Category Archives: People

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.

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 — 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.

Trust me, I’m the sommelier – Quay’s degustation wine menu

29 August 2012People, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

We’re in Quay restaurant, watching the sea pulse through Sydney harbour on a miserably, cold, wet windy day. After the long drive from Canberra and cold walk from the Opera House car park, we’re comfortably settled, hungry and keen to launch into Peter Gilmore’s revered degustation lunch (a generous Christmas gift from our son and his fiancee).

We’ve studied the wine list online – an adventurous selection, compiled by head sommelier, Amanda Yallop. It gives us the confidence to go with Quay’s wine suggestions.

Our wine waiter for the day, Russell Mills, shows us the “classic” ($95) and “premium” ($175) wine matches – a half glass each of eight wines, selected by Yallop’s team to suit the eight dishes in the degustation menu ($220).

He says the wine team selects the wines on each list, then runs them past the cooking team for the thumbs up.

We decide to go with the premium selection all through the menu, but to try the first three whites from the classic selection as well.

Like the party game falling backwards, hoping someone might catch you, there’s a risk in trusting the wine waiter. But the potential reward is significant in a good restaurant with such a diverse wine selection. In this instance the eclectic selection, accompanied by the theatre of a new, unique glass with each wine, took us beyond our well-travelled path in the most delightful way.

What follows then is our impressions of the wine experience at Quay – the first three courses accompanied by two wines each, the first from the premium selection, the second from the classic selection. From there on, the wines are all from the premium selection.

Marco Felluga “Mongris” Pinot Grigio 2010 (Collio, Italy)
Moorilla Estate “Muse” Riesling 2009 (Tasmania)
Sashimi of Corner Inlet rock flathead, Tasmanian trumpeter, salt cured wild oyster cream, black lipped abalone, raw sea cabbage, nasturtiums, warrigals, periwinkles.

Sommelier’s aim: Dry, textured, minerally wines, not overtly fruity, to match a subtle, textural dish.

What we found: All of the above in the partially barrel-fermented Italian pinot grigio – a particularly fine example of the style, very much on the savoury side with rich texture, derived from the barrel work. It was my preference of the two with the supremely delicate food. Moorilla’s Muse, rated highly on the texture and minerality scale, but the floral and citrusy, maturing riesling varietal character pushed it towards fruity, away from savoury. This delicate fruitiness still worked with the food. Both wines were highly distinctive.

Pyramid Valley “Field of Fire” Chardonnay 2009 (Canterbury, New Zealand)
Krinklewood Chardonnay 2010 (Hunter Valley, NSW)
Congee of Northern Australian mud crab, fresh palm heart, egg yolk emulsion.

Sommelier’s aim: A sweet and delicate dish requires full-bodied but delicate wines like modern chardonnays with little obvious oak impact.

What we found: We’re supposed to be savouring the wine with the food, but who can help comparing the wine styles first, both full-bodied chardonnays but widely different in style. The New Zealand wine is older, produced without sulphur dioxide, fermented in large old oak and bottled without fining and filtering. Apart from the deep lemon-gold colour it’s youthful and fresh on the palate – full and ripe flavoured with funky yeast lees influence, but with assertive acidity providing backbone and freshness to the finish.

The pale-lemon coloured, green tinted Hunter wine shimmered with pure, ripe, white-peach varietal flavour against a subtle nutty background, derived from yeast lees. It’s a very even, very youthful wine and a total contrast to its New Zealand companion.

Both of the wines worked with the food, the Krinklewood predictably and conventionally; but Pyramid for its idiosyncrasy.

Domaine de Belliviere “Les Rosiers” 2010 (Jasnieres, Loire Valley, France)
Bellar Ridge Chenin Blanc 2009 (Swan Valley, Western Australia)
Gently poached southern rock lobster, hand-caught Tasmanian squid, golden tapioca, lobster velvet.

Sommelier’s aim: An opulent dish requires wines counterbalancing sweetness and acidity.

What we found: Again we couldn’t help comparing the wines (both made from chenin blanc) before trying the food combinations. The Western Australian wine fell down on the most important measure, in my opinion. Though fresh and clean and richly textured, the wine’s acidity proved no much for its sweetness. With the balance tipped to sweetness, the wine just didn’t work with the food for me. On the other hand, the perfect tension between sweetness and acidity in the Loire Valley wine couldn’t have been better for the food.

Bass Phillip Pinot Noir 2010 (Gippsland, Victoria)
Roasted partridge breast, teamed truffle brioche, confit egg yolk, new season white walnuts, fumet of vin jaune.

Sommelier’s aim: Not stated – too excited about “Australia’s best pinot”.

What we found: We’ve visited Phillip Jones at Bass Phillip, tasted many wines over many years and the best are truly stunning, this one included. This was our wine of the day – pure, magic, ethereal, rich, earthy and fine. What wonderful company for this sublime dish.

Claude Courtois Or’Norm Sauvignon 2008 (Sologne, France)
Smoked and confit pig cheek, shiitake, shaved scallop, Jerusalem artichoke leaves, juniper, bay.

Sommelier’s aim: An adventurous wine to match the smokiness of the dish.

What we found: This is another idiosyncratic wine style made without sulphur dioxide and deliberately oxidised slowly in old oak for three years. This results in a slightly rusty coloured wine that retains clear varietal sauvignon blanc character while taking on other aromas and flavours familiar to lovers of sherry, vin santo and vin jaune. It’s an unusual wine for sure, the richness, high acidity and tart oxidative flavours sat comfortably with the delicate, smoky pig cheek. One glass is enough.

Spinifex “Tabor” Mataro 2009 (Barossa Valley, South Australia)
Pasture raised milk-fed veal poached in smoked bone marrow fat, shiitake mushrooms, raw buckwheat, young orach, land samphire, parsnip.

Sommelier’s aim: An earthy wine is required to carry the smoke and earthiness of the food.

What we found: A deep, crimson-rimmed Barossa red that at 15 per cent alcohol may have been too robust for the dish. But alcohol tells only part of the story – in this instance only a small part, as the deep, rich, spicy fruit flavours and firm but fine tannins easily masked it. It’s a full-bodied wine, but the full flavours worked harmoniously with the food – and how nice to finish the reds on full, earthy, satisfying note. It’s sourced from two old vineyards in the Tabor area near Tanunda.

Domaine de L’Arjolle “Lyre” 2007 (Pouzelles, France)
Guava snow egg.

Sommelier’s aim: A luscious but not overly sweet wine, with structure, and should not compete with the dessert for sweetness.

What we found: It was a good choice to sit the wine in the background and let this extraordinary, complex dessert remain at centre stage. We attacked it with childlike delight – pausing to sip the light-golden coloured wine. It’s made of muscat blanc a petits grains. But the luscious fruit flavour seemed more like melon than in-your-face, fruity muscat. And a reasonably high phenolic level added texture and assertive grip to the finish – cleansing the palate rather than adding more sugar.

Chambers Grand Muscat NV (Rutherglen, Victoria)
Jersey cream, salted caramel, prunes, walnuts, ethereal sheets.

Sommelier’s aim: The wine must highlight the dried fruit and sweetness of the dessert.

What we found: I don’t have a sweet tooth, but coming off the crunchy, icy luxury of the snow egg, we were converted by the teasing nibbles of chocolate and toffee ethereal sheets; and succumbed completely to the luxury of the cream, caramel, prunes and nuts physically holding them up. The incredibly luscious, olive-green rimmed old muscat became part of the dessert – a rare and outstanding example of sweet plus sweet actually working.

Grab those 2012 Clare rieslings

15 August 2012People, Vineyard, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

A couple of times each decade a very special riesling vintage comes along. And for me that means, eye on the retailer discounts, grabbing a couple of bottles here, half a dozen there and even a few dozen when the best opportunities arise.

For riesling remains Australia’s great bargain cellaring wine. The best offer delicious fruity freshness on release and over time develop deeper, richer flavours while retaining great freshness. Stock up on the great vintages and even modestly priced wines provide wonderful drinking for a decade, while the very best might give pleasure for 20 years or more – especially with the protection of a screw cap.

Right now I’m literally sniffing excitement in the 2012 vintage Clare Valley rieslings, revelling in the beautiful, pure fruit flavours, fresh, dry palates and moderate alcohol levels, demonstrated in all the wines reviewed here today, and peaking with the sensational Wilson Polish Hill and perhaps even loftier Leo Buring Leonay.

I’ve included a few winemaker comments as the wines support their palpable excitement about a Clare vintage that provided ideal ripening conditions – in sharp contrast to the cold, disease-ravaged 2011 season.

The 2012s are just beginning to arrive in restaurants and retail shelves now; and from what I’ve seen present that rare buying opportunity. Chateau Shanahan stocked up liberally on the wonderful 2002s and we’ll do the same with the 2012s.

I’ll review more of the wines as they come to market, highlighting those that offer best value and cellarability.

Winemakers Federation of Australia vintage report
“Most winemakers have described the vintage as one of the strongest on record. Yields were slightly lower than an average year, but this was offset by the higher levels of flavour intensity, fruit purity and natural acidity levels in the whites”.

Daniel Wilson, The Wilson Vineyard, Clare Valley
“2012 was a fantastic vintage, nice warm ripening conditions with the occasional shower to keep things hydrated.

I’m trying to remain objective as there’s probably a danger of overstating the quality of this vintage after the terrible year we had in 2011, but really, I couldn’t be more happy with the 2012 vintage.

To put it into perspective, I didn’t make our Polish Hill River Riesling in 2011, the first vintage missed since The Wilson Vineyard started making wine in 1980. I think that says it all”.

The Wilson Vineyard Watervale Riesling 2012 $18.95
Watervale, Clare Valley, South Australia
Watervale riesling lean towards a beautiful purity of fruit flavour, tending towards the lime-like end of riesling’s flavour spectrum – with the volume turned up a little in the 2012 vintage. The palate’s rich but delicate with a lingering, fresh, dry finish.

The Wilson Vineyard Polish Hill River Riesling 2012 $27.95
Polish Hill River, Clare Valley, South Australia
In 2012 Wilson’s flagship white reveals the unique power and delicacy of great riesling. It comes from low yielding vines and the winemaking aims at maximising and protecting the fruit flavour: hand picking and gentle pressing to avoid extraction of phenolics from the skins, prolonged, cool fermentation flavour and aromatics, then bottling under screw caps as soon as possible after fermentation. The aroma features floral and citrus characters and even at this early stage the palate reveals great intensity and power of flavour, held in check by its tight acid structure. Should age very well.

The Wilson Vineyard DJW Riesling 2012 $23.95
DJW vineyard, Polish Hill River, Clare Valley, South Australia
This comes from a 2.2-hectare vineyard planted by Daniel Wilson in 1997 on a fertile section of his father’s vineyard. The fertile site produced large vines, large bunches and bigger flavours than other parts of the vineyard, prompting the decision to bottle it separately. In 2012 the citrus and tropical fruit aroma gush from the glass and flood the palate deliciously. While big and juicy it retains a fine structure, zingy acidity and a modest alcohol content of 12.5 per cent.

Tim Adams, Tim Adams Wines, Clare Valley
“Our yields were down a bit on average, but flavour intensity and condition of fruit were outstanding. Vintages of intense flavour sometimes produce huge, blockbuster-type wines but that wasn’t the case in 2012”.

Tim Adams Riesling 2012 $18–$22
Irelands, Rogers and Bayes vineyards, Clare Valley, South Australia
Tim Adams generally makes low-alcohol, dry, austere rieslings requiring a few years to fill out and soften. But in 2012 the aroma and flavour’s already there, bursting like a genie from the bottle – while the alcohol level remains at a modest 11.5 per cent. The beautiful aroma and juicy, intense, lemony varietal flavour comes with a load of refreshing natural acidity and not a sign of the fatness that can accompany forward young rieslings. 2012 looks to be a great riesling vintage in the Clare Valley. This one is sensational at the price.

Peter Munro, Leo Buring Wines (owned by Treasury Wine Estates)
“Much will be said about the ‘amazing’, ‘powerful’ and ‘classic’ 2012 vintage; it’s all true and well deserved”.

Leo Buring Dry Riesling 2012 $14–$20
Watervale (50:50 company and grower vineyards), Clare Valley, South Australia
Buring’s bread and butter riesling generally does the discount rounds. But even though the price varies widely, it provides excellent value even at $20. The 2012 delivers Watervale’s purity and mouth-watering lime and lemon varietal flavours. It’s richer, fruitier and more deeply structured than we’d normally see in a riesling at this tender age, but not at the expense of delicacy or freshness. Watch for the bargains and grab a case or two for medium-term cellaring.

Leo Buring DW P18 Riesling 2012 $32–$40
Watervale, Clare Valley, South Australia
It takes only a mouthful of Leonay to understand winemaker Peter Munro’s excitement. This is an amazing dry riesling – gentle, delicate and caressing on the palate, yet with an extraordinary intensity of pure, thrilling, lime-like flavour. It’s unusual for a young Leonay to reveal itself at this age (typically the show medals come some years after vintage). But like other rieslings of the vintage tasted to date, there’s liveliness and finesse accompanying the upfront fruitiness. This one should cellar for decades in the right conditions.

Book review — Halliday wine companion and autobiography

8 August 2012Book review, People, WineChris Shanahan

James Halliday: Australian wine companion 2013 edition
Hardie Grant Books. RRP $34.95 (paperback)

James Halliday: A life in wine
Hardie Grant Books. RRP $45 (hardcover)

This year’s review copy of Australian wine companion 2013 arrived with a bonus – James Halliday’s easy-reading autobiography, A life in wine.

The companion’s just as the name suggests – a well-thumbed, much-loved reference that can’t really be reviewed every year, given its predictable content.

Over time it’s become the equivalent, if unofficial, of a Michelin guide to Australian wineries and wine – and as much a marketing tool for successful vignerons as it is a solid, consistent guide for wine drinkers.

Such is the companion’s reach and value that each year a flood of winemaker press releases alerts me to the coming release. Indeed, vignerons value Halliday’s endorsement so much that it appears in marketing material of all kinds, including roadside signs in our wine regions.

Among Canberra wineries, Ken Helm set the pace this year, as always, emailing just days before the book arrived, “I look forward to a chat about wine in general – even Halliday’s wine companion 2013 – Canberra wineries did very well again”.

We haven’t chatted yet, but Halliday puts Helm towards the top of his quality pyramid with eight other Canberra makers – Capital Wines, Clonakilla, Collector Wines, Eden Road Wines, Lark Hill, Lerida Estate, Mount Majura and Nick O’Leary.

Each of these received a five-star rating. But there’s a hierarchy even at this level in Halliday’s system.

He awards five black stars to wineries offering good wines in the current review, with at least two of those rating 94 or more out 100. Wineries consistently making exemplary wines (with two or more currently rating 94 or more) earn five red stars. Wineries at the very tip of the pyramid – with a long, acknowledged record of excellence – have their name printed in red.

Clonakilla remains our only wine on that tip. But Alex McKay’s Collector Wines knocks on the door, with five red stars. The others mentioned above rate five black stars (Helm demoted from red last year). Closely following on four black stars and one white (that is, almost five stars) are Brindabella Hills, Four Winds Vineyard, Gallagher Wines, Lake George Winery, McKellar Ridge Wines and Shaw Vineyard Estate.

A surprise casualty this year, after last year’s rating of four black stars plus white star, is Bryan and Jocelyn Martin’s Ravensworth Wines. Ravensworth received heaps of accolades this year, mine included, making me wonder whether the wines were tasted. Martin says he sent samples. We’ll know when the online Wine companion 2013 goes live.

I wondered, too, about the absence of Long Rail Gully from the Canberra list. Richard Parker makes bloody good wines – worthy of a five-star rating in my view. When I phoned the winery, Garry Parker, Richard’s father, replied, “We’ve never given him [Halliday] our wines”.

Halliday requested samples last year, explained Parker, but at the time he didn’t have enough wine to send. However, he anticipated having a full complement shortly, once they’ve finished bottling recent vintages. Vintages due for release (and destined for Halliday’s review next year) include 2011 cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir, 2009 shiraz and 2012 riesling and pinot gris.

Wine companion 2013 gives profiles on 1,381 wineries, detailed tasting notes on 3,722 wines and ratings on another 3,053 wines. Many of the tasting notes come from Ben Edwards, Halliday’s collaborator and heir apparent.

Several Canberra wines make it to Halliday’s best-of-the-best list: Clonakilla and Gallagher 2011 rieslings, Clonakilla Riesling Auslese 2011, Clonakilla Murrumbateman Syrah 2010 and Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier 2011.

Halliday’s autobiography makes a pleasant afternoon’s read (and a lot of laughs), packing an exceptionally busy life in wine into about 250 pages.

I’ve known Halliday since 1979, selling wine to him, sometimes at mates’ rates, when I was with Farmer Bros, sponsoring his top 100 in The Australian during my time at Vintage Cellars, as a fellow reviewer at countless industry tastings and well-lubricated events and as a judge at various wine shows – including the first five years of the Limestone Coast show at Coonawarra.

Everyone in the industry, including me, always felt in awe of Halliday’s productivity. For me working full time, running a family, judging at wine and beer shows and filing a gradually increasing number of weekly columns for the Canberra Times seemed more than enough work.

But Halliday has an ability, it seems, to work non stop. How else to explain how as a partner in Clayton Utz, a notoriously demanding employer, he established not just one but two vineyards and wineries – Brokenwood, in the Hunter Valley, and Coldstream Hills in the Yarra Valley, at the same time judging at Australian and overseas wine shows and writing numerous books and columns for newspapers and magazine.

At age 50 in 1988, he retired from Clayton Utz, but continued a prodigious work output as viticulturist, winemaker, author, judge and key player in the reform of wine shows and promoting the Australian wine industry.

All this, and he found time, too, to drink deeply and well. The great wine experiences literally slosh through the book in mouth watering detail. Halliday shared the passion generously across the years with a growing circle of friends and industry acquaintances. But the book focuses more on the inner circle and especially on his much-loved friend, Len Evans. Evans rollicks life-like through the book, which Halliday wrote largely before Evans’ death in August 2006.

“On 16 August 2006 my world changed forever” writes Halliday in the preface, giving an account of a joyous, wine-filled night at Evans’ house, Loggerheads, in the Hunter on 15 August, only to arrive in New Zealand the next day to learn of the death.

The sense of loss lingers through Halliday’s personal, frank and at times very funny account of his life in wine. The more you love wine, the more you’ll love the book.

Wine review — Helm, Printhie, Domain Day, Willow Creek and Tim Adams

1 August 2012People, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Helm Botrytis Riesling 2012 $30 375ml – wine of the week
Murrumbateman, NSW, Canberra District
In 2012, for only the second time in 36 years, Canberra riesling specialist Ken Helm produced a botrytis-affected sticky. Winemaking mates in Germany helped Helm confirm the presence of botrytis cinerea, otherwise known as noble rot, in a 3.5 tonne batch of riesling grapes. From these he made just 800 luscious litres of wine containing 13 per cent alcohol and 100 grams per litre of residual sugar – balanced by a mouth-tingling 12 grams per litre of acid. It’s a luscious riesling, featuring extraordinary passionfruit-like high notes and aftertaste with underling apricot-like flavours from the botrytis. Despite the sugary flavour intensity, the wine remains delicate and ethereal and will probably age for decades.

Printhie MCC Shiraz 2010 $35
Printhie Vineyard, Orange, NSW
Like Canberra, Orange wine region covers a wide range of microclimates, determined largely by altitude. In Orange, that’s a minimum of 600 metres, but can be over 1000. Printhie’s Dave Swift says the biggest volumes of shiraz in the area grow at the lower altitudes and his own vineyard is at 620 metres. As the altitude increases, says Swift, the variety shows greater cool-climate white pepper and spice character, but beyond 900 metres, it’s unlikely to ripen. Printhie 2010 shows attractive black pepper and spice with vibrant, ripe-berry flavours and fine-boned, elegant structure. It won a gold medal and trophy in the 2011 Orange wine show.

Domain Day Garganega 2011 $18.05–$22
Domain Day vineyard, Mount Crawford, Barossa Valley, South Australia
Garganega is the key grape in Verona’s famous dry white, Soave. It’s an Italian native – and perhaps one of its most promiscuous as recent DNA studies suggest it’s a parent of seven other varieties. Robin Day says his planting was Australia’s first. From it he makes a full-bodied, distinctively flavoured dry white which, in the cool 2011 vintage, seem particularly aromatic and intensely flavoured. A touch of passionfruit in the aftertaste adds zest to a vibrant, savoury dry white whose basic fruit flavour defies description. Day calls it preserved pear; I see more melon rind. Whatever you call it though, it works. And it’s a world away from chardonnay or sauvignon blanc.

Domain Day One Serious Sangiovese 2007 $30
Domain Day vineyard, Mount Crawford, Barossa Valley, South Australia
One of Tuscany’s great sangioveses, Brunello di Montelcino, inspired Robin Day to plant the variety at Mount Crawford, a comparatively cool site at 450 metres, on the border of the Barossa and Eden Valleys. Day’s is an earthy, savoury expression of the variety – the savouriness wrestling with its core of ripe, sweet and sour cherry flavour. Day sums it up accurately, writing, “with a pleasantly drying, fine tannin finish that underlies the more rustic varietal character and keeps the wine rather polite and elegant”. That’s it: savoury, rustic and elegant.

Willow Creek Vineyard Pinot Noir 2010 $36–$40
Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
Good pinot doesn’t belt you over the taste buds. It sneaks up – tastes good, then the drinking pleasure builds, glass by glass, as it does in Willow Creek 2010. The colour’s pale and the aroma’s pure pinot, combining ripe, red-berry with gaminess, earthiness and a touch of beetroot. The palate reflects all these varietal characters and seduces even more with its fleshy, slippery, velvety texture. Now that’s good pinot – made by Geraldine McFaul.

Tim Adams Riesling 2012 $18–$22
Irelands, Rogers and Bayes vineyards, Clare Valley, South Australia
Tim Adams generally makes low-alcohol, dry, austere rieslings requiring a few years to fill out and soften. But in 2012 the aroma and flavour’s already there, bursting like a genie from the bottle. And the alcohol level is still just 11.5 per cent. The beautiful aroma and juicy, intense, lemony varietal flavour comes with a load of refreshing natural acidity and not a sign of the fatness that can accompany forward young rieslings. 2012 looks to be a great riesling vintage in the Clare Valley. This one is sensational at the price.

Apera and topaque no less silly for the recognition

26 July 2012People, WineChris Shanahan

Macquarie Dictionary’s recent acceptance of the coined words “apera” and “topaque” as replacements for “sherry” and “tokay” doesn’t make them sound any less silly. Nor does it change the fact they ignore the global language of fine wine – the origin, or terroir behind the products.

Rivers of management speak, marketing clichés and a $1 million budget (half from the Australian Government), delivered these two gems – after Australia agreed with Europe in 2008 on how and when to drop the remaining European place names and “traditional expressions” from our wine labels.

In reality, we’d phased out most European names (for example, chablis, claret, white burgundy and champagne) long before the signing in Brussels on 1 December 2008. The name “Sherry” alone posed a unique dilemma as the agreement also banned the associated style names, fino, amontillado, manzanilla and oloroso.

Our “port” producers adapted seamlessly to the new regime, simply retaining the words “tawny” and “vintage”, terms long associated with port. Drinkers would barely notice the change. Muscat was not affected at all, as it’s a varietal name and not banned, much to the relief of winemakers in its heartland, Rutherglen, Victoria

But Rutherglen producers balked at adopting muscadelle, the varietal name behind its other great fortified specialty, tokay. Muscadelle, they argued, sounded too similar to muscat. So it joined “sherry” in a quest for new names.

But it’s a quest muscadelle arguably didn’t need. Drinkers adapt readily to new or unfamiliar varietal names, evidenced by the success of savagnin blanc – a savoury dry white with a name scarily close, for those who scare easily, to the ubiquitous and unrelated sauvignon blanc.

Tokay could easily have been relabelled as muscadelle, in association with the Rutherglen’s trademarked quality and age descriptors – Rutherglen, classic, grand and rare. Not too hard to understand, I reckon – especially given the limited number of producers, long-established labels and distinct flavour differences between muscat and muscadelle.

This approach would have been consistent, too, with the varietal naming of Rutherglen’s other great fortified wine, muscat.

English wine writer, Jancis Robinson, an ardent admirer of these unique wines, commented scathingly, “The word Topaque is a very much more recent invention, as it looks, the creation of massed marketeers and focus groups. Is it a car? Is it an aftershave?”

Later, she elaborated, “The name Tokay was outlawed in 2005 and the Australians were given 10 years to phase in an alternative. A competition yielded nothing they considered usable but Campbell [Colin Campbell, Campbells Wines] cunningly squeezed half a million dollars out of the federal government on the basis that Rutherglen’s eight stickie producers had nobly made a significant concession so that all other Australian producers could benefit from those made by the EU in the bilateral trading agreement. This was spent on hiring an agency to survey the fortified wine market and come up with new names for the wines”.

But by the time of tokay’s and sherry’s banning, some in the industry likened the search for new names to the push, ultimately futile, by some in the eighties and nineties to come up with an Australian term for “Champagne”. Most makers didn’t give a toss. Rightly, they saw the discussion as irrelevant.

Large-scale commercial brands like Minchinbury, Carrington and Great Western simply dispensed with the “Champagne” name. The strength of the brands and packaging said all that needed to be said.

And upmarket producers took individual approaches. Why, they reasoned, would a big country like Australia, with its diverse sparkling-making regions and winemaker approaches, need a single name for upmarket bubbly styles? France’s Champagne was the distinctive product of a single region – hence, the regional name.

Our top makers gave us Croser, Pirie, Arras, Salinger, Chandon, Hanging Rock – and many more individual brands – packaged clearly as high-quality sparklers, often with varietal and regional information on the label. Quite simply, we didn’t need a single name. And our winemakers figured this out without government funding.

Unlike tokay-muscadelle, “sherry” isn’t so easy a name to replace, at the top end of the market anyway as it’s not made from a single variety. But at least the large scale (but declining) brands enjoy strong label recognition and can still be described as dry, medium dry, semi sweet and cream. They don’t need a replacement name any more than Minchinbury, Carrington and Great Western did.

Alas, though, some producers use the Spike Milliaganesque “apera”; and the Rutherglen makers seem solidly behind the equally frivolous “topaque”.

That the names remain largely in the minds of producers, not consumers, is apparent from comments surrounding the decision to include them in the Macquarie Dictionary from 2013. The accompanying press release declares, “Macquarie Dictionary Publisher and Editor Susan Butler said sometimes the English language changed of its own accord, seemingly undirected by anyone, but at other times it was given a clear nudge in a particular direction as is the case with apera and topaque.

“These new names have yet to acquire a patina of associations and customary usage, but no doubt they will as we settle down to having an apera before dinner and a topaque with dessert,” Susan said.

Somehow these names seem more wink than nudge, with a touch of farce and a splash of public money.

Wine review — Arras, Brown Brothers, Simmonet-Febvre, Cherubino Ad Hoc, Yab Tree and Cherubino

25 July 2012People, Vineyard, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Arras Methode Traditionelle Blanc de Blancs 2001 $80
Pipers River and Upper Derwent, Tasmania
For Champagne buffs the name Salon-sur-Oger conjures images of delicate but powerful and complete sparkling wines made from chardonnay alone – unaided by pinot noir or pinot meunier, the majority varieties in most Champagnes. In good years chardonnay from the Salon sub-region stands alone, creating sublime wines personified in the rare and expensive Krug Clos du Mesnil and Salon le Mesnil. Australian sparkling maker Ed Carr says, “I have always been a fan of this style and to have a 2001 Tasmanian wine for the first release is as close to perfect as one could wish”. Carr has good reason to be excited. His subtle and powerful Arras Blanc de Blanc 2001 is stunning – and so fresh at 11 years.

Brown Brothers Sauvignon Blanc 2012 $17.90
Tamar Valley and East Coast, Tasmania
In August 2010 Victorian-based Brown Brothers purchased the Tamar Ridge Winery, vineyards and several brands from Gunns. The brands included Tamar Ridge, Pirie, Devil’s Corner and Coombend. In 2012, winemaker Joel Tilbrook tapped into this tasty fruit source to make the first Tasmanian wine to appear under the Brown Brothers label. The wine shows pure passionfruit-like varietal aromas and flavours, with an herbaceous note. It’s deliciously fresh, though somewhat softer and plumper than I would’ve expected from the cool season.

Chablis (Simonnet-Febvre) 2010 $22.70–$25
Chablis, France
At a chilly 47 degrees north, Chablis, the northernmost outlier of France’s Burgundy region, makes distinctive, lean and succulent, bone-dry chardonnays. The wines stand out in any tasting and make their own strong argument for the French concept of terroir – that a given location produces unique wine flavours. Simonnet-Febvre, imported by Woolworths-owned Dan Murphys, gives the succulent, rich-but-not-heavy, dust-dry Chablis experience at a modest price. It’s bright, fresh and clean – and presumably it’s the Australian influence that sees it sealed with a screw cap.

Larry Cherubino Ad Hoc Hen and Chicken Chardonnay 2011 $18.05–$21
Pemberton, Western Australia
Winemaker Larry Cherubino sources fruit widely across southwestern Western Australia, in this instance using chardonnay from a Pemberton vineyard planted in 1999. At 13.5 per cent alcohol, it’s slightly fuller than the Chablis reviewed today, but not heavy by Australian standards. Fermentation with wild yeasts and maturation in new and two-year-old French oak barrels added textural richness and nutty, spicy oak flavours to the lemon-like and melon-rind varietal character. It’s a rich, soft, gentle style, very easy to like.

Yabtree Shiraz 2008 $28
Yabtree Vineyard, Gundagai, NSW
Former Olympian and President of the World Bank, Jim Wolfensohn, lives in New York but owns Yabtree, a grazing property near Gundagai, on the Murrumbidgee. Simon Robertson, formerly of Barwang, near Young, manages Wolfensohn’s small vineyard and Joel Pizzini makes the wine. Robertson believes reflected light from the Murrumbidgee helps ripen the vineyard’s fruit at lower sugar levels, accounting for the wine’s comparatively modest 13.5 per cent alcohol content. It’s a medium bodied, spicy, savoury style, featuring mouth-drying, soft tannins.

Cherubino Shiraz 2010 $65
Frankland River, Western Australia
Larry Cherubino doesn’t take the second best fruit for his signature label as this is as good as Frankland River shiraz gets – and that’s pretty good. Deep down inside the wine there’s a core of sweet, ripe berry flavours, a bit like blueberry and mulberry. But there’s a lot wrapped around that fruit – a seasoning of pepper, a handful of spices (all consistent with top-end shiraz) and layers of soft, persistent tannins providing a luxurious, velvety texture. It’s a joy to drink now. But the flavour concentration and beautiful tannin structure should see it evolve deliciously for a decade or more.