VINTAGE wines and vintage motorbikes - it's an unusual mix, but it is the case at Mudgee's Robert Stein Wines.
With the 30-hectare Stein vineyard, winery, cellar door and Pipeclay Pumphouse Restaurant is the free-entry Motorcycle Museum with a treasury of memorabilia and working-order motorbikes, ranging from 1927 Douglas and AJS models to a 1973 Husqvarna and a 1976 BMW.
It came about because, while living in Sydney, Stein Wines' founder Robert Stein developed a love of bikes while riding them daily to work, becoming a Fairfield amateur speedway racing fan and starting to collect vintage machines.
In conjunction with the museum, Stein chief winemaker Jacob Stein and his team produce $20 motorbike range wines with labels featuring pictures of historic bikes.
The Stein Australian saga began in 1838 when Johann Stein and his wife and other German Rheingau families landed in Sydney after being recruited by Edward Macarthur to tend his trail-blazing Camden vines. Johann carried with him German riesling cuttings and is credited with being the first person to successfully grow riesling in Australia.
After joining Johann as a Macarthurs' wine dresser, his brother Jacob in 1843 planted a vineyard at Carramar. In his Vineyards of Sydney book Dr Philip Norrie related the tale that, as they dangled their feet in the cooling waters of Prospect Creek, Jacob shared his riesling tastings with notable visitors - explorer Ludwig Leichardt and Premier Sir Henry Parkes.
Sadly phylloxera wiped out the vines in the 1880s and the land was consumed by Sydney's urban sprawl, leaving the Stein family to turn to other pursuits.
Robert Stein, Jacob's great grandson, lived and worked in Sydney from 1928 to 1974, first as a builder and then heading the Smithfield Plant Hire business.
In 1975, however, Robert and his wife Lorna restored the broken family wine links by buying 70 hectares in Pipeclay Lane, Mudgee, planting a 30-hectare vineyard in 1976 and producing the first Robert Stein wines in 1981.
On Robert's death in 2006, his son Andrew took over the show and in 2009 grandson Jacob took charge of winemaking and viticulture. A 2005 University of Western Sydney, Richmond, viticulture and wine science graduate, Jacob worked on vintages in Italy and Germany, honing his riesling skills in Rheingau and Rheinhessen.
In 2012 he was Gourmet Traveller Wine magazine's Young Winemaker of the Year and in 2019 his 2016 riesling won the 2019 Sydney Wine Show best riesling trophy.
WINE REVIEWS by JOHN LEWIS
PLUMMY PITCH SHIRAZ
THE Robert Stein Collection Norton ES2 Shiraz and all motor cycle label wines are at robertstein.com.au and the Pipeclay Lane, Mudgee, winery. This shiraz is purple-hued and has 13.5% alcohol, gumleaf litter scents and ripe plum front-palate flavour. Middle palate shows mulberry, rhubarb, spice and savoury oak and a finish of minty tannins. PRICE: $20. DRINK WITH: pizza. AGEING: five years. RATING: 4 stars
MERLOT MAC TRIBUTE
FEATURING a label shot of a 1947 British-made bike, the Robert Stein Collection Velocette MAC Merlot shines deep garnet in the glass and displays 13.5% alcohol, berry pastille scents and spicy cherry front-palate flavour. The middle palate has blueberry, briar, black pepper and cedary oak and chalky tannins come in at the finish. PRICE: $20. DRINK WITH: veal saltimbocca. AGEING: four years. RATING: 4 stars
FRISKY THUNDERBIRD
MARLON Brando rode a Thunderbird in The Wild One movie, irking Triumph over bikie gang links. The Robert Stein Collection Triumph Thunderbird Cabernet Sauvignon has 13.5% alcohol, crimson hues, and herbal aromas. The front-palate has frisky blackberry flavour, the middle glacé cherry, capers, mint and mocha oak and an earthy tannin finish. PRICE: $20. DRINK WITH: lasagne. AGEING: six years. RATING: 4 stars
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