Riposte The Dagger Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir 2012 $20–$22 A visit to the Adelaide Hills in late July turned up some lovely reds and whites from the 2012 vintage – a very favourable season following the cold, wet 2011 season. Winemaker Tim Knappstein sources fruit from various parts of the hills and makes his wine at Wicks Estate – where we tasted Wicks 2012 alongside Knappstein’s Riposte 2012. They’re similarly priced and both offer clear varietal flavour and satisfying, ripe, juicy fruit. The unoaked Knappstein wine, however, seems a little tighter on the palate with attractive savoury character as well as fruit.
Tscharke Matching Socks Barossa Valley Touriga Nacional 2012 $21 Sixth generation Barossa vigneron, Damien Tscharke, recently opened a unique cellar door in the Barossa’s Marananga sub-region. Tscharke and his German wife, Eva, imported pre-cut timber from Germany then assembled the building, comprising cellar door, mezzanine pottery gallery (Eva makes the pots on site), four-metre underground cellar and bed and breakfast facility. Tscharke makes traditional Barossa styles but also works with less well-known varieties, including savagnin, montepulciano and this pretty red, made from the port variety, touriga nacional. It’s a rich, soft red with flavours reminiscent of summer berries and Christmas cake.
Redbank The Long Paddock Victoria Chardonnay 2012 $9.50–$12.95 Redbank is part of the Hill-Smith family portfolio, which also includes well-known brands such as Yalumba, Heggies and Pewsey Vale. The Redbank brand is Victorian based, drawing fruit from the King and Ovens Valleys and, for lower priced wines like The Long Paddock, from warmer Victorian regions as well. In Yalumba’s hands the cross-regional blend delivers high quality at a fair price – especially when the retailers chop into it. The 2012 offers attractive melon and peach varietal flavours in a full-bodied, smooth textured style.
Copyright Chris Shanahan 2013 First published 25 August 2013 in the Canberra Times
Paxton Quandong Farm Shiraz 2011 $30 Paxton’s Quandong farm vineyard, McLaren Vale, South Australia David Paxton changed from almond growing and processing to grape growing in the early eighties. He established his own vineyard in McLaren Vale and later consulted to vineyards around Australia, including at Plantagenet, Western Australia, Coldstream and Hoddles Creek in the Yarra Valley, Victoria, and on Kangaroo Island. After attending a 2004 biodynamic workshop at Beechworth, Paxton began converting his own McLaren Vale vineyards, starting with Quandong Farm. The vineyard, source of this lovely red is now certified biodynamic. I tasted the wine at cellar door with David on 24 July. It appeals for its lively, generous fruit, taut structure, hints of stalk from the whole bunches included in the ferment, and lingering, savoury finish. It combines intensity with elegance.
Rockford Rod and Spur Shiraz Cabernet 2010 $32 Barossa Valley, South Australia The Barossa accommodates winemaking of every scale, from the vast tank farm cum city of Jacob’s Creek, at Roland Flat, to small-scale, hands-on producers like Rockford, at Krondorf. Rockford’s elegant reds capture the ripe, earthy flavours and soft tannins of this warm region. The wines age well and invariable give great drinking satisfaction. On a recent cold weekend in the Barossa, Rod and Spur, tasted by the fireplace in the stone cellar door, appealed very strongly. Though a near 50:50 blend of cabernet and shiraz, cabernet character dominated the exuberant aroma. But on the buoyant, generous, sweet-berry palate the two varieties became inseparable –until the cabernet tannins tightened up and dried out the finish.
Turkey Flat Mourvedre 2010 $32 Turkey Flat vineyard, Barossa Valley, South Australia I reviewed this wine about a year ago and tasted it again in late July at cellar door with Turkey Flat owner, Christie Schulz. The conversation turned to the tongue-twisting varietal name. When visitors struggle with “mourvedre”, Schulz turns discomfort to a smile with, “move over dear”. It seems English customers prefer “mourvedre”, while in the Barossa it’s more widely known as “mataro” (though one producer opts for the Spanish “monastrell”). Schulz says the vines produce very small, thick-skinned berries. These make a unique red, in this instance with blackberry-like fruit, with a dusting of spice and loads of fine, grippy tannins from those thick skins.
Turkey Flat Butchers Block Red 2012 $19 Turkey Flat vineyard, Barossa Valley, South Australia Butchers Block combines the three classic Barossa red varieties, shiraz (45 per cent), grenache (30 per cent) and mourvedre (25 per cent). Mark Bulman’s light hand in the winery unleashed the ripe and gentle beauty of these varieties in an excellent Barossa vintage. The high-toned aroma reveals the vitality of the fruit – the musk-like grenache being particularly seductive. The palate’s all fleshy, juicy, vibrant fruit flavour cut through with fine, gentle tannins.
Penfolds Cellar Reserve Pinot Noir 2012 $50 Adelaide Hills, South Australia Peter Gago made Penfolds’ first Cellar Reserve Pinot Noir in 1997. Since then it’s evolved considerably in style from sturdy Penfolds red to a fine, deeply layered, top-shelf pinot. It’s made in the original open fermenters at Magill Estate – the same ones Max Schubert used for Grange. In this case they’re cradle to a substantial pinot – highly aromatic and varietal, intensely flavoured, fleshy, vibrant, silky textured with an exotic undertone of “stalkiness”, derived from whole grape bunches included in the ferment. Tasted at cellar door, Magill, 28 July. Available direct from Penfolds.
Holm Oak Vineyards Ilex Pinot Noir 2012 $22 Holm Oak vineyard, Tamar Valley, Tasmania Rebecca Duffy recently released three very good pinot noirs, Holm Oak Ilex 2012 $22, Holm Oak Vineyard 2012 $32 and Holm Oak The Wizard 2010. There’s a family resemblance, but the quality lifts more or less in proportion to the prices and the styles vary. The entry level Ilex offers a true pinot experience focusing on fruity fragrance and bright raspberry-strawberry-like flavours, though with adequate tannin structure. The $32 offers more concentration and quite lush, slippery texture. And The Wizard steps up again, delivering more intense fruit flavour, firmer tannins, savouriness and the beginnings of secondary, age-derived flavours.
Copyright Chris Shanahan 2013 First published 21 August 2013 in the Canberra Times and goodfood.com.au
A couple of Alistair Turnbull’s bottled beers enjoyed here in Canberra, prompted a visit to his Lobethal Bierhaus. We’d been in the Barossa, so motored up through Angaston and south along the Mounty Lofty ranges.
Henschke, at Keyneton, doesn’t open Sundays, so we continued south through Springton, Eden Valley and across the invisible border to the Adelaide Hills and its string of lovely villages, including Lobethal.
It’s winter but a balmy 19 degrees, tempting the Bierhaus crowd, largely families with kids, into the beer garden, though the hall inside fills up with lunch time revelers, too.
It’s hard to imagine a friendlier, more relaxed place, offering good local food and soft drinks as well as the exceptionally good beers Turnbull brews on site. It’s a must visit, and an easy drive from Adelaide, or via the scenic route, going to or from the Barossa.
Lobethal Hefeweizen 330ml $4.99 Lobethal Bierhaus makes its wheat beer in the southern Bavarian style, characterised by a highly aromatic fruity character. A yeast haze hangs in the lovely golden liquid, topped by a dense white foam. The generous, creamy textured palate refreshes with its fruity flavour and tangy dry finish.
Lobethal Bierhaus Red Truck Porter 330ml $4.99 Porter sits at the dark end of the ale spectrum, generally a tad lighter coloured than stout, though that distinction doesn’t always hold. The aroma suggests roasted grain, coffee and chocolate – flavours delivered generously on the palate. A subtle hops flavour adds freshness and a mild bitterness that offsets the generous malt flavours.
Copyright Chris Shanahan 2013 First published 7 August 2013 in The Canberra Times
Jim Barry Lodge Hill Riesling 2013 $21–$23 Jim Barry Lodge Hill vineyard, Clare Valley, South Australia A gold medal and trophy at the royal Queensland wine show underlines the drink-now, fruity, dry appeal of Jim Barry Lodge Hill Riesling. It’s probably a tad less in-your-face fruity than the trophy-winning 2012 vintage and therefore potentially of even wider appeal. At a recent office tasting, even the red wine diehards slurped it down and enquired where they might buy it. It should be available in any decent liquor store. 2013 looks to be another excellent Clare Valley riesling vintage.
Port Phillip Estate Quartier Pinot Noir 2012 $28 Mornington Peninsular, Victoria Port Phillip Estate (including Kooyong Estate) recently released three pinot noirs, two from the cold, wet 2011 vintage and this crowd pleaser from the more benign 2012 season. Port Phillip Estate 2011 ($38) and Kooyong Estate 2011 ($53) offer lean and taut, silky expressions of the cool season. But Quartier 2012 takes us into plump, juicy fruity territory – ripe, round delicious pinot flavours with sufficient tannin structure and savouriness to count as a real red wine – an irresistible one at that.
Peter Lehmann Drawcard Shiraz 2010 $21–$23 North-western ridge, Barossa Valley, South Australia Peter Lehmann died in June, so Drawcard shiraz reminds us of the Barossa wines he loved and championed. And of course they’re still being made under his name by long-serving winemaker Ian Hongell. Sourced from old vines in the north-western Barossa, Drawcard shows a particularly robust face of Barossa shiraz – deeply coloured, with powerful, ripe fruit and particularly firm tannins; quite a contrast to the often soft, tender styles of the region.
Shiraz by Farr 2010 $55 Geelong, Victoria This is the sort of shiraz you’d expect from one of Australia’s most accomplished pinot makers. Grown in the cool, maritime climate of Geelong and co-fermented with a splash of the white viognier, it’s fragrant and lively, medium bodied, peppery and spicy and smoothly, gently textured. We tasted then drank Shiraz by Farr at a leisurely pace following a couple of top-end pinots. This proved a delicious segue into a fine, firm old Bordeaux, Chateau Pichon-Lalande 1986.
Cullen Mangan Vineyard Merlot Malbec Petit Verdot 2012 $29 Cullen Mangan vineyard, Margaret River, Western Australia Vanya Cullen’s new red, from the family’s Mangan vineyard, captures the rich, ripe flavours and abundant tannins of these three Bordeaux varieties. As only about four fifths of wine is matured in oak (seasoned) and for only eight months, vibrant fruit dominates the aroma and flavour of very deeply coloured, crimson-rimmed wine. The vibrant berry flavours come with a touch of leafiness. And the full-flavoured, fruity palate carries quite a load of assertive but soft tannins. The wine will probably age well for many years.
Lowe Louee Nullo Mountain Pinto Grigio 2012 $25 Louee vineyard, Nullo Mountain, Rylestone, NSW David Lowe’s unusually aromatic pinot grigio comes from a site he claims “as the coldest vineyard in Australia in the 2012 vintage”. Assuming there’s sufficient heat to ripen the berries, cool or cold is good for pinot grigio. Cool ripening intensifies fruit flavour, retains acidity and generally means greater fragrance and a more elegant, delicate wine style – characteristics seldom associated with pinot gris/grigio. Lowe’s is a delicious expression of the variety – aromatic, lively on the palate with vibrant pear-like flavour and crisp, dry finish without the hardness sometimes seen in the variety.
Copyright Chris Shanahan 2013 First published 31 July 2013 in the Canberra Times and goodfood.com.au
In a brave and confident display early July, winemaker David Lowe pitted his solid, tannic Mudgee red wines, and a couple of whites, against the spice and fire of Thirst’s exciting Thai food.
The combinations got us talking about wine and food matching in general, about what goes, or not, with spicy food and, in particular, with chilli – the most widely used spice in the world.
The chilli pepper family derives its palate scorching powers from the alkaloid, capsaicin. Ironically, what attracts us to it – its burning power – was probably nature’s way of protecting plants from hungry predators – like us.
Yet we dose up on it, dowse the fire momentarily, or aggravate it, with cool liquid, then, like palate pyromaniacs, come back for more – as we did at Thirst a few weeks back.
Before the fireworks began, we tasted Louee Nullo Mountain Riesling 2012 – a searing, delicate beauty of a dry white, needing time to tame, and due for release in a few years, says Lowe. It’s from the Louee vineyard, 1100 metres above sea level on Nullo Mountain, near Rylestone – a colder site than Lowe’s Mudgee vineyards, 50 kilometres away and almost 700 metres lower down.
The riesling follows us to dinner, where it joins Louee Nullo Mountain Pinot Grigio 2012 and Thirst’s chilli-laden fish cakes. It’s a strikingly aromatic pinot grigio, suggesting drinking pleasure ahead. My neighbour, Nick Bulleid, gets to the wine before the food and says the flavour matches the aroma – delicious. But I hit the chilli first and the wine seems flavourless, albeit cold and fresh. The high-acid riesling, on the other hand, maintains some flavour through the chilli peak. Neither puts out the fire.
So here we have wine and food shouting for attention. It’s a flavour adventure, not flavour matching. The food creates its own urgency, pain and thrill, while the wine flavours pop up momentarily between waves of spice and chilli heat. The pinot grigio, for example, comes back to life between courses.
This is a familiar flavour battle and one I’ve cherished for decades, putting many beers and wines to the test. The question becomes do we want to soothe the pain, fan the flame or go for the big flavour shoot out?
How about a bit of each? Drive the devil out with Beelzebub, so to speak, by turning on the flavour kaleidoscope. An old beer-judging mate, Bill Taylor, chief brewer at Lion, once told me the capsaicin family meets its match in really hoppy, bitter beers.
For example, the original Czech pilsners, and some Australian versions of the style, have the stuffing to put the chill on chilli anytime. They won’t dowse the fire, but they’ll make it sputter and fizz as capsaicin and hops joust for palate space. It’s a particularly interesting battle, too, because capsaicin and hops both have exceptionally lingering flavours.
Less bitter beers, on the other hand, tend to temper the heat. But, like the pinot grigio, they sit in the background, subdued by chilli heat and flavour.
But these beers are cheap, and being cold and wet is all we ask of them. However, if I’m drinking wine costing $20 or more a bottle, I want to taste it, even when the chilli’s burning.
Some wines step up to the mark. Lowe’s young riesling did. And it’ll no doubt look even better over time as the fruit flavour blossoms, ultimately outweighing the acidity.
In general, fruity, soft wines, whether red or white maintain flavour through the spice and chilli attack.
Aromatic and floral white wines offer a purity of fruit flavour, refreshing acidity and, quite often, a gentle sweetness. In combination, these elements not only refresh but also broaden the flavour impressions of a wide range of spicy and even mildly hot dishes. Riesling is a favourite, especially those with modest amounts of residual sugar.
In the discussion at Thirst, partner in Winewise magazine, Lester Jesberg, mentioned Beaujolais – a soft, juicy, light-bodied, fruity red made from the gamay grape at the southern tip of France’s Burgundy region.
I’ve enjoyed the style with hot and spicy foods and agree with Jesberg. The lovely fruitiness runs side by side with chilli, without taking the edge off the heat. But no wine I know of achieves the latter.
In the last few years, I’ve tried a wide range of red wines with Indian food, covering a spectrum of spicy flavours and, at times, intense chilli heat. We’ve yet to find one that mollifies the heat. But fruity wines with soft tannins consistently hold their flavours with the food. In particular, we’ve enjoyed Australian warm climate shiraz and grenache and blends where those two varieties dominate.
At the Thirst-Lowe dinner and tasting, a long run of shirazes, from 2002 vintage to 2011 (with some gaps) as well as zinfandel and nebbiolo and found much to love. However, Mudgee reds in general carry a formidable tannin load, giving a firm, sometimes-tough finish. I don’t think these work with hot and spicy food.
To me, the most appealing with the food were the fruitier zinfandels (though the tannins took the edge off) and Lowe’s Block 8 Shiraz 2011 – a fragrant and silky, soft wine from an unusually cold vintage. Lowe called it his “stalky Murrumbateman style”.
Overall, though, the people attending the dinner didn’t seem too fussed about whether the wine and food matched or clashed. They enjoyed both, they said, and weren’t silly enough to be deflected from a good night out and exploring a great diversity of flavours.
Copyright Chris Shanahan 2013 First published 24 July in the Canberra Times and goodfood.com.au
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 140th 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.
Copyright Chris Shanahan 2013 First published 17 July 2013 in The Canberra Times and goodfood.com.au
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.
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
This story of oysters and wine links France’s Languedoc coast to Bateman’s Bay, half a world away, and to Cowra, on the warm floor of the west-flowing Lachlan River.
The man joining the dots is Steve Feletti, owner of Moonlight Flat Oysters, Bateman’s Bay. His website borrows the language of wine – “Just like premium wines and cheeses oysters reflect their context of finish and provenance with a unique flavour profile”, it says. On the website, Feletti recommends wines that “balance the saline strength of our structured rock oyster brands” and “smoky finish end palate of the angasi”.
Feletti’s eclectic list includes a chardonnay from Orange, NSW, and a chardonnay, a gewürztraminer and a cortese (an Italian variety) from Victoria’s Yarra Valley, Mansfield and Mount Tallarook, respectively. The limited list suggests Feletti finds few wines that really do the trick with oysters.
But during a 2008 French tour, Feletti tasted picpoul de pinet with oysters farmed nearby on the Languedoc coast. “No single wine rang my bells up until this experience”, he says.
For the locals, however, the bells rang centuries ago, says Feletti. And today wine producers within the picpoul de pinet appellation promote their inexpensive, acidic young white under the slogan son terroir, c’est la mer (it’s territory is the sea) – with images of wine, oysters and the sea.
The picpoul de pinet appellation stretches from Pezenas, in the hinterland, southeast to Sete on the Mediterranean. The region’s white grape variety, officially piquepoul blanc, produces acidic, lemony, dry whites – its high acidity the key to a successful pairing with oysters.
But piquepoul blanc remains a small-scale specialty, with French plantings totalling just 1,455 hectares in 2009.
Two years after discovering piquepoul, Feletti asked French grape grower, Guy Bascou, for vine cuttings to take back to Australia. Bascou obliged, and after three years in quarantine, the cuttings arrived in Cowra, where Feletti owns a farm.
Shortly after, the local state member, minister for primary industries, Katrina Hodgkinson, planted what Feletti believes to be Australia’s first piquepoul vine.
Feletti intends to follow this symbolic planting with a commercial venture in August, establishing 1,000 vines on the O’Dea family’s nearby Windowrie vineyard. He expects Jason O’Dea to oversee the first vintage as early as 2015. We should then taste the first Australian piquepoul some months later, under the Borrowed Cuttings label.
Feletti hopes in future to establish vines on the south coast and, over time, establish piquepoul as “part of the oyster experience”, much as French vignerons and oyster farmers have done for centuries. He agrees with one US description of the variety as “the default wine for oysters” as it forms a “backdrop, allowing the oyster to shine”, he says.
Feletti’s idea of oysters, though, may not be the same as those of us who belt down the coast for the weekend, picking up a hessian bag full from Batemans Bay, Tuross, Narooma or wherever.
He raises flat (angasi) and cupped (Sydney rock) oysters year round in the Clyde River, near Batemans Bay. He sells most, under his patented brands, including Claire de Lune, to restaurants– where they sell at around $7 each. Feletti says he finishes each brand differently in response to different markets.
They’re not in any Canberra restaurants. But where you do find them – for example at Sydney’s Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay – they’ll be shucked on demand by trained staff. And in the years ahead they’ll no doubt be served with Feletti’s piquepoul.
Feletti says he sells to 20–40 restaurants in long-term partnerships. He expects restaurants “to do something for my brand” and, in return, he provides staff training, as well as a year-round supply of succulent oysters. He also writes a regular newsletter and conducts master classes for consumers – all in the cause of better appreciation of live, shucked-on-demand oysters.
This is a far cry from popular consumption; or indeed of heroic efforts like those of Henry IV, who reputedly swallowed three hundred before dinner; or of a customer of Brillat-Savarin’s 32 dozen pre-dinner snack.
In my own experience, the strong seaside flavours of oysters overwhelm many wines. But I’ve found several up to the task over the years, each in it own way. At a little café in the dunes of Cap Ferret (near Bordeaux), a tart, fairly neutral young Muscadet de Sevre et Maine, from the Loire Valley, refreshed the mouth but allowed the briny, oyster flavours to sing.
Years later in Bordeaux, a local, partially oak-fermented semillon sauvignon blanc blend sat happily with plump, juicy, ice-cold oysters.
On many occasions, young Chablis (cold climate French chardonnay) proved itself perhaps the most reliable of all oyster wines. Its high acidity, desert dryness and subtle flavour easily balanced the saline, iodine-like twang of the oyster. To date, this is my favourite oyster match up. Costco, Dan Murphy’s and First choice all offer inexpensive imports from the region.
And one Australian riesling remains in the memory – a success of wine, oyster, location and occasion. On a cold, rainy dusk at the Steingarten vineyard, Eden Valley, huddled under umbrellas, we slurped down fresh-shucked Coffin Bay oysters with wine from from the vineyard we stood in. Steingarten Riesling 2007’s brisk lime-like flavour simply replaced the traditional squeeze of lime.
Amanda Yallop, chief sommelier at Sydney’s outstanding Quay restaurant, leans more towards high acid, savoury-to-neutral whites. She says in the days when Quay offered oysters, she recommended aromatic young whites, including riesling, and also Champagne, which she sees as a classic match for its tangy, zesty finish.
Proprietor of Canberra’s Mezzalira and Italian and Sons restaurants, Pasquale Trimboli, says his customers moved away from dry white to prosecco – a fresh but neutral sparkler that offers a refreshing backdrop to the briny oyster flavour. Trimboli says it’s been 10 years since he offered pre-shucked oysters and currently offers Sydney rock oysters from Pambula. He rates Steve Feletti’s oysters, “the best I’ve ever tasted in Australia”. He hopes to offer them in future and has been in discussions with Feletti for some time. He says Feletti “is very fussy about storage and service”.
But matching wine with oysters isn’t a science and oysters, like personal taste, vary widely. Piquepoul can only add to the choice. Tim Stock’s Vinous Imports offers picpoul de Pinet from Chateau Petite Roubie, though he’s sold out at present. And Randall Pollard’s Heart and Soil Imports, Melbourne, currently offers Domaine de la Majone 2011 for $2 (phone 0408 432 456.
Steve Feletti offers Moonlight Flat oysters live by courier to Canberra customers. Email info@moonlightflatoysters.com.au for details.
A few strokes on Lisa Perotti-Brown’s laptop – 100 points – gave the world its headline – “The perfect Grange”. And like catatonic chooks, eyes glued to a single point, the world’s editors obsessed on one wine of the seven Penfolds released on 2 May.
What a lot of fun they missed. But Grange makes the news every year one way or another. It’s always controversial and always delivers in the robust, long-lived style Max Schubert developed in the early 1950s.
Successive winemakers over the decades refined Grange, so that today its fruit is probably a bit brighter and the oak more refined. But it remains inky blank, powerful and layered with winemaking inputs that add more aroma, flavour and textural dimensions than fruit alone could give.
And it’s always released in good company nowadays – alongside remarkable wines, some inspired by Schubert, some created long after his death in 1994, but all made by winemakers who knew him and his wine styles well. Schubert retired in 1973, but he maintained an office at Magill winery for the rest of his life and enjoyed regular contact with his successors – Don Ditter, John Duval and Peter Gago.
The new red releases include St Henri, an elegant, supple counterpoise to Grange, but equally long lived and created by John Davoren, not Schubert. Bin 707, or Grange Cabernet as some call it, is essentially Grange made from cabernet sauvignon instead of shiraz. It’s Grange’s match in power and individual character and as good a wine at half the price. Schubert made the first vintage in 1964.
Max Schubert saved Magill Estate from urban subdivision. Extract from Schubert's hand-written business case presented to the board of Adelaide Steamship Company, owner of Penfolds. Document courtesy of Barrie Woodward.
In 1983, Don Ditter made the first vintage of Magill Estate Shiraz, the single-vineyard wine that saved Penfolds’ Adelaide vineyard from urban subdivision. In late 1982, Max Schubert hand wrote a business plan, including details of the wine, for a board meeting of the Adelaide Steamship Company, then owners of Penfolds. Penfolds Managing Director Ian Mackley (ISM in the document above), and General Manager Jim Williams (JLW), convinced the board to retain the vineyard on the basis of Schubert’s proposal.
RWT Barossa Shiraz arrived in 1997, following John Duval’s quest (the ‘red wine trial’, hence RWT) for an elegant, aromatic Barossa Valley Shiraz, matured in French oak. The wine contrasts starkly with the power and American oak character of Grange shiraz.
And the newest arrival, Bin 169 Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon is to Bin 707 what RWT is to Grange. Its creator, current winemaker Peter Gago, says Bin 169 and RWT take the pressure off Bin 707 and RWT. Gago believes the two new styles deflected criticism from some quarters that Grange and Bin 707 needed “modernising” – lightening up and moving from American oak to less aggressively flavoured French oak.
The lone chardonnay in the line up began as the “white Grange” project in the early nineties, under John Duval. Duval’s team sought a white equivalent of Grange. With no restrictions on grape variety or region, the winemakers initially sourced semillon, riesling and chardonnay from a diversity of regions. The search quickly narrowed to chardonnay, initially from mainland regions, including Tumbarumba, the Adelaide Hills and McLaren.
The first vintage released under the new flagship chardonnay label, Yattarna 1995, combined fruit from the Adelaide Hills and McLaren Vale. However, the continuing search for suitable fruit soon took Penfolds to Tasmania – just as Hardys had done for its flagship, Eileen Hardy. The just-released 2010 vintages combines fruit from Tasmania and the Adelaide Hills.
Penfolds St Henri Shiraz 2009 $95 Modern St Henri reveals something of Australia’s massive vineyard expansion of the nineties. Fruit from Robe and Wrattonbully on the Limestone Coast and the Adelaide Hills now joins material from the warmer, traditional Clare Valley, Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale. But the style remains unchanged. St Henri 2009 is a little lighter coloured than Grange or RWT, a tad less crimson than RWT and a tad more crimson than Grange – precisely reflecting their ages. St Henri fruit is chosen for its elegance and, as well, it’s aged in old 1,460-litre vats – meaning maturation without picking up woody flavour. St Henri seems gentle and soft compared to RWT and Grange. And its supple, sweet, plummy fruit comes layered earthy and savoury notes and fine, silky tannin. This is a big, warm St Henri but still elegant and built for long cellaring under good conditions.
Penfolds RWT Barossa Valley Shiraz 2010 $175 In 2005 I judged the Barossa Valley wine show with Huon Hooke and Lester Jesberg. Over dinner one night, we concluded Penfolds RWT 1998 was perhaps the best Barossa shiraz any of us had tasted. It now has a rival in the 2010. Tasting it alongside Grange accentuates RWT’s heady, floral aroma and opulent, chewy, juicy palate. It’s a dense and concentrated wine, saturated with aromatic shiraz character that’s beautifully complemented by sweet and spicy French oak. While it’s harmonious and easy enough to drink now, the sheer concentration and youth of the fruit flavour suggest a beautiful flavour evolution ahead.
Penfolds Grange 2008 $785 Max Schubert’s encounter with magnificent 50 year-old Bordeaux reds in 1950 inspired Grange. And tasting the inky deep, tannic wines of the new vintage, he realised Grange would have to be similarly powerful to last the half century he had in mind. He realised great wine requires more than just good fruit. And so, the 2008 Grange, like those before it combines the inky deep colour, flavour and tannins of fully ripened shiraz. And the fruit’s layered with the flavour and tannin of American oak and a distinctive hint of volatile acidity, deliberately encouraged during winemaking to give extra lift to such a huge, powerful wine. A description of the parts, though, can’t adequately convey the sense of a remarkable and unique wine. From tasting every vintage back to 1951, some of them many times, I conclude that age is perhaps the best fining agent of all. Over time Grange becomes finer – in the words of Max Schubert, “it has a similar elegance [to those ancient Bordeaux reds tasted in 1950], even after starting from a big, rough Australian red”. 2008 is a particularly powerful expression of the style, destined to evolve for decades.
Penfolds Yattarna Chardonnay 2010 $130 With Yattarna, Penfolds aim for finesse, harmony and longevity – a style inspired by the elegant chardonnays of Puligny-Montrachet, Burgundy. Suitable fruit comes from the coolest growing regions – in 2010 from Tasmania and the Adelaide Hills. Fermentation and maturation in French oak barrels, 57 per cent of them new, produced a fine, complex wine, its rich but delicate fruit meshed through with barrel-derived character. It seems very young and fresh at three years and should evolve well for another five or six years.
