In the last few years the very best Canberra district wines have increased in number and quality. Importantly, more wines have streaked away from the me-too ranks to stand comparison with the best of similar styles from Australia and, in one instance, the world.

Having judged the local regional show for some years the lift in quality has been palpable – as shown in a comparison of the results from last week’s event with those from 2005.

The number of entries increased by eleven per cent from 207 to 230. But the number of medal winning wines soared by forty-four per cent from 63 to 91 and the medal strike rate lifted from thirty per cent of wines entered to forty per cent.

Shiraz, to me, remains the greatest strength, not just for Canberra but for neighbouring districts eligible for the show. The 2005s in particular offer pure drinking pleasure in a generally supple, plush, elegant style.

We revelled our way through eleven 2005 vintage shirazes and awarded a remarkable four gold, two silver and four bronze medals.

Two of the gold medallists – Meeting Place and Mount Majura — are from Canberra, with one each from Gundagai (Paterson’s) and Young (Chalkers Crossing).

Meeting Place, our top ranking of the four gold medallists went on to win trophies as best shiraz, best red of the show and best wine. It’s simply stunning. Unfortunately, Hardy’s, owner of the Meeting Place brand, say they plan to release it late next year – a decision completely out of touch with the drink-now pleasure of this wine style.

The 2004 and earlier vintage shirazes were a joy to judge, too, producing thirteen medals, including two golds, from twenty-eight entries. Mount Majura’s delicious 2004 topped this group, followed closely by McWilliams Barwang Shiraz Viognier (Young) with silver medallists Meeting Place 2003, Chalkers Crossing 2004 (Young), Lambert Reserve 2004 and First Creek Shiraz Viognier delivering lovely flavours.

Canberra held a monopoly on the riesling honours and did it with real class. Surveyor’s Hill and Brindabella Hill, both from Hall and both made at Brindabella Hills, earned gold in the 2006 field, with Ravensworth (Murrumbateman) a tad behind on silver. And Helm of Murrumbateman earned gold and silver for a couple of delightful 2005s.

Those top rieslings easily bear comparison with the best from Clare or Eden Valley – the usual Aussie benchmarks. With a bit more attention to winemaking detail some of the poor performers in this year’s show – oxidation was the main problems – could be on the winners’ podium. Clearly our district suits this variety.

The top chardonnay of the show McWilliams Barwang 2005 came from Tumbarumba – continuing a consistent winning thread for this very cool area. The other gold-medal chardonnay was Centennial Vineyards Woodside 2004 (Southern Highlands).

Three very attractive cabernets earned gold. The deep, rich trophy-winning McKellar Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Franc 2005 (Murrumbateman) came in a nose ahead of Grove Estate The Partners 2005 (Young) and McWilliams Barwang 2002 (Young). As a group, however, the cabernets lacked freshness and generosity.

A couple of exciting viogniers – Meeting Place 2005 (silver) and First Creek 2005 (gold & trophy) – showed yet again Canberra’s great potential for this variety. And the success of Ravensworth Sangiovese 2005 (gold and trophy) suggests a good future with this Italian variety.

For the full list of results go to rncas.org.au.

Ravensworth Canberra District Sangiovese 2005 $22
I recommended this now gold medal winner back in March as a wine that “just needs a little time in bottle to emerge as a vibrant and sophisticated expression of the variety”.  As noted earlier this is one of the best Australian shots I’ve seen with this Italian variety, standing out for its bright, pure fruit aroma and flavour and taut, fine tannin structure. It’s developed beautifully with six months in the bottle and should continue to build in complexity and interest for many years. It bowled us judges over at last week’s Canberra Regional Wine Show. www.ravensworthwines.com.au.

Surveyors Hill Canberra District Riesling 2006 $25
Leigh Hobba’s Surveyors Hill vineyard produced the fruit for this stunning trophy and gold medal winning riesling. It was made for Leigh at Roger and Faye Harris’s Brindabella Hills Winery, about a kilometre from the Surveyors Hill vineyard. Leigh tells me that each year Roger gives trainee winemaker, Brian Sinclair, a project wine of his own and in 2006 this was it. The wine shows pristine varietal aromatics and intense but delicate palate with beautiful, fresh acid balance. It’s classic riesling and could hold its own in any company. Release is imminent, enquiries to Leigh Hobba 6230 2046

First Creek Canberra District Viognier 2005 $20
Expatriate Canberran, Jim Chatto, makes First Creek Viognier at the Monarch Winery, Pokolbin, from fruit grown on the Fischer family’s Nanima vineyard, Murrumbateman. It was one of two outstanding viognier’s exhibited at the Canberra Regional Show. In contrast to the purely varietal silver-medal runner up, our gold-medallist was a notably more complex wine showing the textural, aroma and flavour impacts of barrel fermentation beautifully integrated with the plush, distinctive, apricot-like viognier flavour. Like most top-notch viogniers, it’s a wine of huge flavour impact and should be savoured in small, intense doses. Cellar door phone 02 4998 7293.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Believe it or not, there’s a move away in some wineries from the ‘sunshine in a bottle’ or ‘fruit bomb’ styles that propelled our wines to international success.

That it can be desirable for fruit to be ‘dumbed down’ — to use Kamberra winemaker, Alex McKay’s, words – can be tasted in some of our best top-shelf chardonnays, including Kamberra’s current release 2004 from Tumbarumba.

In chardonnays of this style, a combination of fruit sourcing and winemaking practice turns down the volume on exuberant peach and melon varietal character to deliver a more complex flavour – a matrix permeated by fruit but significantly influenced by winemaker inputs.

Proponents of these styles argue that ‘fruit bomb’ wines are one dimensional, boring, not compatible with food and, in their emphasis on ripe flavours, come all too often with forbiddingly high alcohol readings.

The quest for more subtle, complex, food friendly wines usually includes at its heart the French concept of terroir – the idea that a wine expresses in its flavour and structure the sum of all the influences on a certain vineyard in a certain location.

For Leanne De Bortoli and husband, Steve Webber, in the Yarra Valley, the shift away from ‘sunshine in a bottle’ began about five years ago. Says Steve, “We changed our thinking about wine. We were winning awards but felt that wine should taste of where it’s grown. It should have a sense of place. Anyone can make wine expressing sunshine and oak”.

The change of thinking led to alteration of the whole wine-production chain – from management in of the company’s Dixon’s Creek Vineyard to fruit handling and sorting, and to fermentation and maturation regimes.

As a result, the wines have become less alcoholic, less oaky, more complex and more intensely fruity at the core – without being in the brash ‘fruit bomb’ mould.

Change began in the vineyard, most radically with the re-establishment of some areas from west and north facing slopes to east facing slopes. Where earlier thinking had been to maximise sun exposure on those northern and westerns slopes, experience had shown that these captured too much sun, especially in the afternoons, producing over ripe and, at times, sunburned fruit.

Sections of the vineyard not replanted – including terrific old vines dating from 1971 –have been significantly retrained to restrict yields and to produce leaf canopies that encourage ripeness while protecting fruit from direct sun exposure.

Under the new viticultural regime, Steve has been successfully harvesting grapes at lower sugar levels (hence, lower alcohol content in the wine) without losing ripe, well-defined, varietal flavour.

These grapes, of course, are at the heart of the wines. They’re hand picked into small buckets, to avoid breaking, then hand sorted, to eliminate sub-standard fruit, before being tipped – not pumped – to vessels for fermentation by indigenous yeasts.

The combination of grape quality, earlier picking, gentle handling, minimal intervention, spontaneous fermentation and careful use of oak is doing the trick – delivering wonderfully appealing, complex wines of subtlety rather than in-your-face fruitiness.

While the Aussie fruit-bomb style remains valid, what Leanne De Bortoli and Steve Webber demonstrate is that subtle, vineyard driven wines can deliver a higher level of drinking pleasure.

It’s wines like those being made by De Bortoli in the Yarra Valley that can drive the next, much needed, regionally focused phase of Australia’s export drive.

De Bortoli Yarra Valley Sauvignon 2006 $22
If one wine displays – deliciously — the fruit muting underway at DeBortoli Yarra Valley, it’s sauvignon blanc. They’ve even pruned the name to ‘sauvignon’, indicating that’s something’s up. And what’s up begins with low yields in the vineyard, hand picking, gentle handling and spontaneous fermentation (i.e. no cultured yeast added) in old oak barrels. Instead of the more customary brash, bright and pungent cold-fermented sauvignon blanc, De Bortoli’s — while still refreshing, juicy and unmistakably sauvignon — is more subtle. It’s like a varietal echo, muffled by a textural richness and secondary flavours derived from barrel fermentation and maturation, lees contact and yeast tag-team behind the ferment. Released October.

De Bortoli Yarra Valley Reserve Release Syrah 2004 $35 – $38
Few reds pulse and ripple across the palate like this sensational 2004. It’s opulent, silky, velvety, plush, juicy, utterly compelling, seductive and irresistible. What’s behind it? The great fruit of low yielding, mature vines (planted 1971); hand picking; hand elimination of all but perfect grape bunches; a high level of whole-bunches in the ferment (equals brighter fruit and gentler tannin extraction); and maturation in well-matched oak barrels. If you’re looking for something really special, this is as good an investment in pure drinking pleasure as you’ll find. This is one of the most exciting wines I’ve tried in years.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Talking to a few local winemakers recently led to a little flurry of samples arriving on the tasting bench. While far from a comprehensive review of what the district has to offer, tasting the wines confirmed a view that Canberra excels with shiraz, looks increasingly good with riesling and offers pretty good value at the cellar door outlets sprinkled around our large district.

Sipping through an impressive shiraz line up, word came through that Lerida Estate Lake George Shiraz 2005 and Lambert Wamboin Shiraz 2004 had both won gold medals at the recent NSW Small Winemakers Wine Show, held in Forbes.

Both missed my tasting. But on their gold medal performances would’ve added to a very solid line up.
Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier 2005 led the charge (see Top Drops), but that’s no surprise for a wine that’s been in the making for thirty years and in its present style, more or less, since 1992.

While there’s considerable variation in the local shirazes, there’s a consistent thread dictated by our comparatively cool climate. This means varietal expression built on fragrance plus peppery, spicy, savoury flavours and fine-boned structure.

For those choosing, like Clonakilla, to include a portion of the white viognier in the blend, there’s an extra floral lift to the aroma and suppleness to the palate. In some wines, however, the viognier weighs in a little too heavily, throwing things off balance.

But as Tim Kirk found at Clonakilla in the mid nineties, getting the right balance is a matter of time and practice – at the rate of only one vintage per year.

Kamberra’s Shiraz Viognier 2004 goes close to the mark although I’m sure the ever-restless Alex McKay has even better wines on the way through. Bryan Martin’s Ravensworth Shiraz Viognier 2005, after a few months in bottle, seems to have tilted a little too far in viognier input although it’s still an appealing drop.

Of the straight Shirazes tasted, Meeting Place 2003 (from Kamberra) offers solid, tasty value at $15; Brindabella Hills 2004 is a standout (see Top Drops) and Clonakilla Hilltops Shiraz 2005 (from nearby Young) is also outstanding, albeit in a considerably more robust mould than the Murrumbateman wine.

A couple of local merlots looked above average, if green in comparison to the supple, ripe shirazes – but that seems to be the case generally in Australia. I rated the Gallagher 2005 a nose ahead of the elegant Brindabella Hills 2004.

The very pleasant, vibrant, cedary/leafy Brindabella Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 won’t challenge Coonawarra but, to my taste, delivered more appeal than Helm Cabernet 2003 or Premium Cabernet 2003.

Canberra’s 2006 rieslings offer great excitement. Although I rated Gallagher 2006 a touch ahead of Helm Premium 2006 at the top, it was a close call — with another four wines in hot pursuit: Ravensworth 2006, Brindabella Hills 2006, Clonakilla 2006 and Helm Classic Dry 2006, followed by another appealing wine, Dionysus 2006.

Meeting Place Viognier 2005 is a full, tasty example of this Rhone grape variety. But it was outclassed by the amazingly deep, fine, slippery Clonakilla 2005.

The sole sauvignon blanc tasted, Brindabella Hills 2006 (Top Drops), is a ripper and Kamberra Tumbarumba 2004 (30) is a lovely example of complex, cool-grown, barrel fermented chardonnay.

While these wines provide a tasty snapshot of what Canberra produces, there’s lots more. We’ll look at these after the regional show in late September.

Brindabella Hills Canberra District Sauvignon Blanc 2006 $15
It seems appropriate that Dr Roger Harris — the scientist whose CSIRO colleagues identified methoxypyrazene compounds as sauvignon blanc’s pungent flavour source — should make such a wonderful expression of it. The 2006 is just delicious – fresh and zesty with juicy, refreshing tropical-fruit flavours to enjoy over the warm months ahead. It’s a bargain at $15, cellar door. And at $25 Brindabella Hills Shiraz 2004 offers the fragrant, fine-boned, savoury richness of cool climate shiraz. To my taste this is the best yet from Roger and Fay Harris’s vineyard on the lower, warmer Murrumbidgee Valley side of Hall.

Clonakilla Canberra District Shiraz Viognier 2005 $78
Canberra’s most celebrated wine easily topped a tasting of local shirazes at Chateau Shanahan this week. That it did so comes as no surprise. And it’s worth remembering, too, that like most style benchmarks Clonakilla is no overnight sensation. Shiraz from the Kirk family vineyard was blended with cabernet from the mid seventies until the first straight shiraz appeared in 1990. In 1992, Tim Kirk added viognier to the blend (from vineyards planted in 1986) and hit the spot with international critics consistently from the late nineties. What we see now is a highly perfumed, silky red of great intensity and remarkable finesse.

Meeting Place Canberra District Viognier 2005 $15
It’s grown on a new vineyard at Holt, it’s irrigated with grey water from the lower Molonglo treatment works and it’s already recognised as one of the best value viognier’s in Australia. If it lacks the restraint and depth of Clonakilla’s $50 version, it pleases with, pure, full, citrus/apricot flavour and thick, viscous texture of the variety — beautifully made at Kamberra Winery by Alex McKay. Alex believes that the wine will become increasingly intense and interesting in future vintages as the vines mature. While it’s probably best to enjoy the 2005 as a young wine, the 2004 is still remarkably fresh and enjoyable.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

After the decade-long, tenfold expansion described here last week, Canberra’s wine industry remains – from a drinker’s perspective, anyway — principally a boutique affair.

While the announcement of Hardy’s Kamberra project in 1997 encouraged several large vineyard plantings and delivered us one quite big and outstanding winery, the district’s identity still comes primarily from the wines of small producers.

If their numbers approximately doubled in that ten-year period – from about twenty to forty – the scale of individual operations remains tiny. According to the Australian Wine Industry Journal thirty-two of our forty-odd local vignerons own twelve hectares or less of vines each – and nineteen of those have less than five hectares.

Of the older, established operators, only Doonkuna touches the still modest twenty-hectare mark, thanks to a substantial expansion in the late nineties under Barry Moran.

The Journal also tells us that between 1998 and 2000 – at the peak of Australia’s vine-planting boom – we gained four substantial new vineyards that subsequently developed their own wine brands as well as selling grapes to other winemakers.

These were all established between Hardy’s announced arrival and the opening of its Kamberra winery, Watson, in 2000. By that time Long Rail Gully, Four Winds and Shaw Vineyard Estate at Murrumbateman had commenced planting twenty-two, twenty-one and thirty-two hectares respectively.

At nearby Hall, Wily Trout planted fifty hectares and at Holt, Kamberra, in a joint venture with Alan and Helen Anderson, established eighty-three hectares that deliver the core of Kamberra’s local intake.

But because the Journal records only winemaker plantings, it doesn’t reveal the extent of plantings by those purely in the grape supply business. Of course, these are of less direct interest to wine drinkers.

Canberra’s mainly tiny vineyard plots and cellar door outlets are scattered across a vast landscape, stretching from Yass to Murrumbateman to Hall to Holt to Mount Majura, to top of the Lake George Escarpment and down to its western foreshore,

These vineyards lie in a variety of soils and aspects and — probably more importantly in terms of wine style — cover a variety of altitudes from a little over five hundred metres on the Murrumbidgee Valley side of Hall, through the mid six hundred metres at Murrumbateman, to the low seven hundreds along Lake George and into the eight hundreds at the top of the escarpment near Wamboin and Lark Hill winery.

As the area under vines and the number of vignerons expanded over the last decade, so too did the district’s winemaking capital – in both physical and human terms. The new talent and new equipment, added to the previous quarter century’s learning, saw a marked increase in the number and quality of our very best wines, if not the elimination of all winemaking problems.

The decade also saw shiraz and, to a lesser extent, riesling step forward as our regional stars; the emergence of viognier as another outstanding performer; and promising debut’s from pinot gris, marsanne, sangiovese and tempranillo.

Chardonnay’s performance remained solid, if upstaged by those from nearby Tumbarumba; pinot noir hit several highs at Lark Hill and remains a contender in our higher, cooler sites; sauvignon blanc can be delicious as at Brindabella Hills; cabernet sauvignon has proven challenging; and merlot struggles for identity.

Importantly, the decade welcomed the arrival of several sophisticated, modern cellar door facilities, notably those of Kamberra, Lambert’s, Madew, Lerida Estate and Shaw Vineyard Estate – as well as food offerings at Pialligo Estate, Poachers Pantry and Yass Valley Wines.

Helm Classic Dry Riesling 2006 $25 & Premium Riesling 2006 $39
Ken Helm’s been out of the blocks quickly with his 2006 rieslings having hit a gold-medal score for the Premium Riesling at the recent Winewise Small Vignerons Awards and winning bronze medals for both in the 2006 Melbourne Show – where the cheaper Classic Dry outscored the Premium. This is not unusual as the softer, slightly sweeter Classic Dry has strong drink-now appeal where the more austere, slow-evolving Premium blossoms with a few years’ bottle age. Unquestionably to me the Premium is the better wine in the long run. Both are to be released on September first at cellar door, phone 6227 0555.

Gallagher Canberra District Riesling 2006 $17
In a tasting of eight local 2006 rieslings Gallagher and Helm Premium drew my top scores with the victory finally going to Gallagher by a tiny margin. This is a lovely, fresh, citrusy and delicate drop sourced from Graeme Lunney’s Four Winds Vineyard, Murrumbateman. The previous vintage, from the same vineyard, won gold at last year’s local show and this one seems to be of a similar quality, if a little more full flavoured. The pale, bright, colour, varietal purity and fine structure all suggest a long and interesting flavour evolution in bottle. Cellar door phone 6227 0555.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007