Yearly Archives: 2012

Wine review — Best’s, Chapel Hill and Good Catholic Girl

7 October 2012Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Best’s Great Western Riesling 2012 $22.80–$27
The cool 2012 produced beautiful rieslngs in eastern Australia. Those from the Clare heartland are spectacular. Canberra’s best remain austere at present, but the fruit’s there waiting to push through. And this gorgeous wine from Great Western, Victoria, shows the best features of the vintage: beautiful, floral and musk aroma; intense, juicy, mouth-watering, citrus-like varietal flavour; and racy, exhilarating acidity. A small amount of residual sugar fills out the palate, subtly offsetting the high acidity but without apparent sweetness. The wine comes from Best’s property, including the old Rhymney Vineyard.

Chapel Hill McLaren Vale Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2011 $16–$18
Winemaker Michael Fragos succeeds with this attractive white in a very difficult vintage. The wet conditions promoted fungal disease and what fruit survived the onslaught tended to show the skinny fruit flavour and high acidity of the cold ripening conditions. But where the fruit ripened properly, the high acidity accentuated the fruit flavour, giving it a pleasantly brisk edge. In Chapel Hill’s blend, we taste ripe, stone-fruit-like varietal flavour on a medium-bodied, smooth textured palate, cut through with fresh acid. This is a long way from the fat, peachy, oaky chardonnays of old. And it weighs in at a modest 12.5 per cent alcohol.

Good Catholic Girl Hail Mary Full of Grace
Clare Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 $25
Jim and Nancy Barry’s three daughters own The Sisters vineyard in Armagh, a Clare Valley sub-region. One of the daughter’s, Julie, “Head Girl” behind the Good Catholic Girl label, uses cabernet from the vineyard in this wine. It’s a no-holds-barred kind of cabernet, a devil really – deeply coloured, hugely flavoured and with a mouth-gripping dose of cabernet tannins. Despite its mass, it’s a well-balanced red with clear varietal flavour, including a seam of distinctive Clare mintiness. On the quirky back label, Barry dedicates the wine to her Grandmother Dorothy, like herself a good Catholic Girl.

The vision behind Clonakilla shiraz viognier — part 2, a 20-year tasting

3 October 2012People, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Part 1 of the Clonakilla shiraz viognier story last week recounted how great wine begins in the brain – with a vision or dream or hunch. We saw how Max Schubert created Grange after tasting half-century-old reds in Bordeaux in 1950; then how in 1991 Tim Kirk tasted Marcel Guigal’s Cote-Rotie shiraz-viognier blends and decided, “I’ve got to get this shiraz-viognier thing going back home”.

In both cases great French wines inspired the creation of a new and enduring style in Australia – the first from 1951, the second from 1992.

Schubert returned to Australia and in 1951 made Grange Hermitage – the first in a continuing line of deep, powerful, tannic reds made intentionally for the long-term. That he did so with warm-climate shiraz, rather than cool-climate cabernet sauvignon and related varieties used in Bordeaux, simply reflected the grapes available to him at the time.

Kirk, on the other hand, returned to Canberra with an altogether different shiraz style in mind. Schubert desired a big, powerful wine, capable of becoming fine and elegant over time; Kirk’s inspiration came from the perfume and sheer dimension of two- and three-year old reds, two of them still maturing in barrel.

Kirk had already recognised the medium bodied, aromatic character of the early Clonakilla shiraz vintages, made in 1990 and 1991. He was aware, too, that on a suggestion from brother Jeremy, father Dr John Kirk, had planted viognier in 1986. Kirk snr sourced cuttings from what is now Charles Sturt University, Wagga, where he was studying wine science. The ingredients for a Clonakilla shiraz-viognier blend therefore lay in the vineyard, awaiting Tim Kirk’s return from France.

At a Clonakilla tasting in Melbourne on 11 September, John Kirk recalled planting the viognier for its own sake – a white variety suited to the Murrumbateman climate and capable of giving tiny Clonakilla a point of difference over larger competitors.

In 1992, then, the viognier from these young vines found its way into the fermenter with shiraz and small amounts of pinot noir and mourvedre (aka mataro).

This inaugural Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier (still drinking well at the September 11 tasting) sits a long way stylistically from the later wines that built then cemented it as the gold standard for this style in Australia. The remarkable aromatics and silky tannins remained a few years in the future.

The 1992 is lower in alcohol at 12.5 per cent (compared with around 14 per cent through the noughties); it was matured in older American oak rather than the mix of new and old French oak that came later; and the grapes were all crushed and de-stemmed before fermentation (but from 1993 the inclusion of whole bunches, including stems, affected the flavour and structure of the wine).

The 1993 (12.7 per cent alcohol) again contained a small amount of pinot noir which, along with one third of the shiraz, was whole-bunch fermented and foot trodden. The rest of the shiraz was crushed and de-stemmed before fermentation with a small amount of viognier. The two batches of wine finished their fermentations in French and American oak barrels and were bottled without fining or filtration. In the tasting the 1993 showed a little of the stalky character of whole-bunch ferment, but overall held up less well than the 1992 or 1994 either side of it – a sound wine still.

1994 to my taste marks a maturing of the style: it’s a little more alcoholic at 13.7 per cent, the colour remains youthful and it delivers thrilling aromatics and silky tannins, though the oak tannins intrude ever so slightly. The wine – comprising 14 per cent pinot noir and four per cent viognier – was 100 per cent whole-bunch fermented and foot-trodden in open fermenters, followed by maturation in French oak (two thirds of it new), from cooper Seguin Moreau. 1994 was a frost-reduced vintage says Tim Kirk.

The style continues to mature in 1995 and 1996, separated in the tasting mainly by the vintage conditions. 1995 produced the first decent crop of viognier, Kirk says, and the proportion in the blend leapt from four per cent in 1994 to 10 per cent in 1995 and 1996. The lovely, elegant 1996 appealed more on the night. Both wines showed their age.

1997 presented the first real excitement of the tasting – a wine blossoming with bottle age yet still limpid and youthfully coloured, with sweet berry and spice flavours, alluring perfume and silky texture. In this vintage Kirk wound the viognier back to five per cent and used 30 per cent new Sirugue (France) oak.

The notably more robust 1998 vintage, still at five per cent viognier content, seemed like a bigger, riper, sweeter version of the 1997 – all the alluring features pumped up proportionally and therefore well balanced.

In October 1998 a jet stream of frigid air destroyed vine buds across south-eastern Australia, including Canberra. Clonakilla’s 1999 was therefore a tiny crop from a second budding – five per cent viognier, co-fermented with shiraz, matured in Sirugue and Francois Frere barrels, 36 per cent new. The wine’s holding in there in a distinctive spicy, peppery, stalky way.

The 2000 vintage, from a cool, wet season, is lighter coloured, lean on the palate and drying out now. The alcohol is 12.8 per cent, compared to the 14.1 per cent in the beautiful 2001. Kirk calls this vintage a turning point as he’s now soaking the juice on skins for 16–18 days before fermentation, creating even finer and silkier tannins. At 11 years, this is Clonakilla in full flight – maturing but youthful and fresh at the same time. Beautiful floral and spicy aroma and lively, fresh, silky, medium-bodied palate are in a class of their own.

By now the pinot noir component in the wines is absent or tiny. Tim Kirk emailed, “Once we started making the Hilltops [shiraz] in 2000, the pinot would end up there if I felt it wasn’t going to contribute anything positive to the SV [shiraz-viognier]. Sometimes there, sometimes the SV and, from 2007, possibly the O’Riada [shiraz].”

From 2001 on we’re seeing a mature Clonakilla style, but still being tweaked, Tim Kirk said, particularly in the maceration phase and the type of oak used. He acknowledged recent work on this with winemaker Bryan Martin.

From 2001 the wines all receive gold-medal scores in my notes, with exception of 2003, 2006 and 2011 on silver. All this says is that some wines are more exceptional than others, silver medallists included.

I rated the 2009 as wine of the line up – a slurpy, juicy, utterly seductive red of exceptional dimension. The just-released 2011, too, is gorgeous. It shows the style of the very cool vintage – a slightly lighter colour and lower alcohol content than the warmer 2009 and 2010 vintages – but a triumph nevertheless.

Tim Kirk says he bottled just 1,000 dozen, less than half the usual volume, because disease destroyed much of the crop. He calls the wine “pretty”, which is not a bad description, albeit an understatement. I enjoyed the delicate musk-like aroma, seasoned with white pepper (a sure sign of cool ripening conditions) and vibrant, fresh fruit flavours – a spicier, more peppery, lighter bodied version of the style.

But that’s not all. We started this story with a quote from Yalumba’s Brian Walsh. “Great wine starts in the brain”. Walsh declared at an industry symposium last year.

There’s another story to come – from the same brain behind Clonakilla shiraz viognier. Tim Kirk’s encounter with La Chapelle 1990, a straight shiraz from Hermitage, just down the Rhone fro Cote-Rotie, inspired Clonakilla’s Syrah, a wine to equal the old flagship.

Better with brett — the Wig and Pen’s new brews

3 October 2012Beer, Beer review, PeopleChris Shanahan

The Wig and Pen currently offers four beers fermented with the spoilage yeast brettanomyces (brett) – some in conjunction with the bacteria lactobacillus and pediococcus – and one aged, post ferment, in barrels with a brett population.

These normally unwelcome microbes add exotic aromas and flavours to the beers, well removed from the pure malty, fruity, hoppy characters we find in standard lagers and ales.

But the Wig’s customers, me included, love the sharp, pungent, sweet and sour character of these beers. That’s no different, I suppose, than learning to enjoy sherry’s distinctive, pungent flavour caused by aldehyde compounds – the product of intentionally oxidised alcohol.

The almost-sold-out, delightfully fruity, tart but gentle Brett, an English pale ale style, is to be replaced by Sour Blonde, Bob’s Armpit, LPG and Rye of the Liger – a wonderfully diverse and adventurous range of beers.

Wig and Pen Rye of the Liger Lager half pint $7
Brewer Richard Watkins wonders is this the only brettanomyces brewed lager in the world? It’s a medium amber colour, with an abundant head, cereal-like aroma (rye comprises 25 per cent of the malt) and rich, caramel-like flavours. There’s a slight, exotic funkiness to the aroma and a mild, pleasant sourness in the finish.

Wig and Pen Sour Blonde 200ml $7
Sour Blonde combines wheat beers of various ages (18 months barrel aged, 18 weeks and 18 days), all fermented with brettanomyces yeast. The flavour’s vibrant and lemony, with wheat beer’s distinctive brisk acidity. Barrel ageing adds to the creamy, soft texture. And brett provides an exotic sweaty and sour note to a most refreshing brew.

Wine review — Hugh Hamilton, Good Catholic Girl, Topper’s Mountain, John Duval, Best’s and Kingston Estate

3 October 2012Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Hugh Hamilton The Rascal Shiraz 2010 $25.50–$30
Bethany and Blewitt Springs, McLaren Vale, South Australia
Hugh Hamilton’s latest Rascal shiraz demonstrates the outstanding quality of the 2010 vintage in South Australia’s warm regions. The wine appeals for its full, ripe, generous flavours, bright fruit and earthy, savoury undertones (typical of top-notch McLaren Vale shiraz). The combination of rich, sweet fruit and soft tannins means easy drinking now, though the wine could be cellared for a few years. Hamilton says it’s a blend of 12 batches harvested from 10 blocks on this three vineyards – two in the Bethany sub-region and one in Blewitt Springs.

Good Catholic Girl Teresa Riesling 2012 $25
Barry Marsson Vineyard, Watervale, Clare Valley, South Australia
Julie Barry, winemaker and self-titled Head Girl, writes, “I am especially relieved to show you my 2012 Teresa Clare riesling as I did not have one to show in 2011 after the devil did his work in the vineyard”. Barry’s 2012 delivers Clare’s mouth-wateringly delicious fruit flavour and crisp, refreshing acidity – towards the fuller bodied end of the regional style spectrum. The back label describes Teresa of Avila as patron saint of headache sufferers. Go easy then. Available at www.goodcatholicgirl.com.au

Topper’s Mountain Barrel Fermented Petit Manseng 2011$34
Tingha, New England, NSW
The 10-hectare Topper’s Mountain vineyard lies at an altitude of 900 metres on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range, between Armidale and Inverell. The vineyard, planted in 2000 and 2002 by Mark and Stephanie Kirby, contains a number of alternative varieties, including the obscure south-western French petit manseng – the latter grafted onto petit verdot vines in 2009. The high acid of the cold year lends a racy, sappy excitement to the delicate, bone-dry palate, subtly and gently fleshed out by the barrel fermentation. Available at www.toppers.com.au

John Duval Eligo Shiraz 2010 $105
Barossa and Eden Valleys, South Australia
Through either modesty or commercial embargo, John Duval declares on the back label, “Over the last three decades in the Barossa I was given the opportunity to make Australia’s most famous wine”. Duval made Penfolds Grange and remained close to its creator, Max Schubert, until Schubert’s death in 1994. But ever confident as a winemaker, Duval offers in Eligo his own interpretation of shiraz – a powerful but elegant French-oak matured blend from the Barossa and Eden Valleys.

Best’s Bin No. 1 Shiraz 2011 $25–$28
Best’s Great Western Vineyard, Grampians, Victoria
It’s the hour of reckoning: what kind of reds has the cold, wet, diseased-ravaged 2011 vintage delivered? Quantities are certainly reduced; and the grapes that made it to the winery produced wines showing the cold-vintage character. In Best’s that means a lighter bodied shiraz than usual (in the medium-bodied regional context) and considerably more pepper-like aroma and flavour (the cold end of the varietal spectrum). But the fruit’s bright and sweet, albeit less weighty than usual, and the wine well balanced and lovely to drink.

Kingston Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 $10.45–$15
Mount Lofty Ranges and Mount Benson, South Australia
Even at this modest price Kingston Estate’s winemakers appear to have snatched victory from the jaws of the troubled 2011 vintage. First and foremost, Kingston Estate smells and tastes like cabernet sauvignon and has its firm tannin structure. But the cool season translates into less flesh on the bone – meaning a lean, taut, sinewy style, but thankfully not the green unripe flavours that could herald. This style of wine suits roasted red meats and savoury food in general.

Wine review — Charles Cimicky, Lock & Key, Moppity Vineyards and Shaw & Smith

30 September 2012Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Charles Cimicky Barossa Valley Trumps Shiraz 2010 $14.25–$20
Charles and Jennie Cimicky’s winery and vineyards are at Lyndoch, in the slightly cooler south of the Barossa Valley. Their reds, starting with the inexpensive Trumps shiraz, deliver typical Barossa generosity and softness without going over the top on oak, tannin or alcohol. Delicious, ripe, cherry-like shiraz flavours underpin a deep but limpid and lively wine. Round, soft tannins cut through the fruit giving structure and satisfying, dry, slightly savoury finish. Trumps is a very good, sophisticated regional wine – sensitive winemaking lets the fruit talk. Charles Cimicky says, “It is the variety, region and vineyard that are most important to us”.

Lock & Key Riesling 2012 $14.99
Moppity Vineyards Hilltops Riesling 2012 $24.99
Both wines come from Jason and Alecia Brown’s Moppity Vineyards, one of the oldest in the Hilltops (Young) region. Jason Brown says their planting include “Some of the oldest riesling vines in southern NSW”. For much of its history, Moppity sold fruit to other producers, but Brown launched the current label in 2007. Lock & Key, at just 11 per cent alcohol, makes a tasty, refreshing aperitif. It shows the high acid, intense fruit and delicate structure of the cool vintage. The notably fuller bodied (12.5 per cent alcohol) Moppity vineyard presents a riper, more powerful, though still delicate and fresh face, of riesling.

Shaw and Smith Adelaide Hills Shiraz 2010 $37–$45
The latest Shaw and Smith shiraz sits at the more powerful end of the house style. That is, it’s medium bodied and elegantly structured, as you’d expect in the cool growing climate; but the deep, intense-crimson colour, opulent, seductive aroma and palate-saturating fruit flavours, cut with very good oak, probably outweigh any they’ve made in the past. Winemakers Martin Shaw and Darryl Catlin say the fruit comes from “low yielding vines at Balhannah, the central Adelaide Hills, and Macclesfield, the warmer and drier sub-region to the south”. The wine should drink and evolve well for a decade or more if well cellared.

Wine review — Mount Horrocks, Pizzini, Shingleback, Clonakilla and Zema Estate

26 September 2012Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Mount Horrocks Riesling 2012 $27–$30
Mount Horrocks Watervale vineyard, Clare Valley, South Australia
Stephanie Toole’s 2012 joins a growing list of fabulous Clare rieslings. As they come onto the market over the next few months, they present a rare opportunity to buy superb whites with proven long-term cellaring ability. The usually unexcitable Toole, writes of this wine and her cordon-cut sweet riesling, “these two wines may well prove to be the most impressive in my 20 years at Mount Horrocks”. I’ll review the sweetie another day. But the dry wine reveals the pure, intense lime-like varietal character and delicacy of Watervale, a Clare sub-region. This is an exceptional riesling.

Pizzini Pinot Grigio 2012 $18.50–$21
King Valley, Victoria
There’s a bit of Italian in this delicious pinot grigio from Fred Pizzini and family. They use the Italian name, rather than French “pinot gris” and the wine certainly sits more in the crisp, dry north-eastern Italian style than in the opulent versions from France’s Alsace region. The cool season brought out the variety’s pear-like flavour and the Pizzinis haven’t been afraid to extract a little tannin from the skins – giving the wine structure and a pleasantly tart, very Italian finish.

Shingleback Haycutters Shiraz 2010 $16.20–$17
Haycutters block, Davey Estate vineyard, McLaren Vale, South Australia
The Davey family produces a number of outstanding reds from its extensive vineyard holdings in McLaren Vale. This one leapt off the tasting bench, contrasting strongly in style to the Clonakilla wines reviewed today. We expect bigger reds from McLaren Vale than Canberra and, as well, the 2010 vintage produced more opulent wines than 2011. Haycutters delivers on the expectation. It’s a generous McLaren Vale style – big on fruit and savouriness and showing the strong tannin structure of the vintage. It really is a far better wine than you’d expect at the price.

Clonakilla O’Riada Shiraz 2011 $35
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
No vintage is either all good or all bad. Though disease destroyed much of Murrumbateman’s shiraz in the cold, wet 2011 season, small quantities survived. And in this co-fermented shiraz and viognier blend, Tim Kirk captures the bright, fresh, spicy character of the cold year. The underlying fruit flavour resembles red berry fruit compote, seasoned with a handful of mixed spice and a light dusting of pepper. The small amount of white viognier in the blend boosts the pleasing, floral aroma and contributes to the silky smooth texture. Fine tannins and lively acidity provide a clean, fresh finish. This is a lighter style to enjoy over the next three or four years.

Clonakilla Shiraz 2011 $25
Hilltops, NSW
Clonakilla Hilltops shiraz, generally a little fuller-bodied and rounder than its Canberra shirazes, also shows the cool-vintage thumbprint. It remains richer than the O’Riada or flagship shiraz viognier, but with less weight than in warmer years. The cherry-like fruit flavour comes dusted with spice and pepper on a medium-bodied, smooth, soft palate. It lacks the length or depth of warmer years, but drinks deliciously now.

Zema Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $25.65–$29
Coonawarra, South Australia
Zema Winery sits in the heart of Coonawarra’s terra rossa soil, on the western edge of the Riddoch Highway. Nick and Matt Zema manage the 61-hectare estate, founded in 1982 by their parents Demetrio and Francesca, with former Lindemans winemaker Greg Clayfield calling the shots in the winery. The 2009 shows a very light touch from the winemaker, allowing us to savour Coonawarra’s juicy, rich berry flavours and naturally elegant structure.

Great wine starts in the brain — the vision behind Clonakilla’s shiraz viognier

26 September 2012People, WineChris Shanahan

This is part one of the story of Clonakilla shiraz viognier, Canberra’s now world famous red, created by Tim Kirk and other Kirk family members over the last 40 years. But first let’s step back to a time long before Tim’s birth – detouring via a Brian Walsh (Yalumba) speech at University House Wine Symposium 2011.

“Great wine does not start in the vineyard”, declared Walsh, contradicting an industry axiom. “I assert that great wine starts in the brain”, he continued. “The creation of fine wine is, at its source, an intellectual exercise. Someone has a dream, a vision, a hunch – then the desire, commitment, capability and energy to craft something special, typically with a desire for unique attributes that differentiate it from others”.

This vision, or dream or hunch comes in ways unique to each vigneron. Take, for example, Max Schubert and Penfolds Grange.

By 1950 Schubert was chief winemaker at Penfolds, concerned mainly with the production of fortified wines. But a trip to France that year, and an encounter with aged Bordeaux reds in the home of wine merchant, Christian Cruse, changed the course of Australian winemaking history.

In an interview with David Farmer and me in 1992, Schubert recalled,

“These were 40 and 50 years old. The magnificence of these wines sort of remained with me and I still think that they are the best wines I’ve ever tasted. I mean you’ve got magnificence in front of you. You’ve got perfection and you should savour it. And I did savour it right to the bloody hilt.

“You know, the thought went through my mind: Why, if they can do this, why can’t we at home. But then I thought, too, that I won’t live long enough to do it. How can you and yet here I am. I have a forty-year-old wine that I made forty years ago experimentally and the bloody thing is still alive. And that is a tremendous thrill to me.

… It [Grange] has a similar elegance [to those French reds], even after starting from a great big rough Australian red”.

Schubert wasted no time. He made the first experimental Grange in 1951, applying winemaking techniques he’d observed in France to mainly shiraz grapes sourced from favoured vineyard sites. The rest is history.

The Kirk family’s Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier builds on several visions, dreams and hunches – the smaller, earlier, more-modest dreams enabling fruition of Tim Kirk’s big dream following a tour of France’s Rhone Valley in1991.

The first, a seed of a dream really, dropped into John Kirk’s brain during World War II. Of Irish birth but living in England, he was shipped for a time to his grandfather’s farm, Clonakilla, in County Clare, for respite from wartime England and its poor diet.

The working farm appealed to Kirk, he said last week in Melbourne. Then after the war he returned once more to Ireland from England to help out in a family hotel. At 14 years the family gave him control of the wine cellar. “I knew nothing about it”, he said, “but I read up and bought the best”. He subsequently maintained an interest in wine, exclusively French, through his university years in the UK and Wales and brought the fascination with him to Australia in 1968.

Arriving in Canberra, he felt surprised to find no vineyards in this part of NSW. People believed it was too cold. But his own research suggested a climate similar to Bordeaux’s.

The working-farm concept planted in Kirk’s brain during the war years, and the later fascination with wine, coalesced into Clonakilla Murrumbateman vineyard in 1971. And the perceived similarity with Bordeaux’s climate, convinced him to plant cabernet sauvignon first – although shiraz (1972) and other varieties followed soon enough.

Although the shiraz-viognier phenomenon lay 20 years in the future, the first shiraz vines were now in the ground. Then in 1984 on son Jeremy’s suggestion, the Kirk’s sought another variety that might suit the district and offer a point of difference.

They identified the rare Rhone Valley white variety, viognier. John Kirk sourced cuttings from Charles Sturt University, Wagga, where he was studying wine science, and planted vines at Clonakilla in 1986.

So by the late eighties, the dreams, hunches and visions of the Kirk family coincided with nature – setting the scene for the fulfilment of the biggest dream of all.

In 1990 no one would have predicted shiraz as Canberra’s regional specialty. Even at Clonakilla, shiraz joined cabernet sauvignon in the blending vat until 1989 – eighteen years after the vineyard’s establishment.

Then, in 1990, “we made our first straight shiraz, on a whim”, says John Kirk. The wine enjoyed remarkable success, winning a silver medal at the Cowra Wine Show, a gold medal at Stanthorpe and a gold medal and two trophies at Griffith.

Then, in 1991 while the second Clonakilla shiraz lay in barrel, Melbourne-based Tim Kirk, having completed his Diploma of Education, headed off to France where I’d organised an appointment for him with Marcel Guigal, one of the Rhone’s great winemakers.

There he tasted Guigal’s stunning single vineyard wines (blends of shiraz and viognier) from the impossibly steep slopes of Cote-Rotie: the 1988 vintages of La Mouline and La Landonne from barrel, and the 1987 La Turque from bottle.

This meeting and tasting, Tim Kirk recalled, had been a “transforming moment” and that he was “transfixed and delighted” by the perfume and sheer dimension of Guigal’s wines. “I’ve got to get this shiraz-viognier thing going back home”, he thought.

This powerful vision soon crystallised into the Clonakilla shiraz-viognier the world loves today. Tim and John Kirk included viognier in the blend from 1992 and the accolades followed remarkably soon after, as another great wine shifted from the brain to reality.

Next week we’ll look at the wine’s evolution from the first vintage in 1992 to the current release twentieth vintage, 2011 – based on a tasting at Melbourne’s Circa Restaurant on 11 September.

Wine review — Bremerton, Beurrot by Kooyong and Voyager Estate

23 September 2012Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Bremerton Langhorne Creek Coulthard Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 $22–$27
In a line up of cabernets, including the $60 Voyager Estate below, Bremerton appealed for the volume of flavour it delivered at a realistic price. Langhorne Creek seems to do this with cabernet sauvignon effortlessly and reliably. Bremerton Coulthard shows the regional thumbprint – full body, fleshy mid palate and unmistakeable varietal character. The varietal character has several aspects to it: riper blackcurrant-like flavours, eucalypt and leafy notes typical of Langhorne Creek and firm tannins supporting the fleshy mid palate. Bremerton belongs to the Willson family and eldest daughter, Rebecca, makes the wines.

Beurrot by Kooyong Pinot Gris 2011 $31
Exciting’s not a word usually associated with pinot gris. But this Kooyong 2011 is exciting and certainly one of the best Australian expressions of the variety I’ve tasted. The cool ripening conditions probably contributed the tight acid backbone and intensity of pure, pear-like varietal aroma and flavour. Winemaker Sandro Mosel said he fermented the wine entirely in older barrels without yeast inoculation – meaning ambient yeasts did the hard work. This, and 10 months maturation on the spent yeast cells, contributed to the wine’s rich texture. Grapes came from the Beurrot vineyard and Meres block at Kooyong Estate.

Voyager Estate Margaret River Cabernet Merlot $51.29–$68
In the same tasting as the Bremerton wine reviewed above, Voyager Estate, showed real class – a wine to savour, and with the potential to evolve for many years given good cellaring potential. The wine comes predominantly from two blocks of vines (Old Block and Shining Star) on a gravelly slope of the Stevens Valley. Cassis-like varietal character underpins the wine, but a cedary element from the French oak and plummy merlot add to its dimension – with a little dusting of cabernet leafiness. The wine continued drinking well for days after our tasting says one of the participants, with the sweet berry flavours pushing through deliciously.

Wine review — Grosset, Clonakilla and Pike

19 September 2012People, Vineyard, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Grosset Springvale Riesling 2012 $37
Grosset Springvale vineyard, Watervale, Clare Valley, South Australia
The Clare Valley riesling excitement continues with the release of Jeffrey Grosset’s amazing 2012s. A normally reserved Grosset, can’t bottle his enthusiasm, writing, “The 2012 vintage has turned out to be one of the best experienced at Grosset. Weather conditions were ideal”. Springvale, from Clare’s Watervale sub-region, presents a delicate, pristine, utterly irresistible face of riesling. Spritely, lime-like acidity carries the fruit flavour across a nevertheless delicate, soft palate – the upfront fruit flavour and softness making delicious current drinking (though the wine should evolve for many years).

Grosset Polish Hill Riesling 2012 $50
Grosset Polish Hill vineyard, Clare Valley, South Australia
The excellent 2012 vintage emphasises the differences between rieslings from Clare’s Watervale and Polish Hill sub-regions. The sheer power of Grosset’s Polish Hill contrasts starkly with the delicacy of his Watervale (wine of the week based on its drinkability now). Though more austere and steely, Polish Hill shows the upfront fruit sweetness of the vintage. Over time, the power, structure and fruit of this exceptional wine will all become more pronounced.

Clonakilla Riesling 2012 $25–$30
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
Shortly after vintage, winemaker Tim Kirk said he’d picked riesling early, ahead of the rain, describing it as “a very fine, bony style along the lines of 2011 – acid driven, fresh and appley, but delicious”. He retained unfermented juice for adding back after ferment should the wine need rounding out – which it did. Months later the wine shows a delicate floral aroma with a citrusy note, showing particularly on the palate. High natural acidity intensifies the floral and citrus fruit flavours, carrying the wine to a long, tart, dry finish, with a fresh, feijoa-like aftertaste. It’s delicious now in Canberra’s tart and tight style, but should be even better as time ameliorates the acidity and allows the fruit to emerge.

Grosset Alea Off-Dry Riesling 2012 $33
Grosset Alea vineyard, Watervale, Clare Valley, South Australia
Australia’s increasingly popular off-dry rieslings, taste best from cooler vintages where high natural acidity balances the sweetness of residual grape sugars in the wine. Grosset’s comes from a 300-metre by 22-metre section of vineyard at Watervale’s highest point. The 2012 combines Watervale fruit delicacy, with pristine, mineral acidity and a delicate sweetness that gently fills the palate. The balanced interplay of fruit, acid and sugar means a clean, fresh finish – avoiding both the cloying effect of too much sugar or the austerity of too much acid.

Pikes Riesling “Traditionale” 2012 $20.89–$23
Polish Hill, Watervale and Sevenhill, Clare Valley, South Australia
Like other producers, Neil Pike rates the 2012 Clare rieslings “of a very high quality – up there with the excellent 2009, 2005 and 2002 vintages”. Pike’s holding his two reserve rieslings, Merle and J.T., for release in November, but the two reviewed today are available now. The widely distributed “Traditionale” shows the vintage thumbprint – oodles of delicious fruit flavour and balancing acidity, in a full-flavoured style for early drinking. Pike says it’s a blend of estate-grown fruit (70 per cent) and material from neighbouring growers.

Pikes Olga Emmie Off-Dry Riesling 2012 $20 cellar door
Pike Thicket vineyard, Polish Hill, Clare Valley, South Australia
Pike’s off-dry riesling comes from a family vineyard in Polish Hill. It’s rich in citrusy fruit flavour and more overtly sweet than the Grosset off-dry style reviewed today. Acidity keeps the fruit flavour fresh and zesty. But the sweetness outweighs the acid at this stage – though that’s a minor blemish in a thoroughly enjoyable wine. In fact, on a hot day on its own, the wine’s sweetness might add to the appeal. This is an excellent style with hot and spicy food as the fruitiness and sweetness rise above the chilli heat while the crisp acidity refreshes. (Available at www.pikeswines.com.au).

Jayco founder buys Mitchelton winery

19 September 2012People, VineyardChris Shanahan

Mitchelton Tower — Mitchelton tower, cellar, cellar door and restaurant

On August 17 Kirin Brewing Company’s Australian arm, Lion, completed the sale of Mitchelton Winery to Gerry and Andrew Ryan. The sale brings the winery back under private control after 18 years of corporate ownership – Petaluma Group from 1994, then Lion Nathan (now Lion) from 2001.

Mitchelton’s the winery that never quite fitted in – proving problematic to successive owners from its establishment in 1969. A common factor in the periodic ownership changes was the extravagant scale of its elaborate brick and concrete underground cellars and the cellar door, restaurant and 55-metre observation tower.

These landmark facilities present capital and business demands over and above those of maintaining a 115-hectare vineyard and its annual crush and wine production.

Managing director of Fine Wine Partners, Lion’s wine division, Chris Baddock, says Lion was interested in the brand, but not the site. Even owning vineyards, he added, fits poorly from a brewer’s accounting perspective.

But the brand and site being inseparable, Lion disposed of the Mitchelton brand, cellars, cellar door, restaurant observation tower and vineyards – but retained Mitchelton’s popular Preece brand.

Baddock says Fine Wine Partners (a blend of the former Petaluma Wine Group and distribution business, Tucker and Company) will continue Australia-wide distribution of Mitchelton.

When Melbourne’s Ross Shelmerdine planted the first vines at Mitchelton in 1969, riesling joined cuttings of marsanne, from neighbouring Tahbilk, as a key white variety.

Colin Preece, a distinguished table and sparkling wine maker of the fifties and sixties at Seppelt’s Great Western, selected the Mitchelton vineyard site in the late sixties after an extensive search through southeastern Australia on behalf of the Shelmerdine family.

Ross Shelmerdine’s son, Stephen Shelmerdine wrote to me: “Such was Colin’s vision and enthusiasm for riesling that extensive plantings were made in 1970 and 1971, well before the white wine boom. Colin believed that the specific micro climate of the vineyards – surrounded on three sides by the deep, very cold, constant-height Goulburn River, a site very conducive to autumn fogs, providing suitable conditions for botrytis cinerea – would put Mitchelton in a very strong position to demonstrate the quality of riesling in Victoria.”. Preece’s judgement proved spot on, although he did not live to see it vindicated.

Instead, Don Lewis, a young man selected and trained by Preece, made Mitchelton’s first riesling during the massive floods of 1974. In an interview some years back, Lewis couldn’t recall the quality of the wine. But he well remembered the multiple gold-medal-winning1975 Mitchelton riesling.

But in tough times for the wine industry producers battled for margin in a glutted market. The going proved particularly tough at Mitchelton as the owners struggled to fund an extravagant and still mind-boggling underground concrete and brick cellar and landmark observation tower.

During a period in receivership, Mitchelton sold most of its riesling as grapes or bulk wine. Most of the 1976, for example, went as grapes to Brown Brothers. However, Brian Croser, then lecturing in wine making at Riverina College of Advanced Education, Wagga, purchased a small portion of the crop.

Using a discarded Maralinga rocket fuel tank as a fermenter, he turned Mitchelton’s 1976 grapes into the first Petaluma riesling. By this time Croser was an accomplished riesling maker, having put Hardys Siegersdorf on wine shelves and restaurant lists all over Australia. Stephen Shelmerdine once told me Malcolm Fraser loved the inaugural Petaluma riesling and secured a quantity for the Lodge.

In1978 Mitchelton’s financial trauma ended, for the time being, when, for an undisclosed sum, believed to be just a fraction of the building cost, Melbourne’s Valmorbida family acquired the winery, tower and Mitchelton brand. The Shelmerdinesf retained the vineyards.

In the same year, the 1978 riesling won a trophy at the Adelaide wine show, contributing greatly to its commercial success and making Mitchelton’s flagship wine. And it went on to win gold medals for successive vintages for over twenty years. It now sells as Mitchelton Blackwood Park Riesling.

Mitchelton subsequently built a following for its other wines, notably shiraz and marsanne-roussanne-viognier white blend and its blended Preece range.

But even under Valmorbida family ownership, then Petaluma from 1994 and Lion from 2001, the cellar door, restaurant, observation tower complex were never fully exploited, and appear to have been a drag on the wine business.

The latest ownership change, however, promises to address this. The Ryan family (founders of Jayco caravans and GreenEDGE cycling team) are building a 60-room hotel on the site, renovating the cellar door and restaurant and adding conference and function facilities.

With its proximity to Melbourne and the Hume Highway, you’d have to give this side of the business – the part that’s troubled Mitchelton’s previous owners – every chance of success. But the hospitality business is largely separate from grape growing and winemaking. Ironically, therefore, the real challenge for the Ryans may prove to be the capital-hungry wine business – a peculiar beast that in Australia has been fed generously by external investors over the decades, only to turn and bite the hand of its feeder.