Yearly Archives: 2013

A tribute to Peter Lehmann

17 July 2013People, WineChris Shanahan

Peter Lehmann’s flagship red, Stonewell shiraz, carries his profile on label; and I can never open a bottle without thinking of Lehmann, his witty quips and his profound influence on the Barossa Valley.

In the end, the company he founded belonged to the Swiss group, Hess Family Estates. But that was an outcome Lehmann engineered ten years ago, in the third and final battle he fought and won in the interests of Barossa grape growers and, indeed, the identity of his own company and the Barossa in general.

The first battle came in 1977 when pastoral company, Dalgety, owner of Saltram Winery, decided not to buy grapes for the 1978 vintage. As winemaker at Saltram, Lehmann refused to abandon the growers. And in a gutsy effort, with support from his wife Margaret, good mate Robert Hesketh and others, established Masterson Wines to buy grapes and make wines under contract at Saltram in vintages 1978 and 1979.

In 1980, when new owners, Seagram, banned contract making at Saltram, Lehmann, under considerable financial duress rushed to build new winery at Tanunda in time for the coming vintage.

Long serving Lehmann winemaker, Andrew Wigan recalls of the vintage, “The winery was still being built around us. The Italian concreters went crazy every time fresh juice was spilt onto the setting concrete. Cellar hands and winemakers alike had to jump from tank to tank because we did not have scaffolds or catwalks”.

Later, Masterson Wines became Barossa Vignerons Pty Ltd and then Peter Lehmann’s Wines Pty Ltd, after Cerebos took a controlling interest.

In 1987, Adelaide based McLeod’s acquired the majority of the company, at the same time folding Hoffmans and Basedows into it. Peter and Margaret Lehmann, via a family trust, held eight per cent of the new entity.

In 1993 Margaret and Peter Lehmann became a vocal minority when McLeod’s decided to offload their interest in the company. But McLeod’s were backed into a corner as they could sell to no one but the Lehmanns. Once again, the Lehmanns placed the family jewels (and Peter’s super money) on the line as they sought to finance a buyout. The outcome, after a short period of intense anxiety for the Lehmanns, was a listing of Peter Lehmann Wines on the Australian stock exchange in 1993 – $5.8 million oversubscribed in just three weeks.

But the listing ultimately exposed the company to a hostile takeover bid by British giant Allied Domecq in 2003. Lehmann, thoroughly aware of the enormous damage wrought to the Australian wine industry by large corporate takeovers, refused to sell his block of shares. He successfully engineered a friendly buyout by Switzerland’s Hess Family Estates – an option he believed offered greater security for the company’s Barossa identity and the grape growers behind it.

Another perhaps less appreciated achievement of Lehmann lay in saving century old winemaking tradition from extinction.

Lehmann had been winemaker at Saltram since 1959. He’d taken the reins from Bryan Dolan when Dolan moved to sister company Stonyfell, replacing Jack Kilgour who’d been making Stonyfell wines since 1932.

Dolan, in turn, had spent his first four years at Saltram working alongside Fred Ludlow before taking over in 1949. And Fred had been there since 1893, making wine for the last fifteen years of his remarkable sixty-year service.

In his time under Dolan, Lehmann continued the tradition of making sturdy, long-lived reds, introduced the flagship “Mamre Brook” red, sourced from a vineyard of that name, and introduced the use of new oak for red wine maturation in 1973.

So, in 1979 when Lehmann walked – with the stranded Barossa growers and offsider, Andrew Wigan – he effectively transplanted the Saltram winemaking culture to his new venture, Masterson Barossa Vignerons. Saltram subsequently fell into a deep hole for fifteen years.

The winemaking achievements of the old Saltram culture can’t be underestimated. In a tasting marking Saltram’s 140^th anniversary in 1999 — attended by Bryan and Nigel Dolan and Peter Lehmann – reds from the Ludlow through to Lehmann eras, spanning the years 1946 to 1979, drank remarkably well.

As Saltram lost the plot, Lehmann, even under enormous financial constraints, kept the Barossa red-tradition alive, starting with the 1980 vintage.

Then in 1987, Lehmann, with Andrew Wigan, made the first Peter Lehmann Stonewell Shiraz. Lehmann once described Stonewell to me as, “a continuation of the Mamre Brook dream – aided and abetted by Andrew Wigan”.

This marvellous wine (current release 2008 vintage, retail around $95), remains for me a memento of this exceptional man, son of a Lutheran pastor, winemaker from 1947, businessman and loyal and courageous friend and supporter of hundreds in the Barossa Valley.

Wine review — Moorilla, Chateau Semeillan Mazeau, Brookland Valley, Rob Dolan and Jim Barry

17 July 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Moorilla Muse Pinot Noir 2011 $48
Moorilla Derwent vineyard, St Matthias Tamar vineyard, Tasmania
The appointment of Conor van der Reest as winemaker in 2007 precipitated a dramatic turnaround in the quality of Moorilla’s wines, achieved largely by slashing yields from the company’s Derwent and Tamar vineyards. The two exciting pinots reviewed today demonstrate the extent of that quality turnaround. Muse pinot noir comes predominantly from Moorilla’s Derwent vineyard, containing vines Claudio Alcorso established from cuttings he collected in Burgundy in 1963. The lovely aroma reveals a spectrum of fragrant pinot characters, including fruit, stalkiness and savouriness. But it’s on the palate the wine really delivers with its juicy depth, stalk and spice seasoning, slippery texture and fine but sturdy backbone of tannin. The intense flavour and firm backbone derive partly from oak, though this is completely integrated with the fruit. Will probably cellar well for 5–10 years.

Moorilla Praxis Pinot Noir 2012 $30
Moorilla St Matthias vineyard, Tamar River, Tasmania
Moorilla Praxis offers a contrast to its sturdier, more savoury and tannic cellar mate, Muse. The highly aromatic nose suggests strawberries and raspberries, though there’s a hint of stalk and pinot savouriness, too. Sweet red-berry flavours reflect the aroma. And these bold fruit flavours remain the central feature of a wine deriving its structure from acidity as well as tannin. It offers lovely drinking now and should drink well for another three or four years.

Chateau Semeillan Mazeau 2005 $49
Listrac-Medoc, Bordeaux, France
In cooler years wines from Bordeaux’s hinterland, such as Moulis and Listrac, tend to be under-ripe and therefore lean and green on the palate. However, in warm seasons like 2005 the wines can be fully ripe and very good indeed. Chateau Semeillan falls into this category. An elegant, 50:50 blend of merlot and cabernet, it offers fully ripened berry flavours, cut through with sturdy but round tannins – of an all-pervasive style that we never see in Australian cabernet-merlot blends – and which, indeed, define the “claret” style. (Imported by discovervin.com.au).

Brookland Valley Unison Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 $17–$20
Margaret River, Western Australia
Whether to drink Brookland Valley Unison or Chateau Semeillan Mazeau at double the price seems partly a question of style and not just one of quality. The French red offers good fruit tightly bound up in tannin – thus putting texture and structure on an equal footing with that fruit. Brookland Valley, on the other hand puts varietal fruit to the fore – both in the sweet aroma and juicy vibrance of the palate. Tannin supports the fruit but without adding depth or length. It offers simply, fruity drink-now pleasure at a fair price

Rob Dolan True Colours Chardonnay 2012 $22–$24
Yarra Valley, Victoria
In a wine show this score would be equivalent to a silver medal – a rating we give to fault-free wines showing clear varietal character and above average depth and interest. The wine appeals because it offers the richness and nectarine-like flavour of chardonnay with body and barrel-derived complexities – but not oakiness or heaviness. It’s a really good example of bright, modern Australian chardonnay from veteran maker, Rob Dolan..

Jim Barry Watervale Riesling 2013$15–$19
Jim Barry Florita vineyard, Watervale, South Australia
Clare’s warm, dry 2013 season resulted in an early harvest and, for Jim Barry Wines at least, an aromatic, pure and full-flavoured riesling. Peter Barry welcomed the low disease pressure of the dry season and the resulting clean fruit. The 2013 bears Watervale’s signature lime-like varietal flavour and delicacy, albeit in a slightly more full-bodied style than 2012 and 2011. The wine is nevertheless delicate, bone dry and mouth-wateringly fresh. There’s a long pedigree to rieslings from this vineyard, sold originally under the Leo Buring and Lindeman labels. The Barry family bought the vineyard from Lindemans in 1986.

Wine review — Coolangatta Estate and Williams Crossing by Curly Flat

23 June 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Coolangatta Estate Shoalhaven Coast Savagnin 2012 $25
Coolangatta Estate, located near Nowra, produces wonderful white wines despite constant battles with fungal diseases. Their semillons, in particular, age well and perform consistently well in wine shows. Savagnin, originally misidentified as the Spanish variety albarino in Australia, seems to be another outstanding performer at the site. The Bishop family sends its fruit to Tyrrell’s in the Hunter, and it comes back as this vigorous dry white. Brisk acidity accentuates the wine’s sappy, tropical-fruit palate. And a modest alcohol content (12.7 per cent) means the fruit flavour lingers without any alcoholic heat.

Williams Crossing by Curly Flat Macedon Chardonnay 2011 $25–$28
Curly Flat makes some of Australia’s most exciting, complex chardonnays. The second label, Williams Crossing, comprises material declassified from the Curly Flat label. But even these “offcuts” have been completely barrel fermented and matured, with all the hands-on winemaking attention of its more expensive cellar mate. That means one of the best value chardonnays on the market. In the cool 2011 vintage it’s perhaps a little leaner and tighter than usual with attractive grapefruit and melon varietal flavours woven through the rich barrel-derived texture. At two years’ age it’s brilliantly young and fresh, suggesting further evolution in bottle.

Williams Crossing by Curly Flat Macedon Pinot Noir 2011 $24–$28
A recent masked tasting organised by Jeir Creek’s Kay Howell featured the 2007, 2008 and 2009 vintage Curly Flat Pinot Noirs. The 2007 appealed most of all as it showed the secondary characters outstanding pinot develops with bottle age. Curly Flat’s second label, Williams Crossing, tasted shortly after Howell’s tasting showed another, lower priced expression of the house style. It’s lighter bodied and paler coloured than the wines at Howell’s tasting. But that was to be expected in such a cold vintage. Despite its comparative lightness, the 2011 delivers concentrated, definitive pinot flavour with a backbone of firm, fine tannins.

Wine review — Seppelt, Henschke, Freeman, Maxwell and Ravensworth

19 June 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Seppelt Jaluka Chardonnay 2011 $23.75–$27
Drumborg vineyard, Henty, Victoria
The Drumborg vineyard, planted by Karl Seppelt in1964, lies a little to the north of Portland on Victoria’s southwest coast. The cool, maritime climate presented huge viticultural challenges in the early days. But over the decades its managers coaxed ever better fruit from the site, culminating in elegant, charming wines like Jaluka chardonnay. In the very cold 2011 vintage Jaluka shows a particularly delicate face of barrel fermented and matured chardonnay. But that’s delicate in the best sense of the word – a fine-boned, silky, flavoursome chardonnay with considerably cellaring potential.

Henschke Tappa Pass Shiraz 2009 $60–$90
Tappa Pass and Light Pass, Barossa Valley, South Australia
At an Ainslie Cellars Henschke tasting towards the end of May, Tappa Pass shiraz seemed the crowd favourite. An irresistible example of Barossa shiraz, it delivers the region’s lush, ripe flavours and tender tannins. Words that came to mind included: round, juicy, vibrant, sumptuous, soft and gluggable. Pretty yummy stuff, but also a wine with depth, layers of fruit and tannin and a medium to long future if well cellared. It’s sealed with Vino-Lok, a glass plug with a synthetic O-ring forming the barrier between wine and air. The seal was developed last decade in Germany by aluminium giant Alcoa, and manufactured in Worms.

Henschke Peggy’s Hill Riesling 2012 $17–$20
Eden Valley, South Australia
Henschke makes two Eden Valley rieslings – the slow evolving, steel-edged Julius and the drink-now Peggy’s Hill, sourced from growers in the Eden Valley region. Peggy’s Hill presents the dazzling fresh, citrus-like varietal flavour of the vintage on a pleasingly delicate yet intense palate. Peggy’s 2012 provides huge drinking pleasure at a modest price. And given the depth of fruit flavour, it’ll probably drink well for another four or five years.

Freeman Secco Rondinella Corvina 2009
$35 Freeman vineyard, Hilltops, NSW
Rondinella and corvina are the red grapes of Valpolicella, near Verona, Italy. Brian Freeman grows the varieties near Young and emulates Valpolicella’s Amarone style of winemaking – drying a portion of each variety for 10 days before co-fermenting with freshly handpicked grapes. Freeman writes, “Rondinella generously bears large bunches with lower acid. Its partner, corvina, produces smaller, tighter bunches that contribute weight, cherry fruit aromas, intense pigments and robust tannins”. What we get in the bottle after all that is a unique red of medium hue with an intense savouriness cutting through the underlying ripe-cherry fruit flavour. The savouriness comes hand in hand with assertive, mouth-drying tannins, giving a pleasantly tart finish to the wine.

Maxwell Silver Hammer Shiraz 2011$18
McLaren Vale, South Australia
In the cool 2011 vintage Maxwell’s budget shiraz seems more medium than full bodied. But the ripe fruit flavours, with savoury edge, fit the Vale’s mould pretty well. Maturation in seasoned American oak helped flesh out the soft and appealing middle palate. The wine was made by Alexia Roberts and its soft, fruity/savoury palate say, “Drink me now”.

Ravensworth Chardonnay 2012 $30–$33
Revee Estate, Tumbarumba, NSW
Uh oh, I thought. The cues on the label – Tumbarumba, cold vintage, 11.5 per cent alcohol – all pointed to tooth-achingly high acid, a wine judge’s scourge. But instead the wine drank deliciously. Grapefruit-like varietal flavour, rich texture and brisk, but not austere acidity added up to a fine, moreish, cool-climate chardonnay – a full flavoured wine at a refreshingly low alcohol level. Winemaker Bryan Martin says the grapes arrived full of acid and “a little skinny” on flavour. But 52 hours skin contact at six degrees Celsius, reduced the acidity from a searing 13 grams a litre to 9.5 grams. It’s an old German winemaking trick, he says, and completely natural. The skin contact also helped build texture – which was further enhanced by ageing in barrel on yeast lees.

Beer review — Stone and Wood, Samuel Adams

19 June 2013Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Stone and Wood Limited Release Stone Beer 500ml $10
This annual brew goes a tad darker and fruitier this year, with the addition of chocolate wheat malt and Enigma hops to an already extensive ingredient list. It’s a luxurious, 7.2 per cent dark ale – spritely and fresh on the palate but seriously, smoothly, chocolate-like with a fruity lift and tangy finish.

Samuel Adams Noble Pils 355ml $6.65
“Noble” refers to the aristocratic hop strains used in the brew: Hallertau Mittelfrueh, Tettnang Tettnanger, Spalt Spalter, Saaz and Hersbrucker. Refreshingly for a hop-focused beer, gentle, herbal, fruity, spicy hops character subtly adorn the equally subtle honey character of the malt (Bohemian spring barley). It’s a lovely American take on the Czech Pilzen style.

Cooper’s our number one pale ale

19 June 2013BeerChris Shanahan

While craft brewers attract ever more publicity, one of Australia’s oldest beer brands won this year’s trophy for best Australian pale ale style at the Australian International Beer Awards.

Coopers Sparkling Ale, first produced in the 1860s, took out the top gong. Chief brewer, Dr Tim Cooper, said it was produced originally by the company’s founder, Thomas Cooper, and remains one of the Cooper’s biggest sellers.

Indeed, Sparkling Ale spearheaded the company’s push, albeit as a niche product, into other states from its South Australian base some decades ago.

As its popularity grew, scaling up production of this bottle-fermented brew went hi-tech with the introduction of an Aber Meter. The device, developed at the University of Aberystwyth, precisely controls the number of living yeast cells transferred at high speed from fermentation tank to bottle.

Viognier — genetic and vinous buddy of shiraz

19 June 2013People, Vineyard, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

The Rhone Valley white variety, viognier, is and will remain a niche variety, representing around two per cent of total white plantings in Australia. Nevertheless, it remains an important variety, principally because of its close relationship to our national red hero, shiraz.

The relationship is both genetic and vinous. In Wine Grapes (Penguin Group, 2012), Jancis Robinson writes, “Through DNA parentage analysis, a parent-offspring relationship has been discovered between viognier and mondeuse blanche, which makes viognier either a half-sibling or a grandparent of syrah”.

The vinous connection comes because in its northern Rhone home, vignerons co-planted and co-fermented viognier with shiraz – notably in the aromatic silky reds of Cote-Rotie.

But largely because of its susceptibility to fungal disease, the variety almost disappeared from France. Plantings had shrunk to just 14 hectares in the northern Rhone by the late 1960s.

However, it staged a remarkable comeback to 4395 hectares in France by 2009. By that time, viognier, with its viscous texture and distinctive apricot-like aroma and flavour and spread around the world, including Australia.

James Halliday reports it as present in the CSIRO’s collection at Merbein, Victoria, under the care of the late Allan Antcliff. Halliday writes, “It was from Antcliff that Baillieu Myer of Elgee Park obtained the first vines for a single-vineyard planting on his Mornington Peninsula vineyard in 1972, around the same time as the late Dr Bailey Carrodus interplanted a small number of viognier vines with shiraz at Yarra Yering”.

Later in the seventies, Heathcote winery in central Victoria probably trialled the variety. And, in the Barossa, Yalumba acquired cuttings from Montpellier, France in 1979. Yalumba propagated these cuttings and planted 1.2 hectares on the Vaughan vineyard, Eden Valley, in 1980. They claimed this as the first commercial viognier planting in Australia. The distinctive and lovely whites subsequently made by Louisa Rose stimulated consumer and winemaker interest in the variety.

As the Yalumba viognier vines matured, Dr John Kirk planted the variety at Clonakilla, Murrumbateman in 1986. In the next decade his son Tim combined grapes from these with vines shiraz to create Australia’s most influential take on the classic Cote-Rotie shiraz-viognier style.

Yalumba’s success with white viognier and Clonakilla’s with the red blend stimulated interest in the variety and plantings took off early in the new century.

Viognier, first showed up in Australian Bureau of Statistics figures in 2003 at 541 hectares, including non-bearing vines. This had increased to 1401 hectares in 2008 (representing about two per cent of Australia’s 72 thousand hectares of white varieties).

However, Winemaker Federation of Australia surveys pre-date ABS data on viognier. The federation’s 1999 survey indicated a total viognier crush of 254 tonnes. The crush peaked at 13,338 tonnes in 2009, then declined slightly in 2010, 2011 and 2012. But the declines probably relates to vintage conditions rather than any decline in plantings.

If we assume a productive capacity of around 13 thousand tonnes, then Australia’s vignerons might produce a little under a million dozen bottles of viognier a year. However, much of the production goes to blends with shiraz (and sometimes other red varieties) and also with other whites, principally viognier’s Rhone relatives, marsanne and roussanne.

Just what goes where is anybody’s guess. But a search of “viognier” on the website of Australia’s largest wine retailer, Dan Murphy, brought up 73 wines – 48 shiraz viognier blends; 19 straight viogniers; one dessert-style viognier; one rose (a blend with grenache); and four white blends.

If this sample is representative, then much of Australia’s viognier goes to blends with shiraz – with one caveat, the blends usually contain only about five per cent viognier.

On its own, viognier’s exotic apricot and ginger flavours and viscous palate perhaps deliver too much flavour for regular drinking. As with other assertive whites – gewürztraminer, for example – a little goes a long way.

But these can be delightful drinks and indeed our winemakers, notably Yalumba and Clonakilla, now produced highly polished versions that retain varietal character without overwhelming the senses.

I review below five examples that recently came across the tasting bench, including three superb wines from Yalumba, true masters of the variety with 29 hectares of viognier on hand.

Yalumba South Australia Organic Viognier 2012 $18.95
Yalumba’s entry-level viognier – pure and apricot-like with smooth texture and fresh, dry finish

Yalumba Eden Valley Viognier 2012 $24.95
A more opulent expression of viognier, incorporating the creamy texture of barrel fermentation and maturation. This is exceptional at the price.

Yalumba The Virgilius Eden Valley Viognier 2010 $49.95
Yalumba’s barrel-fermented flagship introduces an exotic ginger note to the varietal apricot character. This is a sumptuous but restrained, distinctive and delightful wine to savour slowly. Classy.

Mount Avoca Pyrenees Viognier 2010 $24
When first opened, this revealed the distinctive “bacon rind” character of barrel fermentation, a character that overshadowed the fruit. Oaky flavours then cut through the palate, a flavour quite separate from the good fruit.

Quartz Hill Pyrenees Viognier 2011 $32
Shane Mead’s is another fine expression of viognier. While the oak influence is apparent it sits well with the fruit, if not as completely integrated as it is in Yalumba’s wines. The spritely, slightly leaner palate appeals very much.

Wine review — Henri, Climbing and Brokenwood

16 June 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Bourgogne Pinot Noir (Henri) 2010 $20–$25
The success of new world varietal labelling convinced some French producers to follow suit. They saw, for example, that “pinot noir” added to “Bourgogne” (Burgundy) enlightened those not up on French wine lore – essentially that regional names like Burgundy also convey varietal meaning for those in the know. Henri, imported by Coles for its 1st Choice and Vintage Cellars outlets, offers a bright, clean, modern expression of the world’s original pinot noir – sealed hygienically under screwcap. It’s medium bodied, with savoury character and fine, firm backbone of tannin separating it in style from the generally fruity, soft Australian styles.

Climbing Orange Pinot Gris 2012 $18–$24
The press release accompanying this new release reports on the phenomenal growth of pinot gris/grigio production in Australia – from 2000 tonnes in 2004 to 54 thousand tonnes in 2012. Those figures equate to about 140 thousand and 3.8 million dozen bottles respectively. A good deal of it’s pretty insipid. But this version, made in Orange’s suitably cool climate, captures the “gris” style pretty well. It’s fresh and crisp, with subtle, pear-like varietal flavour and plush, velvety texture. Winemaker Debbie Lauritz says she picks grapes at various levels of ripeness to capture fresh acidity, varietal character and full body.

Brokenwood Cricket Pitch Red 2011 $14.95–$20
Cricket Pitch’s mixed ancestry gives it the appeal of the family’s warm and friendly “bitza” dog – a well-travelled mixed breed at that. The winemakers threw everything into the vat: cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, merlot and petit verdot. And they sourced various bits and pieces from the Central Ranges and Hunter Valley, NSW, Beechworth, Victoria, and McLaren Vale, South Australia. So the wine doesn’t much resemble any single one of those varieties or regions. What you get though is a frisky, fruity red with the body of shiraz and the various spikes and bones of cabernet, merlot and petit verdot – a decent, warming red at a fair price.

Penfolds Grange, Henschke Hill of Grace – investing a tricky business

13 June 2013People, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

The recent release of Penfolds Grange and Henschke Hill of Grace at record prices raises the age-old question of what they’re really worth. The short answer is, they’re worth what people pay for them. And as Penfolds and Henschke sell out every year, the answer has to be that they’re not overpriced, notwithstanding substantial domestic discounting in the case of Grange.

The discounting reminds us that we don’t all pay the same price. Indeed the gap between recommended retail and price on special may run to $100 or more a bottle. But over time, both wines tend to appreciate in value, though not at an even or predictable rate. So whether or not a purchase stacks up as an investment, as many buyers hope, depends on paying the right price at the right time (and not drinking it while you wait). Achieving this is no easier than picking stock price movements.

A story published in the Canberra Times on 30 May provided a real-life glimpse of Grange as an investment. The story reported prices Jackie Chan is said to have paid on a buying spree at Jim Murphy’s Fyshwick store in 1999.

Chan’s purchases included four vintages of Grange – 1991, 1990 and 1989 at $390 a bottle each and 1983 at $300, according on an order form retained by a former Murphy employee. Based on the current retail prices of those wines in the same store, the report concluded, “at least some of his purchases may now be proving a savvy investment”.

Unfortunately for Chan, though, it doesn’t work like that. A private owner has little chance of selling at retail prices. Why? Because people wanting to buy old Grange don’t phone Jackie Chan. If they’re in a rush, they’ll visit a retail store. And if they’re not, they might go to auction and save a great deal of money.

Collectors wanting to sell wine, generally don’t have customers, so they go to auction or to an upmarket retailer. In other words, they sell into a wholesale market. And from my experience as one of those retailers, auction prices continue to provide the best guide to current wholesale value.

So if Chan took the Granges he bought in 1999 to auction today, the result could be sobering. In nominal terms, he’d be ahead on the 1990, 1991 and 1983 vintages and behind on the 1989 vintage. However, after inflation adjusting his 1999 dollars, he’d be seriously behind on all four vintages. The position would be even worse were we to calculate the opportunity cost of money tied up without return for 14 years. The table below shows the detailed estimates.

The same table shows the net price you’d pay as a buyer at auction after adding the auctioneer’s quaintly named “buyer’s premium” and GST. Comfortingly, these prices, with the exception of the 1983, sit well below the retail prices quoted in the Canberra Times report – underlining the value of auctions.

And to illustrate the importance of timing, those who bought Grange1983 at $50 in 1988 could pocket a tidy profit – nominally $377 a bottle, or $325 after adjustment for inflation.

The top of the table shows Langton’s auction prices for various vintages of Grange and Hill of Grace. The generally high prices confirm their desirability. But it also demonstrates an age-old pattern – you can generally buy beautiful mature old vintages for less than you’d pay for a current release.

For drinkers rather than investors, though, there’s comfort in buying and cellaring a wine on release. That way, as the decades tick by, you know exactly where the wine’s been and how it’s been cellared. I suspect this is where Jackie Chan’s coming from.

And Grange and Hill of Grace sit at the top of the auction pile because they will cellar reliably for decades. I reviewed the new-release 2008 Grange a few weeks back, and last week had the opportunity to taste the just-released Hill of Grace 2008.

Ainslie Cellars hosted a customer tasting of Henschke wines, including the two single-vineyard flagships, Mount Edelstone Shiraz 2009 ($115) and Hill of Grace 2008 ($650).

I’ll review the range over the coming weeks. For today, though, let’s consider just the majestic 2008 Hill of Grace, sourced from 150-year-old shiraz vines in the Eden Valley. It’s deeply coloured but limpid and just beginning to show a little age at the rim. The complex, multi-faceted aroma suggests a big, powerful wine, built on intense, ripe black-cherry-like fruit, laced with sympathetic oak. The palate surprises after the aroma as it’s ethereal and elegant in structure, though waves of intense fruit and tannins sweep across the palate. It’s a classy and idiosyncratic shiraz, as gnarled and stately as the ancient vines it springs from.

Penfolds and Henschke blue-chip reds – market prices

Wine	RRP	Mean hammer price	Seller gets	Buyer pays

Grange 2008	$785	No sale	No sale	No sale
Grange 2007		$425	$383	$537
Grange 2006		$550	$495	$695
Grange 2005		$445	$400	$562
Grange 1996		$475	$427	$600
Grange 1990		$555	$500	$702
Grange 1986		$550	$495	$696
Grange 1983		$475	$427	$600

Hill of Grace 2008	$650	No sale	No sale	No sale
Hill of Grace 2007		No sale	No sale	No sale
Hill of Grace 2006		$445	$400	$562
Hill of Grace 2005		$400	$360	$506
Hill of Grace 1999		$365	$328	$461
Hill of Grace 1990		$480	$432	$607
Hill of Grace 1986		$360	$324	$455
Hill of Grace 1983		$220	$198	$278

The Jackie Chan Granges	What Jackie paid 1999*	What he’d get now	What you’d pay now
Grange 1991	$390/$575	$450	$632
Grange 1990	$390/$575	$500	$702
Grange 1989	$390/$575	$320	$449
Grange 1983	$300/$443	$427	$600

Auction price sources: langtons.com.au
Seller’s price assumes 10% commission to Langton’s
Buyer’s price assumes 15% commission to Langton’s and GST

*Nominal price/inflation adjusted price in brackets

© Chris Shanahan 2013 June 2013

Wine review — Ravensworth, Torbreck, Penfolds, Oakridge and Tar and Roses

12 June 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Ravensworth Shiraz Viognier 2012 $30–$33
Ravensworth vineyard
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
Winemaker Bryan Martin writes, “A small crop survived the hail and biblical downpour of the 2012 vintage”. The surviving fruit, however, made a terrific wine. On first opening, heady floral aromas dominate and are reflected on the palate. But after a good splash, the aromas expand to include spices, pepper, ripe, red berries and a light stalky/stemmy character. These are all consistent with high quality, cool-grown shiraz co-fermented with viognier – and in contact with whole bunches (and hence stems). The flavours on the medium bodied palate reflect the aroma, while fine, persistent tannins add grip and length to the smooth, deeply textured palate. It’s a fragrant, elegant, fine-boned shiraz with good medium-term cellaring potential. See ravensworthwines.com.au for stockists.

Torbreck Woodcutters Shiraz 2012 $21.45–$23
Barossa Valley, South Australia
David Powell makes a number of Barossa shirazes and blends, including his flagship Run Rig ($275) and one-off The Laird 2006 ($700) from Malcolm Seppelt’s vineyard near Seppeltsfield. Powell’s more earthly, entry-level shiraz comes from younger vines grown across the Barossa’s diverse sub-regions: Marananga, Greenock, Ebenezer, Gomersal, Moppa, Lyndoch and Kalimna. It’s generous but round and beautifully balanced red, centred on ripe Barossa fruit flavours and the region’s typically soft tannins. We enjoyed ours with a rare sirloin and chips at Edgar’s, Ainslie – hearty food for a hearty wine. Price there was a reasonable $44 a bottle, but expect to pay half that retail.

Ravensworth “The Grainery” 2012 $27–$30
Ravensworth vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
In the rain-reduced 2012 vintage, Bryan Martin chucked all of his white varieties together – bar riesling. The Rhone Valley varieties – marsanne, roussanne and viognier – joined chardonnay in the blending vat, creating an idiosyncratic mix of great interest. It’s a full-flavoured, soft dry white with a rich, lightly viscous texture, and a subtle, pleasantly tart and savoury element – probably derived from tannins in the fruit. Pushing through these textural and savoury elements is a delicious little bubble of apricot-like flavour, presumably from the viognier component. It’s available online and through selected stockists – see ravensworthwines.com.au for details.

Penfolds Magill Estate Shiraz 2010 $130
Magill vineyard, Adelaide, South Australia
While the prices of Grange and Bin 707 confidently roar ahead internationally, Magill appears to be stalled. Certainly the auction price of past vintages suggests this year’s asking price to be way ahead of the market. The highly regarded 1996, for example, fetches $75–$95 under the Langton’s hammer; and the 2008 $50–$70. Price quibbles aside, the 2010 is as good a Magill as I’ve tasted since the inaugural 1983 vintage. Within the world of burly Penfolds’ reds, it’s medium bodied; and in 2010 with delicious ripe fruit seductively layered with fruit and oak tannins and attractive soy-like savouriness.

Oakridge “Over the Shoulder” Pinot Noir 2012 $17–$23
Yarra Valley, Victoria
The lowest priced of Oakridge’s pinots combines fruit from five Yarra sub-regions – Coldstream, Yarra Glen, Seville, Woori Yallock and Gembrook. Applying “traditional methods” to hand picked grapes from these vineyards, David Bicknell made one of the best pinots I’ve seen at this price. It combines the vibrant, aromatic and red-berry varietal character of pinot with savouriness, earthiness and, in particular, texture and fine tannic grip on the palate – vital pinot elements offing missing from less expensive attempts. It’s just a delight to drink and bound to convert yet more pinot doubters to the fold.

Tar and Roses Pinot Grigio 2012 $18
Central Victoria, Victoria
The light bronze tint of Tar and Roses points to the origin of pinot grigio (or pinot gris, literally “grey pinot”) – a mutant of Burgundy’s noble red variety, pinot noir. Like the red version, the white mutant grows best in cool climates. But the range of flavours (or lack of it) and styles varies so widely in Australia, it’s sometimes hard to believe they’re all made from the same variety. This one, however, captures much of the elusive pinot character, in this instance a full-bodied, crisp, richly textured, bone-dry white with a notably savoury, tannic bite.