ransom, and we love sharingthe people we meet around the world with
you and our discoveries in wine andtoday we are taking you down Under.
In fact, who wants to goon a roadie with us? That's right,
That's Australian for road trip and welike road trips, right David.

(00:50):
We had a long one for twoyears and that's where we are taking you
now on this SIPs podcast. We'redown Under in Australia with Pia Merrick,
the lead white winemaker for Barre MundyWines. Barren Mundy was launched in nineteen
ninety when Australian wines. We're juststarting to gain global recognition now under a

(01:17):
new Australian owner, Barren Mundy hasmade a walk about back to the United
States introducing a label of wines thatconvey a lighthearted, no worries, assy
spirit, and every Australian we've evermet has a great spirit. With names
like Weekend or White Blend and Trailblazerred Blend, aussy wine fans will tell

(01:40):
you to go ahead and crack openthese crackers. But let's have Pia explain
what that lingo means. Good day, Pia, good day. It's nice
to be here today talking to you. So, Pia, we learned from
the Barren Mundy Wines Guide to AustralianLingo that you can find on the website
that it's a sparrows spart or earlyin the morning where you are. It's

(02:05):
seven o'clock where we are. Sowhat is crack opening cracker in wine lingo
as sea time? Correct, Soit's early morning here and we are up
obviously even earlier than the Sparrows,and that's where the saying coming from.
So crack opened the kraka means thatwe're opening a great bottle of Australian Barimundy

(02:27):
wine. In this case, it'sour Weekend, a white plaint, which
you're in charge of. Correct,Yes, absolutely, Well, we want
to know a little bit about Upia. You're actually not Australian. You grew
up in Finland and worked in Franceand South America on your way to becoming
a winemaker in Australia. Why don'tyou tell us a little bit about that
and how you got to Barimundi Wines. It's quite a lot of wine work

(02:51):
walk about, as they say inAustralia. Correct. I was born in
Finland and very early age I wasvery interested in flavors and smells, in
food and wine, reading a lotof books about wine and wine making,
and my dream was to work inSouth America in Chile. Over the years,
working in England London as a somilier, I end up getting a job

(03:15):
in Chile, and funny enough,my next destination was Napa Valley. But
life took a little turn and Iend up in Tasmania, Australia, and
I lived there six years, workingin a very very small vineyard, establishing
the vineyard, working in the winemaking and also studying. There were a

(03:35):
few steps in the middle before Iend up here working with the Baramondy Wines.
I did go back to Finland establishingmy own business and the same time
working in France the vintages and studyingfrom Australia. One of the tricks to
France. I met my husband nowRob, he's also a wine maker,
and we've got pretty beautiful boys.They're all growing up now and we end

(04:00):
back in Australia and we've been herein our twenty years. I've been working
with the Baramundy wines for four yearsand we have had lots of fun establishing
these new blends for USA market.Well, Barremundy is a big company in
Australia is a big country and continent. Where is Barrenmundy located and where do
you source your grapes give us asense of place. So we located in

(04:25):
Victoria and our winery is very closeto Murray Darling. The river is very
close to us and we're very luckywe're sourcing our fruit from Murray Darling warmer
areas as well as the coastal areaswhere we're getting a cool climate fruit and
getting this blend into our winery.We're able to blend a beautiful, harmonious

(04:48):
blends. So we thought it wasinteresting that you're the lead white wine maker
even though you make all wines.What is it about white wines that drew
you in white wine always been itsinterest in my wine making career. I
really love receiving the fruit fermentation agingwine on Lee's different combination of oak,

(05:11):
oak matteration and all the flavors,the fine tuning expressing the fruit, that's
been my interest. I also workvery close with Australian Wine Research Institute doing
different trials, and I'm also judgingscientific Paper of the Years. This is
my second year and I'm also aone short judge. So white wine making
is my passion. You know,Australia is obviously very well known for red

(05:36):
wines Sharaz and Cabernet Sauvignon come tomind immediately, but it also makes some
very nice white wines. Why don'tyou tell us some of the star grape
varieties in white wine that come fromAustralia that you work with in the wines
that you make for Barimundi. We'revery lucky. We've got a number of
videos that cross shardon air and that'smy favorite crate where to work with.
We've got some early big shadonairs thatwe use for sparkling wine base and then

(06:00):
we led towards of indeeds we're gettingthose really nice speech and stone fruit aromas
coming through the shardana. Making theWeekend a white blend. We used some
of these really right stone fruit flavorsshardana batches, as well as a small
amount of columbar to add a littlebit of a CDD. And then there's

(06:20):
a tiny, tiny little bit ofbeyond air, which is really exciting.
Great bread. You get that hintof floral, really soft floral tones.
And the other one that does reallywell in this area is Sabion blanc,
and this year we were able toproduce a beautiful passion fluit lime sits Froust
flavored combination of Sabion blancs so verylucky where we're working here. We had

(06:44):
the chance to taste both the BarremondySauvignon blanc and the Weekend or Weight,
which we love. We tried bothwith different types of seafood dishes. With
the Weekend or White, we hada lot more Asian flavorings with what we
were eating and it was a wonderfulpairing. These are really refreshing wines.
They are meant to be every daywines that people can pick up and chill

(07:05):
and have ready to drink. There'sno formality to them, which we love
because that's the ausey spirit. Right. Yeah, they're fun wines. Last
weekend, my husband and myself wecooked a beautiful barbecue book in a slow
cookup. Actually we had the subbyon blank battleway cooking then with the main
mean, we had a weekend ofwhite blend and yes, grect, they

(07:26):
fresh, they crisp, and theyare a lot of fun. Well,
I think that's what we all wantthese days. There's something fun for everyday
drinking because we want it easy.We want things to be easy going,
right that and slow cookers are slowcookers, so you need to have some
wine while you wait. Right,My mother who's ninety one, has a
saying that her stove doesn't turn onuntil she has a glass of wine in
her hand. Yes, sounds abit black, hus You know, everybody

(07:49):
knows. As I mentioned earlier thatAustralia is well known for its Sharazan cabernet.
Baramundi also produces a red blend calledTrailblazer. Why don't you tell us
about that? Trailblazer is so good. We have the Shiras that's got all
the flavors that shiraz needs. You'vegot your black pepper, you've got a
little bit of hint of white pepper, really soft spice. But we blened

(08:13):
that with a great verty called pettivirdo petivito. It's interesting here in Australia
you end up with those almost likea little bit of sake into sort of
a blue floral violet kind of flavors. So it's really softens the schiras and
brings out that really attractive, easydrinking REGs we picked up on the stage.
It had a really wonderful quality toit and that little bit of marla.

(08:35):
It makes a big difference. Asyou said, it's really lovely wine
and we'd go with everything from ahamburger to a roast chicken. You know,
it's funny. We actually kind ofthought outside the box when we had
it the other night. We hadit with a red mole, a Mexican
covered chicken breast. Beautiful spices toit in its own right. Yeah,

(08:56):
it really worked well with the Trailblazerwine. We loved it, and you
can we think of pumpkin ravioli andsage one of my favorite dishes, and
the tennings on that wine. They'reso soft and there's a little hinto vanilla
that comes from the oak aging.There's a bit of American oc They give
you the really nice soft suite ofvanilla. Towards the end of yes,
it goes really well. I don'twant to point out for our listeners labels

(09:20):
quite eyecatching. For Barre Mundy Wines, it's really all about fun and it's
like this VWA bus kind of likewhat David used to own to go camping
and glamping and road tripping. Andmany of our listeners know that we've been
road tripping quite a lot and wewould love to have a Barre Mundy buzz
like this. It's really a cutelabel. It really reflects the fun approachability,

(09:46):
enjoy life in the moment. SpiritNow. One of the one things
I loved when we visited barren MundyWines website, which is Barre Mundywines dot
com, is that there is thisguide to Australian lingo. Oh my god,
it's so much fun. So wejust want to share a few of
these terms we did at the beginning, but let's explain some of the ones

(10:09):
that really would apply to wine.Let's start with Barre Mundy wines are Riggie
ditch Riggie did so they really thinkYeah, so absolutely it's it's an honest
and through wines made with our winemaking team. We are passionate about this
and you get a real, realbig what's in a bottle? Love it

(10:31):
and crack open a bottle of BarrenMoundy to join the RVO. Ah.
So that's what I'm gonna do latertoday, avow afternoon. It's morning here.
You guys have a vow which meansthis afternoon I will crack open at
Baramundy Weekend. Divide well, we'rebig beach fans. And another was wear

(10:54):
a cossi and bring an eski ifyou're taking your Barremundy weekend or weights to
the beach, tell us about those. Perfect. So this is where you
want to find your swimming costume kasiand a portable eyes cooler which is your
eskime. In my case, Iwould have done the river because we are
inland, but your case beach.And that's how this one's I designed.

(11:16):
I love it. I remember myday is visiting Bondai Beach when I went
to Australia. Perfect. Perfect.Here's another one, this Bara Mandy Charaz
is a bottler and the Trailblazer isa bonzer. So a bottler is something
that's excellent and it's excites. Sothese ones are really exciting, but the

(11:39):
bonds are it's all in capital,So I would say awesome, excellent and
terrific and it's time to enjoy abig day out with your charas and a
barbecue. So a big day outgot a couple of different meanings. In
Australia, we have a music festivalthat's a big day out. It's a

(12:00):
very big communic festival. That's allsay. When we work hard, we
have had a big day at work. We sit down in the afternoon with
the glass of wine. That's alsopart of the kind of sitting down talking
to your friends about the big day, big day out at the farm and
now it's time to relax with theglass of wine. Well, I think

(12:22):
you need to start your big dayout with a weekend or white blend and
then continue on to a trailblazer redBland because it's a big day out and
I have to admit. We werealso sent a beautiful bottle of Caberney Savinion
twenty twenty one, which is aninterestated Cabernet by Barramundia is a very nice
wine. We're drinking it right nowas you do this recording, and it's
beautiful. Tell us about it.It's beautiful. So this one is the

(12:46):
migniasa situated near our winery here inMurray, Darling. So you end up
with those really nice ripe flavors ofred currant, nice soft tennants. This
will go very well with your piethat's in the oven. So how would
you describe this Barrowmunday Cabernet Sauvignon inAussie terms, Aussi terms? So this

(13:07):
is what I would do, isour call it just with one word,
and it's a bonds up. Yougo and go Any better than the bonds
are is good. So we've gota glass of the Bremundy Cabinet Sauvignon in
our hands. What's the good wayto sign off and toast to a good
on ya? We would just saycheese, cheezel and Pia, we want
to thank you and as we saidand Aussie speak, good on you,

(13:31):
thank you and have a good armor. Thank you, Pia. This is
another edition of the Connected Table steps. These wines the Barremundy wines are available
in the United States and you canfind out a little bit more about them
and they're pricing on our website wherewe are posting an article on these wines.
Yes, the Connected Table dot com, but also you can check out
Barren Mounday and all that great lingoas well as these really fun, wonderful

(13:54):
wines at Barremundy Wines dot com.You've been listening to The Connected Tables SIPs
with Melanie Young and David Ransom.To listen to more in depth features with
the movers and shakers who shape thewine, food, spirits and hospitality industry,
tune into our companion show, TheConnected Table Live. You can tune

(14:16):
into the live broadcast on Wednesdays attwo pm Eastern Time on W four CY
Radio easy to find atww dot Wfourcy dot com, or listen to all
our shows anytime at iHeart dot comand on the iHeart app. Connect with
us on Twitter at Connected Table,and follow us on Facebook and Instagram under

(14:39):
the Connected Table. And remember alwaysstay insatiably curious
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