Yearly Archives: 2005

Tahbilk — retrosective tasting higlights unique wine style

28 August 2005Vineyard, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Part 1
28 August 2005

Amongst Australia’s two thousand wineries, mostly comparatively new wineries, significant numbers date from the mid to late 19th century. Some — like Penfolds (established 1844) – now belong to larger companies. Others, like Tyrrell’s, Drayton’s, Yalumba and Bleasdale remain in the hands of their founding families.

Amongst these family-owned veterans, Tahbilk, occupies a special niche for the unique styles of its wines, the wonderful heritage buildings, the ‘old’ and ‘new’ underground cellars — constructed in 1860 and 1875 – and for the fact that it became so widely known largely through success with the obscure Rhone Valley white variety, marsanne, of which it has perhaps the largest single planting in the world.

Like shiraz, marsanne arrived here from France’s northern Rhone Valley last century. Unlike shiraz, marsanne is not widely grown outside of the Rhone, nor does it enjoy the same reputation as a premium wine grape.

Damned by faint praise might be a summary of what the critics say. Jancis Robinson, in ‘Vines, Grapes and Wine’ (Mitchell Beazley, London, 1986) writes, “The vigorous Marsanne vine produces substantial quantities of deep-coloured, almost brown-tinged wine high in extract and alcohol with a very definite smell, slight but not unpleasantly reminiscent of glue of the same sort of hue. It is simply too heavy to produce a wine capable of ageing unless it is picked very early as in some Australian examples.”

In ‘Rhone Renaissance’ (Mitchell Beazley, London, 1996) Remington Norman admits its potential — ‘… Fully mature, it has an attractive, complex bouquet, often reminiscent of acacia honey and jasmine or honeysuckle; young, it is marked by a flinty tang which disappears with maturation…’, but then sinks the boot in, ‘…It needs lowish yields and thoughtful vinification, otherwise it becomes neutral and, frankly, boring.”

Hardly sounds like the stuff of dreams does it? Yet Tahbilk, under Alister Purbrick, turned marsanne into both a cash cow and a much loved, refreshing, long-lived dry white – a wine that’s become increasingly fine and approachable in recent vintages.

Alister believes Tahbilk’s 49-hectare marsanne vineyard to be the largest in the world and contains the oldest vines – 6.5 hectares planted in 1927 by his grandfather, Eric. He says that well-known Rhone Valley wine makers Guigal and Chapoutier visited Australia in 1995 and to their knowledge the oldest marsanne in the northern Rhone was planted in the 1930s.

However, as fans of Tahbilk know, there’s more to this lovely estate than marsanne. The 1200-hectare property sits on a lovely anabranch of the Goulburn River, just outside Nagambie, Central Victoria.

Vines occupy just 182 hectares of this mixed farm. And today there’s a wetland and wildlife reserve, too.
Those other vines include a patch of shiraz from the original 1860s plantings – the sole survivors of the late nineteenth century phylloxera devastation.

These vines produce tiny quantities of an elegant and refined shiraz that’s sufficiently sought after in auction markets to have been included in the recent Langton’s Classification of Australian Wine.

As well, Tahbilk produces shiraz and cabernet in standard and ‘reserve’ versions. These distinctive, elegant wines, too, enjoy a strong following.

To mark Tahbilk’s upcoming 145th anniversary, Alister’s hosting vertical tastings back to 1962 vintage of the 1860s vines shiraz and the reserve shiraz and cabernet sauvignons. I’ll report back on these next Sunday

Part 2
4 September 2005

Tahbilk – a 1200-hectare property in Victoria’s Nagambie Lakes region — is a rare gem in the Australian wine landscape, having operated continuously since 1860 and under the stewardship of the Purbrick family since 1925.

You can read its interesting history at www.tahbilk.com.au, But the pertinent point for wine drinkers was the revival of the property’s wine fortunes and creation of the styles we enjoy today under Eric Purbrick.
Eric arrived at Tahbilk fresh from law studies at Cambridge in 1931, smack in the middle of a depression and with no experience in viticulture, winemaking or general farming.

But he persisted, despite depression and war, and by the time grandson Alister Purbrick joined him as Tahbilk’s first qualified winemaker in 1979, Tahbilk’s wines enjoyed an international reputation.

To mark Tahbilk’s 145th anniversary last weekend, the Purbrick family hosted vertical tastings of its wine spanning both the Eric Purbrick and Alister Purbrick years: Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 1959 to 2002; 1860 Vines Shiraz 1981 to 2002; Reserve Shiraz 1971 to 2002; Marsanne 1974 to 2005; Riesling 1982 to 2005; Viognier 2000 to 2005; Shiraz 1961 to 2003; and Cabernet Sauvignon 1962 to 2003.

Unquestionably the medium bodied reds are the main game and appeal because they offer character, strength and longevity but not the oaky, alcoholic heaviness seen in so many Australian wines.

While the reds continue in the traditional style established by Eric, a run of warm vintages in recent years sees a little more fruit weight and, as well, better hygiene during oak maturation, the judicious use of a small proportion of new oak in the Reserve wines and a short period of cold-soaking on skins prior to fermentation means slightly brighter, softer wines – but still thoroughly in the Tahbilk medium-bodied, savoury, firm mould.

The standard cabernet sauvignon and shiraz, which often retail at around $15, offer tremendous value for estate-grown-and-made wines – provided you enjoy the medium bodied style, of course.

While the old wines hold well and some – like the 1965 — drink beautifully, the tannins do poke through a little giving a slightly tough finish. That’s something Alister’s team’s been working on and it has been ameliorated in recent vintages. Clearly the more intensely fruity years like 2002 balance these tannins better.

In the pricier 1860s Vines Shiraz, Reserve Shiraz and Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, made from select fruit parcels, the naturally more intense fruit flavours provide a sweeter, fleshier mid palate to balance the strong tannins.

In these wines prolonged ageing is mandatory and rewarding and, for this reason, they’re released at five years of age. The about to be released 2000 vintages, for example, all show a lovely core of sweet fruit and are enjoyable but really need another five years. Despite the extra fruit weight, these ‘Reserve’ wines remain medium bodied and elegant.

Of the whites tasted, Marsanne, a Tahbilk specialty, stood out for longevity, vintage-driven style variation, and the richness and slurpability of two young vintages — 2002 and 2005 – and the honeyed opulence of several of the older wines, especially the 1982.

Riesling seems to stand the test of time less well. While wines back to 1982 remain drinkable, they don’t to me have the appeal of the outstanding 2005 or lovely 2004 and 2002.

Viognier, a comparative newcomer at Tahbilk shows a juicy, apricot lusciousness in the 2005 vintage, but every year’s bottle age seems to strip away this appeal, judging by the progressive fading of the 2004 to 2000 vintages.

Tahbilk Nagambie Lakes Marsanne 2005 $11-$14
This is surely a contender – along with a few Clare Rieslings – for Australia’s best-value-white title. Not only does it drink well as a young wine but as the last weekend’s tasting at the winery demonstrated, it takes on a golden, honeyed richness with age — the 1974, 1982, 1992 and 1996 being my highlights amongst the older wines. And the introduction of a screw cap from 2002 and a brightening of the fruit character in recent years makes it an even safer cellaring bet than ever. The just-released 2005, though, was my top wine of the tasting as it simply explodes with succulent fruit flavour.

Tahbilk Nagambie Lakes Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 & Shiraz 2002 $15 to $19
The distinctive reds of Tahbilk are grown and made on the property and offer great consistency of style, albeit with considerable vintage variation and a notable brightening of fruit character in recent vintages. Despite fine-tuning, though, the wines remain limpid and medium bodied with a savoury edge and firm, sometimes slightly hard tannin structure. The about to be released 2002’s are absolutely stunning at the price and, of the older wines, the 1965 Shiraz and 1971 Cabernets still drink beautifully – indicating the strength behind what are, in the Australian context, lighter bodied wines.

Tahbilk 1860s Vines Shiraz 2000 $110, Reserve Shiraz 2000 & Reserve Cabernet 2000 $61
These medium bodied, firmly structured reds come from the choice, older vines of Tahbilk and deliver a greater fruit intensity and sweetness to counter the strong tannin structure. The 1860’s Vines shiraz comes from the sole surviving original plantings and both the current and coming releases — 1999 and 2000 – showed well, with the 1982 being a standout of the older wines. The Reserve Shiraz, from mature vines planted in 1933, 1927 and 1936 is a little weightier, but still in the elegant, firm Tahbilk mould. And the Reserve Cabernet comes from vines planted in 1948, the 1960s and1980s. The 1959 and 1964 are still wonderful. All of these young wines will benefit from extended cellaring

Wine review — Penley Estate, Wynns & Ladbroke Grove

6 August 2005Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Penley Estate Coonawarra Phoenix Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 $19.99
At last week’s Limestone Coast Show, Singapore based writer, Ch’ng Poh Tiong awarded Phoenix the International Judge’s Trophy as his favoured wine of the show. Together with James Halliday, we’d ranked it at the top of the small 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon class, noting its vibrant, sweet, fruity aroma and juicy, fleshy, drink-now palate. Waxing metaphorical at the trophy presentation, Poh Tiong praised its ‘smouldering-ember smoky’character – fitting for a wine named Phoenix, I suppose. With or without metaphors, it’s simply delicious and made specifically for early drinking. It’s to be released in early December and will be available at cellar door (08 8736 3211) and fine wine retail outlets.

Wynns Coonawarra Estate Johnson’s Block Shiraz Cabernet 2003 $35
Johnson’s block is a distinguished Coonawarra vineyard with vines dating from 1925. Recent rejuvenation work – principally restructuring dense, woody, vine canopies – seems to have paid off in Johnson’s blend with its beautifully even, ripe berry fruit flavours and supple tannins. It also displays Sue Hodder’s well thought out change in winemaking philosophy inspired by the elegance and longevity of Wynns reds of the 1950s. The limpid colour, bright berry flavours, supple tannins and supportive oak provide a substantial, potentially long live modern interpretation of a traditional style well removed from the darker, more alcoholic, more tannic, more oaky reds that’ve prevailed in recent decades. Johnson’s hits the mark as it focuses on Coonawarra’s unique, bright berry flavours without compromising depth or complexity of flavour.

Ladbroke Grove Coonawarra Riesling 2005 $17.99
This is a little producer to watch. Ladbroke’s Killian Cabernet 2001 won three trophies in the 2003 Limestone Coast Show. This year it was the riesling’s turn. After topping a strong 2005 vintage riesling class it went on to win the Karl Seppelt Trophy. Fruit comes from a northern Coonawarra vineyard, contracted to Ladbroke Grove and made in the Di Giorgio Winery by former Wynns winemaker, Peter Douglas. The wine springs out of the glass with its floral and lemon varietal aroma then lights up the palate with vibrant, very fine lemony flavours. Refreshing, delicate, minerally acids give the wine structure and length – and probably longevity, too.

Rosé — a bland, surplus-driven boom

3 April 2005Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Rose’s long predicted moment in the sun may, at last, have arrived – in a very small but dynamic way.

According to A.C. Nielsen, Australian retail sales of bottled rose grew 108.3 per cent by volume and 79.5 per cent by value in the year to November 2004.

By the end of December, says Orlando-Wyndham’s Paul Turale, dollar growth had accelerated to 86 per cent. And Woolworth’s John Allen reports that sales of bottled rose in its BWS outlets increased 366 per cent by value in the year to February 27, 2005.

However, for all its talking up over the last thirty years, rose still represents less than two per cent of the Australian wine market and remains a country mile behind mainstream reds and whites – or even of other niche players like riesling.

The Nielsen moving annual totals to November, 2004, put Australia’s rose sales at about one million litres – small change when compared to riesling’s 4.4 million, chardonnay’s 26 million, sauvignon blanc’s 3.6 million, shiraz/shiraz blends’ 16.8 million, cabernet/cabernet merlot’s 14.3 million or merlot’s 6.4 million litres.

But what excites winemakers is rose’s rate of growth and the fact that it can move from vineyard to consumer in a matter of weeks, providing cash flow and profitability in a glutted and difficult market.

Indeed, the glut of red varieties pouring from new vineyards is one of the driving forces behind rose’s mini boom. Just a few years back, winemakers unable to meet demand for full-bodied reds, would never have dreamed of making rose from these varieties.

Today it’s not only possible but also a profitable adjunct to red-wine making. By bleeding juice from vats of shiraz, cabernet or any other red variety, following a short period of skin contact (the colour is all in the skin), the winemaker has a lovely pink component for making rose. And what’s left in the vat enjoys a higher skin to juice ratio – meaning more colour and substance for the resulting red wine.

This bleeding process, generally known under its French name, ‘saignee’, probably lies behind most of the hundreds of bland roses now seeking our attention.

A proponent of the saignee method — one of Australia’s most successful rose producers — Geoff Merrill, made his first rose in 1976. But to Geoff, the first and most critical step towards good rose lies in the vineyard.

“You have to get the fruit right to establish varietally correct flavour”, says Geoff. For his benchmark Geoff Merrill Grenache Rose – a regular medal winner in shows — that means harvesting fruit of quite high potential alcohol from 85-year-old McLaren Vale vines.

Because Geoff seeks the same fruit flavours in his grenache-based table wine, the saignee method works well. After 24 hours soaking on skins the now pink juice – about 45 per cent of the total – heads off for cool, protective fermentation as if it were a white wine. (The portion destined for red-wine production undergoes a warmer fermentation on skins).

The rose component retains a delicious natural fruitiness and achieves a high alcohol content as it ferments to dryness – its opulence eliminating any need for the residual grape sugar that props up less fruity roses.

The result is one of the most lovely, fruity, dry roses with the distinctive musk and pepper notes of grenache.

In the Barossa Valley, Charlie Melton, too, chooses grenache as the base for the superb Rose of Virginia but seasons it with a little cabernet sauvignon and pinot meunier “to stop the confection character that grenache sometimes shows”.

Charlies sources his fruit from 15 different vineyard plots, purpose managed to produce rose. So, for Charlies, there’s no ‘saignee’. All of the juice makes rose.

The various components reach the winery over a six-week period and undergo skin contact of varying duration – from eight hours to three days, depending on the structure of the fruit and the components made to date – prior to cool, protective fermentation.

Like Merrill’s McLaren Vale wine, Rose of Virginia is a benchmark of the rose style. And Charlie tells me he doubled production in 2004 and sold all of it – but he’ll be sitting pat for a while now.

Rose’s recent explosive growth, albeit from a low base, has drawn in the big players as well as hundreds of small makers to join accomplished makers like Merrill and Melton.

While Hardy’s Banrock Station White Shiraz slugs it out with Orlando’s Jacobs Creek Shiraz Rose for number one spot, countless new labels continue to appear from all over Australia and made from every red variety.

Many are just crap. Take the sugar and alcohol out and there’s nothing left. But there are some lovely gems for those prepared to sift through the dust — or is that bulldust.

Geoff Merrill McLaren Vale Grenache Rose 2004, $13.49 to $18.99
Geoff Merrill has been making rose successfully from McLaren Vale grenache since 1976 – turning what was once an undervalued variety into delicious, fruity, crisp and slightly sweet pink wine. Over the years the style has become almost completely dry as the opulent, musky/peppery fruit quality became more pronounced and mouth filling. The latest one is simply scrumptious when you want a full-flavoured, fruity and crisp dry wine. It’s at its best served slightly chilled in warmer weather, especially outdoors where the brilliant purple-tinged pink colour often becomes the centre of attention.

Tigress Tasmania Rose 2004, $23-$25
This 100 per cent pinot noir rose provides an absolute contrast to the fleshy, fruity, opulent Geoff Merrill, warm-climate style. Winemaker Fran Austin says she draws juice from particularly ripe batches of pinot noir destined for the red wine vats. The drawn off juice, because of its brief skin contact and the inherent paleness of pinot, has just a wash of pink through it. But it offers what Fran calls an ‘essence of pinot’ character: there’s a subtle, raspberry-like fragrance and flavour on a dry and delicate palate with pleasing backbone and a racy acidity that refreshes beautifully. What the Merrill and Tigress roses share is a purity of regional and varietal expression. That, to me, is good rose.

Beware the wine scammers

13 March 2005WineChris Shanahan

The recent collapse of wine investment companies Heritage Fine Wines and Wine Orb underlines the high risk to consumers of investing in wine through a third party. And a search through the price realisations at Langton’s Auctions suggests the secondary market is a buyer’s paradise and a devilishly difficult place to make money even when you do go it alone.

On the demise of Wine Orb, investdrinks.org — a website published by freelance drinks journalist Jim Budd — comments, “The circular [to creditors from administrator Ngan & Company on January 28th, 2005] also indicates that the deficiency totals $AU956,813, of this $195,000 may be owed by client investors for wine storage and insurance. The total deficiency does not include any shortfalls in investors’ wine stocks. Wine stocks in storage ‘are on the basis that all wine stocks are stored in bulk and not under the name of individual clients or investors’. All investors’ wine stocks, especially those for superannuation purposes, should have been properly stored under the individual’s name. That Wine Orb did not bother with this elementary precaution is surely highly indicative of the type of operation this was”.

Just what the fate is of those holding wine investment stocks with Sydney-based Heritage Fine Wines is not clear at this stage. Heritage placed itself into administration with Ngan & Co on March 2nd, about a year after beginning the transition from wine investment towards database wine retailing.

According to investdrinks.org, both companies had connections with dubious characters, although last year Heritage had severed its ties with Simon Farid, “who remains on the UK Financial Services Authority’s prohibited individual list”. (For more details, see the website – investdrinks.org).

The clear conclusion from this is to avoid spruikers. Promises of big and easy profits in wine are as empty as in any other get-rich-quick scheme.

It is possible to make money from wine. But it’s difficult and requires research, acumen, timing and luck. As a collectible, the profit to be made is simply the gap between buying and selling prices less storage, transport and transaction costs.

To give a guide of wine-price movements over time, Langtons auctions publishes the Langton’s Fine Wine Index, endorsed by Access Economics. The LFWI shows price movements on a basket of 28 Australian wines from the 1986, 1990 and 1994 vintages. The wines are all established performers from Langton’s Classification of Australian Wine (see Langtons.com.au).

However, the index is fairly narrowly based and any attempt to compare it, as some do, with the all ordinaries index or ASX 200 ignores the fact that shares provide dividends as well as potential capital appreciation. Comparison with an accumulation index might give a better indication of the comparative returns on wine and shares.

And, where share transactions attract comparatively low broking commissions – a per cent or two at most — selling wine at auction attracts commissions of up to 13.75 per cent. It is possible to sell wine free of commission direct to a licensed retailer or restaurant. Most are not interested but Vintage Cellars (part of the Coles Myer Liquor Group), for example, employs a full time broker, Melbourne based John Newton, to deal in the secondary market. Where demand exists, John tends to buy close to the current auction price – an attractive proposition for sellers.

For most sellers, however, the auction house remains the only practicable route to market. And this will probably increase in importance as both major retailers now stockpile the best wines for later release and will be, presumably, less interested in buying from collectors.

This, of course, complicates matters for would-be wine investors as the big retailers only buy at wholesale prices but tend to resell even older vintages at comparatively sharp prices.

Two other potentially significant costs for wine investors are storage and insurance. Provenance is increasingly important for buyers on the secondary market. So, it’s essential to store wine in ideal cool, dark conditions. And insurance is essential now with theft of valuable wine collections increasingly common.

So much of this is the mechanics of storing and selling. What of the selection and buying, arguably the most crucial step? That is the hardest part. There’s no other way but to research, seek advice and when the decision about what to buy has been made, attempt to buy as close to wholesale price as possible.

You can always drink your mistakes of course. But if, like the Chateau Shanahan buying team, you’ve decided it’s more fun to drink wine than invest in it, you might take a look at Langton’s web site price realisations. There you’ll find the delicious, mature Penfolds Grange 1981 at $300 — $100 below the retail price of the current release 1999 – amongst many other bargains.

Aluminium giants Alcan and Alcoa join the wine-seal fray

30 January 2005WineChris Shanahan

The battle for the top of the bottle is diversifying as the pure-cork monopoly crumbles. What was once the domain of the cork came under challenge from synthetic plugs in cheaper wines in the mid nineties before being blown wide open by recent widespread acceptance of screw cap sealed premium wines.

But the synthetic plug and the screw cap are just the beginning of the story. Driven initially by winemaker dissatisfaction with cork (too many cork tainted bottles; too much oxidation), the quest for alternatives has been taken up by businesses large and small eager to grab a slice of the world’s multi-billion unit market.

The Australian wine industry alone expects to seal about one billion bottles in 2005.

According to Vinpac International – the packaging subsidiary of Beringer Blass Wine Estates (a subsidiary of the Fosters Group) – cork and synthetic plugs will seal about 850 million of those bottles and screw caps the remaining 150 million.

Of the estimated 850 million plugs to be used, 250 million will be whole natural cork; 350 million ‘technical cork’ (cork agglomerate with pure cork discs at the end); and 250 million synthetic.

The screw cap’s 15 per cent share of this market is impressive given its recent arrival, its focus on the top end of the market and the major investments made by glass manufacturers to produce thread-top bottles and by winemakers to install application equipment.

Clearly, it was an idea whose time had come and was embraced both by winemakers and consumers of high-quality wine.

However, since the screw cap went mainstream as the only viable non-plug seal in Australia and New Zealand, at least two other technologies have emerged – Zork from a small Adelaide-based operator and Vino-Lok, manufactured in Worms, Germany by the giant Alcoa.

Zork, first released last year on d’Arenberg ‘The Footbolt’ McLaren Vale Shiraz 2002, looks like Ned Kelly’s helmet. It’s a plug, but the plug doesn’t form the seal. It’s there to make a little ‘pop’ on extraction. The barrier between wine and air is a little disc inside the hood – very similar in principle to how a screw cap works: an impermeable, neutral disc squished onto the lip of the bottle.

A tamper-proof coil of plastic holds Zork in place. Tear the tamper-proof coil away and the plug slips effortlessly into and out of the bottle. Had Zork arrived on the scene a few years earlier it may have offered a serious alternative to screw caps if only because it can be used on any standard wine bottle.

But with the screw cap entrenched in the market and major capital investments already implemented by bottle manufacturers (to produce thread-top bottles) and in winery application facilities, Zork looks to be, for the time being at least, a niche player in the domestic market. Despite this, Zork’s John Brooks says support from a number of McLaren Vale wineries and De Iuliis in the Hunter Valley keeps the production line at full capacity.

However, with production capability about to increase tenfold, Zork’s hopes of becoming a mainstream cork alternative lie in the United States where vignerons show far less commitment to the screw cap and a number of major players, including Mondavi and Kendall Jackson, have commenced Zork trials.

The next mainstream plug alternative, perhaps the most elegant looking of the new seals, is Alcoa’s Vino-Lok, a glass stopper with a synthetic o-ring that forms the airtight seal. Concealed beneath an aluminium capsule, not unlike those on traditional cork sealed bottles (remember them?), the glass stopper lifts out after.

Perhaps there’s a touch of irony that Alcoa, a giant aluminium producer (turnover $US23.5 billion), should chose a glass stopper to take on the aluminium Stelvin – the world’s leading wine screw cap, manufactured by Pechiney, a subsidiary of Alcan, a similarly gigantic aluminium producer ($US25.7 billion turnover).

That companies of this scale should enter the wine-seal market tells us where they believe the future lies. For drinkers this portends a new era of easy to open bottles filled with bright, fruity, untainted wine.

Wine review — Miramar & Gibson

23 January 2005Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Miramar Mudgee Chardonnay 2000, $15 at cellar door
The trophy-winning Miramar Chardonnay 1984 was the most memorable wine of the 2003 Mudgee Regional Wine Show. For a nineteen year old it showed extraordinary vibrance and varietal flavour in combination with mellow, aged character. It was just one of a continuing line of age-worthy estate-grown-chardonnays made by Ian McRae at Miramar. Indeed, Ian releases all of his chardonnays with considerable bottle age. The current release, from the small 2000 vintage, shows bright melon-like varietal character and tremendous freshness plus all the textural and flavour complexities that come from fermentation and maturation in new American oak barrels and prolonged bottle ageing. This is an irresistibly delicious drop and a sensational bargain at $15. Cellar door, phone 02 6373 3874

Gibson Barossa Vale Shiraz 2002, about $33.50
Rob Gibson earned a big reputation in the wine industry during twenty years with Penfolds, working at what he calls ‘the interface between winery and vineyards’. With wife Anne, Rob founded Gibson Barossa Vale Wines in 1996 with vineyards in Stockwell and Light Pass in the Northern Barossa. This beautiful red, sourced mainly from the Stockwell vineyard, expresses the power, juicy richness and soft, almost tender, tannins of northern Barossa shiraz. Good oak is an integral part of the wine, lifting the fruit and adding its own flavour and structural complexities. This is a way-above-average newcomer to the market and worth its price. Winery phone number is 08 8562 3193.

Brewing Dutch and German favourites in Sydney

23 January 2005Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Rather than being embittered by a long-term decline in Australia’s per capita beer consumption (129.3 litres in 1989; 89 litres in 2001), Australian brewers sought to excite and entice beer drinkers with new products. Hence, the creation over the past decade and more of light beers, mid-strength beer, dry beers, cold filtered beers etc.

Despite all these artefacts, though, what finally excited consumers and brewers were beers with flavour and character – the increasing diversity and quantity of premium local and imported ales and lagers now tempting us in bars, restaurants and retail stores.

While this represents just eight per cent by volume of the 1,700 million litres of beer consumed annually in Australia, the premium and imported segment continues to grow rapidly and has the potential, some say, to take 15 per cent of the market.

With every percentage point representing 17 million litres, that’s potentially an extra 119 million litres up for grabs.

At present that wonderful diversity of beers comes to us through a few small brewers, a host of small importers, several national importer/distributors, and our two giant domestic brewers, Fosters and Lion Nathan.

The big brewers compete with both domestically brewed beer and imports. Fosters brews Crown Lager and owns the Matilda Bay brewery in Western Australia and the Cascade Brewery in Tasmania; Lion Nathan brews Hahn Premium and owns Sydney’s Malt Shovel Brewery, creator of James Squire beers.

Through its Carlton Special Beverages subsidiary, Fosters also imports and distributes a range of beers including Belgium’s Stella Artois, while Lion Nathan brings in Steinlager from its own New Zealand brewery, plus Holland’s Heineken and Germany’s Beck’s.

The sheer scale of Foster’s and Lion Nathan places them in a dominant position to capitalise on this growing market for top end product. Indeed, Lion Nathan’s growing volumes have allowed it to begin contract brewing in Sydney of Heineken and Beck’s.

If all goes to plan, we should be enjoying Australian-brewed Heineken by March and Beck’s before the end of June. But will we taste a difference?

Lion Nathan Chief Brewer, Bill Taylor, believes not. He also believes that drinkers will benefit by enjoying fresher beer. “And the real jewel will be draft beer”, he said. “In Australia, local draft beers tend to be served ultra fresh, just one to two weeks old”. Imported drafts can be three months old before they go on tap.

And what does it take to brew a replica Heineken?

Taylor says that the distribution of Heineken has been done through a joint venture company, Heineken Lion, and that the intention always was to brew locally once a critical volume had been achieved.

The Heineken team selected Lion’s Sydney brewery as the most suited and trials began in 2004, conducted by Bill Taylor’s team and a brewer from Heineken.

Taylor views the exercise as a great learning experience for his young brewers. “You have to capture the essence of what makes that beer taste different. To do that you have to respect another brewer’s approach and philosophy and make different decisions”.

While the raw ingredients – malted barley, hops and yeast – are specified and supplied either by Heineken or Heineken approved European suppliers, every detail of the brewing process counts in capturing the right aromas and flavours.

For example, with Heineken, Taylor says his team learned that hydrostatic pressure influenced the performance of yeasts in producing subtle but crucial aroma esters. As a result only partially filled upright fermenters could be used in the trials and shallower, horizontal fermenters are being installed for full-scale production.

After trial brews got the tick from Bill’s team and the Heineken brewer, samples went to Holland for tasting and analysis. Just before Christmas approval came through and the Sydney team is now gearing up for full production and release of locally brewed Heineken by March.

Similarly with Beck’s the decision to brew locally followed market success. Again the brewing crew have to embrace the Beck’s philosophy, work with a Beck’s brewer and source ingredients from Becks’ approved European suppliers.

Amongst the dozens of details to master, says Bill, is capturing Beck’s distinctive, pale, colour – achieved by using Beck’s pale malt and ‘a delicate use of heat in fermentation, somewhat untypical of other brewers’.

And because Beck’s abides by Germany’s sixteenth century beer purity law (Rheinheitsgebot), even little things like achieving a specific pH in the wort prior to fermentation has to be achieved in the brewing process.

The ultimate result according to Bill is to brew, in Sydney’s western suburb, a beer that tastes just like the original rich, bitter, pilsner-style lager from Bremen, northern Germany.

We’ll be able to make our own judgement before mid-year.

Beck’s of Bremen Beer, $15 to $18 a 6 pack
By mid year you’ll be able to try Beck’s brewed locally under licence by Lion Nathan’s Tooheys Brewery, Sydney. Right now both the draft and package versions come from Beck’s Brewery in Bremen, Germany. Their own description of it as having a ‘pure, fresh crisp, pilsner taste’ is on the money, if a bit short on detail. It’s notably paler than most international lager styles, but this belies the very rich, malty flavour and intensely bitter hops that balance the maltiness to deliver the ‘crisp, pilsner taste’. In the hops department, it’s certainly more assertive, both in aroma, flavour and bitterness, than Australian commercial lagers and, therefore, to this palate at least, all the more appealing.