Those who say that too much gewürztraminer (aka traminer) is too much of a good thing are probably right. It’s one of the most instantly recognisable of wines and a joy to drink in small doses.

But it’s hard to find the good ones because Australia grows so little of it – about six thousand tonnes annually compared to riesling’s thirty thousand and chardonnay’s 250 thousand. And most of what we do make goes to cheaper large volume blends.

Those deliciously grapey, sweetish blends – usually with riesling — have provided an entry point into wine drinking for millions of Australians over the last forty years, starting in the sixties with Penfolds Bin 202 Traminer Riesling and continuing today with the likes of Rosemount Estate, McGuigan and Hardys RR.

A little splash of traminer adds a lot to a wine. Its pink berries deliver heady lychee-like aromas, with matching opulence on the palate, and often, especially when grown in warm climates, a viscous to oily texture – striking characteristics but also ones that tend to limit our intake.

Although the world’s largest plantings today are in Alsace, France, Jancis Robinson writes that it was ‘first mentioned as growing in the village of Tramin, or Termeno, in the higher reaches of the Etsch Valley in what is now the Italian Tyrol, around the year 1000’.

Alsace remains, too, the model for top-end new-world producers including those in Australia and New Zealand. Most of the production is of dry versions — and these can be sublime – but in great years like 1976 exceptionally long-lived sweeter versions emerge.

In Australia, the lack of demand for top-end gewürztraminers tends to limit production, despite the existence of some wonderful old vineyards. But the sheer passion of some winemakers keeps the flame burning.

The converted need no urging. But adventurous palates can have a flavour adventure sipping the Australian gewürztraminers below. They represent pretty well the whole spectrum of dry styles from the juicy, plum warm climate versions like Olivine and Skillogalee from the Hunter and Clare respectively, to the leaner more intense versions from cool Macedon (Hanging Rock) and Coal River, Tasmania (Bay of Fires).

This is an in-your-face variety. But it’s an essential and unforgettable experience for anyone with even a passing interest in flavour.

Hanging Rock ‘The Jim Jim’ Macedon Ranges Gewürztraminer 2004 $27
If there’s such a thing as the finer face of traminer, this is it. There’s a thread of grapefruit-like zestiness cutting through the distinctive flavours. Outstanding.

Terrace Vale Hunter Vale Old Vine Gewürztraminer 2005 $18.50
This one’s lower in alcohol, meaning less astringency and lighter body. But it still has attractive, musky varietal flavour and characteristic tannin bite in the finish. Value.

Skillogalee Clare Valley Gewürztraminer 2005 $20
Clare’s warm climate shows in Skillogalee’s plump, even voluptuous style. It’s thoroughly delicious, plump and juicy with traminer’s familiar bite in the finish. Seductive.

Penfolds Cellar Reserve Woodbury Vineyard Eden Valley Gewürztraminer 2005 $30
From the old Tollana Woodbury Vineyard comes this sensational white that grows in interest with every sip and will probably age well. A classic for the cellar.

Delatite Dead Man’s Hill Mansfield Gewürztraminer 2004 $20
Something of a signature wine for the Ritchie family – beautifully balanced and smooth with attractive musk-like varietal flavour. Subtle and expressive.

Pewsey Vale Eden Valley Gewürztraminer 2006 $22
The clear value-for-money champ of the line up offers extraordinary, pure, lychee-musk varietal expression. Outstanding.

Olivine Hunter Valley Gewürztraminer 2005 $19
The aroma promises opulence — and the sleek, slippery, lychee-like palate delivers it. Sourced from old vines in the Upper Hunter. Outstanding value for money.

Bay of Fires Coal Bay Tasmania Gewürztraminer 2005 $25
Shows the zesty citrusy flavours and tight, dry palate of cool-grown fruit. Musky varietal flavours are there, too. Not entirely convincing.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2007

The wooden barrel, one of the most enduring of all wine vessels, was used originally for storage and transportation some 2000 years ago. Its value today, though, lies in its ability to clarify, stabilise and add complex aromas and flavours to wine and set the scene for further flavour development in bottle.

Until about the third century AD the two-handled stone amphora carried Etruscan, Greek and Roman wine across the world’s extensive trade routes. But at around about that time the flow of wine from Rome to her northern colonies reversed to be replaced by wooden barrels of Gaulish wine heading south.

These Celtic barrels, according to Hugh Johnson in ‘The Story of Wine’ (Mitchell Beazley, London, 1989) differ little from the ones we use today.

The Romans replaced iron hoops with wooden bands. But iron made a comeback in the seventeenth century. And today’s barrels, while shorter and fatter than those used by the Gauls and Romans, remain pretty much unchanged.

The wooden barrel, while lighter and easier to handle than the amphora, proved not as completely airtight, making it unsuited for long-term storage of table wine. However, its use for bulk transport lasted until after world war two.

An explosion in table wine consumption from the 1970s brought with it a growing demand for oak barrels for maturation (and sometimes fermentation) of high-quality table wines.

Australia’s icon, Penfolds Grange was perhaps the first to be matured in all-new oak, beginning with Max Schubert’s first, experimental Grange in 1951.

Max made two almost identical wines that year: the experimental Grange, partly fermented and all matured in new American oak hogsheads, and a control batch matured in a well-seasoned 4550 litre cask.

Max later wrote of the experimental wine: “… The raw wood was not so apparent but the fruit characteristics had become pronounced and defined… it was almost as if the new wood had acted as a catalyst to release previously unsuspected flavours and aromas…”

The great reds of Bordeaux had inspired Max. And French originals inspired another generation to emulate the magic of white and red Burgundy (chardonnay and pinot noir) and Bordeaux (cabernet sauvignon and related varieties). Again, oak played a crucial if challenging role.

Even the most casual wine drinker absorbed some awareness of the role oak plays in wine making — thanks largely to the explosion of chardonnay consumption and the often overt oak flavours found in our favourite tipples.

During years of rapid growth, our wine makers become incredibly good at making chardonnay of the oak-fermented-and-matured variety — even if they did over-oak it at times.

But oaked chardonnays remain in the majority today because, as Max Schubert found in making the original Grange, oak properly used acts “as a catalyst to release previously unsuspected flavours and aromas”.

With chardonnay, as with red wine, it is the oxidative environment as well as the type of oak, how it is seasoned, how it is toasted, how the wine is made, when it goes into the barrel, how long it stays there and what the ambient temperature is that influence the finished wine.

Our wine makers didn’t learn how to cope with all those variables in one vintage.

The cumulative knowledge of the last thirty years, shared amongst wine makers, means we drink ever better oak-matured reds and whites. But the quest to get it right goes on – every vintage.

Wine Reviews

Peter Lehmann Barossa Semillon 2005 $11-$14
In a former life Barossa semillon enjoyed great popularity, as Basedows White Burgundy. Over time, this fairly heavy, oak matured white declined and disappeared. R.I.P Barossa semillon. Then the Peter Lehmann gang (including Peter Lehmann, Andrew Wigan and Doug Lehmann, former Basedow winemaker) threw out the oak to make a fresh, zesty, citrusy style that’s now the company’s biggest selling white and a model for other Barossa makers. Lehmann’s yummy unwooded 2005 won silver in last year’s Barossa Show and its cellar mates, the very fine, slow maturing 2001 and 2002 Reserve Semillons, won gold medals.

De Bortoli Yarra Valley Estate Grown Pinot Noir 2005 $27
This is another barrel-matured wine that grows in interest with each glass. It’s the product of the much-changed De Bortoli approach to viticultural and winemaking reported here last year. Hand picked, hand sorted whole berries underwent indigenous yeast fermentation in open tanks with cap plunging only towards the end of the ferment. After twenty-one days in contact with the skins, the wine was settled then gravity filled to oak casks for maturation then bottled without filtration. This low-intervention regime produced a complex, fine, intensely flavoured, deeply textured pinot to savour any time over the next ten years.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2007