Several weeks back I wrote a review of outstanding under $10 a bottle wines. This week, I’ve run my eye along the top shelf, pulled the cork on several hundred bottles, and offer an opinion on those that stood out on the tasting bench.

Tyrrells Vat 47 Chardonnay 1995 topped my list of chardonnays and shows that the combination of the chardonnay grape with oak can be spectacular. But Tyrell is not without competition and other chardonnays to get a guernsey were Mountadam 1995, a sensational wine from Adam Wynn in the Adelaide Hills; Shaw and Smith Reserve 1994, also from the Adelaide Hills; and a relative newcomer, Rosemount Estate Orange Vineyard 1994.

The Rosemount wine offers a big flavour difference because of its comparative austerity, a product, I presume, of the high altitude and cold growing conditions at Orange. It demonstrates that the western slopes of New South Wales’ Great Divide is capable of producing top-notch wines.

This is a big step above anything I’ve seen from the warmer Great Divide Vineyards at Young and Cowra and may even challenge Tumbarumba and Tooma, other promising sites at the Snowy Mountains end of the divide.

The Eden and Clare Valleys, both on the Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia, made a clean sweep in the Riesling taste off. Leo Buring DW T18 Eden Valley Riesling 1994 looked good and should be easy to find. But it was outclassed, in my opinion, by Henschke Julius Eden Valley Riesling 1995 — a wine displaying the wonderful ‘lime’ aroma seen in the area’s best.

Not even the Henschke wine, though, rose to the heights of Brian Croser’s Petaluma Riesling 1995. It comes from Petaluma’s Hanlin Hill Vineyard in the Clare Valley and year after year rates near the top. And the 1995 is a stunner. It looks good value on special at $15 or $16 a bottle, considering its proven cellaring potential and given $25 plus price tags on chardonnays of comparable quality.

Len Evans keeps telling us that our whites are not as exciting as our reds and he’s right. In the line up of whites there were the few highlights mentioned above in a sound but uninteresting field. But among the reds there were highlights galore.

Saltrams Barossa Reserve Cabernet 1994 delivers all the power and weight the Barossa Valley can muster. It’s extraordinary to think that the wheels fell off this famous old brand under the ownership of Seagrams, the big Canadian Spirit company.

It took a Rothbury take over and wine maker Nigel Dolan to restore quality very quickly and in spectacular fashion.

Talking of return to form, Redmans Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 1994 betters anything I’ve tasted from this northern Coonawarra vineyard for years. There’s world-class drinking here with its elegant, rich fruit and austere, lingering finish.

From southern Coonawarra Ian Hollick’s Ravenswood Cabernet Sauvignon 1992 puckers the mouth with big oak tannins and pleases it with rich, supple ripe fruit flavours. This is an idiosyncratic style made from the best plots of Ian’s vineyard.

Not far from Hollick in Coonawarra, Rosemount makes distinctively fruity, powerful reds of which the 1993 vintage is a great example.

My favourite of all reds in the tasting was Vasse Felix Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon 1994. Here we have absolute blue chip quality. A pioneer of the Margaret River area, Vasse Felix has always been reliable and often exciting as in this superb 1994.

It’s an opaque, glass-staining crimson, pulsing with vibrant aromas, layered with rich fruit flavour and plush with velvety, thick, lush textures. It’s seductive and drinkable now but really should be cellared for a decade.

I thought Vasse Felix’s neighbour, Leeuwin Estate, offered exciting quality with its 1991 Cabernet Sauvignon, too. But Vasse Felix stole the show.

If you thought Padthaway’s strength was in whites, then try Hardys Padthaway Cabernet Sauvignon 1993, a big, richly flavoured wine with claret-like astringency. Increasingly, some of our best reds are emerging from this region, just north of Coonawarra.

Hats off, too, to Don Lewis at Mitchelton on Victoria’s Goulburn River. I’ve always preferred Don’s whites to his reds. But that’s what blind tasting are for: to cut away our prejudices. And when the bottles were unwrapped Mitchelton Victoria Cabernet Sauvignon 1993 was amongst the top few — a powerful, intense wine with supple sweet fruit cut with fine, drying oak tannins.

In the mid 1980s Mudgee, on the western slopes of the Great Divide 300km north west of Sydney, had a little over 400 hectares of vines, a cluster of smallish producers and the middle-sized Montrose Winery. Today it is undergoing an explosion of vineyard development destined to push production beyond the combined output of the lower and upper Hunter Valley and make it one of the most significant quality-wine production areas in Australia.

Developments already underway in Mudgee should soon push annual grape production to around 25,000 tonnes (1.75million dozen 750ml bottles) from the current level of about 6,500 tonnes (455,000 dozen 750ml bottles) according to resident Southcorp Wines viticulturist Bruce Brown.

Brian Sainty, head of a $30million vineyard expansion by privately owned Mudgee Vineyards, says the region has great allure for large wine makers and vineyard investors because it can reliably deliver what the market wants.

Sainty says large wine makers are after high-quality grapes from a wide variety of soils and climates and are prepared to pay a premium over the non-descript product sourced from the very hot irrigated regions. Specific demand for Mudgee grapes far outstrips supply.

It seems the region, at 450 metres above sea level and well inland has the ability to ripen biggish, high-quality crops almost every year. The altitude and distance from the sea temper what might be an otherwise too-hot climate. Yet it not so high that frost is a major problem as it can be further south or further up, and hail, the other great crop stripper, is seldom a problem.

Denis Power, Chief Executive of Rothbury Estate, which leases 100 hectares of vines in Mudgee, backs Brian Sainty’s view. He says quality is not only reliable but very high, especially for reds which constitute 85 per cent of Rothbury’s Mudgee crop.

But he says Mudgee’s allure to wine makers is not shared by consumers. The name seems to be the kiss of death. “The name repels consumers, it’s a positive turn off”, Power told me. But he couldn’t say whether it was the name itself or past associations with Mudgee Mud — a much-reviled beer thrust on our thirsty return soldiers after world war two.

Nevertheless, Rothbury maintains a cellar door presence at its Augustine winery in Mudgee and plans the release of flagship Mudgee reds under the Augustine label. I can vouch for the quality from several tastings of various Mudgee reds at Rothbury’s Hunter winery.

Rosemount chief, Chris Hancock, believes Mudgee has been “seriously under marketed” and wonders why the area’s largest producer, Montrose Winery with 220 hectares of vines (owned by Orlando Wyndham) has done so little to market Mudgee.

Rosemount recently acquired two properties just down the road from Montrose and plans on extending vineyards from the current 65 hectares to 240. Hancock says the Rosemount focus will be squarely on red wines with regional promotion a key part of their effort.

Mudgee’s small makers deserve credit for what little consumer recognition exists for Mudgee. One of those, Ian MacRae of Miramar, owner of 24 hectares of vines, is excited by all the new activity and sees it as a great boost for the district.

What is happening in Mudgee reflects a growing trend for the wine industry to attract substantial capital investment from outside the industry. The $30million Mudgee Vineyards Pty Ltd investment comes from grazing interests and other major investors have likewise seen a great opportunity in wine.

The Darwin-based Paspaley family, is plowing some of its pearling fortune into the land, including a 120 hectare Mudgee Vineyard, and Andrew Harris, a Moree cotton grower, sees a great future in wine production and export. His family is now establishing 90 hectares of vineyards in Mudgee and is investing, too, in a winery and bottling plant.

If Mudgee has become an important hub for the new wave of investment, it is not alone in NSW. I have already covered in this column substantial investments and growth in the Young and Cowra districts. But it seems would-be vineyard investors are combing the western slopes between Mudgee and Harden in search of good sites.

Substantial developments are already underway in Molong and Denis Power tells me he’s involved in a 400 hectare planting at Forbes, about 100 kilometres downstream of Cowra on the Lachlan River.

The new investors appear to be hard-nosed business people with long-term market-orientated strategies. Whatever their motives, Australia’s grape-growing scene is undergoing a revolution that is fairly rapidly lifting the average quality of the wines we drink. More on the Mudgee phenomena next week.

March 24th, 1996

Despite Mudgee’s imminent leap to the big time described here last week, its wine making history dates back to 1858 when Adam Roth established vines at what is now Craigmoor. It is believed that some of today’s important chardonnay plantings, including the Tyrrell Vineyards in the Hunter, are direct descendants of Roth’s vines.

Still, the 13 wineries that existed in Mudgee by the 18880s were small change compared to the broad acres appearing there now. And the sudden leap by Mudgee is all the more remarkable when we consider that by 1964 the area was down to one winery.

Now, its production seems set to overtake that of the Hunter Valley. Indeed, its production by the turn of the century may considerably outstrip that of all Western Australia.

Mudgee’s revival began when Alf Kurz established Mudgee Wines in 1964. In the following decade other boutique wineries set up and developed a following thanks to the likes of Gil Wahlquist at Botobolar with his idiosyncratic, organically-produced wines; Huntington Estate’s Bob Roberts who single handedly proved just how good Mudgee reds could be; Alf Kurz who did so much in establishing chardonnay; and Ian McRae of Miramar who, since the late 1970s, has consistently made completely reliable and often exciting wines.

Mudgee moved up a gear in 1974 with the establishment of Montrose winery by two Italian engineers, Carlo Salteri and Franco Belgiorno-Nettis. They established a large modern winery, installed Italian wine maker Carlo Corino and even included the native Italian grape varieties, nebbiolo, barbera and sangiovese, in the vineyard.

Montrose became the largest in the area and since its acquisition in the mid 1980s by Orlando-Wyndham has maintained that status (until now) with current vineyard holdings of around 220 hectares.

However, its holdings are about to be overtaken as newcomer to the district, Rosemount Wines, pushes its plantings to 240 hectares and Mudgee Vineyards Pty Ltd plants its first of three 200 hectare plots, 20 kilometres north of Mudgee.

Brian Sainty, head of the Mudgee Vineyards Pty Ltd project, says the owners, Mudgee-based graziers, were looking for new agricultural investments and studied many possibilities including olives, citrus fruit and vegetables. But they were drawn to grapes because “historically and in the future Mudgee had a real strength in quality wine production and there was a shortage from the area.”

Talks with major wineries encouraged the company to continue with the idea. “The majors were bullish about Mudgee particularly about its potential for high quality reds — shiraz and cabernet — and full-bodied whites made from chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and semillon”, Sainty told me.

Mudgee Vineyards Pty Ltd was formed after extensive research revealed a market for premium grape varieties grown under a wide variety of conditions. Sainty says “the approach was the antithesis to traditional Australian agricultural pursuits where someone grows something, takes it to the market and says ‘here it is‘. What we’ve done is gone to the big makers, found out what they wanted and built our plans according to those needs. It is very much market driven.”

And we’re talking big bikkies! Over the next five years Mudgee Vineyards plans on investing about $30 million dollars (not including land value) in 1000 hectares of vineyards. Sainty says that the first three 200 hectare plots will be in the Mudgee district, but that the final two will be somewhere between Mudgee and Harden on the western slopes of the great divide.

When I visited Mudgee last week, “Tullamour”, a 200-hectare paddock was being preened for planting in September/October. Sainty says the soil has been analysed to a depth of 2 metres on a 75 metre by 100-metre grid. The soil profile “helps us decide the varieties to be planted, vine spacing, trellis type and is also the basis of our irrigation design including dripper spacing”, according to Sainty.

Tullamour is designed very much with water and soil conservation in mind. Vines need water. But gone are the profligate bad old days of flood irrigation and overhead sprinklers. Computer controlled moisture probes now measure water loss and determine how much needs to be trickled into the root zone for vine health and, ultimately, the right yield of the right quality grapes.

Wine makers look to Mudgee not for massive yields but for a certain quality. The challenge for grape growers is to produce the desired quality at a profit through scientific, sustainable vineyard management — a risky process that includes a business plan, rigorous site selection, large capital inputs and a long-term view.

The unprecedented large-scale investments in Mudgee and other points on New South Wales‘ southwestern slopes are changing Australia’s wine map rapidly. Unfortunately, the Canberra district seems to have been by-passed as a little too risky.

The world wide web (www) and Internet bristle with wine references. From the comfort of home wine lovers can now flit from Australia to the USA to the UK in just a few seconds. In the time it takes to refill a wine glass, we can jump from an LA liquor store, to Nicks of Melbourne, to London’s Tesco, to Cellarmaster at Bondi and over to InterWine Australia in downtown Sydney.

Some authors appear more in touch with technology than the subject; some offer real information and entertainment; others offer simple hard sell; some provide good information and hard sell. Most are of limited interest.

Yet there’s enough out there to say that the internet will eventually become a valuable source of information and services for wine drinkers, as well as providing direct access to wines through on-line ordering. The basis is already there and growing exponentially.

And if you think net browsers are just computer nerds or the great unwashed, think again. A recent Commercenet/Nielsen Internet demographic survey revealed that “17 % (37 million) of total persons aged 16 and above in the US and Canada have access to the Internet… on average www users are upscale (25% have income over $US80,000, professional (50% are professional managerial), and educated (64% have at least college degrees).”

If Australia mirrors US and Canadian demographics, then we can conclude that the majority of net surfers (sniffers?) are wine drinkers. Not only that, but feedback from one wine information service suggests Aussie netsniffers visit the www on the boss’s account!

Anne Hanson and Ian Salisbury of InterWine Australia (www.wineonline.com.au), a new and ambitious web wine site, tell me that almost all of their several thousand visitors to date logged on during working hours. Friday night and weekends, the peak for so many other sites, sees InterWine deserted.

I haven’t spoken to any other www wine-page operators, but took the odd few minutes out here and there over the past few weeks on several “virtual’ visits.

One US enthusiast even invited me to offer alternative views to local guru Robert M. Parker but who could be bothered? Nicks Wine Merchants, Melbourne calls his web service ‘Vintage Direct’ and offers a good range of wine and gourmet food items for sale.

Nicks an old hand at wine — and familiar to many readers — at least offers what to me seem accurate appraisals of the wines on offer.

Tesco, the very large UK chain, penalised me for being a Macintosh user! The special free, downloadable software required to shop on-line with them was available only in pc versions.

Cellarmaster, the Bondi-based wine direct marketers, offer a small site. But they’re not mucking around with information. They offer wine for sale and you can order it at the press of a button — they collect your e-mailed order and ring you for credit card details.

The owners of InterWine Australia harbour ambitions beyond making a sale. They see themselves as an information hub for Australian wine and wineries. But they don’t plan on doing it for nothing and are asking visitors to subscribe at $55 a year.

You can visit the site free and get a taste for their offerings. But to get the full range of information and services you’ll have to cough up. Several people have done so already. But I’ll wait until more of the dreams become a reality.

At the moment you can visit the site and read wine area descriptions (shallow and uninformative) and view regional maps (not detailed enough to be of much use).

Individual wineries are described generally inadequately, but having faxes and phone numbers on line is very useful as virtually all-Australian wineries are covered.

You can view 1600 full colour labels and read wine reviews by Huon Hooke and Mark Shield (extracted from their Penguin guide).

In the future the intention is to have far more information on wineries and wine, an e-zine (on-line magazine), wine courses, tastings (both virtual and real) for subscribers and wine tours. They will shortly be offering links to other wine writers, Langton’s Wine Auctions and, hopefully, e-mail access to numerous Australian wineries.

You can see the drift — advertising on the www is more immediate and more interactive than conventional means. InterWine and others will bring independent information and opinions to us along with producer marketing and sales material and allow all parties direct access to one another. And that’s using old-fashioned slow old modems and telephone lines. Imagine what the near future holds with arrival of broadband!

Luckily, it’s all just a means to the very happy end of re-filling our glass

Len Evans calls Wine Australia 96 the “biggest thing to happen to Australian wine since Barossa Pearl.” For those whose memories don’t stretch back to 1956, Barossa Pearl introduced a generation of Australians to the pleasure of the grape.

It was a sweetish, Eden-Valley-riesling-based sparkling wine, made by Orlando’s Colin Gramp and Gunther Prass and launched during the Melbourne Olympics.

Forty years later and with another Olympics upon us, Wine Australia 96 (to be held at Darling Harbour Sydney) June 15-18, offers city-dwelling Aussie wine drinkers a new experience reflecting the amazing changes that have taken place in just one generation.

Forty years ago we barely drank table wine and barely exported it. Now we consume 900,000 litres a day in Australia and export almost a third of our production. Increasingly, those exports are in bottle not bulk and earn ever-bigger dollars for Australia.

Despite a strong international focus, 68 per cent of wine production remains at home and, even in the face of rising prices, local wines make up 96 per cent of our consumption.

From a handful of makers in 1956, the industry has flourished so that we now have over 800 wine makers spread across every gully, creek, slope and flat of southern Australia. We make everything from tasty, mass-produced whites and reds in the irrigation areas, to handcrafted, idiosyncratic wonders reflecting a myriad of soils, climates, and wine maker predilections.

Wine Australia 96 reflects the ingenuity and diversity of the industry — all under one roof, on an unprecedented scale. Pay a visit in June and you can see a vineyard growing; a winery in operation; a bottling line in action; a cellar; an up market retail store; attend seminars on wine and food; enter the “Wine Options” tasting competition; and, best of all, enjoy wines from more than 250 wineries, representing 35 regions.

Displays will be set up on a State by State, region by region basis and include local foods as well as wines.

When I first reported on the event several months back it was mostly a dream, but wine makers have since given big support (90 per cent of space is booked); and major sponsors have weighed in with money: AMCOR fibre packaging, BOC Gases, Qantas, NSW Government, Vintage Cellars (Liquorland’s fine wine chain); ACI Glass Manufacturers, Australia & NZ Direct Line and LS Booth Transport.

Visit Wine Australia and you can taste wines from South Australia (Clare Valley, Murray Valley, Padthaway, Coonawarra, Mt Gambier, McLaren Vale, Adelaide Hills, Barossa Valley and Eden Valley); New South Wales (Hunter Valley, Cowra, Riverina, Mudgee, Canberra, Young, Orange and Hasting River; Queensland (Granite Belt, Roma, Mt Tambourine and Amberlie); Victoria (Goulburn Valley, High Country, Bendigo, Gippsland, Pyrenees, Grampians, Yarra Valley, Geelong, Macedon Ranges, Mornington Peninsula, King Valley, Rutherglen and Ovens Valley; Tasmania (Tamar Valley, Pipers River, East Coast and Southern Tasmania); and Western Australia (Margaret River, Swan Valley and Pemberton).

Entry to the exhibition will be through a live vineyard (the vines are currently under refrigeration, being fooled into believing they’re in the northern hemisphere). From the vineyard, visitors will pass through a winery, bottling hall and cellar to a courtyard. In the courtyard, Vintage Cellars will have a fully stocked retail store and the courtyard will also give access to the self-contained regional displays.

The regional displays are to be separated by three metre high walls so that each may properly display wines and produce and give visitors a series of unique experiences.

The organisers expect the majority of visitors to be local and the event is primarily aimed at promoting Australian wines to Australians. But the long-term aim (the exhibition is to be held every two years) is to make Wine Australia an important International happening.

This year, 800 international trade and media representatives are being flown in to Sydney, so our wines are assured another round of international exposure. And to help smaller makers with export ambitions, key trade visitors are conduction workshops to inform makers about their markets.

Tickets for Wine Australia 96 cost $30 for a single one day pass; $50 for a double one day pass and $80 for a single four day pass and will be available from Ticketek from April 1. As well there is a 24 hour information line on 02 9965 7203. Organisers anticipate opening 40,000 bottles over the four days — a good incentive for us all to visit Sydney for the event.

In February 1992 I spent several days at Magill Estate, Adelaide, interviewing Max Schubert (1915-1994), creator of Grange Hermitage. During a break in the interviews I wandered past open concrete vats bubbling with the new-vintage Magill shiraz. The sweet and sour, unforgettable fermentation aroma filled the air as it must have for a younger Max savouring whiffs of the first Grange from those same vats back in the early 1950s.

The tenth vintage of Magill Estate that I saw and smelled in the vats four years ago has just been released and it seems fitting to reminisce, with the help of the Max Schubert interview, on how the wine came into existence in 1983 and how its success prevented the historic vineyards and winery disappearing under urban Adelaide.

Max Schubert: “… well it goes back to the time when Magill land was being sold off for subdivision and this was being done by Adelaide Steamship (owners of Tooths Brewery which owned Penfolds) because the cost of running the vineyards around Magill was damn near twice that of running them elsewhere. That was one reason. We could never make the Magill vineyard pay…. what I tried to get them to do — I know that was thrown out quick smart — that they should cost each vineyard on the basis of the quality of the of wine it was producing. For instance, Magill produced only top grade quality wine … which brought in the greatest amount of profit and they should be costed on that basis and it was quickly pointed out that that wasn’t in the system.

“… he (the financial controller) was thinking of selling the bloody cellars and all at one stage. And we tried to get the government interested… Tonkin was first, and then even Dunstan… in sort of buying the land for posterity, and all Dunstan wanted to do was to carve it up and put a high school there. But Tonkin, he was very sympathetic, but wouldn’t come at buying the place … and preserving it as a heritage thing.

“… I discussed it with Jim Williams (Penfolds General Manager) and I reckoned we could make something along the Chateau line… he was enthusiastic about it, so we went into the next board meeting with this proposition that I would design a wine that would be different to a Grange and somewhat different to our other wines in the main and it would be more in keeping with what was then termed as the modern style… and reluctantly this was agreed to provided I did the design down to the nth degree sufficiently for them to get a true costing done and a probability excercise. It was all to be very hush hush, and it was all to be done within the Board itself because our finance man was also in charge of costing and all that rubbish. So this was done and the original design … was all done in my handwriting and was given to the finance director, and he came up with a nice answer.… it allowed for all possible costs, even hidden costs, and so this was placed before the board, and surprisingly they went along with it and well, we haven’t lost any money over it.”

Thus Magill Estate earned the stamp of approval and between Max Schubert and the Penfold wine making team, the first vintage was produced in 1983. And the wine was far different from Grange as the grapes were picked earlier; the wine was fernented at a lower temperature; and it was matured in a mix of American and French oak rather than in all American oak as is the practice with Grange.

Magill quickly carved a reputation for itself and remains amongst an elite group of highly sought after wines at Australian auctions.

Its success underpins a unique status in the Penfold range of reds. It is the only single vineyard wine produced by the company and is the only wine now produced at Magill Estate (Grange production moved to the Barossa Valley in 1973).

To my taste Magill Estate Shiraz has undergone a considerable transformation in its short history. When I revisit those earlier vintage, I find I am indifferent to them — beautifully crafted and structured though they are. Max himself was a great believer in the flavour of fully ripened grapes and I firmly believe those earlier vintages lack that important flavour element.

But in the 1990, 1991 and 1992 we see Magill at its full potential. These vintages pack in beautiful, ripe shiraz flavours that lift the wine to new heights. The 1991, in my view, is the best yet and overshadows the nevertheless brilliant, probably earlier maturing 1992.

For wine drinkers, 1995 got off to a rotten start. The vintage came in a few hundred thousand tonnes of grapes under estimates, sparking a new round of price hikes that quickly worked its way from grapes to the finished product.

There was a shortage of wine anyway, and many wineries found themselves suffering financially for lack of stock despite a fairly strong increase in producer margins. The shortage was probably one of the reason why Mildara Blass acquired Tolleys and its very substantial vineyard holdings. The ranks of independent makers continues to thin!

Now the year ends with the leading wine industry earner, Mildara Blass, about to be acquired by Fosters. Nobody knows what their game is yet, but retailers are anticipating a tightening of credit terms in the new year.

Perhaps it was a case of “if you can’t lick em, join em”. For 1995 goes down as the year the brewers finally lost their long battle to see wine taxed at the same punitive rates as beer. Wowsers and treasury boffins seemed to side with the brewers, but the outcome of the ‘Winegrape and Wine Industry in Australia’ enquiry, instigated after an attempt at increasing wine taxes in the 1993 Federal Budget, was to keep wine taxes where they are. The wine industry had at long last been recognised for being unlike the brewing industry (some would add in its electoral impact as well as structure).

It was good news for an export industry trying to maintain a healthy domestic market in the face of shortage and rising costs. In any event, the decision may have crystalised big new investments in vineyards, and wine making and storage plant.

Internationally it was a solid year for Australia’s reputation, despite a tailing off in exports. Penfolds Grange 1990 was named wine of the year by America’s ‘Wine Spectator’; Penfolds Kalimna Bin 28 1992 was named red wine of the year by London’s ‘Wine and Spirit’ magazine; and the same publication named Stephen Henschke international wine maker of the year.

In Canberra, it was a year of great change for wine retailing. After almost twenty years dominating the local market, Farmer Bros went under to be replaced by Liquorland in two of its sites and Liquorland’s Vintage Cellars at Manuka; and its mail order business was taken over by Sydney-based Cellarmaster Wines which continues to prospect the Canberra market with glossy brochures bearing David Farmer’s smiling face.

Lloyds took the opportunity to open new outlets at Kingston and Dickson; Cand Amber moved into Civic; Jim Murphy opened his colonial-looking duty free in his existing outlet at Fyshwick markets; and there has been a general lift in the standard of wine merchandising in major grocery outlets.

For local wine makers it was a good year, too. They were spared the crop shortfall suffered in other areas and, in fact, recorded the biggest harvest on record.

And in the National Wine Show of Australia last month, our tiny operators mixed it with the big boys to walk off with four silver and two bronze medals. Helms Classic Dry Riesling 1995, Doonkuna Estate Shiraz 1992 and two different Lake George Tawny Ports won silver medals; the two bronze medals were won by a Lake George Fortified Sweet White and a Riek and Bootes Fortified Sweet White.

And for all the waffle in the wine press and talk of our tastes moving upmarket, the latest figures show that 79.6 per cent of all bottled wine we drink sells for less than $10 a bottle. Only 16.6 per cent costs between $10 and $15 a bottle. Which means that a mere 3.8 per cent of all the bottled wine retailed in Australia fetches more than $15 a bottle. In short, the wines most written about are the least sold.

And while we’re on the top shelf, I see that our latest James Bond, Pierce Brosnan, keeps Bollinger Grande Annee 1998 in his Aston Martin. A push of a button and it’s cold Bollie for all. But to us old hands that’s Bond on a budget. From memory, Sean Connery drank Dom Perignon. And it’s equivalent from the Bollinger cellar is Bollinger R.D. — a very definite step up from Grande Annee!

Exotic stuff indeed. But perhaps we should be seeing in the New Year with something from the southern hemisphere: Pelorus 1991, Salinger 1991, Taltarni Clover Hill 1993, Jansz Brut Cuvee, and Seaview Pinot Noir Chardonnay 1993 head my list. Happy New Year.

Last week, internationally circulated United States magazine, ‘Wine Spectator’, named Penfold Grange 1990 as wine of the year. Editor Marvin Shanken wrote, “Grange earned its No. 1 spot on the annual Top 100 because of its impeccable quality. Of special note is the unique structure and flavor profile that comes from this unusual grape variety. Grange clearly demonstrates how great an Australian wine can be. … this our eighth wine of the year and the first one that’s not from France or California… ”

By chance, a group of writers was at Magill Estate, birthplace of Grange, as the news broke. Ironically, we were tasting whites — not reds — with John Duval, maker of the now famous 1990 Grange. The bustle of a camera crew seeking a comment from John barely distracted our assessment of Penfolds search for the definitive Australian white wine — dubbed the “white Grange” project by the press.

Penfolds dislikes that term. But they see a need for Australia to make a white to be held in the same reverence as Grange. They are not alone in the belief nor in the search. Len Evans, patriarch of the modern Australian wine industry frequently laments the quality lag between our whites and reds and sends strong messages to wine makers to lift our game. “The overseas writers get tired of writing about Bin 65” he quipped recently, referring to the need to excite the opinion makers in our major export markets.

During his spell as Chairman of Canberra’s wine show, Evans was a strong supporter of the Farmer Bros Trophy (now the James Busby Trophy, sponsored by Liquorland). The trophy encourages makers of rich, highly complex oak-matured chardonnays capable of extended cellaring — wines that might become flagships for Australian whites at home and overseas. What Evans and others perceive is that if our best wines have a mystique to them, there is a rub for Australian wine at the business end of the trade — something the French understand and have exploited for centuries.

Hundreds of Australian wineries, each in its own way, strives to make the definitve Australian white. Most are confined by what their own small vineyard holdings produce and constrained by the quality nature delivers each vintage.

But some truly wonderful wines have emerged over the years. Leeuwin Estate‘s Margaret River Chardonnay, for example, may not have the same cache as Grange, but it fetches $50 a bottle, cellars well and trades solidly through the auction system — a truly objective measure of perceived quality.

As well, we see wonderful Rieslings emerging from Mount Barker, the Clare, Eden and Goulburn Valleys and quite powerful chardonnays from across the continent, with highlights throughout the Mount Lofty Ranges, Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula, Pemberton, Margaret River and Tasmania. Hunter semillon deserves a guernsey, too, but has been around for so long we should heed the lesson and leave it for the converted.

Southcorp Wines, owners of Penfolds, has greater scope for experimentation than its tiny colleagues. It owns over 5,000 hectares of vineyards, with very large concentrations in key areas and, as well, sources grapes widely from contract growers.

It employs some of Australia’s best wine makers and has the capital to fund experimentation on a large scale. Finally, it has an outlet for experimental wines through blending into commercial releases after appraisal, or bottling for separate release where the quality warrants it.

For its ‘premium white’ project, Penfolds conducts numerous trials each year, chiefly at its Great Western Winery, Victoria, under Ian McKenzie and at Nuriootpa Winery, Barossa Valley, under John Duval. Separate wines are made using high quality grape batches (both chardonnay and semillon) from across Southern Australia and involve every possible combination and permutation of wine making technique and maturation — including the use of a wide variety of oak barrels for both fermentation and maturation.

Despite being several years into the project, John Duval says his team is still open minded on the subject of grape variety and districts of origin. When the right wine comes along, as well as being of exceptional quality and capable of improving with extended cellaring, it has to be a commercial prospect. And that means having the capacity to make a saleable volume to the right standard every year.

Next week we’ll look at progress and see what a startling effect all this has on the quality of commercial wines.

December 24th, 1995

If we look to the past in quest of Australia’s definitive white wine, riesling and semillon appear hot prospects. Both have some claim to being at the point of the quality pyramid. And semillon, especially as produced from time to time in the lower Hunter Valley, adds a strong note of individuality.

But when it comes to whites, the past, great guide as it was in recognising shiraz as the source of definitive Australian reds, ignores the late arrival and glorious blossoming of chardonnay. It may seem hard to believe, especially for younger people now discovering wine, but the chardonnay grape — arguably the greatest white wine variety — didn’t rate a menion in the 1980 Australian Bureau of Statistics figures. But in 1996 it looks set to pass the 105,000 tonne mark (7 million dozen bottles) — putting it way ahead of any other table wine variety except for the ubiquitous sultana grape (154,000 tonnnes), backbone of our cask wine industry.

Shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, semillon and riesling have been left in chardonnay’s wake, with anticipated 1996 weigh ins of 84,000; 74,000; 55,000; and 52,000 tonnes respectively.

Sheer volume, of course is no proof of the supremacy of a variety. We have only to taste sultana wine for proof of that. But amongst the huge volume of chardonnays now being made in Australia there are some real gems, suggesting that this is where we will find our national showpiece.

Despite the strong case for chardonnay — from both quality and commercial perspectives — Penfold quest for its great white remains “open minded as to source of grapes, grape variety, style and age at release”, in the words of Chief Wine Maker, John Duval. “But when we find it, it will be a wine that repays cellaring and it must be something we can make every year.”

The search focuses mostly on semillon and chardonnay, varieties compatible with the aromas and flavours that come from new oak barrels. And when it comes to oak, Penfolds mastered its use with red wines decades ago. Indeed, the mother company, Southcorp Wines, claims to be one of the biggest, perhaps the biggest, purchaser of new oak barrels in the world. There’ s no boasting in that — just a belief that quality finally wins the consumer.

Integration of fruit and oak flavours has been a distinguishing feature of Penfolds red wines since Max Schubert developed Grange in the 1950s. Grange was just the first and now a whole family of Penfolds reds bears the indelible thumbprint of that great wine making genius.

Duval sees a similar process now bringing fruit and oak flavours together in Penfolds whites as his team searches for the ultimate in quality. The search starts, of course, in the vineyard. But the last few vintages has seen a refinement of wine making techniques —including 100 per cent barrel fermentation; complete malo-lactic fermentation (a secondary fermentation that converts harsh malic acid to softer lactic acid); and extended wine contact with dead yeast cells (lees) — producing beautifully balanced, richly fruity wines with a good balance of oak.

There’s nothing startlingly new in all that as many wine makers have been working along similar lines for years. What‘s different about the Penfolds effort is the sheer scale of the operation and the wide range of variables, including different oak trials and widely varied grape sourcing that can be tested every year.

Put to the taste test, there has been, quite simply, a phenomenal lift in the quality of Penfolds commercial whites wines in just three years as a direct result of the search for the great Australian white. What’s learned in the trials has an immediate trickle down effect.

The wines show a strong family resemblance — just as the reds do. The challenge for both wine makers and marketers now is to differentiate the various wines in the collection — a process that may partly look after itself with widely varied grape sourcing.

Amongst the purely experimental blends, drawn from casks for a recent tasting, it was clear that Duval and his team are working with a tremendously varied palate of flavours ranging from the most pungent Adelaide Hills semillon; to gloriously fat, peachy McLaren Vale chardonnay, to intensely flavoured but steely austere Tumbarumba Chardonnay.

I suspect, though, that chardonnay, not semillon, will ultimately assert itself as the great white and, in the tradition of many Penfolds red wines, might be a multi-regional blend, probably from cooler southern and high altitude vineyards

As the Springboks defeated England at Twickenham last weekend, South Africa and Australia fielded 100 wines apiece in the inaugural South African Airways Wine Shield at Capetown. Unfortunately, the host nation copped a drubbing, winning just three categories to Australia’s eight — a not unexpected outcome.

As an observer, the official result was far less interesting than the tasting itself. Australia may have jetted out of Johannesberg with the SAA Shield but the result was not the whitewash it appeared to be.

In each of the eleven classes of wines judged, an equal number of South African and Australian wines were entered. There were 30 cabernet sauvignons, 10 pinot noirs, 10 shirazes, 30 dry reds of any variety, 10 rieslings, 10 sauvignon blancs, 30 chardonnays, 30 dry whites of any variety, 10 dessert wines, 10 methode champenoise, and 20 fortifieds. And for the trophy taste off, 22 wines — the top Australian and South African from each of these 11 classes — were lined up at end of the second and last day of tasting.

There were nine judges — 3 South Africans, 3 Australian and 3 non partisans — tasting the wines blind then ranking all the wines in each class in order of preference. The judges worked independently of one another and no discussion was permitted until score sheets had been handed in.

Australia was represented by Andrew Caillard MW of Langton’s Wine Auctions; Huon Hooke, writer and author; and James Halliday, author/winemaker. South Africa was represented by internationally known writer/wine judges Michael Fridjohn and John Platter and accountant-turned-wine-maker Gyles Webb of Thelema Winery.

These national sides were balanced by Zelma Long, President of Simi Winery, California; Robert Joseph of London’s Sunday Telegraph and founding editor of ‘Wine’ magazine; and Dr Paul Pontellier, former Professor of Enology at the University of Santiago and now director and wine maker of Chateau Margaux, Bordeaux.

As well there were associate judges from Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom plus press observers from The Australian Financial Review, The Melbourne Age and The Canberra Times (yours truly). This group tasted and assessed the wines blind at the same time as the judges, but our scores were not counted in the tally.

Australia won the cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir, shiraz, open dry red, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, methode champenoise and fortified classes, while South Africa triumphed in the riesling, open dry white and dessert wine sections. The top scoring Australian and South African wine from each class were re-tasted as a separate class to determine trophy winners.

The Vintage Cellars Trophy for top scoring South African wine of the show went to KWV Jerapigo 1953, a rather pleasant old fortified grape juice; trophy for best Australian wine of the show went to a new star from the Mornington Peninsula, Paringa Estate Shiraz 1993, a blockbuster of a wine. The New World Wine Trophy went jointly to KWV Jerapigo 1953 and Australia’s Coldstream Hills Reserve Pinot Noir 1994.

Those were the arithmetic results. But a study of how individual judges ranked the wines showed enormous variations — one person’s top wine in a class being another’s least — and highlighted the largely subjective nature of the tasting. The results were in some ways absurd: most tasters thought there were better South African wines there than the old Jerapigo and who would seriously argue that pinot noir is Australia’s long suit in reds?

To me, the pinot noirs made a comparatively poor showing. But there were two very strong wines from Australia on my score sheet, Coldstream Hills Reserve 1994 and Lenswood 1994, and one South African, Cabriere 1994.

As you would expect there was a very solid array of shirazes, my top three were Penfolds Grange 1990, Jasper Hill Georgia’s Paddock 1994, and Henschke Hill of Grace 1991 in that order. One South African shiraz, Stellenzicht 1994, from a brand new winery and vineyard near Stellenbosch, impressed for its massive aroma and flavour — good enough to prompt a visit to the winery after the show. Could be a winner in the making .

For me there was little joy amongst the sauvignon blancs as wines from both countries tended to deliver the special pungent aroma of the variety but not the juicy, fleshy flavour it is capable of. Shaw and Smith, Stafford Ridge and Brokenwood Cricket Pitch scrubbed up reasonably well for Australia, with Stellenzicht 1995 and Thelema 1994 rating well for South Africa.

More on the SAA Shield and South Africa over the next few weeks.

December 3rd, 1995

In the Cabernet Sauvignon class of the South African Airways Wine Shield (held in Capetown two weeks ago) Australia and South Africa entered fifteen wines apiece. The official placings were Australia first, second and third — the accolades going to Mildara White Label Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 1993, Peter Lehmann Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon 1993 and Cullens Margaret River Cabernet Merlot Reserve 1993 respectively.

Nine judges determined the outcome by ranking the thirty wines in order of preference. Thus, a judge’s favourite cabernet scored 30 points, the second favourite 29 points, and so on. There was a wide disparity of preferences and, perhaps, the only valid conclusion to be drawn, after tallying the nine independent ratings, is that the Australian wines drew more applause than the South African wines.

On my score sheet (it was a blind tasting, the identity of the wines being revealed a day after the event) I rated Cyril Henschke 1992, Yalumba Signature Reserve 1991, Penfolds Bin 707 1992, and Wynns Coonawarra Estate John Riddoch 1992 in a tight group at the top of the pack.

But, in my view, there were a number of very good South African wines mixing it with our wines at the next level down. Some of these are imported into Australia and are worth trying if spotted on retail shelves or wine lists.

Thelema wines showed well in several categories and its Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 1991 was a terrific, rich, firm wine, even in this company. Thelema vineyard backs onto the steep, spectacular slopes of the Simonsburg Mountains at Scared Pass, between Stellenbosch and Paarl.

Proprietors Gyles and Barbara Webb commenced planting in 1984, choosing to plant between 600 and 750 metres above sea level to achieve suitable ripening conditions for a range of classic French grape varieties, including cabernet sauvignon.

Kanonkop Paul Sauer 1991, a blend of cabernet and other Bordeaux varieties, is another outstanding Simonsburg Mountain wine, from a vineyard sited beneath a rounded granite peak (kop) that once accommodated a cannon (kanon) used for signaling the arrival of ships (and hence trade opportunities) in Table Bay, Capetown.

Australia outgunned the South Africans three nil in the chardonnay line up, too. The official results saw the really big, gutsy wines winning, with Hardys Eileen Hardy 1994, Leeuwin Estate Art Series 1992 and Penfolds Barrel Fermented 1994 ranking first second and third.

But the judges were all over the place — my top wine, Tyrrells Vat 47 1994, for instance, ranking number four with James Halliday and number 26 with Chateaux Margaux’s Paul Pontellier. In general, the South African wines were less full-bodied than ours and some I rated very highly.

I put Bouchard Finlayson Kaaimansgat 1995 in the top rank with Mulderbosch 1994 and Thelema Reserve 1994 a notch behind and looking good against some of Australia’s big names.

The open red class was one of the most interesting as it allowed both sides to trot out its more exotic wines. For the South Africans that meant an airing for the country’s signature red variety, pinotage, a pinot noir–cinsault cross created on the Cape in 1925.

Officially, Australia’s Paringa Estate Mornington Peninsula Shiraz 1993, Tim Adams Aberfeldy Shiraz 1993 and Jim Barry The Armagh 1992 topped the list.

But again, individual preferences varied widely. My top three were Wolf Blass Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon 1991, Penfols Magill Estate Shiraz 1991 and Wendouree Shiraz 1992.

Against the sheer power and opulence of these wines, South Africa’s more restrained styles stood little chance and, in truth, it was almost impossible to make any valid comparison of what were in many cases non-comparable styles.

Amongst the South Africans, I particularly liked Plaisir de Merle Merlot 1995; Ryman Pinotage Reserve 1995; Kanonkop Pinotage Reserve 1993; Warwick Estate Trilogy 1991; Simonsig Pinotage Reserve 1991; and Yonder Hill Merlot 1993.

The better Pinotages, in particular, are a unique Cape style and subsequent encounters with the variety over meals suggests a great future as the unique aromas and flavours provide an attractive alternative to shiraz, cabernet and pinot noir. Kanonkop appears to be an accepted local Pinotage leader and I can vouch for the happy marriage of Kanonkop 1990 Pinotage with rare Ostrich steaks.

Verbal war erupted over the serving of a full blooded Australian sparkling shiraz in the methode champenoise class. The South Africans saw it as bowling underarm. But the British and Australians leapt to its defence as we’ll see next week.

December 10th, 1995

What would it mean if a panel of judges were asked to compare perfect, ripe samples of peach and mango, then decide which was the better fruit? It wouldn’t mean anything, of course. We’d simply learn which fruit a majority of judges preferred. For with different fruits, as with different wines, there is no absolute measure of quality and, at times, not even any basis for comparison.

We were confronted with a peaches versus mangos situation in Cape Town when organisers of the South African Airways Wine Shield allowed a robust, deep-red Australian sparkling shiraz into the methode champenoise class.

We were to rate twenty wines in the class — 10 each from South Africa and Australia. Seventeen bubblies were white and two were pink. But the lone red sparked a long debate in our table of one Englishman, five Australians and three South Africans.

The debate polarised around two viewpoints. South Africa’s Tony Mossop saw red: it was under arm bowling, not cricket and not really methode champenoise in his opinion. England’s Oz Clarke, actor turned wine writer and author, filled the room with his big, friendly voice: here we had, in his view, a wonderful, warm, ripe, unique wine style and he was definitely rating it top wine.

A day later the wine was identified as Seppelts Show Sparkling Shiraz 1985 (formerly sparkling burgundy), a benchmark in Australia, and a style appreciated by the widely experienced U.K. palates. But it was not in any way comparable to the white bubblies and it’s easy to sympathise with the disquiet felt by the South Africans. To put it against the whites just because it was sparkling seems no more logical than pitting shiraz against chardonnay in the table wine classes. In any event, the Seppelt wine didn’t rate in the top three.

The judges ranked Australia’s Seaview Pinot Noir Chardonnay 1992 as top sparkling wine, followed by JC Le Roux Chardonnay 1990 (South Africa) and Hanging Rock NV (Australia).

Certainly the modestly-priced Seaview wine is pretty good, and great news for wine drinkers. It consistently knocks off far more expensive bubblies in wine shows. In this instance it beat Jansz Brut Cuvee, Salinger 1991, Croser 1993 and Taltarni Clover Hill 1993 — all $20 plus wines.

That is, it outscored the big names but not in everyone’s books (perhaps not even in any one judge’s books). I was particularly attracted to Domaine Chandon’s Brut Rose for its delicious, delicate fruit; to Jansz Brut Cuvee for its intense but fine fruit; and to Pongracz and JC Le Roux Chardonnay 1990, both made by the Bergkelder — a central wine making facility for several estates — at Stellenbosch.

If these wines ever come to Australia, try them for a change. The JC Le Roux, showed a wonderful richness that comes with age but without the heaviness that we often see in older wines; and the Pongracz appealed for its soft, fruity, easy-on-the-gums flavours.

In the open white class, I was suprised to see amongst the twenty entries (ten from each country) only two South African Chenin Blancs. Accounting for about twenty per cent of all the countries plantings, chenin blanc is about to be overtaken by the combined output of chardonnay and sauvignon blanc. These two varieties were virtually non existent in South Africa in 1980 and now total about 19 per cent of the area under vines.

West Australian wines shone in this class, the vibrant fruitiness of Cullens Reserve Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 1993 and Cape Mentelle Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 1995 coming to the fore on my score sheet. And from left field, there was a knockout Pinot Grigio 1994 from Mornington Peninsula winery, T’Gallant.

On the South African side, Thelema Sauvignon Blanc 1995 (Simonsburg Mountain, Stellenbosch) leapt out with its pungent aroma and lean, dry palate; and Perderberg Chenin Blanc 1995 (from the Perderberg Co-Operative, Paarl) was a lovely, modern, light wine, very dry and a quite distinctive flavour.

The fortified wine class was really an opulent display of both countries’ high achievements. Historically, both have been fortified specialists, the transition to table wine production having taken place largely in the last thirty years.

KWV Jerapigo 1953 really was a knockout and I rated it in a tight little group of fabulous, very old wines from both countries. My South African choices were: KWV Jerapigo 1953, KWV Red Muscadel, KWV Muscadel 1968, and Monis Marsala 1983. And from Australia: Penfolds Grandfather, Seppelt DP 90, Hardys Vintage Port 1977 and Baileys Winemakers Selection Old Liqueur Tokay.

I wonder if those same Canberra CSIRO sleuths who identified methoxypyrozine as the magic ingredient in sauvignon blanc might solve the problem of ‘corkiness’ in wine. There’s a fortune to be made if tainted corks can be sniffed out before they reach the bottle.

The unpleasant, musty-cork smell and flavour permeating so many wines comes chiefly from a compound — 2, 4, 6 trichloroanisole (TCA) — formed, I’m told, when cork is bleached with chlorine. When this nasty little molecule remains in the cork, even in the tiniest quantities, it can be leached into a wine sealed with the cork within a day or two of insertion.

Our noses are sensitive enough to detect TCA in concentrations of around four parts per billion. So sensitive are we to it, tests designed to help Australian winemakers detect problem corks rely on the winemaker’s nose rather than on any laboratory equipment for detection.

‘Corkiness’ varies in degree. In big concentrations it infects wine with unmistakable and strong mouldy and musty aromas and flavours. If you drink wine regularly, chances are you’ve encountered this problem. I wonder how many perfectly good brands we’ve sent to coventry in our minds because of a cork problem.

Corkiness knows no boundaries. I’ve found it in everything from $2.99 Rieslings to priceless old Granges.

Ian McKenzie, joint Chief Wine Maker for the Southcorp Wine Group and Chairman at last week’s National Wine Show here in Canberra, tells me he systematically surveys Australia’s wine shows for corkiness.

It runs at 4-5% and the worst infestations were recorded in Canberra last year two thirds of wines with conglomerate corks were contaminated. As a result producers appear to be using these corks less.

In smaller concentrations TCA may just dull a wine: the aroma and flavour may seem less lively in a familiar tipple, or a new wine not live up to expectations. As well, we all have different sensitivity to it. This seems partly inducible.

At Penfolds Nuriootpa winery, according to winemaker Mike Farmilo, winemakers are sensitised to TCA by exposure to dilute solutions in pure water. He says an accute sensitivity is necessary because a slight taint hidden beneath the raw power of a young red doesn’t go away and becomes more apparent with time. Hence the need to spot trouble early. And sensitivity is also needed for winemakers to participate in screening potential new cork supplies.

Yet concentrations of TCA repugnant to initiated palates may pass unnoticed with others.

Winemakers and show judges become so attuned they can pick TCA with certainty where, in normal drinking circumstances, the rest of us might notice nothing amiss. This sensitivity rises to the fore in the uncluttered and analytical atmosphere of our wine shows.

In the April, 1986 edition of The Australian Grapegrower & Winemaker, J.M. Amon and R. F. Simpson estimate that cork-taint affects 1-2 per cent of all bottled wine in the world. From my own experience on the tasting bench (based mainly on Australian wines) I would say that is a conservative estimate and McKenzie’s rate of 4-5 % appears to be more likely.

For the industry it is a major problem and considerable resources now study it. Alternative closures might finally be the answer. But a good deal of wine’s appeal comes from the romance and imagery surrounding it — and much of that centres on the cork and its removal.

Wine makers generally seem to believe that despite its shortcomings, cork is still the best. So any move to alternative closure looks a long way off.

As consumers we should be aware that any reputable retailer or restaurateur will take back bottles tainted by TCA. In fact, corkiness gives one of the few legitimate grounds we have for rejecting a bottle in a restaurant. Perhaps it’s the only objectionable fault we’re likely to encounter in a modern Australian wine — because its eradication is largely beyond the control of any one wine maker.

In the early seventies Lindeman head Ray Kidd began cellaring large quantities of premium wines for later release. The cellar became a treasure trove for consumers (through periodic releases of perfectly-cellared classics) and for the wine industry because of the sheer scale and scope of wines held.

The humidified, temperature controlled cellar was located originally at Nyrang Street, Lidcombe in Sydney. But in the late 1980s, after a severe culling, about 2.4 million bottles made the trip across the Hay Plain to the company’s Karodoc Winery, outside Mildura.

This massive wine museum continues to provide great insights into the potential of many regions, but especially of the Hunter Valley, Clare-Watervale, Padthaway, and Coonawarra. It also demonstrates quite clearly the benefits of long-term cellaring of wine at a constant low temperature (14-16 degrees celsius).

Ten and twenty year old whites and reds emerge from Karodoc with a startling vitality. The same wines stuck under a house, suffering seasonal temperature swings, never seem to have the same appealing combination of maturity and liveliness.

In recent months I’ve tasted magnificent bottles of 1959 vintage Lindemans Hunter River Burgundy Bin 1590 and 1956 vintage Bin 1270 Hunter River Porphry. Both wines were moved in the mid 1980s direct from the Lindemans Cellar to the similarly cool Farmer Bros Manuka cellar (currently being refurbished to accommodate consumer wine tastings by new owners, Liquorland Vintage Cellars).

Sadly, those two legends of the fifties, both with production measured in mere hundreds of cases, are no longer part of Lindemans annual Classic Wine Releases. But drinkers wanting perfectly-cellared wines of the eighties can look to each year’s release from Karodoc. Then it’s up to our palates to spot the legends of the future.

Of the current releases, trotted out in the boardroom of Southcorp Wines (owners of Lindemans) a few weeks back, several struck me, if not as legends in the making, then as idiosyncratic regional specialties offering terrific drinking.

Lindemans Nursery Vineyard Coonawarra Rhine Riesling 1985 is my favourite of the release. It was made by John Vickery, a riesling specialist responsible for some of the greatest whites made in Australia. The Eden and Clare Valleys were John’s home turf when it came to the riesling grape, but he obviously sniffed a winner in the small riesling crop harvested from Lindemans “Nursery” vineyard in 1985.

In Coonawarra, riesling tends to be grown in secondary sites — which the “Nursery” vineyard certainly is not. It sits squarely on prized ‘terra rossa’ soil. However, the riesling vines that produced this brilliant 1985 are no more. In local parlance, they were “pruned with a chainsaw” and red varieties grafted to the stumps.

Commercially, that was the right decision and there can be no arguing against the virtues of Coonawarra reds. But to taste a Coonawarra riesling from a great vineyard, made by the best wine maker and matured under perfect conditions for a decade, raises the question of what the area’s potential for whites might be.

In short, the wine is exceptional. It’s light in colour for its age — a glowing straw yellow with green flashes; the aroma and flavour are pure magic, capturing the essence of the riesling grape; it is delicate and rich at the same time — a wine to savour and serve with the most delicate food.

In the 80s one leading critic was saying Lindemans had lost the plot when it came to Hunter River semillon. But, in truth, nothing much had changed in a decade. Only the ‘Sunshine’ vineyard, an impossibly difficult, sandy site had been dispensed with and there were a few new sites at Broke. But semillon grapes from low-yielding vines around the Ben Ean Winery, Pokolbin, remained at the heart of the wine.

The same gentle Wilmes air bag press was at work, and winemaking techniques were unchanged. In fact, all it took to produce top-notch, idiosyncratic Hunter semillon was a good vintage — and there were only three of them, 1983, 1986 and 1987 in the eighties according to group wine maker, Philip John.

Lindemans Hunter River Semillon Bin 7071 1987, one of the Classic Releases, showcases the special qualities of the style. It’s low in alcohol (10.5%) and only now at eight and half years of age showing a great depth of distinctive flavour that ought to silence the old critics and give us wine drinkers a real treat.

I’ll be looking at two more distinctive Hunters and other aged wines from Coonawarra and Watervale next week.

November 12th, 1995

Lindemans Coonawarra Pyrus 1985 and Coonawarra Limestone Ridge Shiraz Cabernet 1985 — wines much talked about on their release in the late 1980s — were re-released from the company’s Karodoc cellar recently. At around $50 a bottle they offer consumers a rare opportunity to savour fully-mature Coonawarra.

I remember the pair as babies, deep crimson things, being nursed through barrel maturation at Rouge Homme Winery. Wine maker Greg Clayfield, with colleagues Philip John and Philip Laffer, were chuffed. After a decade’s developmental work on the company’s top Coonawarra reds, they’d finally been given a proper budget for new oak barrels.

Maturation in new oak lifted the wines to an exciting new level. The wine making team knew it, and could hardly wait to trot out the new vintage of the two established blue-chips — St George and Limestone Ridge — and unveil the brand new Pyrus, a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, malbec and cabernet franc.

W.C. Fields hated sharing the stage with children. He might have sympathised with St George and Limestone Ridge in 1986. Barrel samples of newcomer Pyrus won the Jimmy Watson Trophy at the Melbourne Show in 1986, upstaging its distinguished cellar mates, and setting the scene for a dramatic release.

When the moment came, Clayfield, John, and Laffer threw down the gauntlet to Bordeaux, model of cabernet-based reds. They imported Bordeaux big guns, Chateaux Lafitte Rothschild, Mouton Rothschild, Haut Brion, Latour and Margaux 1985 and stood them up in a blind tasting chest to chest with the Coonawarra trio.

The tasting was meant to demonstrate that the best of Coonawarra was up to the best of Bordeaux. But what it really showed was how remarkably different are wines from the two areas, and that when you get to this level, each wine has strong, recognisable idiosyncracies.

Knowing what was in the line up, it was quite easy to identify each and every wine. From there it was simply a matter of opinion as to who liked which wine best. As groups, the Bordeaux reds were firmer and more astringent; the Coonawarras lush and soft — especially Pyrus and Limestone Ridge — while St George dipped a toe into Bordeaux mould.

Seven years on from the tasting, St George continues to improve and reveal its great richness; Pyrus remains juicy, soft and delicate and seems to be at its peak; Limestone Ridge, also at its peak, delivers rich, luscious shiraz flavours backed with the sweetness of American oak.

Pyrus and Limestone Ridge, each in its own way, express Coonawarra’s sweet berry flavours, fashioned in the distinct soft, juicy style developed by Lindemans in the 1970s and 80s. Maturation for a decade under perfect cellaring conditions has brought each to its peak.

And what became of the Bordeaux? In recent times I’ve tasted only the Chateaux Margaux 1985 — and it is slowly, year after year, revealing new layers of sweet perfumes and flavours. It’s a real aristocrat and tells me that for all the magic we’ve worked in Coonawarra in the last twenty years, there’s still a challenge ahead. Comfortingly, we’ve made great strides in the area since 1985, so the gap closes a bit each vintage.

Bin 7400 Shiraz 1987 is the lone Hunter red of Lindemans Classic release. Unlike the Coonawarra reds, it has no string of Trophies and gold medals, but then that’s the fate of idiosyncratic Hunter shiraz — often an ugly duckling that may take a decade or more to reveal its real nature.

The area of dry-grown shiraz in the lower Hunter Valley has shrunk in recent years, and what is left produces really top notch wines only a couple of times a decade. But when we savour wines as good as Bin 7400 1987 or the occasional gems from Rothbury, Draytons, Tyrrells and Brokenwood, we taste unique world-class wines.

Thanks to Lindemans policy of maturing the best wines for later commercial release, we wine drinkers have continuing access to some of the great gems of Australian wine making at prices that do not always reflect the high cost of storage.

This one giant cellar has shaped opinion on the ageing potential of Hunter, Clare, Coonawarra and Padthaway wines both through its conquest of the Wine Show system and commercial releases. But will any company serve the same role for the promising new wine-growing areas that have opened up over the last twenty years?