The Geology and Wine of Australia
February 19, 2016
Petroleum Club of Shreveport, 16th Floor
Reception – 6:30 p.m.
Presentations – 7 p.m.
Dinner – 7:30 p.m.
with a geology talk by Kevin Hill, geophysicist
and featured guest speaker Huon Hooke, wine writer
$85 per person
(+$3.50 for online processing)
Seating is limited to the first 120 paid reservations
Tables of 10 are available
Reservations closed.
Call 318-221-3329 for more information.
Sponsored in part by Hardin International and the SGS Faithful Friends. Thank you.
Biographies
Huon Hooke, wine writer
Huon Hooke is a leading independent wine writer, based in Sydney, who makes his living entirely from writing, judging and educating about wine. A journalist first and wine professional second, he has tertiary qualifications in both fields and has been writing on wine for 33 years. He pens a weekly column for the Sydney Morning Herald ‘Good Food’ section and contributes to Gourmet Traveller Wine, Decanter, The World of Fine Wine and various other publications. In 2012 he launched the web and phone-based app, huonhooke.com, and in November launched The Wine Guide 2015, published by Gourmet Traveller Wine.
He has won 10 awards for wine writing since 1984. In 2008 he was named Australia’s Wine Communicator of the Year. He is also a life member of the Wine Communicators of Australia.
He has published 18 books on wine including a biography of Penfolds Grange creator Max Schubert. He’s been a show judge for 29 years and currently chairs the Boutique Wine Awards, the Tasmanian Regional Wine Show, and represents Australia in the Six Nations Wine Challenge.
Kevin Hill, geophysicist
Kevin Hill is a consulting geophysicist with a degree in Geology from LSU. He has been in the oil business for over 35 years, and president of Hill Geophysical Consulting for more than 25 years.
Kevin’s hobby is studying geology around the globe. He explores how the subsurface influences everyday life through agricultural systems that produce food and wine.
He has shared the fruit of his research with the Shreveport Geological Society in an annual dinner meeting for seven years. The first of these presentations was “How Geology Influences Burgundy Wines.” Kevin has also presented talks on the geology and wine of Italy, Spain, Oregon, Israel, and California. This year’s location was chosen by popular vote, but Kevin has been prepared to discuss the geology and wine of Australia since 1988, when he visited Sydney and Brisbane.
Abstract
Australia is a continent with 2.97 million square miles of exciting geology. Every known rock type from the entire geologic column can be found.
Mclaren Vale is located in the province of South Australia. The geology of the vineyards of the McLaren Vale wine region is well documented due to decades of dilligent investigation by curious geological scholars (and probably consumers).
The Primary Industries and Resources South Australia (PIRSA) Geology of the McLaren Vale Wine Region map will be shown and expanded on to explain how and why certain grape varieties produce better fruit in the unique terranes of the vale.
Geology of the McLaren Vale Wine Region, published by PIRSA. Source: http://
mclarenvale.info/
McLaren Vale is formed between the Ochre Cove – Clarendon and Willunga faults. Rocks range from just 15,000 to over 550 million years old in the fourty-plus unique geologies of the wine region. Wineries are generally located on Pleistocene to Eocene sediments. Some of the oldest historical wineriers are located on the 500 million year old rocks, but this area is now becoming urbanized. Only small climatic variations occur across the region. The greatest diversity in the flavor factors of the wines is the geology and the extensive range of wine varieties that have been cultivated.
The key to the complex, constantly unfolding links between geology and modern wine flavors will be explained through a tasting of six wines, led by distinguished wine writer and critic Huon Hooke, coming to Shreveport from Sydney. He will conduct a virtual tour of McLaren Vale and discuss the wines and earth the vines grow in.
