Category Archives: Wine

A rosé for Valentine’s day

8 February 2012WineChris Shanahan

Why all the pink on Valentine’s Day – cards, ribbons, flowers, packaging, love hearts – even rose wine? Has it really to do with the psychology of the colour, as a UK wine retailer asserts?

“In colour psychology pink provides feelings of caring, tenderness, self worth and acceptance. Pink makes us crave sugar. Out of all the colours pink is the sweetest (cakes are supposed to taste sweeter if served up on pink plates!).

“Pink has a calming effect. It causes the hypothalamus to signal the adrenal glands to slow their secretions, thus reducing heart rate and blocking anger (Science Digest). It’s used in some prisons to diffuse aggressive behaviour. This effect has been used in sport. Sport’s teams sometimes paint the locker room, to be used by their opposing teams, pink to neutralise them! Some studies of the colour pink suggest that male weightlifters seem to lose strength in pink rooms”, writes Bordeaux Undiscovered wine shop.

Whatever the reason for our pink valentine’s (a female plot to soften men up, perhaps?), still and sparkling rose now play a big part in the celebrations. Just look at all the wine adverts next week. But the increasing number of labels and styles makes for a difficult choice.

Just what is rose? It’s not white; it’s not red. Is it a mongrel or hybrid, or even a specialty style in its own right?

As a show judge I’ve endured my fair share of rose classes – generally unrewarding line-ups of wines ranging in colour from pale onion skin to lurid, slutty, lipstick pink; from cloyingly sweet to achingly dry; and from flabby soft to searingly acidic. The better ones, of whatever hue, display fresh fruit flavours, rather than just sweetness, and finish clean and fresh, whether slightly sweet or very dry and savoury.

That rose performs poorly in wine shows while sales continue to climb reflects a couple of things – firstly, that show judges often move in a different direction than popular taste; and that too many ordinary roses, and not enough good ones, find their way into wine shows.

For example, judges at last year’s National Wine Show of Australia failed to find a winner for the rose trophy. The rose class (table wines) attracted just 13 entries. Judges awarded one silver and five bronze medals and commented, “Good wines showed bright fruit balance and freshness with good use of sugar. Rose needs to be more than an after thought”.

The comments say much more to exhibitors and would-be rose makers than they do to the casual reader. It’s really a shorthand, contributing to the longer, deeper discussion about rose going on across the industry.

On the one hand, you have the growing popularity of rose. It’s come from nowhere to being a must-have at cellar doors – in some respects becoming the “moselle” of the early 21^st century, a pop wine for visitors not all that much into wine.

Popularity always generates me-too products and an element of cynicism in some quarters – the attitude that “if it’s that’s what folks want, let’s crank up the volume”. It’s the stupid attitude behind our many mediocre and poor roses, exactly what the judges panned.

On the other hand, we have a number of very good producers, falling into broadly two camps. The first camps says, “If people want rose, we’ll give them the best we can make at the price they’re prepared to pay”. The second camp says, “We love a certain style of rose, we’ll do everything it takes to make it and we’ll bring people on our journey”.

Behind the judges’ ratings and comments lies the belief that whether you’re making lower priced rose or shooting for the stars, and hang the price, you have to build it from the vineyard up.

Incidentally, the National Wine Show medal winners – largely cheaper roses – included Jacob’s Creek Shiraz Rose 2011, Lindemans Bin 35 Rose 2011 and Peter Lehmann Art Series Rose 2011. These are all extraordinarily well made wines built on bright, fresh fruit flavours.

And as rose gains popularity, we’re seeing an increasing number of very good wines from the second camp – personified by a small group behind the Rose Revolution campaign. These producers favour purpose-built, dry roses, like the Yarra Valley styles made by Steve Webber and Leanne De Bortoli.

The group’s website, www.roserevolution.com, includes links to supporting producers and to the popular Facebook and Twitter sites. This should lead you to many of the best dry roses in Australia – great tipples for Valentine’s Day.

Farewell Len Sorbello

1 February 2012People, WineChris Shanahan

Len Sorbello the day before he died. Photo: Melissa Ablitt

On 9 January, Canberra lost Len Sorbello – a wine-loving bloke, loved and respected across the wine industry and among former public service workmates.

Laughter lightened the farewell service as brother Sam, old wine mate, Lester Jesberg, and elder son, Stephen, recounted a very full, generous life infused with an infectious, passion for wine and food.

Stephen said, “If dad wasn’t eating, he was thinking of eating. If he wasn’t cooking, he was thinking of cooking”. He recalled a monumentally littered kitchen and six o’clock dinners starting at nine.

Brother Sam remembered Len’s early food infatuation, indulged lavishly by a Sicilian mother. Black muscat juice accompanied meals, said, Sam. But this gave way to Barossa Pearl and Ben Ean during Len’s youth in north Queensland.

By the time Sorbello, by now a barrister, met Lester Jesberg in 1976, his wine tastes had moved up a notch. Recalls Jesberg, “Len was a year ahead of me in wine at the time and for a beginner that was a big gap. He was already into the great wines of Europe”.

“It was at a Rothbury Estate ribbon dinner in Canberra”, Jesberg remembers. “I introduced myself to Len and his table and many of those people, including Mike and Maggie Bond, were there the other day [at the funeral]”.

“We just clicked”, says Jesberg – and Sorbello offered to host a tasting for him. “I’ll show you some real wines”, he said, shortly thereafter treating Jesberg to an extraordinary line up of 1970 Bordeaux reds – all the first growths plus Chateau Cheval Blanc. Jesberg joined Sorbello’s tasting group, based initially on the Rothbury Estate ribbon tastings.

This dragged the two into the orbit of Murray Tyrrell, owner of Tyrrell’s Wines, and the legendary Len Evans, driving force behind Rothbury. Over many trips to the Hunter and endless tastings, Sorbello and Jesberg earned their prestigious purple ribbons – Rothbury’s highest accolade.

I met Len Sorbello during this period in the late seventies, for me a period of intense wine exploration with David Farmer of Farmer Brothers. We tasted largely separately from the Sorbello-Jesberg group, but knew them well, tasted together on occasion and sold them heaps of wine.

I recall early on Farmer saying, “Len’s got a great white palate”, something I came to appreciate over the next thirty years as we ate, drank and, eventually, judged together.

What I also saw in Len a great joy in drinking wine. He’d analyse, dissect, and discuss it endlessly, but finally it was a drink to be savoured to the hilt, with food. And that’s what he did.

Bruce Tyrrell, son of the late Murray Tyrrell, met Sorbello and Jesberg in the late seventies. He said, “We’d get on the drink in the Hunter and have a lot of fun”. He recalls the pair impressing Murray with their palates.

The Sorbello-Jesberg group maintained the passion and in 1985 founded “Winewise” magazine. Jesberg became the editor largely, he says, because Sorbello by now was married, had two sons and wanted to give them plenty of time.

Bruce Tyrrell believed that Winewise could become “Australia’s answer to Robert M. Parker [all-powerful American wine critic] if the industry would get behind it”.

Tyrrell said, “These guys were not full-time industry pros, but they had tremendous knowledge, they were completely independent and there was no bullshit in any of them”.

In 1990, the Winewise team, established the Small Vignerons Award, designed especially for boutique wineries unable or unwilling to enter larger shows. It’s now one of Australia’s most prestigious events, attracting our bests show judges and a broad representation from small makers.

Sorbello judged at the awards from the outset, building on an already formidable palate and winning tremendous respect among judges. He held strong views, argued his point but always listened and finally accepted any outcome with good humour.

Sorbello’s wine passion spilled into a successful public service legal career, culminating as head of legal services at Comcare. A colleague, Ken Whitcombe, said Len brought his enthusiasm for wine and food to work – a gusto that meant large wine bills whenever Len organised a staff lunch. This caused some nervousness among less well-paid staff.

“Len was constitutionally incapable of ordering a bottle of wine that cost less than the rest of the meal put together”, says Whitcombe. But Whitcombe also observed in Len a similar gusto for family, friends and career. And he recalls Len hosting a dinner for work colleagues at his own home, cooking “one of the most delightful meals they’d ever had” and digging into his private cellar.

The ever-ebullient Len put wine at the centre of a generous life, sharing his knowledge, enthusiasm and precious bottles with work colleagues, family, friends and many contacts in the wine industry. He put wine and food where it belonged – on a shared table with family and friends.

Len Sorbello’s life ended in a tragic irony – he died suddenly while travelling to visit his terminally ill mother in Townsville. The day before he’d held court at Adrienne Jesberg’s 60^th birthday celebrations in Sydney with 40 or so old wine friends. “Len loved an audience”, says Lester Jesberg. We’ll all miss you Len.

Exciting wines from Canberra’s Long Rail Gully

25 January 2012People, Vineyard, WineChris Shanahan

At a regional shiraz dinner a few years back, Garry Parker told me he approached wine marketing as he did building a career as a barrister from 1963 – on the belief that good performance would attract a following.

And that’s exactly what he’s achieved at Long Rail Gully Wines – a deep respect among his winemaking peers and well-informed consumers, if not yet with the wider acclaim his wines deserve.

With wife Barbara and son Richard, Parker established Long Rail Gully at Murrumbateman in 1998 as a serious business investment, capable of standing in its own right.

Richard Parker managed the venture from the outset. As a science graduate from Sydney University, he’d helped manage the family’s wheat, sheep and canola interest out west. But he recalls resisting a move into vines – concerned about the instability of the market.

However, Hardy’s move into Canberra, with the promise of a fixed-term grape contract, settled the argument and underpinned the family’s new venture in the short term. At the time Richard was half way through an agricultural science degree at Charles Sturt University.

“I was able to flip this into wine science”, he says, recalling how his mates said he’d not have to worry about viticulture as he’d know more about vines than the lecturers by the time he’d finished planting.

The family established the bulk of the 22-hectare vineyard, one of Canberra’s largest, in 1998 and in recent years replaced some of the cabernet sauvignon with pinot gris.

The vineyard now has seven hectares of shiraz, four of riesling, about three hectares each of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and pinot gris and one of pinot noir. These are rounded figures

While the grape contract with Hardy’s underpinned the early years, Long Rail Gully planned its own brand from the outset, making its first wine in 2001, just three years after establishing vines.

The business now has several strands – grape sales to other makers (including Clonakilla, Capital Wines, Eden Road and a couple of Hunter producers), contract winemaking for other grape growers and making the Long Rail Gully Range (current releases reviewed below).

Wine making demands considerable capital investment, so the Parkers now have on site a very large, insulated winery, all the right winemaking gear and even a bottling line (most Canberra producers use a mobile bottling contractor).

The Parkers are about to export to China. Exports will include purpose-made wines, now in barrel, as well as the Long Rail Gully range. Richard says the standard wines are to be cork sealed to meet market demands. But the premium wines will be screw-cap sealed – emphasising the quality benefits of the seal.

Long Rail Gully wines are available at selected outlets and cellar door. See www.longrailgully.com.au for details.

Long Rail Gully Riesling 2011 6-pack $17 ($92 for 6)
Pale straw to lemon colour; lime-like varietal aroma with a floral lift; intense lemon and lime varietal flavours on the palate, carried by the delicate, tart acidity of the cool vintage, with a touch of musk in the dry aftertaste. The wine continued to drink well for days after opening, suggesting a long cellaring life. It’s blended from the two clones in the vineyard: Geisenheim, contributing leaner lime and spicy notes; and McWilliams Eden Valley clone, lending lime and musk.

Long Rail Gully Pinot Gris 2011 $ 20 ($110 for 6)
Winemaker Richard Parker sees this as his stand-out white of the vintage – not surprising for a variety that thrives in cool ripening conditions. Although it’s only slightly more alcoholic than the riesling (12.1 versus 11.5 per cent) it’s considerably fuller bodied, with a rich, silky texture. This reflects the making technique: a component tank fermented to capture fruit flavour and aromatic high notes; another portion fermented and matured on yeast lees in old oak barrels, to build body and texture. The result is a vibrant, fresh wine, leading with a pear-like varietal aroma and flavour, with layers of succulent stone-fruit flavours adding further interest – all of this embedded in the rich, silky texture.

Long Rail Gully Pinot Noir 2010 $30 ($162 for 6)
A cellar door favourite and the priciest wine in the range, Long Rail Gully pinot noir challenges the notion that the variety doesn’t suit Canberra. This is a class act, certainly not reaching the heights of our best shirazes, but delivering the real pinot experience. The initial impacts are of fragrant, vibrant, varietal red berries with a stalky note – probably derived from whole bunches included in the ferment – and a smooth, velvety texture. With aeration, more savoury “umami” flavours arrive – layering the fruit with an earthy, beef-stock note. There’s drinking pleasure galore in this wine. A tasting of the 2005 vintage confirms its keeping ability.

Long Rail Gully Merlot 2005 and 2006 $22 ($119 for 6)
Is bottle age part of the marketing plan, we ask Garry and Richard Parker? Alas, no, they say. Merlot doesn’t sell; it seems to be giving way to pinot. But the almost-sold-out 2005, and 2006 that follows, offer delicious drinking – and a great opportunity to experience the extra flavour dimension that comes with bottle age. These are highly aromatic, plummy wines with the deep, sweet, earthy, chocolaty notes of age, a pleasant leafy edge and plush, juicy tannins.

Long Rail Gully Shiraz 2008 and 2009 $24 ($129 for 6)
These beautiful wines reveal the great strength of Canberra shiraz, albeit in contrasting styles. The almost-sold-out 2008 reveals a peppery side of shiraz not often seen in Canberra. In this instance we see both white and black pepper, the former normally associated with very cool conditions and sometimes with unripeness.

In Long Rail Gully it’s as if the grapes accumulated sugar (sugar ripeness), while flavour ripeness lagged behind – a common situation in warm Australia. However, ripeness, tinged with white pepper, seems to have just staggered over the line, giving a wine of 14.5 per cent alcohol and distinct, just-ripe white pepper flavour. This is a very pleasing flavour in one of our district’s better shirazes.

The 2009, however, moves another step up the quality ladder. Here, aromatic, floral red-berry varietal flavours stand at the centre – reminiscent of shiraz from France’s tiny Cote-Rotie region. The supple, sweet palate and savoury, spicy background flavours add to this impression. The wine’s delicious to drink now but should cellar well for many years. It’s phenomenally good – and undervalued. But don’t count on that lasting as it’s like to attract attention.

Argentina vignerons target the world

18 January 2012WineChris Shanahan

Argentina’s wine export graphs sweep ever upwards, like the slopes of the Andes that bound the country’s vineyards. In recent years this once domestic-focused industry set about exporting in earnest and now competes with Australia in the world’s major markets.

Figures provided by the Argentina embassy show exports of malbec, the country’s leading red variety, grew about tenfold between 2002 and 2010 – from 850 thousand nine-litre cases to 8.6 million cases. Exports of the signature white, torrentes, grew from 140 thousand cases to 664 thousand cases in the same period.

While the on-ship price of malbec peaked at $US35.52 a case in 2008 (after rising from $US27.28 in 2002), volumes barrelled on during the GFC mark 1 – rising from 4.2 million cases in 2007 to 8.6 million in 2010. The price fell back to $US34.80 a case in 2009, then recovered most of its lost ground to $US35.44 in 2010.

The price of torrentes, however, remained on its Andes-foothills-like trajectory without interruption, rising from $US16.86 a case in 2002 to $US27.86 in 2010.

There’s an upward trend, too, if we track Argentina’s vineyards a couple of thousand kilometres northwards – from Patagonia, at about 41 degrees south, to Salta, around 24 degrees south of the equator. As we move north, the temperature warms up. Wine grapes don’t like this, as they give their best flavours when ripening in mild to cool conditions. So, to compensate, vignerons plant their vineyards at ever-higher altitudes.

Argentina’s lowest vineyards, in the upper Rio Negro Valley, Patagonia, sit at around 200 metres above sea level. But at Molinos, Salta, not far short of the Bolivian border, vineyards can be found at up to 3,000 metres. The average altitude of vineyards, claim the Argentineans, is 900 metres above seal level.

Giving that an Australian perspective, Canberra’s Lark Hill Vineyard reaches 860 metres at its highest point, and vineyards in Orange can be as high as 1,100 metres (although most are lower). According to Wine Australia website our highest vineyard, at 1,320 metres, is at Guyra, New South Wales (latitude 30 degrees south).

Mendoza, Argentina’s largest wine-producing area – just below the mid-point of the north-south vineyard spread – produces 80 per cent of the country’s wine. Its 160 thousand hectares of vines, planted between 457 and 1,780 metres, are about the same as Australia’s total plantings.

With an annual rainfall of a desert-like 200mm a year, Mendoza relies on rivers flowing out of the Andes for irrigation. And because the dry climate all but rules out fungal disease, the area’s vignerons enjoy a significant competitive advantage over producers from other countries.

This is because vineyard-management costs can blow out during extended periods of mild, wet weather. Just ask any Canberra vigneron about the endless hours spent spraying against mildew and botrytis (and the additional vineyard labour costs) in the lead up to last vintage.

But Mendoza’s 200mm rainfall seems generous compared to La Rioja’s 130mm. Indeed, of Argentina’s major winemaking regions, Catamarca (to the north) alone receives significantly more rainfall – and then a mere 432mm, well below Adelaide’s 549mm, Canberra’s 629mm or the lower Hunter Valley’s 900mm.

Because of the arid climate, the Argentineans refer to the wine regions as oases, and list five for the Mendoza region – Northern Mendoza, Eastern Mendoza, Mendoza River, Uco Valley and Southern Mendoza.

Abundant water, cheap land and low disease pressures have been key factors attracting foreign investors into Argentina, and especially Mendoza, over the last 20 years.

In a piece published on www.glug.com.au, geologist-turned-wine merchant, David Farmer, notes a report in Britain’s Daily Mail, 17 July 2011, on the sale of Estancia Punta del Agua – a 405-thousand-hectare estate in San Juan province, 165 kilometres north of Mendoza. Farmer reports that much of well-watered land appears suited to grape growing. And it’s selling for less than $25 a hectare.

On a visit to Mendoza in 2004, Farmer had noted, “The great bulk of wines are made from grapes off flat lying vineyards. And the soils are very fertile being the product of glaciation, which grinds rock to a flour-like texture. Mendoza is like an elevated version of our wine region, Griffith. The potential viticultural land stretches hundreds of kilometres north and south. Provided there is enough water, you could grow the world’s entire wine supply right here.” (The full report provides unique insights into Argentina’s wine landscape).

Big, juicy, silky malbec remains Argentina’s number one export variety at 8.6 million cases in 2010. Behind malbec comes cabernet at 2.3 million cases, then generic red (probably bonarda) at 1.9 million case, chardonnay at 1.5million case and the local white, torrentes, on 664 thousand cases.

As we saw in a recent tasting, Australian importers are focusing on malbec, bonarda and torrentes. We’ll review some these in coming months.

Whoosh! There goes 2011

21 December 2011WineChris Shanahan

Whoosh! There goes 2011. What a year. Foster’s decided grape and grain didn’t mix; Constellation Brands USA sold the historic Leasingham winery to Clare winemaker, Tim Adams; Woolworths and Coles share of domestic wine sales hit 79 per cent; and winemakers across eastern Australia endured the coldest, wettest vintage in over a decade.

Under these conditions mildew and late-season botrytis flourished, destroying some crops. But the total volumes were higher than anticipated. Many in the industry believe opportunistic buying of rotten grapes below production costs resulted in much poor quality wine being produced and likely to be exported. This is a concern for our reputation, say the critics.

Despite the conditions, many outstanding whites have been produced, including botrytis-infected stickies – and even some dry rieslings showing botrytis aromas and flavours. The best riesling, pinot gris and sauvignon blanc seem outstanding. The top chardonnays won’t appear until next year, but might also be excellent. We’ll have to wait before delivering a verdict on the reds, too.

As a consequence of the cool conditions, makers across eastern Australia reported high than normal acidity and lower sugar levels in grapes. Where grapes achieved full flavour ripeness, the higher acidity and lower alcohol (a consequence of reduced sugar levels) could be beneficial. However, there will almost certainly be wines out there with the telltale green flavours of under-ripeness. And we’ve heard of some instances of winemakers having to reduce acid levels – rare indeed in Australia.

Canberra and surrounding districts felt the pinch of the cool wet season as much as any region. While we won’t know until next year how good the reds are, some of the whites look brilliant, if a little restrained and austere when first released.

Riesling, for example, always shy and unrevealing at first, seemed this year even more closed than usual – a phenomenon explained in this email from Brindabella Hills proprietor, Dr Roger Harris:

“We understand your concern about the variability of show results, and we think that this is in part due to the early date of the Canberra Regional Wine Show. Current vintage whites are only just bottled (in our case 25 July) and are still in cold storage conditions (<10degreesC) and have had no time to recover from bottle shock. Dissolved gases (CO2, SO2) have yet to equilibrate, and release of important aroma producing terpenes has yet to happen. The rieslings in particular appear dumb and neutral. The filling out of flavours as temperatures warm in spring is quite amazing. For the record, the 2010 riesling missed a medal in the 2010 CRWS but was rated five stars by James Halliday (December tasting)”.

The district wine show, held in September, once again poured praise liberally over shiraz from Canberra and surrounding districts, while remaining somewhat more subdued about our other established specialty, riesling – perhaps for the reasons explained above by Roger Harris.

However, riesling and other varieties – notably Clonakilla viognier, Lark Hill gruner veltliner and Mount Majura tempranillo, shiraz graciano – received their share of praise from numerous critics around Australia. James Halliday, for example, rated Canberra the leading riesling district in New South Wales, and its best on a par with those from Clare Valley, Eden Valley, Great Southern and Tasmania.

And if our regional show might better display our new-vintage whites if moved back a few months, Canberra’s National Wine Show of Australia finally achieved one if its key objectives – attracting entries from high-quality small producers. The show’s credibility soared in November when small-maker wines of the calibre of PHI Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2010 and Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2010 cracked the big trophies.

The year also saw changes in vineyard ownership around the district. In November 2010, Peter Wiggs, of Archer Capital, and Peter Howland, winemaker, acquired the Lake George vineyard, established by Dr Edgar Riek in 1971, from Theo and Sam Karelas. Unfortunately, the vineyard suffered badly from disease in 2011, so we’ll have to wait and see how they fare in 2012.

In May, Chris Coffman’s Eden Road Wines took over Doonkuna Estate, one of Canberra’s oldest vineyards. The purchase lands Eden Road plum in Murrumbateman’s reputation-making shiraz and riesling belt – giving the vineyard perhaps its best hope in nearly forty years.

And in August, the Carpenter family’s Lark Hill Winery bought an established 3.6-hectare vineyard at Murrumbateman, securing long-term supplies of shiraz and viognier.

On the retail front, Coles and Woolworths increased their grip on the national wine trade, seizing around 80 per cent of domestic sales, according to Nielsen figures. Sadly, one of Canberra’s strong independent retailers, Jim Murphy, died in May, but his family continues to run Airport and Market cellars. Long may they prosper.

Two months after Murphy’s death, US-based Costco opened in Canberra, injecting stiff competition to the majors, at the top end of the wine market, with its eclectic, well-chosen and low-price wine offerings.

Argentina comes to Canberra

7 December 2011Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Imports of wine from Argentina barely register in Australia. But they’re growing rapidly from a small base says President of Sommeliers Australia, Ben Edwards.

Argentina’s Second Secretary Trade, Juan Ignacio Roccatagliata, confirms a doubling of exports to Australia to $1.4 million in the period January to September 2011 versus the same period last year.

It’s not a big figure. But the sudden growth reveals a concerted export push from Argentina’s once domestically focused producers. And for Australian drinkers it expands the choice from Argentina’s signature red, malbec, to include the country’s number two red variety, bonarda, and its distinctive white, torrontes.

The latter two give Argentina a unique wine offering – something to grab our attention. And they did at a Canberra trade tasting last week, hosted by Argentina ambassador Pedro Villagra Delgado.

Edwards, recently returned from Argentina and aided by a panel of importers, moderated the event, attended mainly by local restaurateurs.

We started the tasting with six torrontes whites, one from Mendoza, Argentina’s largest growing region, the others from Cafayate, Salta, in the north.

Few of us in the room, apart from the panellists, had tasted the variety before, so we held few preconceptions.

While the wines varied considerably in style, several common threads connected them – strong aromatics, characterised by the musk-like and lychee-like flavours we associate with gewürztraminer and other muscat-influenced varieties; fresh but very soft acidity; and a textural richness we also associate with the muscat varieties.

Generally the wines appeared bright and fresh, separated stylistically, broadly speaking, by the extent of muscat influence in the flavour and texture. Different tasters preferred different styles – some of us favoured the lighter, delicate, less muscaty wines; others preferred the more rounded flavours and textures.

My top wine, by a fair margin, was Trumpeter Reserva Torrontes 2009, a Mendoza wine imported by Wines of Chile and Argentina (www.winesofchile.com.au). I detected a bit of apple-like freshness in the otherwise muscat-driven aroma and flavour, with a delicate, fresh and soft finish – a wine of some finesse in this line up. It’s a unique style and very enjoyable.

Torrentes is generally regarded as an Argentinean variety. After prolonged debate about its origins, DNA profiling eventually identified the three dominant torrontes strains as distinct but closely related varieties, all derived from separate crossings of mission with muscat of Alexandria.

Ben Edwards says he’s observed a finessing of the style in recent years as producers seek greater brightness and freshness while preserving the unique varietal characteristics.

We moved from torrentes to a bracket of six reds, including five made from bonarda, Argentina’s second most important red variety (after malbec), and thought to be either bonarda piemontese or bonarda novarese, originally from Italy.

Retail prices of the wines varied from around $15 to $135 and once again preferences among tasters varied widely. We didn’t know the prices as we tasted. My top two wines were the second most expensive and the cheapest – the latter attracting wide support among tasters.

They appealed for different reasons. Felipe Rutini Antologia XXIV 2008 (about $90), from Tupungato, Mendoza, combined plummy fruit, with a pleasant dusting of oak adding a layer of complexity, through both its savoury tannins and flavour input. While I liked the wine in the line up, I wouldn’t pay this much for it. (Imported by Wines of Chile and Argentina).

On the other hand, the $15 Mi Terruno Uvas Bonarda 2010, from Maipu, Mendoza, revealed a bright, fresh, fruity, medium-bodied, easy-drinking side of bonardo – an affordable delight. It’s imported by Untapped Fine Wines (www.untappedwines.com.au).

A run of 15 mostly delicious malbecs, the last four from individual vineyards, put us back into familiar territory.

At its best this variety delivers full, juicy, delicious flavours and really silk-smooth tannins – a winning combination.

The line up varied from the fruity, simple and inexpensive to the quite complex, featuring layers of flavour – but all within the juicy, silky malbec context.

My favourite of the juicy, inexpensive wines was Tahuan Tahuantinsuyu Malbec 2009 (about $20) – an aromatic, pretty wine, full of buoyant, lovable fruit flavours. (Imported by JED Wines – www.jedwines.com).

Of the more layered wines, I particularly liked Ernesto Catena Siesta Malbec 2008 (about $25), imported by JED Wines; Achaval Ferrer Malbec 2010 (about $45), imported by Departure Lounge Wines (www.departureloungewines.com); Felipe Rutini Malbec 2008 (about $36), imported by Wines of Chile and Argentina; O. Fournier Alfa Crux Malbec 2007 (about $64), imported by Untapped Fine Wines; and Mi Terrunao Mayacaba 2007 (about $58), imported by Untapped Fine Wines.

Over coming months I’ll write full reviews of these wines. There’ll also be a follow-up story on Argentina’s unique, high-altitude vineyards, hugging the eastern slopes of the Andes along about 17 degrees of latitude.

National wine show delivers its verdict

30 November 2011WineChris Shanahan

Australia’s capital city wine shows date from the early nineteenth century when local agricultural societies included wine among the many agricultural products judged by experts. Today these “royal” agricultural society events compete like mad to be the biggest, the best, or in some way different from each other – a healthy competitiveness that sees the quality, style and status of each slowly evolving.

Canberra’s National Wine Show of Australia bills itself as “Australia’s premier wine show” and grand final. The grand final claim rests partly on its timing (early November) and partly on entry qualifications. Wines need medals from recognised wine shows to enter the premium, premium gold and single vineyard classes.

Inconveniently for Canberra, Hobart and Sydney host their events after the so-called grand final – in mid November and early February respectively. On this basis, as the final show before the new vintage wines arrive, Sydney might rightly claim grand final status.

Royal Melbourne claims to be “the benchmark for Australian wine and at the forefront of wine style evolution and winemaking trends”.

Rather less boastfully, and with an air of commercial reality, perhaps instilled by sponsor Macquarie Group, Sydney Royal, dating from 1822, seeks for winners “recognition and a valuable opportunity to shine the spotlight on their wines”.

Royal Adelaide, representing the wine state, seems content to be “one of the pre-eminent wine shows in Australia”. Royal Queensland shares this sentiment as “one of the oldest, most prestigious shows”, while noting special status as the first major post-vintage event of the year (but, by being so close to vintage, limiting access to the new wines).

Royal Hobart, “one of the most significant events on the Australian wine industry calendar”, pulls away from its peers with a nod to its specialty red variety, pinot noir, noting “the award for pinot noir wine is the most prestigious in the show”.

Alone of the capital city shows, Perth Royal makes no claims whatever regarding its status (as far as I could find on its website) – and simply lists this year’s results.

Where shows once equated entry numbers to status (“mine’s bigger than yours”), the National (judged at EPIC in November), many years ago moved in the opposite direction, restricting entries in an attempt to raise the standard of entrants.

As a result, this year’s four judging panels enjoyed the fairly leisurely task of judging 1,444 wines over three days. A revitalised Melbourne, by comparison, attracted 3,298 entries this year. Canberra’s work rate of around 120 wines a day per panel, sits well inside the industry’s recommended maximum of 150. This is good, of course, because it minimises palate fatigue and allows time for judges to evaluate wines properly.

And what did the judges find among the entries that organisers claim, “include only the best of the best Australian wines”?

Among the trophy winners we find several wines that, based on long-term observation, clearly rank among the best of their styles in Australia: House of Arras 2004 Brut Elite, made by sparkling master Ed Carr; Coldstream Hills Yarra Valley Reserve Pinot Noir 201; Tyrrell’s HVD Semillon 2005; Leasingham Classic Clare Sparkling Shiraz 2005; and Morris Old Premium Rare Liqueur Muscat.

Then we have a layer of outstanding trophy winners that’ve been in the spotlight before and are now pushing assertively into the elite ranks: Audrey Wilkinson Winemakers Selection Hunter Semillon 2011, Vasse Felix Margaret River Heytesbury Chardonnay 2010, Brown Brothers Milawa Patricia Noble Riesling 2009, Xanadu Wine Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 and De Bortoli PHI Pinot Noir 2010.

After that we see the democracy of a wine show at work, rewarding wines that may be little known to many drinkers (or not perceived to be in the top ranks), but in a masked tasting trump other better known labels: Domaine Chandon Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2010, McWilliams Wines Eden Valley Riesling 2009, Xanadu Wines Next of Kin Shiraz 2010, Amelia Park Cabernet Merlot 2010, Juniper Estate Tempranillo 2010, Coolangatta Estate Semillon 2006, Clairault Margaret River Estate Chardonnay 2010, Houghtons Wisdom Chardonnay 2009 and Madeleines Wines Nangkita Shiraz 2009.

The show organisers must be pleased with the solid representation of small makers in this line up.

Trophy lists often throw up anomalies, too. This year, for example, I can’t help wondering how Rosemount Estate District Shiraz 2010 topped the premium shiraz classes. It’s a delightful, juicy style to enjoy now, certainly deserving its gold medal. But, to me, it lacks the deep, savoury vein of a really top-notch shiraz.

But controversy and differences of opinion always have been and always will be part wine judging. What we can say for sure, though, is that the medal winners from the show are above average wines. Whether or not you and I will like some of the award winners, though, remains a matter of personal taste. It’s worth downloading the catalogue of results from www.rncas.org.au as lists all of the wines and their scores.

Pinot takes off

16 November 2011WineChris Shanahan

Australian wine drinkers are taking to pinot noir in ever-greater numbers. And they’re prepared to pay far more for it then they do for other varieties.

Pinot noir, once a footnote in Australian red-wine sales figures, accounted for six per cent by value of retail red wine sales in the year to September 2011, according to Nielsen data.

Vintage Cellars liquor executive, Grant Ramage, says the same Nielsen data reveals pinot as “the fastest growing of the major varieties” at 21 per cent for the year, compared to nine per cent for shiraz (which accounts for 26 per cent of red wine sales) and five per cent for cabernet sauvignon.

The figures also reveal that we pay more, on average, for pinot than for shiraz or red in general – $17.50 retail a bottle for pinot, $12.50 for shiraz and $8.49 for red wine overall. (Not directly related, but of interest, is the premium we paid for sauvignon blanc ($11.60) compared to chardonnay ($8.34) – indicating Marlborough’s huge dominance of the sauvignon blanc market).

Ramage believes “a lot of New Zealand’s success with pinot noir was built on sauvignon blanc”. He says difficulties encountered by New Zealand pinot producers in some export markets forced prices down. Combined with the strong Australian dollar, this led to greater numbers of good, under-$20 pinots arriving in Australia.

Encouraged by the popularity of sauvignon blanc from the same producers, Australian retailers frequently promoted their pinot noirs. “This unlocked volume and interest”, says Ramage, probably converting many drinkers to a red style they’d not enjoyed before.

At the same time, Australian producers (they still account for the majority of pinot sales) had also got their act together. Several decades of growing pinot in suitably cool climates, and a huge amount of viticultural and winemaking effort, had lifted the quality of our best wines to a very high level (and priced accordingly).

A spinoff was the development of increasing numbers of convincing pinots at under or around $20 a bottle. This, along with New Zealand developments, set the scene for pinot’s, growth based on a unique “pop” market.

While several rungs down the quality ladder from pinot elites – like Mornington’s Main Ridge Estate, Gippsland’s Bass Phillip Estate or Central Otago’s Felton Road – these new, cheaper wines look, smell and taste like pinot noir. They’re recruiting new drinkers.

However, because good pinot’s more expensive to produce than good shiraz, the starting price is higher – around $20 a bottle versus around $10. But, as the Nielsen figures confirm, growing numbers of people seem happy to pay the premium.

In Australia, pinot noir remains a niche variety, accounting for a little under five per cent of our red grape harvest at 36 thousand tonnes in 2011. Take out the portion that goes to sparkling wine and pinot for red-wine production makes up perhaps four cent of our red output.

As a cool-climate variety, planting is concentrated in the far south and at high altitudes, notably in the Yarra Valley, Gippsland, Mornington and Bellarine Peninsulas, the Adelaide Hills and Tasmania – the latter with huge potential.

In New Zealand, it’s the dominant red-wine variety at around 30 thousand tonnes annual production, and third in volume – a nose behind chardonnay and a couple of laps behind sauvignon blanc (177 thousand tonnes in 2009). About one quarter of New Zealand’s pinot noir goes to sparkling wine production.

A portion of people converted by the lovely new, inexpensive pinots seem certain to move up the chain, tempted by the great diversity of styles now on offer. Anecdotal evidence says drinkers seem fascinated by the variety’s variability. They share the passion of producers for the many regional, sub-regional and individual vineyard wines now emerging.

While sales of the great wines of Burgundy are insignificant in volume and value in relation to the total market, they remain still the gold standard for Australian producers – in style, winemaking technique and the belief that individual sites should be allowed expression.

I’ve reviewed a couple of current-release examples below from one of Mornington Peninsula’s exciting producers.

Ten Minutes by Tractor Mornington Peninsula
10X Pinot Noir 2010 $32
A general Mornington Peninsula blend, largely from earlier ripening sites downhill from the company’s sites on Main Ridge. Features bright, red fruit character, medium body and fine tannins.

Ten minutes by Tractor Mornington Peninsula
Estate Pinot Noir 2009 $46
A blend from the later ripening Judd, McCutcheon and Wallis vineyards on Main Ridge – darker fruit characters, fuller body, rich texture and tighter more assertive tannins.

Ten Minutes by Tractor Mornington Peninsula
McCutcheon Pinot Noir 2009 $75
From the late ripening McCutcheon vineyard on Main Ridge – reveals a broad spectrum of pinot character: dark fruits, savoury and gamey notes, a touch of stalkiness and a particularly rich, velvety texture.

Jimmy Watson trophy finally on track

9 November 2011People, WineChris Shanahan

The Jimmy Watson trophy is to wine drinkers what the Melbourne Cup is to once a year punters. We’ve all heard of it. There’s a buzz each year as the Melbourne show unveils the latest winner. And for the winner, especially if it’s a little known winery, victory can be a fast track to glory.

This year the coveted crystal and silver jug travelled to Tasmania for the first time, won by Nick Glaetzer for his Mon Pere Shiraz 2010, a blend from the Tamar and Coal River Valleys.

By my reckoning, it’s only the fourth wine in the trophy’s 50-year history to have been the final, bottled product at the time of judging. Until recently the line up was the domain of raw young reds not due for blending, let alone bottling, for many months. I detail below why this was so – and why it made the Jimmy Watson not only Australia’s best-known wine award but also its most reviled by critics, including me.

Even before recent changes to the class rules by the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria, and to the trust deed by the Watson family, bottled exhibits had represented an ever-greater proportion of entries. These had risen to 75–80 per cent of the total by 2009. The shift resulted from a run of earlier vintages, wines spending less time in oak, shifting the judging from July to October, and the show’s decision to admin two-year olds into the ranks.

This year, however, following sustained lobbying from within the industry and columns like this, the rules changed for the better. An RASV press release from June 2011 states, “New in 2011, the Jimmy Watson classes will accept bottled wines only and will continue to include one and two-year-old red wines. Wines entered into the Watson classes this year are eligible to be put forward by judges into other red classes, providing the wines with further opportunities to win varietal trophies”.

The latter change benefited Nick Glaetzer’s Mon Pere Shiraz, which went on to win a second trophy as best “Rhone style or shiraz”.

The trophy now rewards wines fundamentally different from those that triumphed in the early years – a shift from rewarding the big, bold and immature to the bright, fruity and approachable. It’s a natural progression. But it’s worth reflecting, too, on the trophy’s origins.

In 1962 Jimmy Watson, wine merchant, died. At his funeral, a hat passed amongst Watson’s loyal followers, raising funds to sponsor an annual “Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy” for the best one-year-old red wine at the Melbourne Wine Show.

There are those who still remember Jimmy with fondness – none more so than his son Alan as he presides, with his son, over the Jimmy Watson Wine Bar founded by his father all those years ago.

But somewhere along the way, the trophy took on a life of its own – a farcical, commercial life far removed from the world Jimmy Watson inhabited during his lifetime.

Alan Watson remembers his father as a wine pioneer – a man who cheerfully weathered the sneers of some fellow Australians for nothing more than encouraging the consumption of table wine with food. In those days wine was just plonk.

Bill Chambers, maker of superb Rutherglen fortifieds and long-term chair of judges at the Melbourne wine show, once told me that he recalled Watson’s Wine bar in the late 1950s. There were bottles everywhere as a leather-apronned Jimmy, a great showman, worked with two rubber tubes to bottle a hogshead of red before lunch – an enviable feat in Chamber’s view, and one Jimmy Watson was proud of.

In those days Bill Chambers worked up in the Clare Valley with the Stanley Wine Company. He remembers Melbourne Wine Merchant, Doug Seabrook, buying hogsheads of raw young Clare Valley reds, many of which he sold to Watson. By all accounts it was these vigorous young reds, and not only those from Clare, that interested him most of all.

In an interview some years back, Alan Watson told me that his father’s business was not originally a watering hole as it is today, but a bottle shop where the owner selected and bottled everything himself. But Watson’s great enthusiasm attracted a ring of disciples. They soon began bringing food to the shop and adopting a liberal interpretation of licensing laws that permitted patrons to taste wine before purchasing.

The clientele, enthralled by Watson, showman and extrovert, came from all walks of life. But with Melbourne University just up the road from Watson’s Lygon Street premises, academics and students swelled his ranks of followers. Eagerly they swallowed his message.

“Dad tried to move the trade into another era”, reminisced Alan Watson. “He wanted wine to be seen as an everyday occurrence, something to be consumed with meals”. He also urged patience, encouraging customers to cellar the immature, purple, one-year-old reds that were the bulk of his trade.

Jimmy Watson was an educator of old and young alike according to Bill Chambers, long-time chair of the Melbourne show. “Students, professors, everyone brought their tucker down the road before heading up to Watson’s to drink wine. But he was a showman and I can’t remember him drinking much himself”.

Watson’s senior disciples, mostly academics and businessmen, gravitated to an upstairs room, eventually dubbed by Watson as “The House of Lords”. It was these most ardent and articulate followers who passed the hat at Jimmy Watson’s funeral, thus perpetuating his name in the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy to be awarded to the robust, year-old reds he so loved.

For the next ten years the Jimmy Watson Trophy – now a household word amongst wine drinkers – remained unknown to wine consumers and of only minor interest to wine companies.

Bill Chambers judged in Melbourne from the early 1960’s. He recalls little fuss over the Watson Trophy until the Berri Co-operative’s success in 1973. Then, recalls Chambers, after an heroic celebration, winemaker Brian Barry boarded the plane carrying the Murray River’s first major trophy.

Perhaps we can link the trophy’s rise to fame more with Wolf Blass’s hat trick. He won it in 1974, 1975 and 1976 for his 1973, 1974 and 1975 vintages of ‘Dry Red Claret’. He renamed the wine Wolf Blass Black Label and used the Jimmy as its launching pad. He even proclaimed the triple victory on the neck label of his sparkling wine at the time.

Increasingly since then, to win the trophy was to harvest a windfall. For the hype surrounding each year’s winner virtually guaranteed a wine’s commercial success.

While no amount of hosing down seemed to quell trade or public clamouring for the winner, the fact remained that for most of the trophy’s history, the winning wine had not been the finished product.

This became the source of sustained and intense criticism, principally from those concerned with the integrity of show results. Awarding medals and trophies to unfinished wine simply magnified the chance of fraud, critics claimed.

Even the most meticulously honest winery blending a “representative” show sample across a range of barrels couldn’t say with certainty that what the judges tasted and what went into bottle were exactly the same.

The recent, welcome changes make this history and favour the continuing success of the fruity, easy drinking styles that’ve won in recent years. These are a long way from the wines that Jimmy Watson hand bottled in Carlton half a century ago.

While we won’t see inky, deep, raw wines like a one-year-old Penfolds Grange or Wolf Blass Black Label win the trophy again (as they have in the past), we can at last be assured that the Jimmy Watson winner we buy is the same wine the wine judges liked.

Terroir — getting down to earth

2 November 2011WineChris Shanahan

The French term terroir, having no equivalent in English, now pops with increasing frequency in Australian wine literature. The word, encapsulating all the factors giving wine a sense of place, pops up in a spectrum of contexts. These range from matter-of-fact observations of flavour differences between neighbouring vineyards to highly romanticised notions that we can actually taste a vineyard’s soil and underlying bedrock in the wines it produces.

This wonderful quote, from Herman Hesse’s Steppenwolf, captures some of the emotion evoked by terroir:

“I am not fond, for everyday at least, of racy, heady wines that diffuse a potent charm and have their own particular flavour. What I like the best is a clean, light, modest country vintage of no special name. One can carry plenty of it and it has the good and homely flavour of the land, and of earth and sky and woods. A pint of Elsasser and a piece of good bread is the best of all meals.

“And this too was odd: that somewhere in a green valley vines were tended by good, strong fellows and the wine pressed so that here and there in the world, far away, a few disappointed, quietly drinking townsfolk and dispirited Steppenwolves could sip a little heart and courage from their glasses.”

Hesse’s comforting pint of Elsasser occupies a special place among the world’s wine terroirs. For Alsacian (Elsasser) wines bear a strong regional thumbprint, distinctly, recognisably different from the same varieties grown in Germany, Australia or elsewhere. They therefore evoke a sense of place in a sensory dimension as well as the emotional one Hesse describes. The two, of course, can be linked.

Once the domain of the French and their wine naming system, based on regional and vineyard names, the concept of terroir now permeates the vocabulary and marketing of fine wine around the world.

France’s Burgundy region provides perhaps the greatest historical example of marketing on the basis of terroir – defining vineyards by the quality of wines they’ve produced over hundreds of years.

So deeply entrenched are the prestige and attributes of wines from Burgundy’s many communes and individual vineyards that their names convey real meaning about style and quality to wine lovers around the world.

It’s an example of terroir succeeding as a marketing tool on a regional, sub-regional and individual basis. Importantly, the style and quality of wine produced over great periods of time defined the vineyards.

In Australia we talk of terroir on scales large and small. The larger picture includes regional specialties like Barossa shiraz, Canberra shiraz, Tasmanian pinot noir, Hunter semillon and Margaret River cabernet. Driven largely by climate, these marked style differences form the basis for regional, varietal marketing – terroir on a larger scale.

At the micro levels, wine style variation from vineyard to vineyard, or even within rows of a single vineyard, remain sources of wonder and puzzlement to winemakers. How can similar vines in such close proximity produce such different wines?

More often than not, these varied components end up in the blending vat. But increasingly our winemakers, driven by fascination with subtle style variations, offer separate bottlings from individual vineyards, plots within vineyards or, in one lovely Barossa example (Eperosa LRC Shiraz), from a single row of vines.

This is terroir-based marketing at the micro level, driven by winemaker judgment and enthusiasm, not market research or focus groups. Where wine drinkers share the enthusiasm and buy the wines, then we can say that defining a wine by its origin coveys real meaning.

These minute subdivisions now come from many directions. In the Barossa, for example, a growing number of independent winemakers source fruit from special little plots. Dean Hewitson’s Old Garden Mourvedre, from a few rows of vines planted in 1853, is a fine example.

And on the Chateau Shanahan tasting bench we’re lining up single vineyard chardonnays and pinot noirs from Yarra Valley producer Giant Steps and Mornington Peninsula maker, Ten Minutes by Tractor. These outstanding producers, no doubt inspired by Burgundy, base their appeal to drinkers on the subtle flavour differences driven by neighbouring sites.

The factors creating the differences all roll into the word terroir, defined by Dr John Gladstones, in Wine terroir and climate change (Wakefield Press 2011), as “the vine’s whole natural environment, the combination of climate, topography, geology and soil that bears on its growth and the characteristics of its grapes and wines”.

In this brilliant book, Gladstone explores this complex topic in painstaking detail, component by component, shedding light on the main drivers of wine style. But the vital and elusive piece that escapes even Gladstones is the origin of unique flavours, thought to be terroir driven, of some wines.

But even if full understanding of terroir remains tantalisingly out of reach, we remain fascinated “that somewhere in a green valley vines were tended by good, strong fellows” just for us.

(Thanks to David Farmer’s www.glug.com.au for Herman Hesse’s lovely quote)