The Circus Is Coming to Town

By Nikki Berglund
Staff Writer

Sometime last year, I was dining with my family at one of the true great restaurants in our area, Sarello’s in Moorhead, when I came upon a ridiculously fantastic Australian Shiraz by the name of Mollydooker The Boxer. Since I had never seen this wine in the area I couldn’t wait to order a bottle with my favorite dish on the menu: Filet Mignon with a heavenly Zinfandel Demi-Glace. This was the dining experience that solidified my passion for Australian Shiraz and a medium rare steak. Sadly, this wine was not attainable across the river, and almost equally hard to come by in Minnesota. From then on it became my quest to get this wine in North Dakota. Fast forward to a couple of months ago when my (new favorite) liquor rep Joel surprised me with the news I had been waiting for, Mollydooker was coming to Fargo!

Not only are these wines highly sought after and to die for, but the amount of thought that goes into every stage of production, from vineyard to bottle, is captivating to say the least. From the multi-award winning husband and wife winemaking team, to the scientific innovations used in the winemaking process (let’s save that for another day), to the whimsical labels, to decanting via the “Mollydooker shake” these fascinating wines offer something for everyone.

Sara and Sparky Marquis, from the McLaren Vale region of Australia, were not new to the winemaking business when, six years ago, they set out to create their own label. As a team, they had already accumulated an impressive number of prestigious wine awards and developed quite a reputation in the wine world. “Mollydooker” is an Aussie reference to being left-handed, which they both are. Their company motto is “Wines that make people go “WOW!” but really should be “Wines that make people go “Holy Shit!”

There are Mollydooker wines at price points to appeal to every wine lover. A warning, these wines don’t come cheap. The entry-level wines, called the Lefty Series, retail right around $20. This series features the wine that started it all for me, an intense and fruity heavy hitting Shiraz called The Boxer.

The Maitre D’Cabernet Sauvignon is the only other Lefty Series wine I have so far had the pleasure of trying. Rounding out this series is The Scooter Merlot, a Shiraz/Cabernet/Merlot blend called Two Left Feet, and The Violinist Verdelho, an interesting white grape that we don’t see too much of around here yet.

The next level, “The Party Series” keeps the family theme alive with two wines named after Sara and Sparky’s children. The first, The Blue Eyed Boy Shiraz refers to their son Luke, and the Gigglepot Cabernet (hands down my favorite wine name ever!) was named after their daughter Holly. You will find these wines with price tags of around $50 a bottle.

The “Love Series” takes its cue from the love story of Sara and Sparky. There are two wines in this series, The Enchanted Path, a Shiraz/Cabernet blend and the highly acclaimed and hard to come by (except here in Fargo in a couple of weeks!) Carnival of Love Shiraz. An interesting tidbit about these wines—when you place the labels side by side, together they create a picture.
Being some of the most amazing and sought after wines produced at Mollydooker, it is not a shock that these are going to set you back $90+ a bottle or so, depending on vintage and availability.

At the top of the list you will find the luxurious and decadent sounding (with good reason) Velvet Glove Shiraz at a whopping $175 per bottle. This one is definitely not one for the faint hearted or frugal. Speaking of nifty labels, this one is made of imported black velvet and then silver foiled with the logo and wine details. It is then lovingly placed in a black velvet bag with satin rope closures. I have yet to set eyes on a bottle, but the anticipation is killing me—September just can’t come fast enough!

Wine critic extraordinaire Robert Parker of The Wine Advocate, is one of the toughest in the business. Bad marks from him have been known to doom an entire vintage of a wine. Luckily for Mollydooker they seem to have a very big fan in Parker! If you look up Mollydooker in the search engine of eRoberParker.com the list of 90+ rated wines seems endless, and if you know anything about the usually persnickety Parker, you know this is a huge feat for any winemaker!

In fact, they have collected more 94-99 point scores from Parker than any other winemaker in the world. Five of their wines have also landed on the Wine Spectator’s prestigious “Top 100” list with the Carnival of Love Shiraz actually being on the “Top 10” for two years in a row. As for the Velvet Glove Shiraz goes, both publications give it consistently astronomical scores.

As if these wines couldn’t get any more intriguing, along comes the “proper” way to get them ready for drinking. The “Mollydooker Shake” is where it’s at. Rather than adding sulphites to their wines, which acts as a preservative and prevents oxidation, Mollydooker instead uses nitrogen. This helps alleviate the allergic reactions and headaches that are often associated with added sulphites, while still protecting the wine.

The proper way to release this inert gas is to unscrew the cap, pour a bit into a glass, recap the bottle and shake it up. It sounds silly but the folks at Mollydooker use this method to prepare for all of their wine tasting events, and yes they have had just a bit of success!

If you are skeptical about this process, do a little test. Pour a glass of the freshly shaken wine and taste it against the original glass you had poured out to see the difference. If you still aren’t into the Mollydooker shake, a traditional decanter will work just as well but will take a little longer to achieve drinking status.

Currently around town there are only little teasers from our first little shipment of what is to come. The bulk of these wines, and the ones so highly coveted in wine circles worldwide will not be arriving until early to mid September. The wait is well worth it though! These are the most exciting wines to come to town in awhile, people! There will not be a ton of them and despite the prices, many are bound to sell out. So keep your eyes open and if you have been looking to splurge on an absolutely phenomenal bottle of wine, save your pennies for one of these bad boys and I promise you will not be disappointed.

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