Category Archives: Vineyard

Petaluma’s Brian Croser joins Bollinger, Lynch-Bages in Tapanappa venture downunder

Vineyard, Wine, Wine review

In 2001 brewer Lion Nathan acquired Petaluma, the upmarket wine company founded by Brian Croser in 1976. In January 2003, Croser — in partnership with, Jean-Michel Cazes of Château Lynch-Bages, Bordeaux, and Société Jacques Bollinger, the parent company of Champagne Bollinger — purchased the Koppamurra vineyard at Wrattonbully, near Coonawarra.

The partnership — Tapanappa Wines Pty Ltd — changed the property name from Koppamurra to Whalebone Vineyard and made it the centrepiece of a new enterprise focusing on wines from distinguished sites.

And just in case you’re wondering how a little known vineyard in little known Wrattonbully became distinguished, it’s worth understanding Wrattonbully first. We’ll move on to Whalebone Vineyard and Tapanappa Wines next week.

Wrattonbully, the biggest of several new wine regions on South Australia’s Limestone Coast, sprawls for forty kilometres along the Naracoorte Tableland, touching Padthaway to the north and Coonawarra to the south.

Hemmed in by these venerable winemaking neighbours, Wrattonbully exploded into existence in the nineties, the product of high hopes and a global red wine boom.

Deterred by rising land prices and a lack of suitable sites in Coonawarra, winemakers moved decisively to Wrattonbully in 1993, attracted by lower land prices, soils and climate similar to those of Coonawarra and clean underground water.

Where two vineyards, covering just 20 hectares, existed in 1993, scores of broad acre plantings, totalling about 2600 hectares, had been planted by 2003.

Wrattonbully’s impressive growth is perhaps best seen in the context of the Limestone Coast overall. This vast area, taking in all of South Australia west of Victoria and south of Lake Alexandrina, now wears the crown as Australia’s largest premium wine growing district.

The Limestone Coast’s combined 2004 grape output of 172 thousand tonnes easily outweighs the 87 thousand tonnes of the combined Barossa and Eden Valleys, the next largest premium area.
Within the Limestone Coast, Wrattonbully holds the greatest concentration of grapes after its older neighbours – Coonawarra, established in 1891 (62 thousand tonnes in 2004) and Padthaway, established in 1964 (51 thousand tonnes).

Like Padthaway, much of Wrattonbully’s output goes to high quality cross-regional blends. But many grape growers and winemakers, seeing the exceptional quality potential in Wrattonbully, won’t settle for anonymity.

Its soils and climate, the outstanding winemaking achievements of nearby, similar Coonawarra and Padthaway and even its own short winemaking history all support this belief.

As in Coonawarra, Wrattonbully’s vineyards tend to be located on shallow terra rossa soils over limestone. These soils are composed principally of weathered limestone but also contain wind-borne material.

Despite the similarities between the two regions, there are important differences, too. Wrattonbully lies to the north of Coonawarra on a tableland elevated about 50 metres above the plain and to the east of the Kanowinka fault.

According to geologist David Farmer, about 780 thousand years ago “the country to the west of the fault fell about 40 metres, perhaps under the sea. It was against this cliff face that the Southern Ocean deposited the dunes comprising the West Naracoorte Range” – near the western edge of today’s Wrattonbully. It was perhaps another 100 thousand years before what is now Coonawarra rose above sea level.

Meanwhile Wrattonbully remained high and dry to the east of the range, But, where Coonawarra grape growing commenced 1890, Wrattonbully’s wine story began only in 1969. Then, in 1974, John Greenshields and others planted Koppamurra Vineyard – the site acquired by Tapanappa in 2003.

Part 2

In last week’s column we looked at the emergence of Wrattonbully, Coonawarra’s neighbour on South Australia’s Limestone Coast, and of Brian Croser’s acquisition in 2003 of the pioneering Koppamurra vineyard, established in 1974.

It was the first acquisition by Tapanappa Wines Pty Ltd, a company founded by Croser in partnership with Jean-Michel Cazes of Château Lynch-Bages, Bordeaux, and Société Jacques Bollinger, the parent company of Champagne Bollinger.

This followed Lion Nathan’s earlier acquisition of Petaluma Wines, founded by Croser in 1976 and headed by him until 2005.

Petaluma had been built, with the encouragement of Croser’s great mentor, Len Evans, on the basis of regional specialisation. Thus the Petaluma portfolio included Coonawarra cabernet and merlot from the Evans and Sharefarmers vineyards; Clare Valley riesling from the Hanlin Hill vineyard; Piccadilly Valley chardonnay from a number of carefully selected sites; Piccadilly Valley sparkling wine from sub-plots of those vineyards and, later, shiraz and viognier from Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills.

Losing control of Petaluma prompted Croser to establish Tapanappa along the same lines, though by now, almost thirty years after Petaluma’s birth, he had been articulating the merits of ‘distinguished vineyard’ sites, within specialised regions, for a decade or more.

Indeed, had Croser maintained control of Petaluma it’s almost certain that he would have added the thirty-year-old Koppamurra vineyard to its assets and produced a single vineyard wine from it.

Under Croser Petaluma had already acquired the Riddoch Vineyard, Wrattonbully’s oldest (established by Patrick and Susie Pender in 1969), and had begun to include a tiny quantity of excellent cabernet sauvignon from it as a legal out-of-district component of Petaluma Coonawarra – one of the region’s elite reds.

Croser also had some familiarity with wines from the Koppamurra Vineyard and had a particularly favourable impression of a 1980 cabernet he’d made for the Ashbourne label in conjunction with winemaking colleague Geoff Weaver.

Having acquired Koppamurra, Croser renamed it the Whalebone Vineyard — recognising the unique limestone geology of the region with its fossil rich caves and, in particular, the 35-million year old whale skeleton lying under the vineyard.

Croser made the first Tapanappa red from it in 2003 and in 2004 produced the shiraz cabernet blend reviewed last week and 2004 Merlot, due for release early next year.

And the Tapanappa line up now includes a Piccadilly Valley chardonnay 2005 from the Tiers vineyard, owned by Brian’s wife Ann. This was the first site planted to chardonnay by Croser in the Petaluma days and is well known, too, as source of Petaluma Tiers Chardonnay since 1996.

Tapanappa is also developing a pinot noir from a new vineyard at Parawa, described by Brian as “the coolest, wettest, windiest, lowest day time temperature place on Adelaide’s Fleurieu Peninsula. But that’s only if quality scrubs up to expectations.

What the Petaluma and Tapanappa wines share is an attempt to express and market terroir – the distinctive characteristics driven by the unique site of each vineyard.

Says Croser, “There’s an antipathy and resentment to the concept within the Australian wine establishment. But terroir is the dictionary around which the language of fine wine is written and talked about. If Australia doesn’t adopt it, we’ll be overtaken by Chile which has”.

Croser laments the commoditisation of Australian wine, evidenced by the collapse of our average export price from $4.77 per litre in 2002 to just $3.72 today. He knows that we have magnificent regional and single vineyard specialties. But the message is not getting out. That’s our new challenge.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2007

Orange wine region — high-altitude, high-quality wine

Vineyard, Wine, Wine review

It’s amazing what a bit of altitude and rainfall can do to a wine region. To see what I mean, hop in the car one weekend for the three-hour drive to Orange, via Yass, Boorawa, Cowra, Canowindra and Cargo.

I did this last week to judge at the Orange Region Wine Show. In the forty-minute drive from Cowra to Orange the temperature dropped by ten degrees. On the drive home a few days later it was nineteen degrees and raining in Orange and, twenty minutes later, twenty-six degrees and dry at Cargo

What makes Orange so special – and different, I believe, from any other wine region on the west of the NSW Great Divide – is this cooler climate and tendency to higher rainfall.

Not that Orange is wet at the moment. It, too, is in the grip of drought. But the long-term average rainfall is around 850mm, determined, the locals tell me, by the impact of 1395-metre Mount Canobolas on local weather.

The Canobolas range, too, provides the altitude that makes Orange so genuinely cool as a grape-growing region. Even though the official low point of the region is 600 metres, many vineyards lie between 800 and 1000 metres.

Not surprisingly, some of the higher points under vine are on land previously devoted to orchards – which remain an important part of the local economy.

And though Orange has its share of small vineyard/winemaking operations, broadacre developments are common, giving Orange the potential to build substantial regional brands as well as accommodating the boutique wineries that usually build regional identity in the first place.

By my estimate just five vineyards account for 1046 of the 1350 hectares of vines planted in the region. Of these, Cumulus Wines’ Rolling vineyard, near Molong, is comfortably the biggest at 508-hectares.

Formerly the Little Boomey Vineyard, part of the ill fated, publicly listed Reynolds Wines, Rolling might serve as a model for those contemplating purchase of the Kamberra Winery here in Canberra.

The vineyard and thirty thousand tonne winery might have become white elephants had it not been for wealthy new owners with a flair for marketing. The Cumulus operation now makes and markets the innovatively packaged and superb Rolling and Climbing brands – both sourced from the Rolling Vineyard.

This is a story in itself, to be covered in a future column. Suffice to say that this venture alone is already taking Orange and Central Ranges wines to global and domestic audiences.

The scale of operations in Orange, combined with the inherent quality of the fruit and the advanced skills of both small and large winemakers, make it perhaps the most promising wine region in New South Wales.

The chardonnays, in particular, have been particularly impressive over the years – notably those by Rosemount Estate and Canobolas Smith.

Tasting 162 wines at the regional show confirmed chardonnay as the standout variety. But the quality overall was very high with notably few faulty wines and an impressive display of graceful, deeply flavoured wines in the riesling, sauvignon blanc, cabernet sauvignon and shiraz classes, too.

Merlot, too, showed great potential and the pinot class delivered one outstanding wine. In reality, though, Orange won’t prove to be all things to all people. The diversity of altitude, soils and aspects may suggest a range of specialties but probably no other variety will prove to be as uniformly excellent as chardonnay.

Cumulus Wine Climbing Orange Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 $19 to $21
Cumulus is the phoenix rising from the ashes of the Reynolds wine disaster. The thirty thousand tonne winery and 580-hectare vineyard that might have become white elephants are under new ownership that says its exporting the Rolling and Climbing brands – as well as the separate Philip Shaw label – to over twenty countries. Philip Shaw showed me this stunning wine in Canberra a week before the Orange Show. And then at the show it topped the cabernet class by a comfortable margin. It offers ripe, well-defined cassis varietal flavour with the cedary complexity of oak and a firm, tight structure. A bargain.

Patina Orange Chardonnay 2003 $27
That cool Orange is suited to chardonnay shows in the results of last week’s regional show where I judged with James Halliday and Celine Rousseau. In a field of twenty-one chardonnays we awarded three gold medals, four silver medals and ten bronze medals. These were delicious wines covering a range of styles. A taste-off of the three gold medallists yielded this unanimous trophy winner, made by Gerald Naef from his vineyard at 930 metres above sea level. The intensity and freshness of fruit and harmony of flavour components is extraordinary for a three year old. It’s available at cellar door, see www.patinawines.com.au

Mayfield Icely Road Orange Sauvignon Blanc 2005
At the Orange regional show, the forty-hectare Mayfield Vineyard impressed with a range of wines, winning gold medals and trophies for each of its Icely Road Riesling 2006, Icely Road Sauvignon Blanc 2006 and Mayfield Vineyard Pinot Noir 2005. To cap it off, Mayfield also won a trophy as most successful exhibitor in the field of 162 wines. The 2005 Sauvignon Blanc appealed for its zesty, citrusy, minerally flavours; the 2006 Riesling for its floral aroma and delicate palate; and the Pinot Noir 2005 for its silky, plush texture and clear varietal flavour. See www.mayfieldvineyard.com

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Wine review — Yalumba The Octavius, Trust & O’Leary Walker

Vineyard, Wine review

Yalumba The Octavius 2002 $89.95
Yalumba’s inky, oaky Barossa shiraz began life in 1988 – a burly overstatement, says winemaker Brian Walsh that the old firm had renounced the wispy, wishy-washy reds of the 1980s. In recent vintages, however, ‘Oaktavius’, has become less inky, oaky and burly – thanks in part to a toning down of the oak regime – and increasingly seamless, without sacrificing its powerful Barossa fruit flavour. Recent tastings of the 1993, 2000 and 2002 vintages illustrated this progression from power and oak to power with elegance – the latter being partly attributable to unique vintage conditions. Octavius has progressed from exclamation mark to serious regional benchmark.

Trust Central Victoria Shiraz 2004 $
That high alcohol red is not the sole domain of our warm growing regions shows in this fragrant and velvety Central Victorian shiraz. Like the warm Barossa’s Octavius, above, it weighs in at 14.5 per cent alcohol by volume. And both wines display the rich mouth-feel of alcohol without inflicting the astringent heat seen in some similarly potent reds. Which just shows that all of the components of a wine – alcohol included – need to harmonise to produce an appealing drink. The key is in the grapes, in this instance selected batches from four vineyards turned into delicious wine by Don Lewis, Narelle King and Toby Barlow.

O’Leary Walker Watervale & Polish Hill Rieslings $20
& Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc 2006 $22
Find a warm corner somewhere and crack one of these deliciously vibrant 2006 whites from David O’Leary and Nick Walker. The Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc has the racy tang and exciting flavour of fresh passionfruit plus the mid palate richness missing in too many Aussie sauv blancs. The rieslings, from distinct sub regions of the Clare Valley, share a common varietal thread but differ in subtle ways. The Watervale wine seems weightier in the mouth and leans to zesty lime-like flavours. The Polish Hill wine has a lightness and fine-ness and a pleasantly tart citrus character.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Maurice O’Shea’s remarkable Hunter heritage

People, Vineyard, Wine

A tasting of wonderful Hunter reds last week brought home what an amazing winemaking heritage we have in Australia. It also served as reminder of how terribly slow we’ve been at taking this message to the world.

As we reach the end of a tremendous boom that took our wine exports from a few hundred million dollars to about $2.8 billion in a little over a decade, our winemakers now face the reality that few of the millions of people enjoying Australian wine have any awareness of our wine-growing regions.

Even less known are the intriguing wines made from small plots of very old vines sprinkled throughout our best wine-growing regions.

Some of these date to the mid nineteenth century – the surviving free settlers or, perhaps, refugees if you like — from the great vineyards of Europe that perished in the phylloxera vine louse invasion of the 1870s, 80s and 90s.

These vines and the wines made from them have a fascinating story to tell and will hopefully play an important part in the next phase of marketing Australian wines as we take our individual regions to the world.

Phylloxera-ravaged Europe has few stories to match the 1840s vines shirazes of Langmeil and Turkey Flat in the Barossa; of wines from Tahbilk’s and Best’s 1860s and 1850s vines in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley and Great Western region, respectively; or of McWilliams Hunter Valley 1880s vines Maurice O’Shea Shiraz or Brand’s Coonawarra Stentiford’s Block 1890s vines shiraz.

And these are just examples of wines drawn from individual vineyards. So much of the best material coming from, say, McLaren Vale and the Barossa, and going to high quality blends comes from extremely old vines dating from the nineteenth and earliest twentieth century.

How each of these vineyards survived across a century more has its own story. The common thread, of course, is that the soil and climate proved hospitable. Then come all the variations based on successive owners, economic swings and suitability of the grapes to wine styles.

That so many of the oldest vines are shiraz may owe more to versatility – it makes good fortified wine as well as good table wine – than to the durability of the vine itself.

In the case of McWilliams 1880s Old Hill Vineyard, ownership passed through two generations of the King family before Maurice O’Shea bought the vineyard, at Pokolbin, in 1921. Shortly afterwards O’Shea planted nearby the still-surviving Old Paddock Vineyard.

Who knows what may have become of the vineyards had O’Shea been forced from the land following financial difficulties. Fortunately, the McWilliam family bought an interest – and later full control — of Mount Pleasant and encouraged O’Shea, a brilliant winemaker, to remain for the rest of his working life.

Upon O’Shea death in 1956, his assistant, Brian Walsh assumed control. And Walsh, in turn, passed the mantle to current winemaker, Phil Ryan, in 1978.

Though winemaking practice has changed considerably since O’Shea’s time, Ryan still relies on fruit from those old vineyards – one selected by O’Shea the other planted by him – to make McWilliam’s Mount Pleasant property’s flagship shiraz, named after O’Shea.

It’s a great example of the idiosyncratic regional style – rich and earthy, but refined and soft, with tremendous ageing ability. When we drink these, we savour a little history. And, as the 1957 vintage showed in last week’s tasting, it’s a pleasure we might share with our grandchildren.

McWilliams Mount Pleasant Maurice O’Shea Shiraz 2003 $60
As a taste of history or simply as a Hunter red, O’Shea Shiraz offers fair value at around $60. Sourced principally from McWilliams Old Hill Vineyard (planted 1880s) with a component from the Old Paddock vineyard (planted 1920s), it’s a higher alcohol, oakier red than Maurice O’Shea made from the same vines from the 1920s until 1956. However, with a few caveats about the oak and alcohol, the heart of this wine remains the very concentrated fruit flavours delivered by these old, low-yielding vines. Over time these should assert themselves as the wine reveals its mellow, soft, idiosyncratic Hunter character.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Tim Kirk drives Clonakilla success — how quality, persistence and pressing the flesh built a brand

People, Vineyard, Wine

We could be forgiven for thinking there were no happy stories in the wine industry. The well publicised grape surplus and a Deloitte survey indicating that forty per cent of Australia’s two thousand winemakers operate at a loss tell of the pain out there.

But within our own backyard we have one example of a tightly run small maker thriving in the most competitive wine market ever, rejoicing in a record 2006 harvest and willingly paying grape growers above market price.

Clonakilla’s success carries a message not just for local makers but also for all small makers. And the message is that commercial success comes from making wine that becomes a benchmark of its style.

And that requires vision, commitment, time and patience; continuing (and frank) benchmarking against the rest of the world; attentive, uncompromising viticultural and winemaking practice; a tight business structure; and clever, consistent marketing.

Few businesses could tick all those boxes. But under Tim Kirk, Clonakilla has done so and emerged as Australia’s most talked about shiraz viognier producer – both here and in major export markets — and one of our most respected viognier producers.

While the shiraz viognier blend, especially, has emerged as a regional specialty, Tim’s other wines, too, benefit from what you might call the halo effect – not to forget the same scrupulous attention to detail that produces flawless wines across the board.

And if Clonakilla’s tiny Murrumbateman vineyard limits production of its flagship red, Tim added commercial strength to the business by sourcing shiraz from the nearby Hilltops Region, Young.

And in Clonakilla style, this is another no-compromise wine. Tim pays over the market price for top-notch fruit from which he makes a slightly more robust red than the flagship shiraz viognier, albeit still in the graceful, savoury cool-climate style.

Even at a retail price of $25 to $28 a bottle, production of Clonakilla’s second-tier red has grown from 26 thousand bottles in 2004, to 31 thousand in 2005 to ‘probably 45 thousand bottles’ this year, estimates Tim.

Having worked in retail and media over the last thirty years it has been interesting to see Clonakilla’s emergence, initially under Dr John Kirk and now under Tim.

The wine styles emerged gradually from the early seventies before taking shape – based both on vision and what could be achieved in the district – in the mid nineties.

Even as the wine styles emerged, and particularly when shiraz viognier crystallised as the flagship, the least commented on aspect of the success – and of critical importance – has been Tim’s persistent, relationship-based marketing.

Few winemakers work media and trade relationships as personally, constantly and cleverly as Tim does. A phone call here, a sample there and press releases whenever there’s a little news all add up over the decades – especially when there’s fact and substance – rather than cant – at the heart of the contact.

What Tim has done over time is to create a global network of influential wine people who believe in what he’s doing. And consumers have responded with equal willingness to what is, finally, an exciting wine offering.

This direct access to opinion makers and consumers by the person who grows the grapes and makes the wine is one big advantage that small makers have over larger ones.

Thanks to Tim Kirk, Clonakilla has exploited this advantage to the hilt. Anyone growing shiraz in Canberra should be extremely grateful for the platform he’s built.

Ravensworth Canberra District Shiraz Viognier 2005 $30
Winemaker Bryan Martin works at Clonakilla Wines, Murrumbateman, helping Tim Kirk with the Clonakilla products and making his own wines under the Ravensworth label. Bryan’s first Ravensworth Shiraz Viognier blend improves significantly on the very good straight shirazes of recent years. It’s a seamless, seductive drop squarely in the highly aromatic, savoury, refined style pioneered by Clonakilla and glimpsed in several others from the Murrumbateman and Hall sub regions. Ravensworth is another significant wine for Canberra, cementing shiraz as the district’s great specialty. It’s wine of this calibre that’ll put Canberra on the map. Available from Bryan via ravensworthwines.com.au

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Lovedale Semillon and the emergence of a Hunter specialty

People, Vineyard, Wine

The release this week of the magnificent McWilliams Mount Pleasant Lovedale Semillon 2000, reminds us that greatness is often accompanied by idiosyncrasy.

And in the case of Hunter semillon, idiosyncrasy begins with a paradox. How can a comparatively delicate wine style emerge from such a warm, humid and wet climate? Haven’t we been told for decades that elegant wines come from cool regions?

The answer appears to lie, say McWilliams, in “the humidity, afternoon cloud cover and gentle sea breezes [that] temper the summer and afford excellent ripening conditions”.

Unquestionably, something is up as warm-climate semillon tends to make clumsy wines smelling and tasting of wet hessian.

But the peculiarities of the lower Hunter allow vignerons to harvest semillon at very low sugar ripeness without suffering the green, tart, unripe flavours that generally accompany such early harvesting.

True, very young Hunter semillon has an austere acid edge, but the ‘lemongrass’ and ‘lemon’ fruit flavours underlying the acidity have a sweet, delicious core. While the bone-dry austerity of young semillon may seem at odds with prevailing Aussie wine styles, some makers, like Brokenwood and Margan have succeeded in tempering the austerity without losing the distinctive regional flavours.

Others, like McWilliams Mount Pleasant Elizabeth and Lovedale and Tyrrell Vat 1, persist with the more austere styles that age so beautifully. This style emerged close to its present from in the 1960s.

According to the late Murray Tyrrell, Ray Kidd of Lindemans put modern Hunter semillon firmly on track with the introduction of protective winemaking technology — principally through the use of temperature controlled ferments and inert gas blanketing.

Great and age worthy Hunter semillons preceded Lindeman’s initiatives – the first from the Lovedale, for example, was made in 1950 – but the introduction of protective winemaking enabled the style to flourish.

McWilliams introduced the technology to its Mount Pleasant winery in 1967 and for decades the delicate, lively and long-lived Elizabeth Riesling (as Hunter semillon was often called in those days) became one of Australia’s most popular wines.

Elizabeth’s popularity waned during the eighties and Hunter semillon, despite its extraordinary qualities, appeared to be marginalised: loved only by wine experts, aficionados and part of the Sydney market.

Whether or not there’s widespread commercial hope for the genre, it’s hard to tell. But the core of makers attending the classic style, sourcing small parcels from the Lower Hunter’s great old vineyards, appears to be growing.

And that’s a trend fanned by aficionados and leading wine shows where judges regularly reward the classic long-lived styles.

But is it a style that only the initiated can love? Definitely not. The popularity of Elizabeth in the BC era (before chardonnay) suggests otherwise. And, of course, the sheer glory of drinking a mature Tyrrell’s Vat 1 or Lovedale is the most convincing argument of all.

Given semillon’s waning popularity in the eighties and nineties and the poor returns enjoyed by most makers, we should be thankful that McWilliams persevered with the low-yielding Lovedale vineyard and the stunning wines from it, crafted since 1978 by Phil Ryan.

A wine of Lovedale Semillon’s calibre is rare: it develops slowly in bottle, gradually building richness upon richness as it unfolds over the decades from lean and lemony in youth to honeyed and toasty with age. It sits squarely in the Lower Hunter mould, yet has a unique intensity and power attributable to the drab-looking, sandy site earmarked for semillon by Maurice O’Shea half a century ago.

McWilliams Hunter Valley Mount Pleasant Lovedale Semillon 2000 $45
One year before Max Schubert created Grange Hermitage, Maurice O’Shea made the first semillon from the Lovedale vineyard – a flat, sandy and unprepossessing site, planted in 1946. Known variously, over the years, as Lovedale Riesling, Anne Riesling and, finally, Lovedale Semillon, the wine has become a long-lived benchmark of the unique, idiosyncratic Hunter style. This new release, from the very cool 2000 vintage, seems to be particularly slow maturing. Less than a year ago it showed the grassy, sauvignon-blanc-like character of the cool year. It’s now slipped into a more lemony, taut, typical and glorious Hunter semillon mode with decades of life ahead.

Copyright  © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

King Valley Australia — Pizzini leads the Italian charge

People, Vineyard, Wine

Grape production figures for Victoria’s King Valley (stretching thirty kilometres northwards up the King River roughly from Milawa at 170 metres above sea level to the Whitlands plateau at 800 metres) reveal the tiny scale of some the most interesting wines in the valley – tiny plots of Italian varieties like sangiovese, nebbiolo and arneis.

In the King Valley, as in virtually every region in Australia, some, or all of, shiraz, cabernet, merlot, pinot noir, chardonnay, riesling, sauvignon blanc and semillon contribute the majority of output.

But because everyone, everywhere grows these varieties, we might be excused for not hanging a King Valley sign on any one of them – as we do, say, for Hunter semillon, Clare riesling or Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon.

No, the King Valley’s specialty, to date, lies in Italian red and white varieties even though these make up only a small portion of its annual fifteen thousand tonne grape crush.

Although Brown Bros pioneered some Italian styles in its ‘kindergarten’ winery — designed for small, experimental wine batches — Mornington based Gary Crittenden took Italian diversity and quality to another level before local Italian-descended small growers made the transition from grape-growing to winemaking.

During a downturn when Brown Bros reduced its grape intake, cousins Fred and Arnie Pizzini and another grower, Guy Darling, established King Valley Wines at Whitfield. Fred says they built the winery because, “We all wanted a winery, but thought, why build three? We didn’t want our grapes going to distant places. And we wanted to maintain the premium image of wines, mostly whites at the time, coming out of the area”.

Today, KWV is a major contract winemaking centre for the district and includes its local shareholders — Pizzini Wines (Fred Pizzini), Chrismont Wines (Arnie Pizzini) and Darling Estate Wines (Guy Darling) – as customers.

During a half day visit to the King Valley last week, Fred Pizzini said that when his father, Roberto, arrived from Italy in 1956 the area grew mainly tobacco and hops.

In 1976, Roberto and Fred planted riesling – for Brown Bros — on the river flat beside the family tobacco crop. Over time, tobacco disappeared as the vines spread along the river and westwards up the gentle slopes of the valley.

The first Italian varieties arrived in the 1980s and today the red sangiovese and nebbiolo occupy plum spots on the estate near the white arneis and verduzzo and all those other more familiar varieties.

As well, the Pizzini’s grow the white pinot grigio and red brachetto. While these are of French origin, the northern Italians have long made a steely, dry version of what the French call pinot gris. And the obscure brachetto is cultivated more in Italy than in France. Fred says he’ll be producing a Piedmontese style, low-alcohol, sparkling brachetto from the first commercial crop this year.

Even with familiar grape varieties, it takes decades for vines and winemaking skills to mature in any new region. In the King Valley, Fred Pizzini has been steadily developing the distinctive range reviewed in Top Drops.

While each of the wines is a work in progress, there’s a delicious consistency to the arneis, verduzzo, sangiovese and sangiovese rosato — despite continuing fine-tuning in the vineyard and winery.

Nebbiolo, the noble variety of Piedmont’s Barolo, has proven more problematic in Australia, perhaps, than any of the other Italian varieties. The Pizzini’s, however, have begun to hit the mark, although the very best vintages have yet to be released.

Pizzini King Valley Arneis 2005 $20, Verduzzo 2005 $18
The 2005s, due for release in February, taste even better than the lovely 2004s. Arneis, a Piedmontese variety, can be neutral but this one’s full of character with nashi-pear-like flavour and the extraordinarily zesty, pleasantly tart bite to make a mouth-watering aperitif or refreshing, all-purpose summer food wine. Verduzzo, originally from north-eastern Italy, delivers voluptuous, apricot-like aromas and flavours and rich, silky-textured palate – partly derived from the variety and partly from fermentation and maturation of a very small component of the blend in oak barrels. The 2004 displayed more oak influence but this lighter touch works better, in my view.

Pizzini King Valley Sangiovese 2004 $24, Sangiovese Rosetta $14.50
The full-bore, red sangiovese is bright and clean and kicks off with the variety’s delicious ‘bitter black cherry’ flavour. However, a wave of savoury, fine tannins soon ripples across the palate, drying out the finish and giving the grip necessary to accompany food. This is heaps better than most of the basic Chianti’s kicking around bottle shops – although you might find it interesting to serve it alongside a decent Chianti Classico to compare the style difference. The rosé is a fresh, light, crisp and dry style, still offering some cherry-like varietal flavour – a wine to chill and quaff any time. Cellar door phone 03 5729 8030.

Pizzini King Valley Nebbiolo 2000 $45
Nebbiolo, the noble red grape of Piedmont’s Barolo region, all too often disappoints, even on its native soil. But the great examples deliver incomparable perfume and an elegance, combined with power, that belies the often light colour. In the Pizzini vineyard, wallabies love the vine shoots, often decimating a crop that’s hard to set and ripen even under ideal conditions and, even then, difficult to turn into great wine. This 2000 has the variety’s lighter colour but captures some of the aromatic magic, savoury flavours and elegant, very firm structure. I was completely happy drinking it until Fred showed me the Reserve 2003 due for release in a few years at $80 to $100.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Hunting the Hunter wine region innovations

Travel, Vineyard, Wine

As far north and as coastal as it is, the lower Hunter Valley of NSW ought to be too warm, too wet, too humid and, with Sydney so close, too expensive to make wine. But it has successfully done so for 170 years and today it is more varied and innovative than at any other time in its long history.

By my estimate, the Hunter now has 159 winemakers with the greatest concentration – and therefore the richest pickings for visitors – in the lower Hunter, quite close to Cessnock.

Clearly, that’s more wineries than any visitor can cover in a fortnight, let alone a weekend. But that’s part of the Hunter’s interest: scale and diversity mean you can go back time and again and still find something new.

For a writer reporting on the Hunter, it’s also a frustration. How can a three-day tour, visiting a handful of wineries, do the region justice? Hence, the sins of omission are many and the gaps can be covered only by you, dear reader. Visit the Hunter, explore and enjoy for there’s much more there than you’ll find in this brief report.

The purely regional experience begins (and, for some, ends) with Semillon and Shiraz, the area’s time-proven, long-lived and idiosyncratic specialties. These find dozens of subtly different expressions amongst makers large and small and could easily be the focus of a weekend’s tour. However, there is much, much more to discover, and it goes beyond the old familiars of chardonnay, verdelho, merlot and cabernet sauvignon.

Today’s diversity in the Hunter reflects the explosion of grape growing in Australia and the good old Aussie traditions of cross-regional fruit sourcing, blending and a restless quest to make new and different styles.

Hunter contacts now stretch throughout NSW from the cool regions of Orange and Tumbarumba to warm areas like Mudgee and Cowra. Hunter makers also source fruit from Victoria’s King Valley, Heathcote and Beechworth regions and even from Tasmania and South Australia.

So don’t be surprised when you visit the Hunter to find familiar regional favourites from around Australia as well as emerging varieties like Sangiovese, Barbera, Tempranillo, Pinot Gris and Viognier from the Hunter and beyond.

Invariably, the innovators with these new varieties are also the guardians of the traditional Hunter styles.
Andrew Margan, for example, planted the Italian red variety Barbera at Ceres Hill, Broke, in 1998. He’d seen the increasing popularity of Merlot and believed an Italian variety, either Sangiovese or Barbera, might provide yet another flavour experience for visitors.

Andrew opted for the thick-skinned, high-acid Barbera, reckoning it to be better suited to the Hunter’s warm, humid climate than thin-skinned, big-cropping sangiovese. Cuttings from a Mudgee vineyard (planted by Italian winemaker Carlo Corino in the 1970s) took to the new site and yielded the first Margan Barbera in 2001.

Cellar door customers loved the 2001, 2002 and 2003 vintages. And the current release 2004 — and even better, yet-to-be-released 2005 — show the variety’s brilliant purple colour, exotic summer-berry perfume and flavour and savoury, tangy, food-friendly grip.

No matter how tasty though, five Barbera vintages do not a Hunter specialty make. For Andrew Margan the main game remains Semillon, Chardonnay, Verdelho, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon from a former Lindemans vineyard, planted at Broke in 1970 and Merlot from a newer planting next to the Barbera vines.

Margan says that working with Tyrrell’s from 1989 to 1994 taught him “that the basis of wine quality was great viticulture”. Hence, the TLC given to the 78-hectare former Lindeman vineyard at Broke and the 70-year-old former Elliott family ‘Beltree’ Semillon vineyard at Belford, Pokolbin, twenty minutes drive from Broke.

Andrew acquired the Beltree Vineyard in 1999, “returned it to a good state”, and from it produces an absolutely stunning classic Hunter Semillon: delicate, pale, austere and hard for the uninitiated to understand when young but of a style to develop an extraordinary toasty richness with extended ageing.

When you visit Margan’s cellar door — cohabiting with Restaurant Beltree on Hermitage Road, Pokolbin — you can taste Beltree Semillon and other traditional styles like Shiraz alongside the newcomers: Barbera, an excellent Shiraz-based rosé called Shiraz Saignee, and a highly-original, low-alcohol, no-oak, light-and-sticky Botrytis Semillon, sourced from the old Lindemans vineyards at Broke.

Andrew offers, as well, an innovative variation on traditional Hunter Shiraz, born of the current rosé boom. His rosé is made by the ‘Saignee’ or bleeding method – draining lovely pink juice from the Shiraz before it extracts too much colour from contact with the skins.

This has a significant impact on the red wine, too, as it means less juice remaining with those colour-and-tannin-packed grape skins. Margan Timber Vines Shiraz emerges from the fermenting vats as a deeper and richer wine than it would otherwise have been. And to be sure that it doesn’t carry too much mouth-puckering tannin, Andrew doesn’t blend in the pressings – the usual practice with red wines.

Timber Vines, then, has the usual Hunter fruit flavour, but it’s a little darker in colour, a bit fuller on the palate with lots of velvety, soft tannins – cleverly retaining Hunter character while sending a seductive siren song to those who love the bigger wines of, say, the Barossa or Clare.

This respect for tradition spiced with ingenuity shows all through the valley from makers of all sizes.
For example, in 1993 when the Lusby family carved Tintilla Estate out of the bush on Hermitage Road, they included in the seven-hectare vineyard the Italian red variety, Sangiovese – the thin-skinned variety rejected by Margan in favour of Barbera.

In Australia, our most likely exposure to Italian Sangiovese comes via the tight, savoury reds of Chianti – the huge wine zone bulging between Florence and Siena in Tuscany. The quality ranges from glad-when-you’ve-had-enough to jaw dropping, good – especially when you include the related Tuscan heavyweights, Brunello di Montelcino and Vino Nobile de Montepulciano, also made from Sangiovese.

The better wines share a savoury intensity and a ripple of tannin that sweeps across the palate, cleaning up before the next sip. We generally don’t see this in fruit-focused Aussie wines. But it’s what Tintilla and a number of other Hunter makers now seek, as an addition to the traditional styles.

Thus, young James Lusby makes convincing examples of the Hunter staples — a traditional, low-alcohol, delicate Semillon and an earthy, soft Shiraz — plus an attractive Merlot, while really bowling over cellar door visitors with three versions of Sangiovese.

Its thin skin and lighter colour make Sangiovese an ideal source for Tintilla’s rosé, Rosato di Jupiter Sangiovese – a pale pink, zesty, savoury luncheon drop – made, like Margan’s Shiraz Rosé, by the Saignee method.

And the ‘bleeding’ process boosts the colour and body of Tintilla Sangiovese, which remains pale in comparison to traditional Aussie reds. However, it has the variety’s cherry-like fruit character and fine, grippy, savoury tannins.

And inspired by modern Tuscan practice, James makes a Sangiovese Merlot blend, a delicious red that retains Sangiovese’s flavour and structure while benefiting from a little more colour, flesh and silkiness contributed by the Merlot component.

Over in Broke at Olivevine, Ian and Suzanne Little specialise in alternative varieties, including locally grown Sangiovese. Like James Lusby, they find the variety struggles for colour, so use the Saignee method to produce a rosé and bolster the red version — with striking success in the excellent 2005 vintage. These are delicious wines.

Olivevine’s a must visit, too, for its racy, limey Gewurztraminer sourced from the former Penfolds Wybong vineyard in the Upper Hunter and a plush, silky, ‘pear drop and apricot’ laden dry white made from Broke-grown Viognier.

And you’ll find Sangiovese and Viognier at Brokenwood that great maker of traditional Hunter Semillon and Shiraz. The homely cellar door looks much as it has for decades. But out back in the winery Peter-James Charteris makes barrels of fun.

P-J’s currently working with different clones of Sangiovese from McLaren Vale, South Australia, and Beechworth, Victoria as well as Nebbiolo (the noble red variety of Piedmont), Viognier, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir from Beechworth and Chardonnay from Mount Panorama and Orange.

Sure, these are not Hunter wines. But they are truly exciting. And as they move from development to bottling, you can taste and buy them from the Hunter cellar door. I’d drive there again just to re-taste P-J’s creations.

All of this, of course, is a mere swatch of the colourful Hunter fabric. I’ve not even mentioned the time-proven, glorious Semillons and Shirazes from Tyrrell’s and McWilliams Mount Pleasant.
These are surely the region’s greatest beacons. Be attracted to them. But allow time to fan out and see the impressive diversity offered by the other 157 makers.

HUNTER — HOW TO GET THERE, SLEEPS AND EATS

How to get there

Drive north on the Newcastle freeway from Sydney, take the Cessnock turnoff ramp to the left, then follow the signs to Cessnock, then follow the ‘Wine Country’ signs. Take a map, be adventurous and have fun. The greatest concentration of wineries is around Pokolbin, but Lovedale and Broke are must-visits, too.

Sleeps

Tonic Hotel
251 Talga Road, Lovedale
Phone 02 4930 9999 or tonichotel.com.au
Your hosts: Nici and Tom Stanford
Luxurious king-bed suites in clusters of three. Luxury ensuite, TV, oodles of space, balcony, bush views and very peaceful and quiet. Tasty, healthy breakfast in room

Wilderness Grove
77 Wilderness Road, Lovedale
Phone 02 4930 9078
Your host: David Wilson
Luxurious ensuite rooms in purpose-built modern mansion, next to the olive grove in peaceful and quiet location. Share pre-dinner drinks in the lounge or deck and enjoy David’s hearty cooked breakfast.

Eats

Margan Restaurant Beltree
266 Hermitage Road, Pokolbin
Phone 02 6574 7216 or margan.com.au
Offers breakfast, fresh and imaginative Mediterranean-inspired lunches as well as fresh cakes, desserts and coffee all day. Doubles as Margan’s cellar door,

Hungerford Hill Terroir
1 Broke Road, Pokolbin
Phone 02 4990 0711 or hungerfordhill.com.au/terroir
In this magnificent setting chef Darren Ho produces food of the highest calibre. A degustation menu, each dish matched with a Hungerford Hill wine, reveals the depth and brilliance of Darren’s art. His signature ‘Dixon Street bbq duck with sweet pickled lemons on basmati rice and choy sum’ and ‘Caramelised lemon tart with coconut sorbet’ are two highlights.

Mojo’s on Wilderness
Lot 82 Wilderness Road, Rothbury
Phone 02 4930 7244 or mojos.com.au
The ambience is suburban living room. But the do-it-all yourself approach of proprietors Adam and Ros Baldwin delivers homely, relaxing service and strikingly good food. And that’s not surprising given Adam’s twelve-years as a chef in London’s West End and another eight at the Kurrajong, Cessnock.

Tahbilk — retrosective tasting higlights unique wine style

Vineyard, Wine, Wine review

Part 1
28 August 2005

Amongst Australia’s two thousand wineries, mostly comparatively new wineries, significant numbers date from the mid to late 19th century. Some — like Penfolds (established 1844) – now belong to larger companies. Others, like Tyrrell’s, Drayton’s, Yalumba and Bleasdale remain in the hands of their founding families.

Amongst these family-owned veterans, Tahbilk, occupies a special niche for the unique styles of its wines, the wonderful heritage buildings, the ‘old’ and ‘new’ underground cellars — constructed in 1860 and 1875 – and for the fact that it became so widely known largely through success with the obscure Rhone Valley white variety, marsanne, of which it has perhaps the largest single planting in the world.

Like shiraz, marsanne arrived here from France’s northern Rhone Valley last century. Unlike shiraz, marsanne is not widely grown outside of the Rhone, nor does it enjoy the same reputation as a premium wine grape.

Damned by faint praise might be a summary of what the critics say. Jancis Robinson, in ‘Vines, Grapes and Wine’ (Mitchell Beazley, London, 1986) writes, “The vigorous Marsanne vine produces substantial quantities of deep-coloured, almost brown-tinged wine high in extract and alcohol with a very definite smell, slight but not unpleasantly reminiscent of glue of the same sort of hue. It is simply too heavy to produce a wine capable of ageing unless it is picked very early as in some Australian examples.”

In ‘Rhone Renaissance’ (Mitchell Beazley, London, 1996) Remington Norman admits its potential — ‘… Fully mature, it has an attractive, complex bouquet, often reminiscent of acacia honey and jasmine or honeysuckle; young, it is marked by a flinty tang which disappears with maturation…’, but then sinks the boot in, ‘…It needs lowish yields and thoughtful vinification, otherwise it becomes neutral and, frankly, boring.”

Hardly sounds like the stuff of dreams does it? Yet Tahbilk, under Alister Purbrick, turned marsanne into both a cash cow and a much loved, refreshing, long-lived dry white – a wine that’s become increasingly fine and approachable in recent vintages.

Alister believes Tahbilk’s 49-hectare marsanne vineyard to be the largest in the world and contains the oldest vines – 6.5 hectares planted in 1927 by his grandfather, Eric. He says that well-known Rhone Valley wine makers Guigal and Chapoutier visited Australia in 1995 and to their knowledge the oldest marsanne in the northern Rhone was planted in the 1930s.

However, as fans of Tahbilk know, there’s more to this lovely estate than marsanne. The 1200-hectare property sits on a lovely anabranch of the Goulburn River, just outside Nagambie, Central Victoria.

Vines occupy just 182 hectares of this mixed farm. And today there’s a wetland and wildlife reserve, too.
Those other vines include a patch of shiraz from the original 1860s plantings – the sole survivors of the late nineteenth century phylloxera devastation.

These vines produce tiny quantities of an elegant and refined shiraz that’s sufficiently sought after in auction markets to have been included in the recent Langton’s Classification of Australian Wine.

As well, Tahbilk produces shiraz and cabernet in standard and ‘reserve’ versions. These distinctive, elegant wines, too, enjoy a strong following.

To mark Tahbilk’s upcoming 145th anniversary, Alister’s hosting vertical tastings back to 1962 vintage of the 1860s vines shiraz and the reserve shiraz and cabernet sauvignons. I’ll report back on these next Sunday

Part 2
4 September 2005

Tahbilk – a 1200-hectare property in Victoria’s Nagambie Lakes region — is a rare gem in the Australian wine landscape, having operated continuously since 1860 and under the stewardship of the Purbrick family since 1925.

You can read its interesting history at www.tahbilk.com.au, But the pertinent point for wine drinkers was the revival of the property’s wine fortunes and creation of the styles we enjoy today under Eric Purbrick.
Eric arrived at Tahbilk fresh from law studies at Cambridge in 1931, smack in the middle of a depression and with no experience in viticulture, winemaking or general farming.

But he persisted, despite depression and war, and by the time grandson Alister Purbrick joined him as Tahbilk’s first qualified winemaker in 1979, Tahbilk’s wines enjoyed an international reputation.

To mark Tahbilk’s 145th anniversary last weekend, the Purbrick family hosted vertical tastings of its wine spanning both the Eric Purbrick and Alister Purbrick years: Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 1959 to 2002; 1860 Vines Shiraz 1981 to 2002; Reserve Shiraz 1971 to 2002; Marsanne 1974 to 2005; Riesling 1982 to 2005; Viognier 2000 to 2005; Shiraz 1961 to 2003; and Cabernet Sauvignon 1962 to 2003.

Unquestionably the medium bodied reds are the main game and appeal because they offer character, strength and longevity but not the oaky, alcoholic heaviness seen in so many Australian wines.

While the reds continue in the traditional style established by Eric, a run of warm vintages in recent years sees a little more fruit weight and, as well, better hygiene during oak maturation, the judicious use of a small proportion of new oak in the Reserve wines and a short period of cold-soaking on skins prior to fermentation means slightly brighter, softer wines – but still thoroughly in the Tahbilk medium-bodied, savoury, firm mould.

The standard cabernet sauvignon and shiraz, which often retail at around $15, offer tremendous value for estate-grown-and-made wines – provided you enjoy the medium bodied style, of course.

While the old wines hold well and some – like the 1965 — drink beautifully, the tannins do poke through a little giving a slightly tough finish. That’s something Alister’s team’s been working on and it has been ameliorated in recent vintages. Clearly the more intensely fruity years like 2002 balance these tannins better.

In the pricier 1860s Vines Shiraz, Reserve Shiraz and Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, made from select fruit parcels, the naturally more intense fruit flavours provide a sweeter, fleshier mid palate to balance the strong tannins.

In these wines prolonged ageing is mandatory and rewarding and, for this reason, they’re released at five years of age. The about to be released 2000 vintages, for example, all show a lovely core of sweet fruit and are enjoyable but really need another five years. Despite the extra fruit weight, these ‘Reserve’ wines remain medium bodied and elegant.

Of the whites tasted, Marsanne, a Tahbilk specialty, stood out for longevity, vintage-driven style variation, and the richness and slurpability of two young vintages — 2002 and 2005 – and the honeyed opulence of several of the older wines, especially the 1982.

Riesling seems to stand the test of time less well. While wines back to 1982 remain drinkable, they don’t to me have the appeal of the outstanding 2005 or lovely 2004 and 2002.

Viognier, a comparative newcomer at Tahbilk shows a juicy, apricot lusciousness in the 2005 vintage, but every year’s bottle age seems to strip away this appeal, judging by the progressive fading of the 2004 to 2000 vintages.

Tahbilk Nagambie Lakes Marsanne 2005 $11-$14
This is surely a contender – along with a few Clare Rieslings – for Australia’s best-value-white title. Not only does it drink well as a young wine but as the last weekend’s tasting at the winery demonstrated, it takes on a golden, honeyed richness with age — the 1974, 1982, 1992 and 1996 being my highlights amongst the older wines. And the introduction of a screw cap from 2002 and a brightening of the fruit character in recent years makes it an even safer cellaring bet than ever. The just-released 2005, though, was my top wine of the tasting as it simply explodes with succulent fruit flavour.

Tahbilk Nagambie Lakes Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 & Shiraz 2002 $15 to $19
The distinctive reds of Tahbilk are grown and made on the property and offer great consistency of style, albeit with considerable vintage variation and a notable brightening of fruit character in recent vintages. Despite fine-tuning, though, the wines remain limpid and medium bodied with a savoury edge and firm, sometimes slightly hard tannin structure. The about to be released 2002’s are absolutely stunning at the price and, of the older wines, the 1965 Shiraz and 1971 Cabernets still drink beautifully – indicating the strength behind what are, in the Australian context, lighter bodied wines.

Tahbilk 1860s Vines Shiraz 2000 $110, Reserve Shiraz 2000 & Reserve Cabernet 2000 $61
These medium bodied, firmly structured reds come from the choice, older vines of Tahbilk and deliver a greater fruit intensity and sweetness to counter the strong tannin structure. The 1860’s Vines shiraz comes from the sole surviving original plantings and both the current and coming releases — 1999 and 2000 – showed well, with the 1982 being a standout of the older wines. The Reserve Shiraz, from mature vines planted in 1933, 1927 and 1936 is a little weightier, but still in the elegant, firm Tahbilk mould. And the Reserve Cabernet comes from vines planted in 1948, the 1960s and1980s. The 1959 and 1964 are still wonderful. All of these young wines will benefit from extended cellaring

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2005 & 2007

The rise of Wrattonbully — unique new Aussie wine region

Travel, Vineyard, Wine

‘You’ve never heard of a champion race horse with a bad name’. Attributed to viticulturist Vic Patrick during a prolonged, and at times rancorous, debate over the naming of Wrattonbully wine region.

Wrattonbully, the biggest of several new wine regions on South Australia’s Limestone Coast, sprawls for forty kilometres along the Naracoorte Tableland, touching Padthaway to the north and Coonawarra to the south.

Hemmed in by these venerable winemaking neighbours, Wrattonbully exploded into existence in the nineties, the product of high hopes and a global red wine boom.

Deterred by rising land prices and a lack of suitable sites in Coonawarra, winemakers moved decisively to Wrattonbully in 1993, attracted by lower land prices, soils and climate similar to those of Coonawarra and clean underground water.

Where two vineyards, covering just 20 hectares, existed in 1993, scores of broad acre plantings, totalling about 2600 hectares, had been planted by 2003.

In Australia’s bumper 2004 harvest, these new vines produced 28 thousand tonnes of grapes, equivalent to about two million dozen bottles of wine – an extraordinary volume for an area that barely existed a decade earlier.

Wrattonbully’s impressive growth is perhaps best seen in the context of the Limestone Coast overall. This vast area, taking in all of South Australia west of Victoria and south of Lake Alexandrina, now wears the crown as Australia’s largest premium wine growing district.

The Limestone Coast’s combined 2004 grape output of 172 thousand tonnes (13 million dozen bottles equivalent) easily outweighs the 87 thousand tonnes (6.5 million dozen bottes) of the combined Barossa and Eden Valleys, the next largest premium area.

Within the Limestone Coast, Wrattonbully holds the greatest concentration of grapes after its older neighbours – Coonawarra, established in 1891 (62 thousand tonnes in 2004) and Padthaway, established in 1964 (51 thousand tonnes).

Like Padthaway, much of Wrattonbully’s output goes to high quality cross-regional blends. Wolf Blass Yellow Label Cabernet Sauvignon and Hardys Sir James Brut de Brut, for example, both carry Wrattonbully material blended with fruit from other areas, and go to market without a regional appellation.

But many grape growers and winemakers, seeing the exceptional quality potential in Wrattonbully, won’t settle for anonymity.

They see Wrattonbully as one of the best wine growing regions in the country. Its soils and climate, the outstanding winemaking achievements of nearby, similar Coonawarra and Padthaway and even its own short winemaking history all support this belief.

As in Coonawarra, Wrattonbully’s vineyards tend to be located on shallow terra rossa soils over limestone. These soils are composed partly of weathered limestone but also contain wind-born material. In Wrattonbully, some vineyards have a shallow layer of grey, sandy loam over the terra rossa.
Some growers say that these are the best sites for vines; others insist on terra rossa without the sand overlay. Could both be correct? We’ll know in thirty years.

Despite the similarities between the two regions, there are important differences, too. Wrattonbully lies to the north of Coonawarra on a tableland elevated about 50 metres above the plain and to the east of the Kanowinka fault.

According to geologist David Farmer, about 780 thousand years ago “the country to the west of the fault fell about 40 metres, perhaps under the sea. It was against this cliff face that the Southern Ocean deposited the dunes comprising the West Naracoorte Range” – near the western edge of today’s Wrattonbully. It was perhaps another 100 thousand years before what is now Coonawarra rose above sea level.

Meanwhile Wrattonbully remained high and dry to the east of the range, weathering and, later, collecting in its near-surface caves, the bones of trapped mammals and reptiles. These provide the wonderful 500 thousand year fossil record seen today at the Naracoorte caves, within the wine region boundary.

The caves are part of the limestone bedrock noted for thick layers of calcrete – dissolved and redeposited limestone – near the surface along ridges. Over the past ten years bulldozers ripping the calcrete prior to vine planting uncovered numerous caves (see separate story) and dragged to the surface enormous limestone boulders – like the 37 tonne monster marking the entry to Hardy’s Stonehaven vineyard.

According to Greg Koch, vineyard owner and contract vineyard manager, stone breaking and removal adds up to $5000 a hectare to establishment costs in Wrattonbully.

However, the ready availability of choice sites and land prices considerably below those of Coonawarra attracted investors throughout the nineties and into the new century.

On this rugged, undulating tableland, then, sit 2600 hectares of vines on a diversity of sites that should, in general, be slightly warmer than Coonawarra and sufficiently elevated to avoid the vintage fogs that sometimes hamper vintage in Coonawarra and Padthaway.

Wrattonbully’s grape-growing history includes two little vineyards planted decades ahead of the recent expansion. These give a glimpse of its potential.

In 1969, Patrick and Susie Pender planted the ‘Riddoch’ vineyard at the southern end of the district. Its grapes were sold to various winemakers over the years, but from what I can gather, wine made from the site was generally referred to as Coonawarra, including one that I personally bought and labelled Farmer Bros in the mid eighties.

The Penders sold to the Meyer family who, in turn, sold the vineyard (no longer called Riddoch) to Petaluma. Since the purchase, says Petaluma’s Brian Croser, shiraz from the vineyard goes to a Bridgewater Mill shiraz blend, while the excellent but tiny quantity of cabernet sauvignon is included as a legal out-of-district component of Petaluma Coonawarra – one of the region’s elite reds.

Nearby, in 1974, John Greenshields established the Koppamurra vineyard. In adopting the general regional name (local farmers still call the area Koppamurra, not Wrattonbully) he unwittingly set the scene for a recent protracted dispute over the regional name. Wrattonbully it became, but not without acrimony.

In January 2003, Tapanappa Wines Pty Ltd – a partnership between Brian Croser, Jean-Michel Cazes of Château Lynch-Bages, Bordeaux, and Société Jacques Bollinger, the parent company of Champagne Bollinger – purchased the vineyard.

Croser had advice that the vineyard was perfectly suited to dry-land viticulture and was impressed by the keeping qualities of Geoff Weaver’s Ashbourne Cabernet Sauvignon 1980 — sourced from the vineyard and made at Petaluma.

The first two vintages of Tapanappa wine now sit in barrel at Petaluma. Croser seems deeply impressed by the fruit quality. All three red varieties – cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and merlot – ripened fully in both the 2003 and 2004 vintages.

He described the merlot as ‘very big and blocky’, the cabernet as having ‘violet and rose floral character, more finesse and silky tannins’ and the cabernet franc as ‘inky and very complex’.

As these vines are fully mature, low yielding and dry grown it suggests Wrattonbully could be suited to a range of varieties.

However, as almost all of the vines in Wrattonbully are much younger and yet to deliver their best flavours, other winemakers report varying results.

Yalumba’s red winemaker, Peter Gambetta, says that Wrattonbully reds in general looked good in the first vintages but merlot had the WOW factor, performing well in a number of different vineyards.

The variety now receives special attention in the vineyard and winery and is distributed by Yalumba under the Smith and Hooper Wrattonbully label. As I write, there’s a very concentrated ‘Limited Release’ 2001 retailing at about $50, and a standard, more fruit driven 2002 at around $17.

Smith and Hooper Wrattonbully Cabernet Merlot 2002 (about $17) won a gold medal at the recent Limestone Coast Show. And Yalumba’s budget Wrattonbully label, Mawsons (about $12), offers a Cabernet Sauvignon 2002, with a Sauvignon Blanc due in 2005.

Gambetta and Yalumba’s Wrattonbully vineyard manager, Peter Freckleton, both seem excited about the upcoming first vintage of tempranillo, a Spanish red variety, from their vineyards.

At Hardy’s Stonehaven Winery, winemaker Sue Bell rates Wrattonbully cabernet sauvignon, shiraz and chardonnay ahead of merlot and believes that tempranillo may be very good. Sue’s current release Stonehaven Limited Vineyard Release Wrattonbully Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 won a silver medal at the Limestone Coast Show and her Stonehaven Limestone Coast Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 (100 per cent Wrattonbully) won a bronze medal.

Unlike Hardys and Yalumba, Southcorp owns no vineyards in Wrattonbully but sources from contract growers. Southcorp winemaker, Greg Tilbrook, says that cabernet sauvignon looks the best variety to date, making the grade for Penfolds Bin 407 in 2003 and 2004.

Griffith based Casella Wines no doubt favours cabernet, too, after winning the Jimmy Watson trophy with its Yellowtail Premium 2003, sourced from a vineyard managed by Greg Koch.

Coonawarra-based Ian Hollick clearly backs shiraz after his Wrattonbully Shiraz – Coonawarra Cabernet 2002 won a gold medal and trophy at the Limestone Coast Show.

And a few good wines are emerging from Wrattonbully grape growers. Greg Koch’s Redden Bridge ‘Gully’ Shiraz 2002 and ‘The Crossings’ Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 won silver and bronze medals respectively at the Limestone Coast Show; winemaker Pat Tocaciu produces Patrick ‘The Caves’ Vineyard Riesling 2003 and Pavy Cabernet Sauvignon 2001; and the Stone Coast Vineyard Shiraz 2002, made by Scott Rawlinson, won silver at the Limestone Coast Show.

With most of her vineyards still under ten years of age Wrattonbully is a work in progress, producing bread and butter, good average quality wines alongside smaller quantities of high quality regionally labelled product. It’ll take another ten years to see what her real specialties are. But there’s every hope, given the regional pedigree, that we’ll see great rather than merely good wines in due course.

Ken Schultz and the Stone Hill Vineyard cave
Ken Schultz says he was conceived and born in the room that’s now his office in a limestone house amongst Beringer Blass’s Wrattonbully vineyards. Establishing the Stone Hill vineyard in the early nineties, Ken found a nervous bulldozer driver teetering on the opening of an extensive cave. A little research showed that the cave had been sealed in 1917. A thorough exploration by Ken’s boss, Vic Patrick, and others found that it meandered 270 metres under the vineyards and included a touching memorial of the past – a beautifully hand-carved in limestone ‘F. J. Charter 1911’ – a local who died on the battlefields of France in 1917. A bit of creative paving work by Ken’s vineyard team, and the addition of subtle lighting, prepared a large chamber, 10 metres below the vineyard and 130 metres from the entry, for the occasional dinner or lunch under the vines.