Hardys wine

So what springs to mind when you think of Hardys wine? It is probably Hardys Crest which seems to be available from every supermarket to every corner shop/off licence. The reality is that Hardys make a range of wines from the everyday to the something special as I found out at a event organised by them and held at the Waitrose Cookery School. The event certainly opened my eyes.

I had been at two events the previous week where I had done vertical tastings of multi award winning Semillons going back to 1997 and also Zinfandels back to to 1999. When you are exposed to wines such as these it is very easy to ignore the types of wines that people are exposed to every day, the sort that line the supermarket shelves and always seems to be on some kind of offer - "3 for £12" or "£9.99 down to £4.99". These offers beg the question as to whether these wines ever sell at the full price..........

Now I'm not going to pretend that the entry level Hardys wines are wonderful with lots of character but they are all very drinkable and taste as you would expect a Chardonnay or a Cabernet Shiraz to taste. And importantly they offer a good price point and entry into Australian wine for many people and a good accompaniment to pizza. What Hardys also offers though is the a roadmap for the more curious wine lover to try something else. To explore the same grape variety with a different label and costing more so they can answer the question themselves - does paying more mean getting a better wine? (The answer is of course probably although it doesn't necessarily follow that the drinker will like every more expensive wine they try).

So they can move from Hardys Stamp Chardonnay/Semillon blend to Nottage Hill Chardonnay or Nottage Hill Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz blend to the Waitrose labelled Anniversary Shiraz. Having (probably) seen that they enjoyed the experiment they may then try the Oomoo range although I consider it unlikely that the average consumer will then trade up to the Eileen Hardy wines which retail for between £35 to £45.

It was the Reynella and Eileen Hardy wines that convinced me however that Hardys deserve to be better known as not just a high volume, pile 'em high and sell em' cheap producer but as the organisation behind some real quality wine. Both the Eileen Hardy 2006 Chardonnay and 2004 Shiraz were real stunning wines.