d’Arenberg The Money Spider McLaren Vale Roussanne 2009 $17-$19
d’Arenberg, The Vale’s master of the Rhône Valley red varieties grenache, shiraz and mourvedre, some years back turned its hand, with equal panache, to the white varieties, marsanne, viognier and roussanne. The shy roussanne appeals strongly in the 2009 vintage. The aroma and flavour are reminiscent of stone fruit and honey. The palate begins juicy, full and smoothly viscous. But it’s also dry and savoury with a pleasant, subtle twist of tannin to finish. In its northern Rhone home, roussanne is normally blended with other varieties, but in Money Spider it stands comfortably alone.
In this blend Bill Moularadellis combines the full, ripe-melon and nectarine character of chardonnay from Padthaway (about two hours drive north of Mount Gambier) with tangier, citrus-like material from the cooler Adelaide Hills. It’s tasty, inexpensive and always tempting to come back for another sip as the wine’s complex and interesting but also bright, fruity and refreshing. Clever use of oak and contact with yeast lees added texture and subtle flavours as a backdrop to the vibrant varietal flavours.
Cotes-du-Rhone (M. Chapoutier) 2008 $15–$18
This is what a French country wine should be about but often is not – clean, tasty, pleasing to drink, realistically priced with flavours reflecting region and variety. Chapoutier’s blend combines grenache and shiraz from the Drome, Vaucluse, Gard and Ardeche in the southern Rhone Valley. It’s medium bodied, with spicy, earthy grenache leading the nose and palate and shiraz adding grip and structure. It’s not as fleshy or as in-your-face fruity as comparable Australian blends, but that’s only to do with individual style, not quality. What a terrific, distinctive drink at a fair price.
It was all smiles and champers in Clare last weekend. The region’s biggest and one of its oldest wineries at last found a new owner prepared to buy local grapes, make and market wine and reopen the cellar door.
Leasingham’s previous owner, Constellation Wines Australia, a subsidiary of Constellation Brands USA, closed the winery in August 2009, sold three of its key vineyard, then in 2010 offered its winemaking equipment and winery-cellar door facility for sale.
Constellation retained the Leasingham brand. But its decision to abandon the winery deeply depressed the mood of the region. Leasingham had been the largest winery in the region since the 1890s. Its operations affected hundreds of families across the Clare Valley, especially those of independent grape growers.
At the time of Constellation’s decision, with winemaking assets already flooding the market and seemingly few buyers, locals feared the site, on the edge of Clare township, might be bulldozed for housing.
Constellation quickly found buyers for the Rogers, Dunns and Schoebers vineyards. Then in December last year they offered the winemaking equipment and winery-cellar building for sale separately.
Luckily for Clare and its grape growers, local winemaker Tim Adams and wife, Pam Goldsack, reached an agreement with Constellation to buy the winery as a going concern, provided most of the winemaking equipment remained in place. Constellation agreed, sold only a small part of the winemaking gear, and in December Tim Adams announced details of the sale, to be completed in January 2011. Adams confirmed that the price was “much less than replacement cost”.
Last Friday at noon, Adams and Goldsack settled on the deal, becoming Leasingham’s first private owners since America’s H.J. Heinz acquired it from the Knappstein family in 1971.
Adams aims to make it “a community winery” as it was during his apprenticeship to Mick Knappstein from 1975. He says, “I was Mick’s last apprentice – the last apprentice of the last private owner. He was a generous, community minded man. He loved making wine for all sorts of people to enjoy. He cared for the 130-odd growers, and hated it when Heinz cut back on buying. His wife Gela is over the moon about our news”.
Adams says the winery contains some of the best, most efficient winemaking equipment on the planet – enough to process up to 5,000 tonnes of grapes annually – equivalent to about 350 thousand dozen bottles. The winery has storage capacity of about 4.5 million litres.
Adams says he’ll focus mainly on Mr Mick, a new brand honouring his late mentor. But he’ll also offer a badly needed regional contract winemaking facility.
The local growers have been having a tough time, says Adams. But he expects Mr Mick, pitched at $12–$15 a bottle, with broad appeal across the retail and restaurant markets, to bring them back into the market. “These will be wines with a real story to them”, he says. He anticipates strong support from Coles and Woolworths, albeit with occasional discounts to $9.99 a bottle.
Eighteen months before buying Leasingham winery, Adams bought its 80-hectare Rogers Vineyard. Panted to shiraz, riesling, cabernet sauvignon, semillon, chardonnay and malbec, it was source of Leasingham’s once legendary Bin 56 cabernet malbec.
He’s been using these grapes in his own brand (made at the 1,500-tonne capacity Tim Adams winery). In future the vineyard will also supply the Mr Mick brand.
In fact, we can enjoy the first Mr Mick wines later this year – a 2010 riesling, from the Rogers vineyard, and three wines sourced from grower vineyards: 2010 pinot gris rosato (a dry rose style), 2009 cabernet shiraz and 2009 shiraz. These were all made at the Tim Adams winery.
Adams doesn’t plan to combine the two wineries as their functions are distinct – Tim Adams to make dozens of small batches for the premium end of the market, and the Mr Mick facility for bulk production.
He’ll reopen the Mr Mick cellar door and hopes also to offer Leasingham wines should the new owners of Constellation Wines agree to it. Meanwhile Constellations Brand USA announced in November plans to sell its Australian and UK wine divisions to a private equity company, Champ, for around $290 million. Constellation paid a little under $2 billion for the assets in 2003, joining a long line of large businesses exiting the Australian wine industry through the same hole they came in at – but notably poorer.
Tim Adams can’t save the name Leasingham. But he’l have saved the landmark facility, given hope to local growers and kept the Clare flame burning.
Leasingham timeline
1894 – Company founded by J.H. Knappstein and others
1895 – Opens for business in the old Clare Jam Factory
1900 or earlier – Making more wine than all other Clare wineries combined
1911 – J.H. Knappstein gains total control of the company
1971 – Knappstein family sells to H.J. Heinz
1988 – Thomas Hardy and Sons acquire the company
1992 – Thomas Hardy merges with the Berri-Renmano cooperative to become publicly listed BRL Hardy
2003 – Constellation Brands (USA) acquires BRL Hardy. Name changes to The Hardy Wine Company
2008 – The Hardy Wine Company becomes Constellation Wines Australia
2009 – Constellation Wines Australia closes Leasingham Winery and sells three vineyards but retains ownership of the Leasingham brand
2010 – Constellation offers Leasingham Winery and winemaking equipment for sale separately. Tim Adams and Pam Goldsack agree to buy winery and equipment as a going concern.
2011 – Tim Adams and Pam Goldsack settle on the winery and plan to launch a new Clare Valley wine range, Mr Mick, in honour of legendary winemaker Mick Knappstein. CHAMP equity buys 80 per cent stake in Constellation’s wine assets, including the Leasingham brand, changing the company name to Accolade
Ashton Hills Estate Pinot Noir 2008 $40 Adelaide Hills, South Australia
The highlight of a recent meal at Sabayon Restaurant was Ashton Hills Piccadilly Valley Pinot Noir 2008. Alas, it’s sold out says winemaker Stephen George. But its cellar mates, Estate 2008 and Reserve 2008 ($60) are still available. The seductively high-toned Estate wine captures the juicy, plush, sexy, naked beauty of this great variety. And the slightly more coy Reserve needs to be stripped back, layer by layer – revealing a glorious, even profound Australian pinot.
Coldstream Hills Single Vineyard Chardonnays $28–$35 Rising and Deer Farm vineyards, Yarra Valley, Victoria
In 2009 winemaker Andrew Fleming applied similar winemaking techniques to two batches of Yarra grapes – one from the high, cool Deer Farm vineyard, the other from the lower, warmer Rising Vineyard. The wines express the distinctive flavours of grapes ripened at different temperatures: full, ripe nectarine and peach from the Rising Vineyard and lean, taut grapefruit from Deer Farm. Of course, this is all in the context of rich, barrel-fermented chardonnay.
Mount Riley Pinot Gris 2010 $17.99 Marlborough, New Zealand
Mount Riley is a 100-hectare vineyard and winery owned by the Buchanan family. Their pinot gris presents the variety’s off-dry, richly textured face. It’s modelled on the originals from Alsace France and quite a contrast to the taut, bone-dry, Italian-inspired Chapel Hill reviewed last week. This Marlborough version captures varietal pear-like aromas and flavours and there’s plenty of acid, plus a twist of tannin, to offset the pleasant, low-level sweetness.
M. Chapoutier Domaine Tournon Syrah 2009 $16.99 Victoria, Australia
Following French “domaine” tradition, Michel Chapoutier sources fruit for his Australian wine from Tournon’s vineyards in Heathcote, Beechworth and the Pyrenees, Victoria. Unusual for an Australian wine it’s matured in stainless steel and concrete tanks – no oak at all. This leaves spicy shiraz at its heart – medium bodied, subtle, supple and plush, with a convincing line of fine tannin for structure. This and Chapoutier’s Crozes-Hermitage, reviewed below, could well serve as proxies for the general Australian and French styles – the first plush and fruity; the second, lean and elegant.
M. Chapoutier “La Petite Ruche” Crozes-Hermitage 2008 $26.99 Crozes-Hermitage, Rhone Valley, France
Don’t fret too much about the fancy name, Crozes-Hermitage is just a grape-growing town in France’s northern Rhone Valley famed for its shiraz (or “syrah” in French). The wine’s medium coloured and intensely aromatic – featuring the distinctive pepper-like character of cool-grown shiraz. The pepper comes through, too, on a sinewy, savoury, beautifully elegant palate with its underlying kernel of sweet berry flavours and fine, gripping finish.
Quarry Hill Shiraz 2008 $18.50 Canberra District, New South Wales
Dean Terrell’s Quarry Hill vineyard sells grapes to Alex McKay for his Collector brand. With this connection, it made sense for Terrell to hire McKay as winemaker for the Quarry Hill label, too. In 2008 that resulted in a vibrantly fruity, medium bodied shiraz with a fine, firm backbone of tannin and noticeable touch of oak. It’s an appealing, drink now red sitting high in the three-star range. This is a vineyard to watch. Outstanding value.
Binbilla Hilltops Good Friday Shiraz 2009 $25 Binbilla is a tiny, hand-tended vineyard near Young, owned by Gerard and Bez Hines. Nick O’Leary makes the wine and describes the 2009 as a “leaner style” than the typical Hilltops shiraz. He picks the grapes comparatively early, “when the vines are healthy, before the leaves turn yellow” – thus capturing the fruit at its vibrant best, before it shrivels. The result is a fragrant, lively, bright, medium bodied shiraz with a firm, fine, silky, tannic structure. It’s wonderful to see so much innovation and excitement in Canberra’s backyard. Watch this vineyard. See www.binbillawines.com
Wignall Albany
Pinot Noir 2009 $31
Sauvignon Blanc 2010 $18.50
At only 35 degrees south and just 33 metres above sea level, Albany ought not be cool enough to make good pinot. But high humidity helps retain varietal aromatics. And, says Rob Wignall, the “Albany doctor”, whistles in from the Antarctic, dropping afternoon and nighttime temperatures dramatically, further enhancing varietal flavour. It shows in Wignall’s highly aromatic, vibrant 2009 – a deliciously fruity drop probably best enjoyed in the first five years from vintage. Likewise the 2010 sauvignon blanc delivers clear but subtle varietal flavour in a distinctive zesty but soft way. See www.wignallswine.com.au
Bourke Street Canberra District
Pinot Noir 2010 $21
Chardonnay 2010 $21
Local winemakers Alex McKay and Nick O’Leary launched their Bourke Street brand last year with a lovely Canberra District shiraz 2008. They recently added to the range pinot noir and chardonnay, sourced mainly from Bob Knight’s high-altitude, low-yielding vineyard. While on the light and elegant side, the pinot shows good varietal character and has the flavour depth and structure to be taken seriously. The chardonnay is a notch better again. It’s on the tight, lean side, but packed with delicious nectarine and grapefruit varietal flavour – barrel fermentation and maturation added subtly to the texture and complexity. Both wines are bargains.
Thirst Riesling 2010 Bottle $28, Glass $6.50 Murrumbateman, Canberra District, New South Wales Hot, thirsty and running early for dinner, we paused for a cold riesling at Thirst Wine Bar and Eatery (West Row, Civic). Winemaker Nick O’Leary says grapes for the wine came from several vineyards at Murrumbateman. He says it’s a blend of various components, including material not suited to his own brand. It’s racy, tasty, vibrant and dry – good enough to sip on its own, as we did, and perfect with Thirst’s Thai food. Full marks to Thirst for selecting and offering its customers such a delicious, inexpensive local specialty.
Bourke Street Shiraz 2009 $19–$21 Yass Valley and Hall, Canberra District, NSW and ACT This will be one of the great red wine bargains of the year – a juicy, vibrant, spicy, medium-bodied shiraz from Canberra’s outstanding 2009 vintage – made by two of our leading winemakers, Nick O’Leary and Alex McKay. The pair buy grapes together, principally for their own brands, Nick O’Leary and Collector Marked Tree. They blend Bourke Street from components not suited to those brands. Clearly, these were of extraordinary quality in 2009. O’Leary says the grapes came from Wallaroo Vineyard, Hall, and the McKenzie vineyard, Yass Valley.
Tower Estate Riesling 2010 $23.80–$28.00 Windmill Vineyard, Watervale, Clare Valley, South Australia Tower Estate was a vision of the late Len Evans and a fitting site for his extraordinary wake in 2006. A visit to the Hunter Valley cellar door gives an insight into Evans’ quirky creativity. And a taste of Tower wines reveals another Evans’ legacy – a commitment to stellar quality. He would’ve loved this pristine, intense, lime-like dry riesling, sourced from Chris and Darry Honey’s Windmill Vineyard at Watervale, Clare’s southernmost sub-region.
Chalmers Sagrantino 2008 $32 Euston, Murray Darling Region, New South Wales Sagrantino, originally from Umbria, Italy, tends to make powerful, tannic reds, suited to madmen, heroes and Godzilla. But the Chalmers family’s version stops short of sucking the water from your eyes – tempered, temporarily, by its bright, sweet fruit, before the sturdy, mouth-drying tannins kick in. They also offer a dry, savoury barrel-fermented rose version (Sagrantino Rosato 2010, $22) with an assertive, but not aggressive, tannic tweak to the finish.
Chapel Hill Il Vescovo Pinot Grigio 2010 $22 Adelaide Hills, South Australia When making whites from this mutant of pinot noir, Australian winemakers generally use “pinot grigio” for dry, austere styles made in the north eastern Italian mould, or “pinot gris” for richly textured, sometimes sweet expressions modelled on those of Alsace. In this version winemaker Bryn Richards really captures pinot grigio’s elusive varietal aroma and flavour. It’s a pristine, lively, shimmering, dry style with a mouth watering, savoury finish.
Penfolds Cellar Reserve Pinot Noir 2008 $49.90 Adelaide Hills, South Australia Peter Gago made Penfolds’ first Cellar Reserve Pinot Noir in 1997. Since then it’s evolved considerably in style from sturdy Penfolds red to a fine, deeply layered, top-shelf pinot. It’s made in the original open fermenters at Magill Estate – the same ones Max Schubert used for Grange. In this case they’re cradle to a substantial pinot – highly aromatic and varietal, intensely flavoured, fleshy, vibrant, silky textured with an exotic undertone of “stalkiness”, derived from whole grape bunches included in the ferment.
Overproduction, slash-and-burn retailing and our strong dollar should keep a lid firmly on mainstream wine prices throughout 2011. Adding to that chaotic mix are rising volumes of clean skins and labels owned or controlled by retailers, a dollop of parallel importing and the less-obvious but increasingly important activities of online retailers, auctioneers and direct marketers.
An indication of the pain ahead, for some, came last year when John Geber, proprietor of the Barossa’s Chateau Tanunda and successful wine exporter, claimed the strong dollar was slaughtering Australia’s exports and could ruin Australian producers. Geber didn’t say it, but our failed exports stays at home, adding to the oversupply, depressing domestic prices and putting further competitive pressure on established brands.
The oversupply also fuels the explosion of new labels and cleanskins sprinkled throughout the retail, online, auction and direct-marketing worlds. Confusing as this proliferation of new labels might be for wine drinkers, it tends in aggregate to increase competition and lower prices.
In the hands of skilled marketers, unknown labels can both protect and mask retail margins in a way that could never be achieved were all retailers to sell the same brands. Cellarmasters, Australia’s leading direct marketer, led the way with exclusive labels in the 1980s. Big retailers are now headed down a similar path.
Cellarmaster persuaded wine producers to supply exclusive variants of their branded products. This enabled them to fetch a premium on well-known brands by avoiding price comparisons with the regular label sold by other retailers.
On the other hand mainstream retailers today tend to create their own labels from scratch or arrange exclusive import arrangements with overseas producers (although they sometimes offer products exclusively from well-known local producers).
Liquor retail consultant David Farmer says that in the UK, over half the products sold by Tesco are house brands. But on a recent visit there he noted how shabby and degraded Tesco’s merchandising appeared – a downside he attributes partly to stripping out more glamorous, strongly marketed brands and partly to the poverty of the house labels on offer.
This suggests that if retailers drop the carefully built brands from their offer, the glamour, and ultimately the value of the retail offer goes with it. But we’re a long way from that point in Australia as big retailers rely on discounting strong brands to drive traffic – albeit in a quickly changing way.
In a recent presentation to independent Australian retailers, Farmer highlighted a technique Woolworths now uses to build the credibility of its house wine brands: positioning them in advertisements alongside comparably priced national brands – a simple way to suggest equal quality and, at the same time, to milk perhaps a century of goodwill behind the known label.
House brand wine labels these days don’t say “house brand” or “Coles” or “Woolworths”, “Aldi” or any other retail name. They look just like regular wine labels, more often than not with regional and varietal information on them. Coles, for example, offers Two Churches, its own Barossa brand, through their 1st Choice, Vintage Cellars and Liquorland outlets.
This growing shift to labels they own or control gives the big retailers more market power than the big producers. It must horrify them to see their biggest customers became their biggest competitors. The retailers have them over a barrel.
But it’s not just the big guys offering exclusive labels. For example, Kemeny’s, a high-profile Sydney independent retailer, now peppers its advertisements with its Hidden Label brand – no doubt to avoid the fight it can’t win: going head to head with the majors on strong brands. And these days every retailer, large and small, offers cleanskins – unbranded bottles.
Farmer believes cleanskins have grown at the expense of wine casks which have plummeted precipitously from 46 to 40 per cent of total Australian wine consumption in just a few years.
On www.glug.com.au, Farmer ranks cleanskins of various kinds in five of the top 25 positions of Australia’s biggest selling bottled wines. He estimates the volume of these top five categories of cleanskin at around 800 thousand cases annually.
As these are sold on price, tempered by hope (we all want Grange for $5) cleanskins selling in this volume inevitably maintain pressure on wine prices within their general price category.
Among all this chaos, though, some wine brands prosper, partly because many drinkers feel insecure buying unknown or no-label wines. Jacob’s Creek, for example, weathered the GFC and private label storm in the UK and, after a battering, is now growing again.
And in Australia, there’s a far more gentile wine scene operating out of sight of mainstream retailing. Every region now has its small volume, high quality producers like our own Clonakilla.
And across the regions, including tiny Canberra and massive Barossa, keen young winemakers without vineyards continue to team up with established growers to make exciting, single-vineyard wines in small quantities.
This activity offers better returns to grape growers, a living for winemakers and really interesting, generally inexpensive wines for drinkers. On a larger, long-term scale, this new wave of small winemakers exerts an influence beyond their size on the style of wines we’ll enjoy in the future.
These guys think long and hard about what they’re doing. And because more often than not they’re not making to a template, they bring welcome changes to regional style – just look, for example, at what Tim Kirk, Nick Spencer and Nick O’Leary are doing for the increasingly fine style of shiraz coming out of nearby Hilltops.
So, the prediction for 2011: lots of wine, lots of cheap wine, lots of good wine, lots of imported wine, greater diversity of top regional specialties, and increasing parcels of exciting stuff from our small makers.
d’Arenberg McLaren Vale “The Cadenzia” Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre Tempranillo Cinsault 2008 $22–$25 d’Arenberg’s seductive blend contains four of the 13 varieties permitted in the reds of France’s Chateauneuf-du-Pape region – and throws in Spain’s tempranillo, too. The blend contains roughly equal portions of grenache, shiraz, mourvedre and tempranillo and just a hatful of cinsault. No single variety stands out. Instead we have a medium bodied dry red that’s subtle, soft, flavour packed and easy to drink. But it’s also savoury and complex with satisfying red wine structure – and it’s oh, so hard to screw the cap back on once it’s opened. It captures McLaren Vale’s generous flavours without the heaviness sometimes associated with our warm areas.
Coriole
McLaren Vale Sangiovese 2009 $22
McLaren Vale Barbera 2008 $30
Adelaide Hills Nebbiolo 2008 $35
Mark Lloyd’s Italian varieties offer a flavour world far removed our usual menu of shiraz, cabernet and pinot noir. The limpid sangiovese appeals for its medium body, savoury flavours and taut, grippy tannins – such a good combination with char-grilled meat of all kinds. The barbera startles with its vivid crimson colour and high-toned aroma – always reminiscent of summer berries, but in this warm vintage resembling very ripe mulberries. The palate is soft and round, but not without a tannic twist to finish. The deceptively pale nebbiolo offers deep, earthy flavours, tightly bound with firm, lingering, drying tannins.
Pikes Clare “Traditionele” Valley Riesling 2009 $17–$23
“The Merle” Riesling 2009 $33–$38
“Traditionele” and “The Merle” present slightly different, but dry, faces of Clare riesling. “Traditionele” is the softer of the two, being less acidic but still vibrantly fresh with pure, citrusy varietal flavours. It’s slightly rounder and fuller flavoured than “The Merle” but still, clearly, its sibling. “The Merle”, shows the more acidic, dry austerity of Clare’s Polish Hill sub-region. And hand-in-hand with that goes an extraordinarily intense-but-delicate lime-like varietal flavour – setting it apart from ordinary rieslings. Both have the capacity to change in pleasing ways with cellaring. But “The Merle”, I suspect, will still make us smile thirty years from now.
In December 2010 Philip Laffer handed the winemaking reins of Jacob’s Creek to Bernard Hickin. But Laffer, now 70, retains a globe-travelling role with Jacob’s Creek’s French owner, Pernod-Ricard, giving valuable advice to the company’s winemaking enterprises in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Spain and France.
Laffer’s career spans, on a large scale, every imaginable aspect of Australian wine, including viticulture, winemaking, research, commerce, trade, marketing and management. Even within Pernod-Ricard’s Australian operations, Laffer’s influence stretched beyond the flagship brand, Jacob’s Creek, to the company’s Wyndham Estate and Richmond Grove brands.
Laffer’s career began in 1956 with the decision, at age 16, to become a winemaker. He studied agricultural science then oenology between 1957 and 1962 and in January 1963 began working for Lindemans, one of only two publicly listed wine companies at the time (the other was Penfolds).
Lindemans leader at the time, the visionary Ray Kidd, presided over a widespread winemaking enterprise. Australian wine tastes had begun a shift from fortified wine to table wine and Kidd was positioning the company to develop this emerging market.
Lindemans had recently acquired Leo Burings with its strong Leonay sherry brand and emerging table wines, led by the new wave of bright, fresh, slightly sweet sparkling wines, inspired by Orlando’s Barossa Pearl, launched for the 1956 Olympics.
Lindeman’s winemaking extended to the Hunter Valley (the company’s original base), with its strong focus on shiraz and semillon (though marketed in those days under generic names like Chablis and Burgundy), to its increasingly popular multi-region blends, including Cawarra Claret.
So in 1963 when Laffer started work at Lindemans Corowa winery (across the Murray from Rutherglen) he was in the heart of fortified wine country and came under the influence of local legends, including Mick Morris. Bob Menzies was Prime Minister, Australians drove mainly Holdens and Falcons, men drank beer and women enjoyed a shandy or sherry. But table and sparkling wines were catching on.
By the time Laffer moved to Lindeman’s Sydney head office and cellars in 1969, he’d played a key role developing the company’s Coonawarra vineyards and selecting a site for the massive Padthaway vineyard, an hour’s drive north of Coonawarra, near Naracoorte. Ultimately this vineyard, planted in 1970, provided fruit for Lindemans hugely successful export brands of the 1980s (notably Bin 65 Chardonnay).
The huge Sydney cellar brought together wine for Australia-wide blends but was also home to regional specialties from the Hunter, Coonawarra, Padthaway, Barossa Valley, Eden Valley and Clare Valley.
The cellar, at Nyrang Street Auburn (now home to Tooheys) also gave its name to two popular blended reds, Nyrang Hermitage and Auburn Burgundy.
Located at the heart of the enterprise, Laffer now had a hand in making and developing the whole range of company wines embracing fortifieds, sparklings, whites, and reds.
During these years he worked closely with well-known winemakers including Gerry Sissingh and Carl Stockhausen in the Hunter, Greg Clayfield in Coonawarra, John Vickery (Mr Riesling) at Leo Burings in the Barossa and Albert Chan and Philip John in head office.
He was there for the birth of chardonnay in Australia and helped develop both large-volume commercial styles and cutting edge oak matured versions, initially from the Padthaway vineyard – a style he was still influencing when he handed the Jacob’s Creek winemaking reins to Bernard Hickin last month.
Laffer moved quickly through the ranks across a diversity of roles, including Technical Director, Sales and Marketing Director and General Manager. Laffer was perceived as a successor to Ray Kidd, but a boardroom mood swing in New York ended that possibility.
Philip Morris Limited had acquired Lindemans in 1971 at about the same time as a number of internationals, including Rothmans and Heinz, piled into Australian wine production. They all departed.
To prepare Lindemans for sale, Philip Morris placed one if its successful tobacco executives, Peter Barnes, at the helm. Following its sale to Penfolds Wine Group, Laffer left Lindemans in 1990.
Shortly afterwards Orlando Wyndham, (as the Jacob’s Creek owner was then called) approached Laffer. He joined the company as Production Director but within three years had become Chief Winemaker.
Laffer transferred thirty years’ experience to his new employers and with characteristic cheer and energy drove significant quality improvements in vineyards, winemaking, production and storage.
His experience dovetailed with Orlando traditions, too, based on technical innovations by Colin Gramp in the 1950s, and carried on by Gramp’s successor (and German import) Gunther Prass and by other long-term employees, notably Stephen Couche, Mark Tummel and Robin Day.
Laffer was instrumental, too, in hiring former Leo Buring riesling master, John Vickery (he’d worked with Buring from the 1950s), and acquiring Buring’s Chateau Leonay winery as the new Barossa home for Orlando Wyndham’s then Hunter-derived Richmond Grove brand.
Vickery added to Orlando’s already substantial riesling making skills. And in developing riesling as Richmond Grove’s flagship variety, Vickery purchased grapes from the Florita vineyard at Watervale, source of many legendary Leo Buring rieslings. Philip Morris had sold this strategic asset to the Barry family as it trimmed Lindemans down for sale.
Between them, Laffer and Vickery used Richmond Grove riesling to launch one of wine’s most significant technical successes of the twentieth century. In 1998, in conjuntion with Coles Liquor Group’s Vintage Cellars outlets, they released the first commercial-scale bottling of top-shelf riesling under screw cap since the failed efforts of the 1970s. Consumers embraced the seal. Thirteen years on it’s the dominant seal on Australian wines, red and white.
Laffer was also there across the years steering Jacob’s Creek – finessing the style of existing wines and setting the stage for future development. In 2000 the company launched a “reserve” range and then in 2005, with an eye to the regional focus of future marketing, brought the company’s flagship regional varietals under the brand – Steingarten Barossa Riesling, St Hugo Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon and Centenary Hill Barossa Shiraz. They also included in this range two upmarket cross-regional blends – Johann Shiraz Cabernet and Reeves Point Chardonnay.
Laffer probably suffered at being wrenched from Lindemans after almost thirty years in 1990. He must look back now with sadness at the subsequent terrible destruction of those brands, ultimately consolidated under Fosters.
In contrast, Pernod-Ricard steadily built wine brands capable of surviving even the financial crisis. Behind the brand lies almost two centuries of Australian winemaking tradition and the best of modern innovation – building on knowledge acquired by past generations.
Phillip Laffer is one of those great builders and expanders, influenced by those who’ve gone before, and a continuing mentor for new generations coming through.
Tahbilk Marsanne 2010 $13.00–$16.45 Nagambie Lakes, Victoria
In the me-too line up on most retail shelves, Tahbilk marsanne stands out. It’s become a signature wine style for Tahbilk and under Alister Purbrick (his great grandfather bought the already established property in 1925) the style has become finer. Marsanne, a Rhone Valley white variety, tends to be fat and slightly hard. But the long-lived Tahbilk style takes the rough edges off. The 2010 is fresh and bright, with lemon/lemon zest notes, a bone-dry, savoury palate a little tweak of tannin in the finish.
Tahbilk Marsanne 2001 $35.95–$43.00 Nagambie Lakes, Victoria
In Tahbilk’s mature marsanne we smell and taste the signature, often written about “honeysuckle” character of the variety. Like the younger version, the veteran is bone dry and savoury. But for its age, the colour’s still a vibrant, pale gold and the palate’s lively and fresh – albeit with pleasant honeyed, aged flavours, a familiar bite of tannin in the finish, and not a trace of the oiliness sometimes seen in old marsanne.
Leo Buring Riesling 2010 $19.99 Clare Valley, South Australia
Leo Buring (part of Fosters-owned Treasury Wine Estates) recently released a pair of 2010 rieslings – this dry version from the Clare Valley and a medium dry style from the cooler Eden Valley. The dry wine offers Clare’s pure, delicate, floral and citrus flavours and fresh, dry finish at a modest 11.5 per cent alcohol. It’s an attractive aperitif wine. The medium dry wine, containing about 11 grams per litre of unfermented grape sugar, works well, too. High acidity offsets the sweetness, emphasising the wine’s delicious grapiness.
Red Knot by Shingleback Shiraz 2009 $10.90–$14.99 McLaren Vale, South Australia
Brothers Kym and John Davey own and manage the100-hectare Shingleback vineyard – a big enough operation to produce outstanding regional wines across a range of price points. Their entry-level Red Knot shiraz really captures the Vale’s style. It’s a big, warm, generous wine built on ripe, varietal flavours, with earthy, savoury undertones and firm, but not hard, tannins. Because it’s balanced and harmonious, it’s not at all heavy. It’s ready to drink now.
Wynns Coonawarra Estate “The Siding” Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $21.99 Coonawarra, South Australia
How unfortunate for Wynns that the release of this beautiful, elegant new cabernet coincided with the retail slaughter of its classic, long-lived, black-label cellar mate at around $18. We should all buy a truckload at that price, as the regular tag is around $31. The new wine focuses on drinkability now, and captures purity of varietal aroma and flavour in the most fragrant, elegant, delicious style imaginable. This is a class double act from winemaker Sue Hodder and vineyard manager Allan Jenkins.
Pipers Brook Estate Pinot Noir 2008 $41.50 Pipers Brook and West Tamar, Tasmania
This is another Tasmanian pinot to step away from mainstream aromatic, fruity styles. First impressions are of a substantial red combining deep, sweet, ripe, black cherry varietal flavour with the assertive flavour and tannins of very high quality oak. The sheer depth of fruit flavour, however, suggests the oak will ultimately be subsumed into the wine. Even now, though, with the oak so apparent, it’s a satisfying wine that invites one more sip.
Limited Release Single Vineyard Pinot Grigio 2010 $30
All too often pinot gris (or grigio) comes with residual sugar filling the hole where the fruit flavour ought to be. Like other members of the pinot family (pinots blanc, noir and meunier) gives its best flavours when grown in cool climates like Whitlands (a high, cool plateau above the southern end of Victoria’s King Valley), source of Brown Brothers flagship. The sheer quality of fruit makes this wine one of Australia’s best. A little lees contact adds texture to its taut, pure, crisp palate. The cheaper version, sourced from Whitlands and Bankside, offers a slightly softer, rounder version, still with pure, fresh varietal flavour.
d’Arenberg Adelaide Hills
The Lucky Lizard Chardonnay 2008 $20–$25
The Feral Fox Pinot Noir 2009 $24–$36
Lucky Lizard is a very fine example of modern Australian chardonnay making. It’s all about fermenting and maturing top-quality, cool-grown fruit in high-quality oak barrels – some old some new. The technique captures wonderfully intense varietal character and adds textural richness and flavour complexities – but not overt woodiness. Gentle fruit handling and juice extraction also means that though full flavoured, the wine is delicate and fine. Feral Fox is very much a solid, chewy, savoury and smooth d’Arenberg red – a complex and enjoyable expression of pinot, albeit without the high-toned aromatics of most leading Australian styles.
Coriole Vineyards McLaren Vale Fiano 2010 $25
Coriole’s Mark Lloyd was an early pioneer of Italy’s red sangiovese, later moving to other so-called “alternative” varieties, including barbera, nebbiolo, sagrantino and this savoury white of Roman origin. Jancis Robinson says Fiano “provides the latterday incarnation of the wine known as Apianum to the Romans and makes a splendid, very individual dry white in the hills above Avellino” – a description that seems apt for this McLaren Vale version. It’s crisp, clean and fresh in the Australian style but reveals an Italian touch in its grippy texture and pleasantly tart finish.
