Category Archives: Wine

Tahbilk — retrosective tasting higlights unique wine style

28 August 2005Vineyard, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Part 1
28 August 2005

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Part 2
4 September 2005

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rosé — a bland, surplus-driven boom

3 April 2005Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Rose’s long predicted moment in the sun may, at last, have arrived – in a very small but dynamic way.

According to A.C. Nielsen, Australian retail sales of bottled rose grew 108.3 per cent by volume and 79.5 per cent by value in the year to November 2004.

By the end of December, says Orlando-Wyndham’s Paul Turale, dollar growth had accelerated to 86 per cent. And Woolworth’s John Allen reports that sales of bottled rose in its BWS outlets increased 366 per cent by value in the year to February 27, 2005.

However, for all its talking up over the last thirty years, rose still represents less than two per cent of the Australian wine market and remains a country mile behind mainstream reds and whites – or even of other niche players like riesling.

The Nielsen moving annual totals to November, 2004, put Australia’s rose sales at about one million litres – small change when compared to riesling’s 4.4 million, chardonnay’s 26 million, sauvignon blanc’s 3.6 million, shiraz/shiraz blends’ 16.8 million, cabernet/cabernet merlot’s 14.3 million or merlot’s 6.4 million litres.

But what excites winemakers is rose’s rate of growth and the fact that it can move from vineyard to consumer in a matter of weeks, providing cash flow and profitability in a glutted and difficult market.

Indeed, the glut of red varieties pouring from new vineyards is one of the driving forces behind rose’s mini boom. Just a few years back, winemakers unable to meet demand for full-bodied reds, would never have dreamed of making rose from these varieties.

Today it’s not only possible but also a profitable adjunct to red-wine making. By bleeding juice from vats of shiraz, cabernet or any other red variety, following a short period of skin contact (the colour is all in the skin), the winemaker has a lovely pink component for making rose. And what’s left in the vat enjoys a higher skin to juice ratio – meaning more colour and substance for the resulting red wine.

This bleeding process, generally known under its French name, ‘saignee’, probably lies behind most of the hundreds of bland roses now seeking our attention.

A proponent of the saignee method — one of Australia’s most successful rose producers — Geoff Merrill, made his first rose in 1976. But to Geoff, the first and most critical step towards good rose lies in the vineyard.

“You have to get the fruit right to establish varietally correct flavour”, says Geoff. For his benchmark Geoff Merrill Grenache Rose – a regular medal winner in shows — that means harvesting fruit of quite high potential alcohol from 85-year-old McLaren Vale vines.

Because Geoff seeks the same fruit flavours in his grenache-based table wine, the saignee method works well. After 24 hours soaking on skins the now pink juice – about 45 per cent of the total – heads off for cool, protective fermentation as if it were a white wine. (The portion destined for red-wine production undergoes a warmer fermentation on skins).

The rose component retains a delicious natural fruitiness and achieves a high alcohol content as it ferments to dryness – its opulence eliminating any need for the residual grape sugar that props up less fruity roses.

The result is one of the most lovely, fruity, dry roses with the distinctive musk and pepper notes of grenache.

In the Barossa Valley, Charlie Melton, too, chooses grenache as the base for the superb Rose of Virginia but seasons it with a little cabernet sauvignon and pinot meunier “to stop the confection character that grenache sometimes shows”.

Charlies sources his fruit from 15 different vineyard plots, purpose managed to produce rose. So, for Charlies, there’s no ‘saignee’. All of the juice makes rose.

The various components reach the winery over a six-week period and undergo skin contact of varying duration – from eight hours to three days, depending on the structure of the fruit and the components made to date – prior to cool, protective fermentation.

Like Merrill’s McLaren Vale wine, Rose of Virginia is a benchmark of the rose style. And Charlie tells me he doubled production in 2004 and sold all of it – but he’ll be sitting pat for a while now.

Rose’s recent explosive growth, albeit from a low base, has drawn in the big players as well as hundreds of small makers to join accomplished makers like Merrill and Melton.

While Hardy’s Banrock Station White Shiraz slugs it out with Orlando’s Jacobs Creek Shiraz Rose for number one spot, countless new labels continue to appear from all over Australia and made from every red variety.

Many are just crap. Take the sugar and alcohol out and there’s nothing left. But there are some lovely gems for those prepared to sift through the dust — or is that bulldust.

Geoff Merrill McLaren Vale Grenache Rose 2004, $13.49 to $18.99
Geoff Merrill has been making rose successfully from McLaren Vale grenache since 1976 – turning what was once an undervalued variety into delicious, fruity, crisp and slightly sweet pink wine. Over the years the style has become almost completely dry as the opulent, musky/peppery fruit quality became more pronounced and mouth filling. The latest one is simply scrumptious when you want a full-flavoured, fruity and crisp dry wine. It’s at its best served slightly chilled in warmer weather, especially outdoors where the brilliant purple-tinged pink colour often becomes the centre of attention.

Tigress Tasmania Rose 2004, $23-$25
This 100 per cent pinot noir rose provides an absolute contrast to the fleshy, fruity, opulent Geoff Merrill, warm-climate style. Winemaker Fran Austin says she draws juice from particularly ripe batches of pinot noir destined for the red wine vats. The drawn off juice, because of its brief skin contact and the inherent paleness of pinot, has just a wash of pink through it. But it offers what Fran calls an ‘essence of pinot’ character: there’s a subtle, raspberry-like fragrance and flavour on a dry and delicate palate with pleasing backbone and a racy acidity that refreshes beautifully. What the Merrill and Tigress roses share is a purity of regional and varietal expression. That, to me, is good rose.

Beware the wine scammers

13 March 2005WineChris Shanahan

The recent collapse of wine investment companies Heritage Fine Wines and Wine Orb underlines the high risk to consumers of investing in wine through a third party. And a search through the price realisations at Langton’s Auctions suggests the secondary market is a buyer’s paradise and a devilishly difficult place to make money even when you do go it alone.

On the demise of Wine Orb, investdrinks.org — a website published by freelance drinks journalist Jim Budd — comments, “The circular [to creditors from administrator Ngan & Company on January 28th, 2005] also indicates that the deficiency totals $AU956,813, of this $195,000 may be owed by client investors for wine storage and insurance. The total deficiency does not include any shortfalls in investors’ wine stocks. Wine stocks in storage ‘are on the basis that all wine stocks are stored in bulk and not under the name of individual clients or investors’. All investors’ wine stocks, especially those for superannuation purposes, should have been properly stored under the individual’s name. That Wine Orb did not bother with this elementary precaution is surely highly indicative of the type of operation this was”.

Just what the fate is of those holding wine investment stocks with Sydney-based Heritage Fine Wines is not clear at this stage. Heritage placed itself into administration with Ngan & Co on March 2nd, about a year after beginning the transition from wine investment towards database wine retailing.

According to investdrinks.org, both companies had connections with dubious characters, although last year Heritage had severed its ties with Simon Farid, “who remains on the UK Financial Services Authority’s prohibited individual list”. (For more details, see the website – investdrinks.org).

The clear conclusion from this is to avoid spruikers. Promises of big and easy profits in wine are as empty as in any other get-rich-quick scheme.

It is possible to make money from wine. But it’s difficult and requires research, acumen, timing and luck. As a collectible, the profit to be made is simply the gap between buying and selling prices less storage, transport and transaction costs.

To give a guide of wine-price movements over time, Langtons auctions publishes the Langton’s Fine Wine Index, endorsed by Access Economics. The LFWI shows price movements on a basket of 28 Australian wines from the 1986, 1990 and 1994 vintages. The wines are all established performers from Langton’s Classification of Australian Wine (see Langtons.com.au).

However, the index is fairly narrowly based and any attempt to compare it, as some do, with the all ordinaries index or ASX 200 ignores the fact that shares provide dividends as well as potential capital appreciation. Comparison with an accumulation index might give a better indication of the comparative returns on wine and shares.

And, where share transactions attract comparatively low broking commissions – a per cent or two at most — selling wine at auction attracts commissions of up to 13.75 per cent. It is possible to sell wine free of commission direct to a licensed retailer or restaurant. Most are not interested but Vintage Cellars (part of the Coles Myer Liquor Group), for example, employs a full time broker, Melbourne based John Newton, to deal in the secondary market. Where demand exists, John tends to buy close to the current auction price – an attractive proposition for sellers.

For most sellers, however, the auction house remains the only practicable route to market. And this will probably increase in importance as both major retailers now stockpile the best wines for later release and will be, presumably, less interested in buying from collectors.

This, of course, complicates matters for would-be wine investors as the big retailers only buy at wholesale prices but tend to resell even older vintages at comparatively sharp prices.

Two other potentially significant costs for wine investors are storage and insurance. Provenance is increasingly important for buyers on the secondary market. So, it’s essential to store wine in ideal cool, dark conditions. And insurance is essential now with theft of valuable wine collections increasingly common.

So much of this is the mechanics of storing and selling. What of the selection and buying, arguably the most crucial step? That is the hardest part. There’s no other way but to research, seek advice and when the decision about what to buy has been made, attempt to buy as close to wholesale price as possible.

You can always drink your mistakes of course. But if, like the Chateau Shanahan buying team, you’ve decided it’s more fun to drink wine than invest in it, you might take a look at Langton’s web site price realisations. There you’ll find the delicious, mature Penfolds Grange 1981 at $300 — $100 below the retail price of the current release 1999 – amongst many other bargains.

Aluminium giants Alcan and Alcoa join the wine-seal fray

30 January 2005WineChris Shanahan

The battle for the top of the bottle is diversifying as the pure-cork monopoly crumbles. What was once the domain of the cork came under challenge from synthetic plugs in cheaper wines in the mid nineties before being blown wide open by recent widespread acceptance of screw cap sealed premium wines.

But the synthetic plug and the screw cap are just the beginning of the story. Driven initially by winemaker dissatisfaction with cork (too many cork tainted bottles; too much oxidation), the quest for alternatives has been taken up by businesses large and small eager to grab a slice of the world’s multi-billion unit market.

The Australian wine industry alone expects to seal about one billion bottles in 2005.

According to Vinpac International – the packaging subsidiary of Beringer Blass Wine Estates (a subsidiary of the Fosters Group) – cork and synthetic plugs will seal about 850 million of those bottles and screw caps the remaining 150 million.

Of the estimated 850 million plugs to be used, 250 million will be whole natural cork; 350 million ‘technical cork’ (cork agglomerate with pure cork discs at the end); and 250 million synthetic.

The screw cap’s 15 per cent share of this market is impressive given its recent arrival, its focus on the top end of the market and the major investments made by glass manufacturers to produce thread-top bottles and by winemakers to install application equipment.

Clearly, it was an idea whose time had come and was embraced both by winemakers and consumers of high-quality wine.

However, since the screw cap went mainstream as the only viable non-plug seal in Australia and New Zealand, at least two other technologies have emerged – Zork from a small Adelaide-based operator and Vino-Lok, manufactured in Worms, Germany by the giant Alcoa.

Zork, first released last year on d’Arenberg ‘The Footbolt’ McLaren Vale Shiraz 2002, looks like Ned Kelly’s helmet. It’s a plug, but the plug doesn’t form the seal. It’s there to make a little ‘pop’ on extraction. The barrier between wine and air is a little disc inside the hood – very similar in principle to how a screw cap works: an impermeable, neutral disc squished onto the lip of the bottle.

A tamper-proof coil of plastic holds Zork in place. Tear the tamper-proof coil away and the plug slips effortlessly into and out of the bottle. Had Zork arrived on the scene a few years earlier it may have offered a serious alternative to screw caps if only because it can be used on any standard wine bottle.

But with the screw cap entrenched in the market and major capital investments already implemented by bottle manufacturers (to produce thread-top bottles) and in winery application facilities, Zork looks to be, for the time being at least, a niche player in the domestic market. Despite this, Zork’s John Brooks says support from a number of McLaren Vale wineries and De Iuliis in the Hunter Valley keeps the production line at full capacity.

However, with production capability about to increase tenfold, Zork’s hopes of becoming a mainstream cork alternative lie in the United States where vignerons show far less commitment to the screw cap and a number of major players, including Mondavi and Kendall Jackson, have commenced Zork trials.

The next mainstream plug alternative, perhaps the most elegant looking of the new seals, is Alcoa’s Vino-Lok, a glass stopper with a synthetic o-ring that forms the airtight seal. Concealed beneath an aluminium capsule, not unlike those on traditional cork sealed bottles (remember them?), the glass stopper lifts out after.

Perhaps there’s a touch of irony that Alcoa, a giant aluminium producer (turnover $US23.5 billion), should chose a glass stopper to take on the aluminium Stelvin – the world’s leading wine screw cap, manufactured by Pechiney, a subsidiary of Alcan, a similarly gigantic aluminium producer ($US25.7 billion turnover).

That companies of this scale should enter the wine-seal market tells us where they believe the future lies. For drinkers this portends a new era of easy to open bottles filled with bright, fruity, untainted wine.

The rise of Wrattonbully — unique new Aussie wine region

13 December 2004Travel, Vineyard, WineChris Shanahan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fifty years of Wynns Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon

28 November 2004People, Vineyard, WineChris Shanahan

A tasting of 50 years of Wynns Coonawarra Estate cabernet sauvignons last week highlighted what a long, twisting, sometimes profitless and often frustrating struggle lies behind the emergence of significant wines.

The ‘estate that made Coonawarra famous’ remained largely unknown, under various guises, for sixty years before the inspired marketing of the Wynn family gave an identity and, ultimately, fame, to the area’s unique, elegant table wines.

That Coonawarra could produce good wine had been glimpsed since the earliest days.

In 1899, W. Catton Grasby, editor of ‘Garden and Field’ wrote ‘As long as grapes mature properly, the more gradual the process the better, so that the conditions are as favourable, if not more so, at Coonawarra than anywhere else in Australia for making very high-class, light, dry wine. The results are bearing out the theoretical statement of what should be, and Coonawarra claret promises to have a very high and wide reputation—indeed, there is no doubt but that it will be a beautiful wine of good body, fine colour, delicate bouquet, and low alcoholic strength”.

Grasby’s words followed a visit to John Riddoch’s Coonawarra fruit colony and, presumably, a tasting of the first few vintages made in Riddoch’s imposing, triple-gabled, Coonawarra Wine Cellars.

Grasby notes the first vine plantings in 1891 and an expansion of the area under vine by 1899 to about 140 hectares — 89 owned by ‘blockers’ on the fruit colony and 51 hectares belonging to Riddoch — consisting principally of shiraz and cabernet sauvignon with smaller plantings of malbec and pinot noir, the latter not faring well.

According to James Halliday (‘Wine Compendium’ 1985), production from these vineyards exceeded 300 thousand litres per annum from 1903 until 1909 with John Riddoch actively seeking markets for the wine in Australia and in Great Britain.

However, after Riddoch’s death at about this time, Coonawarra’s famous estate turned to distilling its ever-accumulating wine stocks — a practice that continued through two changes of ownership until Woodleys purchased the triple-gabled winery and 58 hectares of vineyards in 1946.

Woodley’s owner, Tony Nelson, installed as winemakers, at what was now ‘Chateau Comaum’, Bill and Owen Redman – from whom he’d been buying Coonawarra wine for many years. Although the arrangement fell over a few years later, at least, after a break of 37 years, Coonawarra’s original winery was once again making table wine.

In 1951 Samuel Wynn and his son David bought the vineyards and Chateau Comaum, renamed it Wynns Coonawarra Estate, and installed 22-year-old Roseworthy graduate Ian Hickinbotham as manager. The Estate was set to make Coonawarra famous.

At last week’s tasting in Coonawarra, Ian recalled ‘the stink of failure’ that hung over the area’s tiny wine industry when he arrived in late 1951. And he recalled the disdain felt for it by a remote community riding the Korean war wool boom.

As the first qualified winemaker to arrive in Coonawarra since John Riddoch hired Ewen Ferguson McBain in 1898, Ian confronted the challenges of isolation, labour shortages and the most rudimentary winemaking equipment. Roads and transport were poor, there was no electricity and the winery still relied on steam power to drive its pumps.

In that first year Ian brought to Coonawarra six Roseworthy students to help with the pruning, all batching with him in a little shack near the winery.

A gifted Aussie rules player, Ian then called on 70 mates from the local footy club for the heavy work of pulling the cuttings from the vineyards.

By vintage time, David Wynn had fixed the labour problem by bringing in a group of Italian immigrants. A mixed lot – professionals, craftsmen, workers and even a chef – they proved themselves cheerful and skilled as grape pickers and cellar hands.

‘As soon as the manual press began turning, they bust into song’ Ian recalls. And that set the tone for the 1952 vintage.

Although most of the 1952 vintage was sold in bulk, it also marked the birth of the famous label depicting John Riddoch’s triple-gabled, limestone winery.

Indeed, Wynns labels were a generation ahead of their time, boldly branded, declaring region of origin, wine style and vintage on the front label, and emphasising the region with a clear map on the back label.

Samuel and David put their judgement on the line in choosing little known, isolated Coonawarra back in 1951. That they were on the money shows in the string of superb, long-lived wines created from 1952 on. It’s a fascinating story that’s still delivering benefits to drinkers today – as we’ll see next week.

Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1954 to 2004
5 December 2004

In 1951, the same year that Max Schubert created Grange, Samuel Wynn and his son David bought Chateau Comaum from Tony Nelson’s Woodleys wines. As we learned last week, this was some 60 years after John Riddoch founded the Coonawarra Fruit Colony, it was more than 50 years after the construction of the famous triple-gabled winery and followed 37 years in which the bulk of the winery’s production had been distilled.

Despite the comparatively slow evolution of the region’s winemaking and the primitive facilities available (electricity, for example, arrived in Coonawarra just a few months before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon) the Wynns made superb, age-worthy wines from the very beginning.

In tastings of Wynns Coonawarra shiraz back to the 1953 vintage in 1997 and of cabernet sauvignons back to 1954 just two weeks ago, some of the oldest wines performed best of all. And in both tastings the seventies vintages appeared weaker, in general, than the other decades – coinciding with the period when Wynns belonged to Allied Vintners.

In both tastings, too, the eighties showed a strengthening performance. The nineties exploded onto the scene with the powerful but atypical 1990, followed by the sublime 1991. The shiraz tasting stopped at the 1995 vintage. But the cabernet line up revealed the strength and elegance of the 1996 vintage, another outstanding and powerful wine in the 1998 vintage and then a return to typical Coonawarra elegance in 1999.

With the exception of the 1992, all of the nineties cabernets showed consistently ripe fruit character (unripe, green notes mar some Coonawarras) and velvety smooth tannins. The intensity of fruit and silkiness of the tannins seemed to lift towards the end of the nineties, culminating in a run of exceptional wines in the bottled 2000, 2001 and 2002 vintages and barrel samples of the still-maturing 2003 and 2004 vintages.

At the shiraz tasting we also tasted the legendary 1955 ‘Michael’ – a fabulous old red that lent its name to a new flagship shiraz created in the 1990 vintage and produced in most years since. In that 1997 tasting, the 1990 was a blockbuster, needing years more in the bottle, while the 1991 stood out for its intense, sweet fruit and elegance.

On the evening before the 50 years of cabernet tasting, we saw the all the vintages of the cabernet flagship ‘John Riddoch’. It was a bit like having the honeymoon before the wedding. From this line up, the inaugural 1982 vintage, made by John Wade, towered above the others – a very great Aussie red that’s still evolving.

Winemaker Sarah Pidgeon tells me that of the Black Label cabernet sauvignons tasted two weeks ago by our panel of 30 tasters — made up of present and past winemakers, a viticulturist, local and international writers, Bruce Redman (representing the family that kept Coonawarra winemaking alive in the first half of last century) and a few company executives – 1954, 1991 and 1996 rated as the top three wines.

That was my own rating, too. But, there were many other wonderful wines, rating bronze, silver and gold medal scores. Indeed, very few failed to make the grade.

Wynns cabernet vintages that appealed strongly to me, in chronological order were: 1954, 1955 (a cabernet shiraz blend labelled as ‘Claret’), 1959, 1962, 1965, 1966,1968, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002.

The tasting revealed the inherent worth of Coonawarra cabernet and the reliability of Wynns Black Label as a realistically priced red for the cellar. But the impressive strength of the more recent vintages showed that the average quality ought to be higher in the future and that the quality of future great vintages – successors to the 1996, 1991, 1954 and 1982 John Riddoch – may move a notch or two higher.

The quality of Wynns Black Label rests on the company’s unequalled vineyard holdings in Coonawarra — about 950 of the 5600 hectares planted in the region. Cabernet plantings alone stand at 450 hectares and the Black Label is drawn primarily from 240 hectares of vines over 30 years of age – a key quality factor.

Chief winemaker Sue Hodder attributes the more even and complete ripeness seen in recent vintages to a major vineyard rejuvenation project now well under way among those older plantings. And those lovely, velvety tannins, she says, spring from that ripe fruit in conjunction with a slightly more aerobic approach to winemaking and the use of extended skin contact.

That may seem arcane to the casual sipper. But it translates to a tasty quality boost to a wine that already had the capacity to age 50 years.

How will wine’s future be sealed — cork versus the rest in Australia for 2005

19 October 2004WineChris Shanahan

The battle for the top of the bottle seems to be diversifying as the pure-cork monopoly crumbles.

Vinpac International – the packaging subsidiary of Beringer Blass – estimates that plugs will hold 85 per cent of the wine-seal market in 2005 and screw caps 15 per cent.

Interestingly, whole corks should fill just 25 per cent of wines bottled in Australia next year – exactly the same as the projected market share for synthetic plugs.

‘Technical corks’ (those granulated plugs with whole-cork discs on the ends) are headed for a 35 per cent market share.

And watch out for ProCork – an Aussie invention that sees corks or cork agglomerates coated with a polymer membrane designed to block 2, 4, 6 TCA, the main agent responsible for cork taint. According to Vinpac, “ProCork is being taken up at a rapid rate”.

Screw caps are poised to capture 15 per cent of the market.

These are the Vinpacs projections in the battle for the bottle in Australia in 2005:

Whole natural cork 250 million
Technical Cork 350 million
Synthetic plugs 250 million
Subtotal plugs 850 million
Screwcaps 150 million
Subtotal non-cork 400 million
Total seals 1 billion

Tyrrell’s goes screw cap

3 October 2004People, Vineyard, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Bruce Tyrrell rolled through town last week presenting new-release Tyrrell’s private bin wines to local collectors. Later, he hosted a terrific retrospective tasting of Hunter Vat 1 semillon, Vat 47 chardonnay and Vat 9 shiraz at Tasso Rououlis’s Benchmark Wine Bar.

The wines, from Dennis O’Connor’s cellar, revealed the idiosyncrasies of the lower Hunter Valley; the vagaries of weather conditions back to 1991; and, of course, the Tyrrell mastery of these lovely regional styles – a subject touched upon in last week’s column.

During the tasting we learned, too, of an impending switch from cork to screw caps on all of the Tyrrell top-end wines from the 2004 vintage. Tyrrell says he’s had enough of cork failure, a particularly big problem for a company that encourages extended ageing of its wines and regularly re-releases back vintages.

“It’s not cork taint so much”, said Bruce, “but random oxidation that’s the biggest problem”. In a recent inspection of 4000 dozen bottles of white wine from the 1986 to 1996 vintages, Bruce and his team tipped 600 dozen down the drain – not through any inherent wine problem, but because some of the corks had simply failed to provide a barrier against air. That’s random oxidation.

But the problem is not limited to white wine. It’s just that in whites it’s more obviously manifested in a too deep colour, dull, flat aroma and flat, drying-out palate. Reds suffer, too. But often unless the drinker is familiar with a wine and knows what it should taste like – or happens to have two bottles open, one good, one bad – the problem is less apparent.

Bruce and his winemaker, Andrew Spinaze, commenced trialing alternative closures in the mid eighties, initially testing a range of synthetic plugs on the flagship Vat 1 semillon – chosen for its delicacy and capacity for long-term ageing.

Spinaze says that after three months in bottle all samples, including those under cork, smelled and tasted the same. But after 18 months all of the synthetics had failed while the cork delivered its usual variable quality – some wines perfect, some not bad, some oxidised and some cork tainted.

From1998 Spinaze began sealing a portion of Vat 1 semillon under screw cap. The performance of these wines against cork-sealed bottles precipitated the decision to change.

Says Spinaze, “We were always aware of cork’s shortcomings. But we had some reservations about how our top wines would age with the alternative. We knew they would be different. And they are. But the cork failure rate is too high”.

The decision followed two important tastings this year, one in Canberra, one in the Hunter.

In Canberra, Bruce and Andrew joined Lester Jesberg, Len Sorbello and Ray Wilson of Winewise, a highly respected independent wine periodical, in a tasting of Tyrrell’s Vat 1 and Futures semillons from the 1986 to 2002 vintages. Tyrrell and Spinaze brought along screw-cap sealed samples of the 1998 and 2000 vintages to compare with Winewise’s cork-sealed samples.

Jesberg recalls that for some vintages several cork-sealed bottles had to be opened to find a good one. In the end, though, it was the screw cap sealed 1998 that blew everyone away.

A few months later in the Hunter, Tyrrell and Spinaze presented eight masked bottles of the 1998 Vat 1 Semillon – four screw-cap sealed, four cork sealed — to judges at the local wine show.

Cork fared poorly: one bore the unpleasant musty notes of cork taint; one was badly oxidised; one was slightly oxidised but pleasant and one was spectacularly good.

All four screw-cap wines opened in perfect condition. But, says Spinaze, some tasters, himself included, favoured the style of the best cork-sealed wine by a tiny margin. Others disagreed. However, the concessus was that the screw cap sealed wines were not only outstanding and ageing well but utterly reliable and indistinguishable from bottle to bottle.

So, says Andrew, “the question had become why wouldn’t we put them in”. Hence, the screw-cap roll out to Tyrrell’s very best wines began recently with ‘Stevens’ Semillon 2004 (a wine released at five years’ age), moved on to the Vat 1 Semillon 2004 and embraced the legendary Vat 47 Chardonnay 2004 late last week. And, Bruce assured me at the Benchmark Wine Bar tasting, all of the 2004 Private Bin reds are getting screw caps, too.

Murray Flannigan, well known smiling face of Tyrrell’s Private Bin Club, reports strong, if not unanimous, support for the move amongst collectors in his own straw poll.

As more leading producers abandon cork, the question becomes is the screw cap perfect? The answer is no. But it’s the best alternative to date. And its acceptance opens the door for other innovative solutions. Where are they all?

Vintage 2003 — outstanding for Aussie rieslings

17 August 2003WineChris Shanahan

By April this year, Clare and Eden Valley riesling makers could hardly believe their own good luck.

They’d barely finished crowing about 2002 — the best vintage in twenty years, they said — even better than the excellent 2001s. And, here were the barely fermented 2003s looking every bit as good as the 2002s, perhaps better.

What reticence there was to crow yet again has almost totally crumbled as realisation sets in as to how good the 2003s are.

The usually staid Robert Hill-Smith, proprietor of S. Smith & Sons, owner of the Yalumba, Heggies and Pewsey Vale brands, issued a press release this week – the first I can recall in a 20 year acquaintance. “Eden Valley riesling the best in decades”, screams the headline.

And it goes on, “2003 vintage classification tastings were recently held at Australia’s oldest family-owned winery, Yalumba. Proprietor Robert Hill Smith declared 2003 Riesling quality from the winery’s high country vineyards as the best in decades. And, in seeking the opinions of Riesling specialists from flagship cool climate regions, a similar enthusiasm is shared.

“2002 was seen as one of the greatest ever Riesling years in Eden Valley and also Clare, yet the low pH and high natural acids seen in the 2003 wines, combined with tight and concentrated citrus lime flavours are delivering aromas showing even greater finesse than the 2002 vintage”.

A similar enthusiasm seems to be bubbling at Clare — a little to the north of Eden Valley on the Mount Lofty Ranges. English critic, Matthew Jukes, tasting Tim Adams Riesling 2003 (reviewed below) wrote, “Tim’s 2003 looked simply stunning, It was forward, even juicy and sensuous and then came the wall of awesome acidity. The overall feel was one of a stroll through a lemon grove”.

Tim Adams’ press release asks, “Is it too early to have another best-in-living memory vintage?” – a sentiment repeated in this note from Cardinham Estate’s Jim Smith, “Nearly all the winemakers, Cardinham included, are rating the 2003 rieslings as good as or better than 2002. It is funny to think that last year we all said ‘this is the best riesling vintage in the Clare Valley for 20 years’. What will everyone say this year? ‘This is the best riesling vintage in the Clare Valley for … 12 months!’”.

The quality of the 2003s is certainly very high. And if the fruit flavour seem rather well developed already (in comparison with the more austere 2002s), another characteristic is what Matthew Dukes called ‘the great wall of awesome acid’ – ie the wines are fruity but with the high natural acidity associated with long-cellaring potential.

A few weeks back I tasted a masked line up of 12 2003 rieslings – one a Mount Barker/Margaret River blend, one from Central Victoria, one from the Eden Valley, the rest from Clare.

I’ve recommended three of the wines in recent columns – Petaluma Hanlin Hill Clare Valley 2003, Taylors Clare Valley 2003 and Sandalford Mount Barker Margaret River 2003. But the standard across the board was extraordinarily high

This tasting, followed by another of three Clare Valley 2003’s with Rob and Kay Howell at Jeir Creek winery, simply confirmed early impressions of dazzlingly fresh, fruity well-structured rieslings from the vintage. To add local flavour, Rob and Kay served their own 2003 ($20 at cellar door). It, too, showed crystal-clear, intense varietal flavour, but with notably more acid backbone than the Clare wines.

These tastings tend to support winemaker excitement about the vintage. And it’s worth noting just how fresh and pure these rieslings are under screw cap. For the first time we’re seeing virtually the whole vintage sealed this way – not a corked, cork-woody or oxidised wine in sight at this stage.

Other 2003 rieslings to perform well in the tastings were: Penna Lane Clare, Skillogalee Clare, Jeanneret Clare, Annie’s Lane Clare, Crabtree Watervale and Stephen John Watervale 2003.

I also formed a strong opinion on Richmond Grove Watervale and Orlando Steingarten from tank samples tasted in the Barossa back in April – although these have not hit retail shelves yet.

What all this boils down to is amazingly good quality, comparatively cheap drinking. If you like riesling, then now’s the time to mop up the last of the outstanding 2002s and begin tasting the first of the 2003s.

There’s rich pickings out there whether you want something to quaff now or prefer to pop a few cases away to enjoy in five, ten or even twenty years.

Tim Adams Clare Valley Riesling 2003, $15 to $18
UK writer Matthew Jukes writes, “The overall feel was one of a stroll through a lemon grove” – a colourful description for this delicious, zesty, pure riesling. Typical of the 2003 Clare rieslings tasted to date it offers heaps of up front, lemony varietal aroma and flavour with a bracing, tingly, spine of acidity. The full flavour and freshness means terrific current drinking. But, as long history shows, these are wines that develop wonderful new dimensions with extended bottle agein

Clonakilla shiraz — birth of a Canberra blue chip

1 September 2002People, Vineyard, WineChris Shanahan

International and local acclaim for Clonakilla Murrumbateman Shiraz Viognier has terrific implications for the Canberra district – especially for shiraz growers in the vicinity of Murrumbatemen.

The implication is that Canberra shiraz – either in tandem with the white variety viognier, or on its own – has the potential to be world class. And if Clonakilla leads the way to date, it does not have to be alone in the future.

Indeed, the quality of shiraz from Roger and Fay Harris’s Brindabella Hills vineyard at Hall, Andrew McEwin’s Kyeema Estate, Murrumbateman, and BRL Hardy’s Kamberra winery (using fruit from Murrumbateman) all point to an emerging regional specialty: shiraz in the elegant and supple mould.

Yet, when Dr John Kirk, a scientist at CSIRO’s division of Plant Industry, planted his first shiraz vines at Clonakilla in 1972 it was just one of many varieties. Who could have predicted then that twenty nine years later, respected UK-based global critic, Jancis Robinson, was to rate Clonakilla as one of her two favourite Australian shirazes, or that in 1999 American guru, Robert M. Parker would give a remarkable 92/100 rating for Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier 1998. The same wine was nominated as New South Wales’ wine of the year.

So where did this strikingly beautiful wine come from? Was it simply an accident of nature – planting the right variety in the right spot, and bingo! Or was it brilliant winemaking by John Kirk and his son Tim? Perhaps the answer is that nature pointed the way, then human ingenuity ran with it.

In fact, from the first crop in the mid seventies until vintage 1990, John Kirk blended Clonakilla’s shiraz and cabernet sauvignon together. That first straight shiraz enjoyed remarkable success, winning a silver medal at the Cowra Wine Show, a gold medal at Stanthorpe and a gold medal and two trophies at Griffith.

Prior to this, though, John Kirk and another son, Jeremy, made a decision that was later to have a profound impact on Clonakilla’s winemaking direction. Looking for another variety that might suit the district and offer a point of difference, John identified a Rhone valley white, viognier, as having potential. They planted the first vines in 1986.

Then, in 1991 while the second Clonakilla shiraz lay in barrel, Melbourne-based Tim Kirk, having completed his Diploma of Education, headed off to France where I’d organised an appointment for him with Marcel Guigal, one of the Rhone’s great winemakers.

There he tasted Guigal’s stunning single vineyard Cote-Roties (blends of shiraz and viognier): the 1998 vintages of La Mouline and La Landonne from barrel and the 1987 La Turque from bottle.

At a dinner in Sydney last week, Tim said that this meeting and tasting had been a ‘transforming moment’ and that he was ‘transfixed and delighted’ by the perfume and sheer dimension of Guigal’s wines. ‘I’ve got to get this shiraz-viognier thing going back home’, he thought.

With this powerful vision driving Tim, the stage was set for a rapid evolution of the Clonakilla shiraz style.

From the 1992 vintage Tim and John included viognier in the blend in varying quantities: starting at one per cent each in 1992 and 1993, rising to four per cent in 1994, peaking at ten per cent in 1995 and 1996, then falling back to 5 per cent in 1997, 1998 and 1999, and lifting to six per cent and seven per cent in the 2000 and 2001 vintage respectively.

The viognier component adds to the wine a lovely floral fragrance. But, Tim asks, at what point does it become too much? And when does the addition of white wine to red create a rose rather than enhancing the perfume or texture of the red?

While trialing various levels of viognier, Tim and John worked on the winemaking regime, too, eventually settling on limited whole bunches in the ferments (these add a gamey dimension) and on about one third new French oak for maturation.

And after 1995 they altered the trellising system for shiraz, opening the canopy and using vertical shoot positioning to improve fruit exposure and maximise ripening.

In 1997 Tim moved from Melbourne to Canberra to focus on winemaking full time. As a result Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier’s journey to greatness accelerated. The trend has been steadily upward. And the 2001 vintage now available at cellar door ($48) is as beautiful an expression of cool-climate shiraz as Australia makes.