When I began wine retailing in 1976 Australians already drank impressive volumes of Champagne. Indeed for a time we were the only country buying more vintage than non-vintage product.
Australia now imports around eight million bottles a year, though the mix favours non-vintage Champagne, a change driven partly by direct retailer imports and aggressive discounting by importers of some of the big houses. As well, consumption is now more widely dispersed through a society far more affluent and wine savvy than it was 40 years ago.
Along with the shipping containers over the decades came a steady flow of Champagne personalities looking as if they could hardly believe their own good luck.
Heads of houses, sales reps and titled family members spruiked – and continue to spruik – their wares across the country. They’re part of a great machine that markets, and tenaciously protects, not just individual brands but the Champagne brand as a whole.
And it’s a very big luxury brand by any measure. According to Comite Champagne, in 2016 the region sold 306 million bottles worth 4.7 billion Euros. Exports accounted for 48 per cent of volume and 55 per cent of value. Australia ranked sixth biggest market by volume, behind the UK, USA, Germany, Japan, and Belgium. All of those countries, Belgium excepted, have vastly bigger populations than Australia’s 24.8 million people.
Little wonder then the Champenoise regularly visit our shores.
Christian Pol Roger, a once regular visitor to Australia.
One of note, I recall, was the gracious, generous, hard-working Christian Pol Roger from the Champagne house of the same name. He’s retired now, but visited Australia over quite a long period.
On one visit in the mid 1980s, we asked and he accepted our invitation to a tasting at the Farmer Bros Wine and Spirits warehouse in the inner Sydney suburb of Waterloo.
We promoted Pol Roger’s visit through our monthly wine newsletter and a full-page advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald. Here was an opportunity, we said to customers, to meet the famous Mr Pol Roger and pick up a magnum or two at a great price.
Mr Pol Roger worked tirelessly through a busy Saturday, talking to customers, pouring wine, and signing magnums – a task well removed from the usual smaller scale trade tastings he traditionally hosted. His labours proved a huge success for us commercially, for the Pol Roger brand and for the many customers who met him and enjoyed his Champagne.
Visiting Champagne heads customarily dispense largesse to the trade, as we well knew from long experience. They’ll wine you, dine you and leave you with a good impression of their product.
Berowra Waters Inn as it is today – not much changed in appearance from when Gay Bilson owned it over 30 years ago
On this occasion, however, we insisted Christian be our guest at Berowra Waters Inn – an invitation he accepted graciously but with some surprise. Under Gay Bilson, the waterside restaurant, located in one of Sydney’s remote and dramatic sandstone gorges, was then at its outstanding peak.
Bilson had recently converted her wine list to an all-Australian affair, with one exception, a house Champagne. From memory (possibly unreliable) it was Louis Roederer, though certainly not Pol Roger.
We also knew from experience visiting Champagne heads understandably prefer to drink their own product. I therefore took the precaution of phoning Gay Bilson ahead of the dinner and asking if she’d adopt Pol Roger as house Champagne for the evening.
She understood the situation and obliged. On a balmy Sydney evening we drove Pol Roger to Berowra. Delighting at the beautiful bush, sandstone and water setting, Pol Roger stepped into the aluminium skiff for the short ride to the restaurant. Bilson greeted us at the door, Pol Roger Champagne was poured and we sat down to a memorable Bilson meal in the unique setting.
More than 30 years later the Champagne folk continue to arrive, the latest being a Canberra visit by Francois Colas, representing Champagne Bruno Paillard, a comparative newcomer to the region’s ranks.
Bruno Paillard and daughter Alice at the blending bench
Bruno Paillard founded the company in 1981 and for the first 10 years bought grapes from growers. From 1984 he began acquiring vineyards, initially in Oger, and now owns 33-hectares spread over 17 villages.
Colas says the company now controls two thirds of its grape sourcing and buys the rest. Grapes come from 35 villages.
Bruno Paillard continues to run the business while gradually handing control to his daughter Alice.
The wines are very much in Champagne’s ‘built’ style. Fruit flavour underpins the blends. But winemaker inputs add many layers to texture and flavour. For Bruno Paillard these influences include barrel fermentation of 26% of all varietal components; extensive use of older reserve wines (up to 50% in the non-vintage), prolonged ageing on yeast lees, followed by six-months to three years maturation after disgorgement.
Champagne Bruno Paillard Premiere Cuvée NV Pinot Noir 45%, chardonnay 33%, pinot meunier 22% Disgorged June 2017. Minimum three years maturation on lees An impressive NV (or multi-vintage as Paillard calls it), showing the benefit of extended ageing on lees. Many NVs on the market show simple fruit flavours and lack the depth of those aged on lees. Paillard’s offers delicious fruit flavours coated in Champagne’s lovely add-ons, in a fine, lean, taut style.
Champagne Bruno Paillard Assemblage Vintage 2008 42% chardonnay, 42% pinot noir, 16% pinot meunier disgorged June 2015 From a great Champagne vintage, the wine combines freshness, the structural and flavour characters of long maturation on yeast lees, and delicious underlying fruit character. Pinot flavours push through while the chardonnay is probably behind a zingy, fresh, lemony finish.
Champagne Bruno Paillard Blanc de Blancs 2006 Chardonnay. Disgorged March 2015 A little over 11 years old on tasting, Blanc de Blancs belied its age with a shimmering med-lemon-gold, green tinted colour. The freshness suggested by the colour came through in the aroma and palate as a vibrant pear-like character. However, the backbone derived from lees ageing, along with a subtle almond-like character, contributed to the lingering, satisfying finish.
Bruno Paillard Nec Plus Ultra 2002 From five grand-cru vineyards. Chardonnay 50%, Pinot Noir 50% Made only in great vintages. Disgorged 2014. A beautiful, elegant Champagne, layers of flavour, firm but fine structure with finesse.
Champagne Bruno Paillard Rosé Premiere Cuvée Pinot noir with a splash of chardonnay. Three years on lees. High level of reserve wines, a blend of 25 vintages from 1985 A powerful and fine rosé built on pinot noir varietal flavour and the variety’s firm backbone, augmented by its three years on lees.
Bruce and Chris Tyrrell, viticulturist Andrew Pengilly, winemaker Andrew Spinaze. Bennelong Restaurant, Sydney Opera House, 20 March 2018.
Tyrrell’s turns 160 this year. Marking the anniversary, Bruce Tyrrell, his son Chris, winemaker Andrew Spinaze and vineyard manager Andrew Pengilly held a tasting of Vat 47 Chardonnays, vintages 2004 to 2017.
With Murray Tyrrell’s release of the 1971 vintage, Vat 47 became one of the earliest Australian wines labelled ‘chardonnay’ (albeit as ‘pinot chardonnay’, an historical misnomer that stuck for 30 years). It remains one of Australia’s great chardonnay styles, with proven long-term cellaring capacity. Vat 47 evolved over the years from a leaner, long-cellaring style in the 1970s to a fatter, shorter-lived, Californian-inspired version in the 1980s, and back to a finer style from the late 1980s. Introduction of the screw cap in 2004 and improvements to fruit sourcing, winemaking technique and oak maturation lifted the quality another notch over the past decade.
The 14-vintage sequence revealed Vat 47’s continuing style evolution and the profound impact of the screw cap – ‘Perhaps the greatest step forward…[it] saved Vat 47’s reputation from the damage done by dud corks’ says Bruce Tyrrell.
Tyrrell said, ‘Chardonnay’s moved on across the country but Vat 47 has never stood still. It’s not stuck in the past’. He said the vintages on tasting deliberately started with the 2004 (the first vintage sealed with screw cap), and revealed other influences, including a gradual shift from partial basket pressing in 2007 to 100 per cent in 2013.
At the same, Tyrrells had been eliminating several vineyard sources from the blend. By 2013 sourcing had retreated solely to the Short Flat Vineyard across the road from the winery –site of the company’s original 1960s chardonnay plantings.
‘There’s a day will come now that Vat 47’s off a single vineyard that there’ll be a gap in a future vertical tasting. We won’t elevate a wine just to have a Vat 47’, says Bruce.
Changes to fruit sourcing and winemaking over the last decade were driven by a desire, ‘to improve the Hunter Valley style or be left behind by the cooler climate areas’, write Bruce Tyrrell and winemaker Andrew Spinaze. ‘We are not a cool climate area and you cannot change your identity but you can modify your style’.
Winemaking changes included the introduction of basket pressing (improving flavour and texture and increasing natural acidity), elimination of pectin enzyme additions, increased spontaneous fermentation and ongoing work with French barrel cooper Francois Frères to ‘create a barrel that suited what we are trying to achieve in our final style’.
Future tweaking will likely come more from work in the vineyards than in winemaking. Says Chris Tyrrell, ‘There are so many great chardonnays we need to lift the bar and focus on the best blocks [in the Short Flat vineyard]’.
Message in a bottle
Even the 14-year-old 2004 Vat 47 (bottom left-hand) retains a vivid lemon-gold, green-tinted colour. In the cork-seal era we might have said the colour belied its age. What we now know is that well-made whites protected from oxygen under screw cap take on deeper colours very slowly, not dramatically, and in wide variations, as they do under cork. The limited colour spectrum from youngest to oldest wine in the tasting mirrored the subtle shifts of aroma and flavour attributable to age. Yes, the wines changed with age, but in pleasing ways, combining freshness with bottle-aged character.
What a contrast to earlier vertical tastings of cork-sealed Tyrrell’s whites, where random oxidation, caused by corks, marred many bottles. Every bottle opened bright, fresh and with vivid, green-tinged colours. The older wines presented beautiful nutty and honeyed characters of age, while remaining fresh and vital. The spectrum of aromas and flavours faithfully captured the character of each vintage.
For example, the neighbouring 2007 and 2008 vintages reflected the full flavour of a hot vintage and the more subtle, citrusy character of a cold, wet year respectively. Likewise, the 2012, from another cold, wet vintage, allowed some of the winemaking inputs to push above the fruit character, without overwhelming it.
The current release 2014 showed its gentle, melon-like varietal flavour on a mouth-filling but tightly structured palate. However, in a flawless line-up among many beautiful wines, two wines topped my scoresheet: 2009 and 2013.
Here’s a couple of earlier pieces on Vat 47 plus one on the introduction of the screw cap.
Mount Majura Vineyard Canberra District Mondeuse 2017 $29 Interesting wines begin not in the vineyard, as conventional wisdom has it, but in the mind of the winemaker. The grape variety mondeuse entered Frank van de Loo’s mind in 2002 and 2004 during tastings in France’s Savoie region. He planted the first small plot of the variety in 2010 and subsequently expanded it to 0.4 hectares. That little plot of vines now produces a unique red that was but a thought bubble just four years ago. Medium bodied in the Canberra mould, it offers delicious, ripe fruit with striking spice, herb and black pepper character.
Mount Majura Canberra District Graciano 2017 $29 Frank van de Loo planted the Spanish varieties tempranillo and graciano at Mount Majura earlier this century. Tempranillo became the vineyard’s signature red while the smaller production graciano graces blends as well filling its own special niche. As a very late ripener it’s at risk of not maturing in the Canberra climate. However, the balmy 2017 autumn ripened the variety in late April. The resulting medium bodied wine captures graciano’s floral aroma, soft tannins and plush, pepper-tinged vibrant fruit flavour. It’s another red of great individuality.
Mount Majura Canberra District Lime Kiln Red 2017 $25 Named after the site of an old lime kiln near the vineyard, Mount Majura’s new red combines shiraz (50%) with mondeuse (25%), touriga (20%) and tempranillo (5%). Frank van de Loo says, ‘With such a collection of interesting varieties in the vineyard and winery, new blending trials are irresistible fun’. The blend takes spicy-fruity Canberra shiraz as a base, then throws in floral, spicy, peppery and herbal notes of the other varieties. It’s medium bodied, soft, smooth, and a delight to drink now.
Ken Helm grows grapes and makes wine at Murrumbateman in the Canberra District. He also sources riesling grapes from neighbouring regions of the New South Wales high country on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range.
In the 2017 vintage, working from a new, dedicated riesling cellar, Helm produced three rieslings from the Canberra District and one each from Tumbarumba and Orange.
‘Murrumbateman’s the centre of the universe’, reckons Helm. Hence, I took great trouble to locate his village in the middle of the map below. Tumbarumba lies 130km to the southwest of Murrumbateman, while Orange is 190km to its north.
The three sites share a continental climate – amplified by altitudes between 600 and 700 metres – resulting in warm days and cool nights during the autumn ripening period. In these conditions, the late-ripening riesling grape develops clear varietal character while retaining fresh acidity.
The wines present subtle variations of riesling, driven largely by minor differences in growing and ripening temperatures of the sites.
Winemaker Ken Helm draws riesling grapes from Tumbarumba and Orange in the New South Wales high country in the vicinity of his vineyard and winery at Murrumbateman (marked red, centre). Orange is marked red at the top, while Tumbarumba lies to the south west, bottom left hand corner. These are all at 600–700 metres altitude on the western side of the Great Dividing Range. Sydney is on the coast, top right-hand corner.
Helm Tumbarumba Riesling 2017 $30 (sold out) The grapes come from Juliette Cullen’s Tumbarumba vineyard at 620-metres altitude. The site’s cooler and wetter than Helm’s at Murrumbateman and probably explains the apple- and pear-like character widening the spectrum of the usual floral and citrus nature of riesling. The shimmering fresh palate finishes bone dry, with scintillating acidity.
Helm Orange Region Riesling 2017 $30 Although Orange lies 190km to the north of Murrumbateman, growing temperatures are lower, influenced by cool air flowing from Mount Canobolas, the seminal landmark of the region, and the 700m altitude of the vineyard. The wine presents Granny Smith apple-like characters, cut with tangy lime-like acidity and flavour. It’s bone-dry and taut as a high wire.
Helm Canberra District Classic Dry Riesling 2017 $38 Helm’s original riesling, now in its fifth decade of production, presents a tangy, lemony side of riesling with notably rounder, fuller palate than the more austere wines from Tumbarumba and Orange. That extra body and up-front fruitiness mean absolutely delicious drinking now. But naturally high acidity and a decades-long track record mean you can cellar this wine for ten years or more and enjoy its flavour evolution along the way.
Helm Canberra District Premium Riesling 2017 $52 Possibly the best wine yet under this label, the 2017 is for the second time sourced entirely from Ken’s 2008 vineyard planted to the Pewsey Vale riesling clone. Previous vintages, with the exception of the 2016, came from the neighbouring Lustenberger vineyard. The wine presents the combined power and delicacy of riesling, with amazingly concentrated lime-like varietal flavour. The flavour lingers in the purest most delicious way.
Helm Canberra District Half Dry Riesling 2017 $30 With 12 grams per litre of residual grape sugar, Helm Half Dry lives up to its name, being neither dessert sweet nor bone dry. The sugar and fruit combine to give a plush, full mid palate, while high natural acidity prevents the cloying sensation that comes with unalloyed sweetness. Unlike the Helm dry riesling, this one’s intended for early consumption, not cellaring. It pairs well with all sorts of spicy and (chilli) hot food.
Vintage preview
Ken Helm’s photo 8 March 2018, a week out from vintage. It could be the biggest crop ever says Helm. They look yummy, don’t they.
In 2017, Lonely Planet rated Canberra third best city in the world. But in keeping with a decidedly riesling mood enveloping the Capital’s winemakers, Gallagher Canberra Riesling 2017 topped 519 wines from seven countries in the Canberra International Riesling Challenge.
Murrumbateman winemaker Ken Helm founded the challenge 17 years ago. At the time, Canberra riesling, though very good, lived in the shadow of Canberra shiraz, which had attracted the attention of world critics by the perfumed beauty of Clonakilla’s shiraz–viognier blend.
Helm’s dogged pursuit of riesling as the region’s white specialty gathered momentum. The challenge became a practical workshop for local riesling growers and makers. Their expertise, applied to a variety well suited to Canberra’s climate, produced rieslings that increasingly stood comparison to the best in Australia – indeed to the world, as Gallagher demonstrated this year.
Show judges loved the style. And the love spread to wine waiters and consumers in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne. Although the absolute volumes remain small on a national scale, Canberra riesling is achieving demand matched by few producers of the variety in other regions, Tasmania excepted.
Long before Canberra’s 2017 vintage commenced, winemakers scrambled for riesling grapes. With supply no longer meeting demand, grape prices shot up. During vintage winemaker David O’Leary called riesling the district’s hot variety. “Everyone’s after it”, he said, “including out-of-district makers. And if you can find it, expect to pay $2000 a ton”. Only Tasmanian riesling fetched more, at around $2300 a ton, he added.
O’Leary sees no let up for the coming vintage even though early signs point to another bountiful harvest in 2018. He says, “A lot of people are chasing it, but finally the [grape] price reflects how much the wine can sell for”. He expects the price to remain around $1800–$2000 a ton in 2018.
Like others in the district, O’Leary is either planting more riesling or grafting it onto less popular varieties, setting the scene for increased supply over the next few years.
If riesling attracted perhaps the most attention locally this year, our winemakers made beautiful and sometimes quirky wines across a wide range of styles.
Shiraz remains the district red specialty, though some makers say the sheer number of labels on offer now makes it harder to find restaurant listings or retail shelf space.
Partly for that reason, Nick Spencer, recently departed from Eden Road Wines, plans on offering reds from warmer Gundagai under his new Nick Spencer label. He reckons using appropriate varieties (shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, touriga and grenache) in warm-climate blends makes a good narrative and an alternative style for drinkers.
But for most, shiraz remains the main game in a wide and deep district offering. My gong for Australian shiraz of the year goes to Clonakilla Syrah 2015, a remarkable small-production wine from the warmest site on the Clonakilla vineyard. The wine never wins medals or trophies for one reason – winemaker Tim Kirk doesn’t enter it in wine shows.
However, Frank van der Loo shows his shiraz, and in November his Mount Majura 2015 won the Chairman’s Award at the National Wine Show of Australia. Former Canberran Jim Chatto wrote, “I generally look for a wine of excellent quality and character. My Chairman’s Award goes to a beautifully expressive cool climate shiraz from Canberra. Amazingly this very same wine was the runner-up to my award last year”.
Canberra shiraz fared well at the NSW Wine Awards, too, where Lerida Estate won the best young shiraz trophy. At the same show, Shaw Vineyard Estate Cabernet Shiraz 2015 topped the best young red blend category.
Canberra’s production of so-called alternative varieties continued to expand in 2017. Our makers now work with, among others, graciano, tempranillo, sangiovese, gamay, nebbiolo, colorino, mammolo, refosco, mondeuse, canaiolo, aglianico, nero d’avola and cinsault.
Of these, sangiovese and tempranillo became mainstream some years ago, with conspicuous success for Mount Majura’s tempranillo, now its signature variety, and its gold-medal winning mondeuse and TSG (tempranillo-shiraz-graciano blend).
In 2017, Pankhurst Wines, Hall, produced its first whites from marsanne (Rhone Valley origin) and arneis (Piedmont origin), varieties Allan Pankhurst grafted onto semillon and sauvignon blanc rootstock a few years earlier.
The wines, made for Pankhurst by Capital Wine’s Andrew McEwin, give us a new expression of marsanne, no newcomer to Canberra, and I believe our first glimpse of Canberra-grown arneis. The marsanne 2017 ($25) provides full, fresh flavour with the distinctive viscosity of the variety. Arneis 2017 ($30) shows a racy, pleasantly tart character and bone-dry finish.
In 2017, awards of another kind came to Four Winds Vineyard.
In March the vineyard’s new label became “supreme champion” of London’s Drinks International Wine Design Challenge. Five months later, and still in London, the labels were awarded “best redesign” and “supreme champion” at Harpers Design Awards.
In May, Wine Australia selected Four Winds’ Sarah Collingwood for its Future Leaders Program. Then in September Collingwood won Owner-Operator of the Year in the Australian Women in Wine Awards.
2017 also witnessed generational change at three wineries: founders Jim Lumbers and Anne Caine sold Lerida Estate, Lake George, to Michael McRoberts. Roger and Faye Harris sold Brindabella Hill, Hall, to Michael Anderson and Renae Kilmister. And Brian and Janet Johnston sold McKellar Ridge to John and Marina Sekoranja.
Lerida’s operations manage Andrew McFadzean, says new owner Michael McRoberts’ long-term plans include doubling the winery, barrel cellar and cellar door capacity as production lifts from 130 tons in 2017 to 300 tons.
McFadzean expects to source grapes from neighbouring regions, including Hilltops and Orange, as well as Canberra.
“We want not just more wine, but excellence in everything we do. We want to give customers a great experience in wine, at the cellar door, in restaurants and when they drink our wines at home”.
Lerida now offers cellar door sales and food service seven days a week.
Brindabella Hills’ vineyards had been out of action for a couple of years. But new owners Michael Anderson and Renae Kilmister retained chef Robyn Cooper and winemaker Brian Sinclair.
The couple then “worked around the clock for weeks”, says Anderson, revamping the vineyard and renovating the cellar door and café. They have further plans to add a big new deck to the café, with views to the Murrumbidgee Valley and also to renovate and move into the Harris’s former house.
At about the time John Sekoranja decided to leave corporate life and buy a winery or vineyard, he met McKellar Ridge founders Brian and Janet Johnston. Instant rapport led to a sales agreement.
McKellar Ridge changed hands in June 2017. But before that Sekoranja and wife Marina had worked vintage with Brian Johnston and both had enrolled in the wine science degree at Charles Sturt University.
They plan to modernise the cellar door, continue with the wine styles the Johnstons established and “expand and diversify the range”. They’ll experiment a bit with an existing tempranillo style and add a sparkling riesling to the range.
The Sekoranjas also plan to add sangiovese to a new one-hectare shiraz and riesling vineyard they planted at their home in Wallaroo Road, Hall.
And at Eden Road Wines, Murrumbateman, winemaker Nick Spencer left to create his own brand. His departure opened the door to another exceptionally talented winemaker, Celine Rousseau. Rousseau made many beautiful Hilltops and Tumbarumba region wines at Chalkers Crossing, Young. She now manages Eden Road and heads the winemaking team.
Change is also underway at Jeir Creek Winery, Murrumbateman. Founders Rob and Kay Howell put the winery and vineyard on the market recently and hope to find a buyer in the near future.
Meanwhile, Rob Howell remains on the vineyard and says, “Beautifully timed rain boosted the vines and inflorescences [that precede flowering, then fruit set] suggest it’ll be a big crop [in 2018]”.
Howell’s Murrumbateman neighbour, Ken Helm, felt apprehensive during his driest July–August on record. He said, “I’d just planted a new riesling vineyard, but glorious rain arrived just in time. Now I look in the riesling vineyards and I’ve never seen inflorescences like this. Every shoot has two bunches, some have three. It could be an enormous crop”.
As 2017 draws to a close and we enjoy this year’s Canberra whites and last year’s reds, vignerons remain hopeful of another decent crop in 2018 – giving Canberra a rare run of three consecutive decent vintages. But there’s a lot of weather to come beforevintage, so let’s celebrate what we have now and hope for the best in 2018.
Gallagher Canberra District Riesling 2017 $35 Gallagher 2017 beat 519 rieslings from seven countries to be named best wine in October’s Canberra International Riesling Challenge. The wine also won awards as best dry riesling, best Australian riesling and best from the Canberra District. In comparison, judges at the recent Canberra and Region Wine Show struggled with Canberra’s 2017 vintage rieslings, awarding a miserly one gold medal in a field of 30, with a bronze to Gallagher’s wine. The Riesling Challenge judges got it right for this exciting, vivid dry riesling. Greg Gallagher sourced the fruit from Briar Ridge and other Murrumbateman vineyards. To be released mid December.
Mount Majura Canberra District Riesling 2017 $29 Winemaker Frank van de Loo captures the spirit of Canberra riesling, writing: “Ah, riesling! White blossom and lemon essence, along with the indefinable riesling-ness that is somewhere between aniseed, cold steel and crushed herbs. Purity and delicacy to the fore. We love its delicacy, fragrance and personality”. His 2017 reveals all those virtues in a style that can be enjoyed now in its vibrant youth, or savoured over the years as it grows deeper and more textured with age. Winner of gold medals at the NSW Wine Awards and Royal Melbourne Wine Show.
Four Winds Vineyard Riesling 2017 $25 By a small margin my favourite of the rieslings reviewed today comes from Four Winds Vineyard, Murrumbateman. Graeme and Suzanne Lunney planted the vineyard in 1998 and 1999 to supply Hardys. Today, daughter Sarah Collingwood manages the business while husband John Collingwood tends the vineyard; daughter Jaime Crowe and husband Bill Crowe make the wines on site at a separate business, Highside Winemaking. The family’s 2017 riesling appeals for the intensity of its lime-like varietal flavour and brisk, invigorating acidity. Judges at the prestigious 2017 Winewise Small Vignerons Awards named it top wine of the show.
Mount Majura Canberra District Tempranillo 2016 $45 Mount Majura tests a range of varieties, including Spain’s tempranillo, which produced lovely wine from the very first vintage in 2003. It sustained the performance and at this year’s Canberra and Region Wine Show won the “Wine of Provenance” award for the outstanding quality of three vintages tasted side by side: 2015, 2009 and 2004. The just-released 2016 offers a limpid, crimson colour, highly perfumed aromatics, combining red berries and deeper savoury notes. The buoyant palate reflects the aroma. It combines fresh, lively young fruit flavours, which make the palate deliciously fleshy, with underlying black-olive-like savour and satisfying, firm tannins.
Gundog Estate Canberra District Shiraz 2016 $40 Under winemaker Matt Burton, Hunter-based Gundog Estate makes wines from Canberra District fruit and also operates a cellar door in the Grazing complex, Gundaroo. Burton’s 2016 Canberra shiraz, from the Dahlberg vineyard Murrumbateman, shows the opulent fruit character of this early, warm vintage. It remains, however, a medium bodied red, in the Canberra mould, featuring ripe, dark-berry flavours, layered with spice, with fine but abundant, soft tannins.
Swinging Bridge Orange District #006 Experiment Series 2016 $29.75–$35 Winemaker Tom Ward’s experimental #006 blend combines two of the world’s great individual red varieties, tempranillo and pinot noir. Why? Well, says Ward, at 900-metres, tempranillo makes wine with varietal aroma and flavour but the palate lacks the flesh to balance the variety’s strong tannins. Pinot noir (39 per cent of the blend) brings fruit sweetness and flesh to the palate, successfully offsetting these tannins. A delicious wine, #006 combines vibrant, plush fruit with spice and tempranillo’s distinctive savoury, tannic finish.
Swinging Bridge Mrs Payten Orange District Chardonnay 2016 $27.20–$32 The high country of southern NSW, Canberra included, produces a diversity of wine styles, largely dependent on altitude-determined growing and ripening temperatures. The cool slopes of Mount Canobolas, Orange, produces intensely flavoured chardonnay like Mrs Payten. Sourced from a couple of vineyards at around 900-metres, the barrel-fermented wine offers powerful flavours at a modest 12.8 per cent alcohol. Grapefruit- and nectarine-like varietal flavours underpin a racy, shimmering, fresh palate with exceptional drink-now or cellaring potential.
Freeman Hilltops Prosecco 2017 $23 During a downturn in Hilltops region vineyard prices, Dr Brian Freeman has been adding to what is now a 175-hectare estate, “within a radius of 10 kilometres on a 560-metre ridge”, he writes. Freeman’s Italian grape varieties include prosecco, the grape behind north-eastern Italy’s delicate sparkling wine of the same name. Freeman’s Aussie version, released shortly after vintage each year, captures the juicy freshness of the grape, boosted by bubbles and pleasantly tart acidity.
Four Winds Vineyard Tom’s Block Shiraz 2015 $75 The release of Tom’s Block 2015 coincided with a couple of gongs for Four Winds’ new photography series labels from the UK’s Harpers Design Awards. The label does justice to a remarkable wine, sourced from a special block of vines dedicated to the late Tom Lunney, son of Four Winds’ founders. This is intense Canberra shiraz from a great vintage – saturated with spicy varietal flavour, bound with strong, supple tannins.
Clonakilla Canberra District Riesling 2017 $32–$38 In a Canberra Times interview on 22 March, winemaker Bryan Martin said Clonakilla had picked the last of its riesling that day. Ahead of the wine’s September release, Tim Kirk said, “Riesling parcels had a pH below 3.0 with 8–9 grams of titratable acidity at 12.0 Baume – perfect numbers”. Kirk’s winemaking jargon translates to a scrumptious dry riesling with vivid, lemon-like varietal flavour, intensified by the taut, zingy dryness of the naturally high acidity.
Clonakilla Hilltops Shiraz 2016 $28–$35 Tim Kirk sources fruit for his biggest selling red wine from five vineyards around the town of Young in NSW’s Hilltops region. Though slightly warmer than Canberra, Hilltops produces shiraz of a comparable, if slightly fuller style. The 2016 vintage pleases with its fruity–spicy fragrance, medium body, juicy palate and gentle, fine tannins. The wine will easily keep for a decade or so in a good cellar. But I doubt it will ever give greater drinking pleasure than it does right now with vibrance and fruit at full throttle.
Four Winds Vineyard Canberra District Shiraz 2016 $30 Four Winds Vineyard’s follow up to its gold-medal winning 2015 vintage nicely captures the fragrance, medium body and vibrance of Canberra’s shiraz style. While the 2015 offered denser, more concentrated fruit and more solid tannin, the 2016 is all fruit, spice, softness and seduction. Delicate, ripe, red-berry-like fruit flavours, combine with spice and fine tannins in a style well suited to casual warm weather dining.
Wynns Winemakers Sarah Pidgeon (left) and Sue Hodder, with vineyard manager Allen Jenkins. The three presided over one of the greatest vineyard and winemaking makeovers in Australian history.
A sixty-vintage tasting of Wynns Coonawarra Estate cabernet sauvignon on 12 and 13 July 2017 proved the amazing beauty and keeping power of this great Aussie red. Not that this was any news to the tasters. Many of us gathered at Wynns had participated in a similar tasting in 2004 – and we’d drawn the same conclusion: Wynns makes one of the world’s best, and best value, cabernets.
The 2004 tasting propelled winemaker Sue Hodder and vineyard manage Allen Jenkins, further into their long-term project of finessing an already proven wine style. In particular, the elegant beauty of the 1960s wines inspired Hodder.
At this year’s tasting we yet again marvelled at the older wines, many of which tasted much as they had 13 years earlier. More importantly, though, the tasting allowed us to appraise the new wines now so clearly benefiting from all the vineyard and winemaking changes Hodder and Jenkins so thoughtfully implemented from 2000.
The links below give details of those changes. I elaborate on them in my tasting notes below.
The colour of age: Wynns Cooonawarra Cabernet 1954 to 1959.Photo: Chris Shanahan.
With the exception of the 1955 and 1956 vintages, Wynns cabernet sauvignons from 1954 to 1962 were labelled ‘cabernet’, not ‘cabernet sauvignon’. The 1955 and 1956 wines, blends of cabernet sauvignon (80%) and shiraz (20%), were labelled ‘claret’, consistent with Australian generic labelling of the time. In the 1950s, noted winemaker Sarah Pidgeon, Coonawarra grew more shiraz than it did cabernet sauvignon.
From 1954 to 1964 the labels were white. The black label, which ultimately became the wine’s name, first appeared on the 1965 vintage.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet 1954 Mid, limpid colour, brown at the rim; warm, sweet, earth, mushroom and chocolate-like aroma; elegant, refined old palate reflecting the aroma; still sweet and juicy with varietal character. Lovely, harmonious old red. Note, two bottles opened for the group, Huon Hooke (born 1954) led the discussion of the fifties vintages noted his bottle not in as good condition as the one I tasted from.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Claret (Cabernet Sauvignon—Shiraz) 1955 Similar colour to the 1954; sharper, more aged aroma; faded power here, still with intense flavour but a little tart and drying out. It doesn’t have the harmony of the 1954, but it’s still a delight to drink, albeit fading. The other bottle was apparently fresher.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Claret (Cabernet Sauvignon—Shiraz) 1956 A tone lighter in colour than the 1954 or 1955; aged, autumn-leaf aroma with a pungent edge, but still with old-cupboard charm; soft, sweet and gentle on the palate, with an elegant structure and fine, lingering finish. Light but lovely.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet 1957 Brown rim, a shade darker than 1956, but comparatively light in the line up. Less volume of aroma than 1954–56, earthy, savoury and aged – all the old, earthy elements, then a dry, quite tannic palate, firmer than 1954–56. Less ripe in flavour.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet 1958 Deeper hue than preceding wines; very old, chocolaty aroma of extreme age; very full, round palate – plusher than 1954–57 wines, with quite strong, firm tannins. Drying out, but with a trace of sweet fruit still there.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet 1959 Light to medium colour with brown rim; highly aromatic, reminiscent of old leather and autumn leaf, with a tart punch; elegant structure, intense palate with lingering aged and chocolaty aftertaste – fine tannins in harmony with the sweet, aged fruit. Wonderful old wine, with a touch of Coonawarra mint in the aftertaste.
1960–1969
The early vintages wore white; the black label arrived in 1965 and the name changed from ‘cabernet’ to ‘cabernet sauvignon’.
No cabernet sauvignon wine was produced in 1961 (frost) and 1963 (wet). Vintages 1960, 1962 and 1964 bore the word ‘cabernet’ on a white label. The 1965 vintage was the first to bear the black label and the full varietal name ‘cabernet sauvignon’.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet 1960 Deep colour with brown rim; aged varietal aroma, both earthy and sweet; aged but vibrant palate with deep, sweet fruit, lively acid and assertive cabernet tannins all in harmony. Fresher on the palate than the aroma suggested.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet 1961 A frost year, not produced.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet 1962 Slightly lighter colour than 1960, brown at rim; warm and inviting aromas combining sweet fruit and a patina of autumn-leaf and other aged characters; elegant palate, finely balancing acid, tannin and intense fruit. A gorgeous old beauty.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet 1963 A wet growing season, not produced.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet 1964 A shade darker than the 1962, brown at rim; sharp, thrusting aroma revealing great age; the palate reflects the aroma – tannins now outweigh the fruit, and there’s a green, unripe note too. This was the driest season of the decade.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1965 Deepest colour of the 1960–65 group, brown at rim; chocolate-like aroma of age with a sniff of decay; big, tannic palate, tannin edging out the fruit. A powerful wine, now in decline.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1966 (magnum) Deep colour, but a shade lighter than the 1965; a harmony of fruit and age on both nose and plate and so fresh for its age. Long aftertaste. A great wine.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1967 Similar depth of colour to the 1966, perhaps a little more brown at the rim; the aroma combines aged character with freshness; the palate is fuller and rounder than the 1966, with a solid bite of tannin taking over the finish.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1968 Similar hue to 1966 and 1967; the aroma combines surprising fresh Coonawarra berry character, overlaid with age and a touch of mint; the berry and age characters flow through to the palate, along with a firm bite of tannin.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Claret Cabernet Sauvignon Hermitage 1969 Aged colour; some sweet, inviting elements in the aroma, but the palate seems all tannin and oxidation. (A co-fermented cabernet sauvignon and shiraz (at the time also known in Australia as ‘hermitage’. A poor year).
1970–1979
Sue Hodder says there were young vineyards contributing in this decade. Allen Jenkins calls it the wettest of the decades in review, meaning leafier canopies as a result of the higher rainfall. 1976 experienced the warmest flowering, setting the season up well. He says, ‘1978 was another average season, the sort we now look out for as a good year’.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1970 Medium depth of colour, brown at the rim; aroma of berry, mint, cedar and aged character; medium-bodied, ageing palate, still with fruit, but slightly outweighed by tannin.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1971 Medium to deep colour, brown at the rim; exuberant aroma combining fruit and age; lively, vigorous palate of sweet fruit and age in harmony with both high acid and assertive tannin.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1972 Medium to deep colour, brown at rim; warm, decaying aroma of age; a little sweet fruit on the palate but not enough to hold off the tannin, leaving the palate hollow and the finish to acid and tannin.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1973 Medium to deep colour, brown at rim; aged but fresh aroma, showing berries, leaf, and a mellow, earthy, sweet, character of age; sweet fruit tempered by age dominate a fine, firm, harmonious palate.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1974 Medium to deep colour, brown at rim; an initial impression of darker fruits than in the other 1970s wines, but also signs of decay; the palate is full but hot and dominated by tannin as the fruit slips from sight.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1975 Medium to deep colour, brown at rim; warm, ripe aromas of earth, age and sweet black-olive-like varietal aroma; the palate combines sweet fruit, age and firm tannins, with the tannins now dominant but overwhelming.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1976 The first bottle was not in good shape. It revealed a big wine in which tannin outweighed fading fruit. A second bottle served at dinner that night (alongside Chateau Latour 1975), drank beautifully – showing great perfume, power and supple, deep fruit in harmony with its tannins. One of the best.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1977 Medium to deep colour, brown at the rim; leafy, aged aroma; lean, austere palate, albeit with a lick of fruit, though subservient to the tannin.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1978 Medium to deep colour, brown at the rim; big, chocolaty aroma with leafy and aged character; full bodied in this line up, but the palate is hollow and tannins take over the finish.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1979 Medium to deep colour, brown at the rim; aged, chocolaty aroma with something tart and tangy pushing through; a big palate, with more sweet fruit than in the 1977 or 1978. But without flavour concentration, the fruit rolls over to the tannin.
Wynns’ gables, built by Coonawarra founder John Riddoch.
1980–1989
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1980 Medium colour, watery brown at the rim; herbaceous, vegetal, unripe aroma; a skerrick of sweet fruit on the palate gives way to tart acid, consistent with the aroma, then firm, hard tannins.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1981 Medium to deep colour, brown at the rim; aged aroma combing both ripe and herbaceous fruit; big, sweet, round and juicy palate with mild tannins.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1982 Medium to deep colour, brown at the rim; aroma of ripe berries, overlaid with sweet, aged character; generous, sweet, plush palate, still with lively berry flavours, though overlaid with lovely, mellow aged characters. Elegant, harmonious palate with lovely tannins complementing the fruit. One of the best.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1983 Deep colour, brown at the rim; earthy, savoury, aged aroma, with leafy cabernet sauvignon character; aged character and firm tannin lead the palate, with a mere skerrick of sweet fruit remaining.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1984 Medium to deep colour, brown at the rim; leafy cabernet sauvignon and berry combo in the aroma; fresh, acidic palate with leafy flavours, then lean, unripe tannins.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1985 Deep colour, brown at the rim; big, savoury aroma, a little oxidised; big palate with sweet, ripe fruit at the core, then loads of tannin slightly outweighing the fruit, though no overwhelming it.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1986 Deep colour, more brick red than brown at the rim; lifted, sweet, multi-dimensional aroma, with oak, fruit and age – volatile acidity noticeable and probably accounts for some of the aroma’s buoyancy; the palate reflects the aroma in its liveliness, though burly tannins, probably derived from both fruit and oak, detract from what may have been an outstanding wine.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1987 Medium to deep colour, more brick red than brown at the rim; attractive aroma combining ripe berry, age and leaf; sweet fruit is at the core of a big, tannic wine, albeit not so overwhelming as in the 1986.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1988 Deep colour with more brick red than brown at the rim; big, ripe aroma combining freshness with age; ripe, sweet fruit on the big palate, followed by similar burly tannins seen in the last few wines. There’s a winemaking style running through these vintages.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1989 Medium to deep colour, more brick red than brown at the rim; attractive, sweet aroma combines fruit, oak and age; after a run of tannic wines, the 1989 presents a gentle, comparatively soft palate; cabernet and oak tannins nevertheless provide structure, but without overwhelming the fruit or becoming a dominate feature. A surprise for such an unsung vintage.
1990–1999
Sue Hodder described the, ‘Many heralded vintages in this decade’, while Allen Jenkins saw the period as, ‘Even in temperature, more so than the other [decades] and drier. A dream decade’.
In a discussion after we tasted this bracket, Jeremy Oliver suggested tannin had been added to the wines. Sue Hodder countered that the tannin had been fruit and oak derived, noting the oak Wynns used in the 90s was, ‘Not a patch on what it is now’.
She added, ‘We were compelled to make as full a body as possible as medium bodied reds were not then accepted’. She went on, ‘The wines were forced a bit’. In an attempt to get away from green flavour, fruit was given greater hang time than it once had, which meant a higher pH and less brightness.
Sue noted that in the 90s oak comprised roughly 20% new across the decade, with an American oak influence in the first half. She lobbied for and got French – but was not anti-American. It simply didn’t suit Wynns wines.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1990 Deep red colour to the rim, with little sign of ageing; aroma of ripe plum, black olive and a warm, earthy, ageing character; clear, varietal cassis-like flavour in an intense palate of great vitality, with firm varietal tannins in harmony with the fruit. One of the best.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1991 Similar colour and hue to the 1990; mellow, warm, aged aroma with notes of chocolate and mint; sweet, harmonious palate, vibrant and fresh despite the age, with a fine, elegant structure. A wonderful contrast in style to the 1990 and of a similar stature.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1992 Medium to deep colour, more brick red than brown at rim; aged aroma without the freshness of 1990 or 1991; big palate, dominated by tannin, despite a vein of underlying fruit.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1993 Medium to deep colour, brown at the rim; warm, chocolate and leafy aroma with earthy, aged character; high acid, high tannin palate, looking tired and dried out.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1994 Medium to deep red, some signs of age at the rim; berry, leaf and age in the aroma; medium bodied, fresh and appealing palate of sweet berry flavours and age, with a modest bite of tannin in the finish.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1995 Deep brick red colour, some signs of age at the rim; big, black-olive and cassis aroma with an overlay of oak; full-bodied, round – a matrix of fruit, oak and tannin, with tannin ascendant.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1996 Deep red, still youthful at the rim; gorgeous floral aroma – a complex of fruit and age; lively palate, saturated with sweet, succulent fruit, held firmly by cabernet tannins. One of the best, with years ahead of it. We were served two glasses – one from bottle, the other from magnum. The condition of the wine in the two bottles varied. For some of us, the wine from the better bottle proved to be in better condition than wine from the magnum.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1997 Deep colour, ageing at the rim; spiky, very old aromas; still has sweet fruit on the palate, though the tannins sweep through and dominate.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1998 Deep colour with youthful tone at the rim; lovely, inviting aroma of ripe plum and dark berries, with subtle aged notes; ripe, plush palate, supple and pulsing with life; firm tannins grip the fruit in a potentially long-lived cabernet. One of the best.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1999 Deep colour with youthful tone at the rim; lifted, sweet-fruited aroma – lovely, classy cabernet sauvignon with a little age; subtle, elegant palate of deep, sweet fruit, interwoven harmoniously with firm tannin. One of the best – and an elegant contrast to the bigger 1998 (reminiscent of the 1990—1991 pairing).
2000–2015
Tasters at work, Wynns Coonawarrra Estate. Photo: Chris Shanahan.
In this period, Sue Hodder’s study of older Wynns vintages led to dramatic vineyard renewal and a new purpose-built winery. Greater control of fruit quality and harvesting time, backed by a winery capable of handling multiple small fruit batches, lifted wine quality.
Use of oak changed for the better as Sue’s team appraised barrels of differing sizes from various forests and coopers. She then designed maturation regimes for each of the Wynns wines. This work is ongoing – for example, the just-released 2015 Black Label was matured partly in 3000-litre vats, much as the earliest vintages were.
Winemaker Sarah Pidgeon described the oak quest as, ‘An epic journey to get the balance right’. The progression from 2000 to the present sought coopers whose barrels, ‘Push up our fruit’.
The introduction of the screw-cap seals from the 2006 vintage eliminated perhaps the most egregious risk to wines intended for long-term cellaring. As we saw time and again in this 60-vintage tasting and a similar event in 2004, cork-related oxidation, meant wide variability in the condition of the wines we tasted. As two bottles of each wine were required for the tasting, for any vintage some in the group tasted excellence, while others suffered a lesser bottle. This proved dramatically so with the 1954 vintage. Future drinkers won’t encounter this problem with wines made from 2006.
After we tasted this bracket, Huon Hooke asked Sue Hodder about the acidity, ‘Which is so even in these wines’.
Sue said the wines now require less acid adjustment than in the past thanks to improved canopy management, earlier ripening and earlier picking. After previous winemaker Peter Douglas left, she felt compelled to continue making big wines. But inspired by the wines of the 1960s, she moved to a medium-bodied style. ‘It was a long journey in vineyard and winery’, she said.
Winemaker Sarah Pidgeon commented on even greater control of fruit. In the 2015 vintage, she said, Wynns commissioned a berry-sorting machine of a style used in Europe and Western Australia for some time.
Berry sorting further improved the evenness and quality of fruit going into the wines.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2000 Medium to deep colour, still red at the rim; fresh, bright, youthful aroma of red berries, overlaid with age; the palate reflects the aroma, with a structure based on comparatively high acid and fine, firm tannins.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2001 Medium to deep colour, youthfully red at the rim; ripe, plummy aroma with a touch of leaf, black olive and age; vibrant palate, with intense, ripe fruit flavour meshed with firm tannins, all in harmony, with finesse.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2002| Medium to deep colour with, signs of age at the rim; warm, plummy, maturing aroma, with an earthy, autumn-leaf character; luscious palate – mature and earthy but with life and fruit, then fine tannins sweeping through on the finish.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 Medium to deep colour, signs of age at the rim; sweet, aged aroma with a lick of oak still apparent; full palate, but the fruit struggles to push through the substantial tannins.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 Deep colour, with vibrant red, still youthful rim; fresh, ripe-berry, varietal aroma – very even and balanced with the first signs of aged character adding complexity; vibrant palate reflects the aroma – pure, cabernet flavour, supple and sweet is cocooned in fine but assertive tannins. One of the best.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 Deep brick red with first signs of age at the rim; leafy, aged aroma; on the palate vibrant fruit wrestles with strong tannin, the latter winning at this stage, but by no means overwhelming the fruit.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 Medium deep, still youthfully red at the rim; ripe, fresh aroma, combining plum- and black olive-like varietal character with maturation character; supple, full, fruity palate of considerable depth with a nicely balanced load of cabernet tannins. Neither young nor aged, but has long cellaring potential.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 Deep colour with vibrant, youthful rim; deep, sweet, plummy aroma, with fruit to the fore, although there’s much more to it; the vibrant palate is saturated with varietal flavour, meshed harmoniously with firm, fine tannins. One of the best, and barely into its long evolution.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 Deep colour with crimson rim; big, rich, sweet-fruited aroma; fleshy, plush fruit floods the opulent, firm, tannic palate. From a hot year, this is at the bigger end of the Coonawarra cabernet style, but it’s harmonious and built to last.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 Deep colour with crimson rim; deep, dark fruits in the aroma, with a touch of sweet oak; big, opulent, warm palate with alcoholic heat taking the edge off the fruit – a comparative block buster, finishing with very strong tannins.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 Deep colour with vibrant crimson rim; gorgeous aroma, combing floral high-notes with ripe, red fruits and savoury oak; supple, deep, fruity palate reflects the inviting aroma; firm tannins combine with the fruit in a wine of complexity and elegance. One of the best.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 Medium to deep colour, with youthful rim; sweet, fruity aroma reminiscent of summer berries, with a splash of leaf and spicy oak; lighter bodied than the preceding three vintages; elegant, refined palate with fresh fruit reflecting the aroma and firm fine tannins in the finish. A triumph in such a wet, cold season.
Sue Hodder said very little suitable fruit was produced in the vintage. She said of the scores of vineyards usually contributing to Black Label, only two produced good quality fruit. Allen Jenkins said, “I learned a lot from the 2011 vintage, leading to major changes to manage the extremes of climate change”.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 Medium to deep colour, still crimson at the rim; delicate, sweet, floral, fruity aroma – alluring, seductive and classy; vibrant palate reflects the gorgeous aroma; fine tannins embrace the fruit, creating a unity of flavour; great harmony and elegance in a very fine, medium-bodied, elegant and potentially very long-lived cabernet sauvignon. A magnificent wine, in a class of its own.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 Medium to deep colour with crimson rim; deep aroma of black fruits and black olive; these intense varietal characters flow onto a deep, sweet and round palate, layered with firm tannins; a big wine after the 2012, but harmonious and with good future potential.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 Medium to deep with crimson rim; vibrant aroma of ripe, red fruits; the palate continues the fruity theme promised by the aroma; tight cabernet tannins grip the fruit and give an elegant structure to a very youthful wine.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 The current release – $28.45 to $45 Deep colour with intense crimson rim; opulent aroma combines vibrant, ripe varietal character with deeper underlying savouriness; brilliant fruit saturates a round, juicy palate that pulses with life; ripe, assertive tannins harmonise with fruit in a complete and superior cabernet sauvignon. One of the best.
A look to the future
We also tasted representative samples from the 2016 and 2017 vintages, drawn from oak barrels. They are yet to be blended and bottled.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 (barrel sample) Deep colour with purple rim; strong aroma of ripe, dark fruits – mulberry, black cherry; an adolescent on the palate – rampant, untamed fruit with powerful tannins and obvious oak; great potential.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 (barrel sample_ Limpid purple colour: all florals and fruit on nose and palate, strongly varietal in flavour with fine tannins at this stage and oak not asserting its influence yet.
Four Winds Vineyard Canberra District Riesling 2016 $25 Four Winds Vineyard’s Sarah Collingwood, a finalist in the 2016 Women in Wine Awards, was in May selected for Wine Australia’s Future Leaders Program. News of Collingwood’s latest achievement coincided with a glass of Four Winds Riesling 2016 at the Tradies Canberra Wine House. I’d tasted and reviewed the wine last November. But like other Canberra rieslings, six months in bottle lifted it to another level. This is a classy riesling indeed, offering intense but delicate, lemon-like varietal flavours, amplified by fresh, drying acidity.
Collector Canberra District Rose Red City Sangiovese 2013 $32 Another local wine enjoyed at Tradies Canberra Wine House (see wine of the week) was Alex McKay’s sangiovese, grown, he says, “on a range of vineyards across both granite and shaley soil near Murrumbateman”. The wine also contains small amounts of four other Italian varieties, canaiolo nero, mammolo and colorino. McKay’s medium-bodied red separates itself from traditional Australian reds by putting sangiovese’s savoury, tannic character ahead of bright fruit flavour. The delicious fruit flavour remains, seeping its way through the savour and tannin with mouth-watering results.
Sassafras Canberra District Savagnin Ancestral 2016 $25 Sassafras Savagnin Ancestral offers a perky, tart, tasty take on sparkling wine. It’s made in a continuous but pernickety process: fermentation, refrigeration to arrest fermentation, maturation on yeast lees, light filtering into bottle (complete with residual grape sugar and surviving yeast), where fermentation resumes, consuming the sugar and creating the bubbles. The result is a light, fresh, pleasing sparkler with apple-like flavour and tartness – and a fine sediment resulting from the bottle fermentation. Fruit comes from the Quarry Hill Vineyard, Murrumbatemen. Available at sassafraswines.com.au.
Ravensworth Sangiovese 2016 $25 Bryan Martin’s sangiovese provides a tasty contrast to Alex McKay’s Collector reviewed today. McKay’s 2013 emphasises the savoury, tannic face of the variety, while Martin’s 2016, at this stage of its development, shows sangiovese’s gentler, fruitier side. Grape for Ravensworth came from five vineyards spread around Canberra, Hilltops and Gundagai. Gentle processing, including whole-berry ferments, extended skin contact and ageing in older barrels, produced a silk-smooth, medium bodied red with intense sour-cherry-like varietal flavour.
Champagne Bruno Paillard Premiere Cuvée NV
Champagne Bruno Paillard Assemblage Vintage 2008
Champagne Bruno Paillard Blanc de Blancs 2006
Bruno Paillard Nec Plus Ultra 2002
Champagne Bruno Paillard Rosé Premiere Cuvée
