Brilliant regional wines emerging from Oz wine wreck

11 December 2009Uncategorized, WineChris Shanahan

Australian winemaking 2009 – it’s a tale of two industries: mature, vibrant, small and medium producers with their strong regional identities; and the headline-grabbing wreckage of the ‘brand Australia’ juggernaut.

A recent Winemakers’ Federation of Australia (WFA) report, Wine industry must confront the reality of oversupply, detailed the horror behind the chilling headlines.

The report concluded “at least 20% of bearing vines in Australia are surplus to requirement, with few long-term prospects. On cost of production alone, at least 17% of vineyard capacity is uneconomic. The problems are national – although some regions are more adversely affected – and are not restricted to specific varieties or price points”.

The quiet panic behind a decline in exports and domestic sales of Australian wine manifested itself most obviously in the sell off of vineyards and wineries by two of our largest wine producers, Constellation Wines Australia (formerly BRL Hardy) and Foster’s.

Constellation simply continued the dumping of assets that began with their departure from Canberra, announced late in 2006. But the asset dumping increased in scale towards the end of 2008 as they put three wineries up for sale – Goundrey, in Western Australia, the historic Leasingham Winery in Clare and the Stonehaven Winery at Padthaway. Only the Goundrey winery sold. The other two were mothballed in the absence of buyers.

Earlier this year, borrowing a well-worn political phrase, Foster’s said it would sell 36 ‘non-core’ vineyards and close three wineries. This came on top off widespread value destruction following their acquisition of Southcorp Wines for $2.5 billion in 2005.

While many of the problems facing Foster’s may have been self-inflicted, the larger backdrop of the global financial crisis and a rising Australian dollar exaggerated the effects of incipient oversupply – and sucked the industry along with it.

Australian exports peaked in October 2007, says the WFA, and have since declined by eight million cases and 21 per cent in value. This coincided with a decline in domestic sales of Australian wine and an even larger rise in the volume of imports, spurred by the rising dollar.

The combination of rising supply and falling demand leaves Australia with a surplus of more than 100 million cases. And this is set to double over the next two years because we’re producing 20–40 million cases a year more than we sell.

This, of course, explains the amazing range of wine bargains being thrown at us from all directions – the big, direct-importing retailers; wine club operators, including the Wine Society, Cellarmasters and Wine Selectors; the more aggressive independent retailers, including cleanskin specialists; and even the auction houses, notably GraysOnline.com

While Coles and Woolworths continue to dominate liquor retailing, the wine surplus encourages to the growth of alternative channels as the wine clubs and clean skin specialist boost sales of labels totally under their control.

Indeed, this aspect of wine selling (and it includes the big retailers with their direct imports and private domestic wine labels) concerns winemakers deeply. WFA points the finger at supermarkets, declaring “excess supplies have allowed supermarkets to move from customers to competitors by launching their own low-price products, without the need to invest in capital infrastructure or long-term health of the industry. This clutters the market place and eats into margins”.

But if the retailers exploit the surplus (and we all benefit from lower prices while it lasts) they didn’t create it.

Unquestionably, the strong Australian dollar makes many producers internationally uncompetitive through no fault of their own. But the WFA says that producers in many regions bear production costs that are simply too high for the quality of fruit they produce.

While this means bargains galore as producers seek to offload surplus wine, ultimately it isn’t unsustainable, meaning that many enterprises will go bust. Thankfully, the WFA calls on the industry to sort out its own problems. It doesn’t seek government subsidies other than exit packages for small growers and wineries along the lines of those for small block irrigators – in other words, one-off help to get out of the industry, not a subsidy to perpetuate oversupply.

While the low margins forced by massive oversupply affects the profitability of most makers, there’s a multi-faceted, energetic and mature industry that’s not oversupplied and has a pretty clear vision of where it’s headed.

We have only to drive up the Barton or Federal Highways to see this regionally based industry on our doorstep. It’s been hard yakka, sustained over decades, but producers like Brindabella Hills, Jeir Creek, Helm, Shaw Vineyard Estate, Clonakilla, Lark Hill and Lerida Estate have successfully built brands and customer bases – some in overseas markets.

The same story unfolds across Australia from east to west, and from the high country in Queensland in the north to the coolest reaches of Tasmania. Down there a few weeks back, Steve and Monique Lubiana told me they continued to export successfully despite the rising dollar – a benefit of selling a strongly branding, high quality luxury product. Of course, not all makers can be up there.

But if we sniff around, we see not just regional specialties, but minute subdivision of these regions. A good example is the small army of small, mostly young makers criss-crossing the Barossa Valley making tiny quantities of beautiful shiraz, grenache and mourvedre from ancient vines whose fruit no longer goes to the anonymous blending vats of large companies.

Ironically, given the pain they’ve felt, both Foster’s and Constellation continue to make cutting edge wines like Penfolds Yattarna Chardonnay and the magnificent Tasmanian based House of Arras bubblies made by Constellation’s Ed Carr.

As overproduction winds back, it’s possible to see for Australia a new industry based on what various regions do best. That may mean our exit, domestically and internationally, from very low price points and that much of our cheaper quaffing wine could come from better-watered countries – a future where we drink Chilean cask wine but bottles of Cowra chardonnay, Yarra Valley Pinot and Barossa shiraz.

National Show shouldn’t ignore gaps in its ranks

9 December 2009WineChris Shanahan

Canberra’s National Wine Show bills itself as the grand final of the Australian circuit. But to deserve the mantle it needs to re-invent itself. In reality, it’s just another capital city show, more notable for what’s not in the tasting line up than what is.

Its strength is the high standard of judging and the probity of its results, meaning that as drinkers we can rely generally rely on the award winners to put a smile on our faces. This is partly driven by stringent entry conditions, restricting entry in many classes to medal winners from other shows.

But the problem I see as I flick through the catalogue (you can view it at www.rncas.org.au) is the absence of so many leading, generally small, producers from most classes. In certain cases, such as the semillon and tokay and muscat classes this leads to the dominance of just one or two producers.

For example, in this year’s class 18 for 2008 vintage and older semillons, Tyrrell’s and McWilliams fielded 13 of the 22 entries. Good on them for putting forward so many extraordinary Hunter wines. But where were the dozens of other wonderful Hunter semillon producers? And in the tokay and muscat classes, Morris of Rutherglen once again dominated, but in the absence of other distinguished Rutherglen producers.

While single companies don’t dominate classes less regionally specific than semillon or fortifieds, the list of notable absentees expands. For example, in class 1 for 2009 vintage dry rieslings, one of Australia’s great specialties, 11 companies entered 19 wines – barely touching the diversity this variety offers across Australia.

The gold medallists, Knappstein Enterprise Clare Valley Handpicked Riesling and 2009 and its cellar mate from the Lion Nathan group, Knappstein Clare Valley Ackland Vineyard Riesling 2009, are beautiful wines and readily available. But given their victory in such a narrow, unrepresentative field, forgive me for not accepting the hype that they’re champs from a grand final. They’re not. And the pattern repeated itself throughout the show.

At the trophy presentation dinner, Jeremy Stockman, representing the major sponsor, Vintage Cellars (part of the Wesfarmers-owned Coles Liquor Group), called on the show organisers to rethink their approach and find ways to attract more entries from small makers.

As the Australian industry reels from the effects of overproduction and the wreckage of the ‘brand Australia’ juggernaut (we now have a surplus of about 100 million cases and growing), it’s shifting its marketing focus to regional specialisation – trying to sell our extraordinary, diverse winemaking achievements locally and in export markets.

In this environment, it’s perhaps logical for our look-alike capital city shows, run by conservative agricultural societies, to adopt a regional focus, too. This is not a call to bar medium and large companies from exhibiting, but to encourage participation from small producers as well.

It’s a difficult task, partly because many of our very best small makers happily develop their wine styles and markets independently of the show system. Winemakers like Clonakilla’s Tim Kirk and Tapanappa’s Brian Croser, for example, see no need for independent benchmarking or show awards. For various reasons, those that do see benefits in shows are more likely to enter in the growing number of regional shows (limited to wines produced in a single region or zone) or perhaps events like Canberra’s Winewise Small Vignerons Awards.

A solution might be a more structured show system that streams winners from regional shows to state shows to a truly national show. But given the independent, competitive and national focus of our capital city shows, this will be difficult, perhaps impossible, to achieve.

It might be more practicable, therefore, for the National to seize the initiative by opening its doors to award winners from a greater range of regional shows and high-quality independent competitions like Winewise Small Vignerons and the Sydney International 100. However, if Canberra’s National simply ignores the gaps in its entry ranks, it will become increasingly irrelevant. The organisers have an opportunity now to re-invent the show and make it the truly innovative event that it was in the eighties.

Beer review — Premium Clean Skin and Great Divide

9 December 2009Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Premium Clean Skin Beer 330ml $2.99
To borrow Michael Luscombe’s term, frugal is the operative word here – so, in my view, it’s a brew for the desperate, destitute or mean and penny pinching. My sample, purchased at 1st Choice, tasted flat, dull and tired, albeit recognisably beer. It earns a grudging star for being cheap, wet and alcoholic.

Great Divide Brewing Company Belgica IPA 355ml $8.50
What a contrast – from a beer confronting in its ordinariness to one that stuns with tasty idiosyncrasy. It’s an American brew, built on a British colonial style, India Pale Ale, but including Belgian (the malt) and American (hops in overdrive) influences. It’s a luxuriously malty, hoppy, alcoholic brew – but for sipping only.

Naked beer

9 December 2009Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

It may seem unconnected to beer, but Australia’s gigantic wine surplus, currently running at around 100 million cases and growing by 20-40 million cases a year, led, indirectly, to what I believe may be the first cleanskin beer in the market.

1st Choice, the big-box liquor-retailing arm of Wesfarmer-owned Coles Liquor Group, recently introduced a beer clean skin, billed on the slip label as ‘imported’ and ‘no preservative’.

Having tasted it, I’m tempted to say they might also add ‘flavour free’ and ‘not as fresh as it could be’. But $29.99 for a slab of 330ml bottle is very cheap – the equivalent of $33.75 a slab for 375ml bottles (VB 375ml was $39.99 the day I shopped.)

A spokesman for Coles Liquor Group said the runaway success of wine cleanskins prompted them to test the concept on beer. Which must’ve made the rep selling this South Korean import smile like he couldn’t believe his own luck.

Only time will tell whether beer drinkers embrace naked bottles. The concept confronts the safe, tribal boundaries represented by major beer brands. But only recently Woolworths’ boss, Michael Luscombe, declared “Frugalism is a defining feature of the Australian consumer right now.”

Premium Clean Skin Beer 330ml $2.99
To borrow Michael Luscombe’s term, frugal is the operative word here – so it’s a brew for the desperate, destitute or mean and penny pinching. My sample, purchased at 1st Choice, tasted flat, dull and tired, albeit recognisably beer. It earns a grudging star for being cheap, wet and alcoholic.

Wine review — Brindabella Hills, Capital Wines and Kyeema

6 December 2009UncategorizedChris Shanahan

Brindabella Hills Canberra District

Sauvignon Blanc 2009 $18
Riesling 2009 $25
Shiraz 2007 $25

These are beautiful, reasonably priced new releases from Roger and Faye Harris at Brindabella Hills, Hall. The riesling is intensely aromatic, with lime and lemon-like varietal character; an intense, lime-like palate backs up the first impressions, finishing long and bone dry – a classy riesling, with good cellaring potential. The sauvy’s light and tangy, tending to herbal, and ready to drink. The shiraz, always one of Canberra’s best, comes in this vintage from Wayne and Jenny Fischer’s Nanima Vineyard, backed by a little viognier from Brindabella. It’s a dark, aromatic, more savoury than usual wine, with the characteristic firm tannins of the season. It’s atypical of the Brindabella Hills vineyard stye but outstanding in its own savoury way.

Capital Wines Canberra District

The Frontbencher Shiraz 2008 $25
Kyeema Vineyard Reserve Shiraz 2008 $52

Andrew McEwin’s reds have a distinctive, firm structure and generally need a good airing, or a few years’ cellaring to show their class. Both wines will pass muster in 2008. The $25 Frontbencher is reassuringly deep and crimson rimmed with a good depth of sweet, spicy, red-berry varietal flavour and savoury, firm-but-fine tannins – a solid but fine-boned red to enjoy over the next four or five years. The reserve wine, from Andrew’s Kyeema vineyard (one of Canberra’s oldest shiraz plantings) reveals extra power and weight, backed by high-class savoury oak. The extra power and flavour concentration suggest long-term cellaring potential.

Capital Wines Canberra District

The Ambassador Tempranillo 2008 $27

Kyeema Vineyard Reserve Merlot 2008 $46

Judging by this and Frank van der Loo’s Mount Majura wine, Canberra suits Spain’s red tempranillo grape. The Ambassador has an appealing, juicy, spicy depth of fruit flavour and a unique, firm, verging on cabernet-like, tannin structure. Tempranillo could easily become a mainstream variety in Australia because, unlike so many other alternative varieties, it seems comparatively easy to grow, make and drink. Merlot, on the other hand, continues to polarise drinkers into lovers or haters. Merlot-loving ranks might grow if more were like Kyeema, a perennial award winner. This is serious, rich, earthy merlot with a solid, tannin bite but elegant structure.

Last edited by Chris Shanahan on 6 December 2009 at 8:08 am

Excerpt

A Christmas wine wish list

2 December 2009Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Taittinger Prelude Grand Crus Champagne $130
There’s a lovable elegance and creamy richness to the Taittinger Champagnes. And with the non-vintage Prelude blend comes the extra flavour dimension from some of the most highly rated pinot noir and chardonnay vineyards of the Montagne de Reims and Cotes des Blancs sub regions respectively. A gentle, creamy softness makes Prelude the ideal drought breaker at Christmas.

WITH THE OYSTERS

Stefano Lubiana Tasmania Chardonnay 2005 $39
Steve and Monique Lubiana’s cool vineyard site produces chardonnays with a high natural acidity that accentuates varietal flavour and gives the structure and intensity to match ultra-fresh oysters. A little bottle age makes the flavour so much more enticing. Amazingly this is the current release, with the 2006 due for release around March.

WITH THE LOBSTER

Main Ridge Mornington Estate Chardonnay 2007 $52
There’s a unique purity, delicacy and finesse to Rosalie and Nat White’s barrel-fermented-and-matured chardonnay – with the opulence and complexity to complement fresh, cold lobster.

WITH THE CHRISTMAS HAM

Bream Creek Tasmania Pinot Noir 2008 $30
As soon as I tasted this recently in Tasmania, juicy, sweet Christmas ham came to mind. The wine comes from Fred Peacock’s Bream Creek vineyard on a high ridge overlooking Marion Bay, to the east of Hobart. The wine’s keynote is a pristine, mouth-watering, delicious pinot flavour. While this youthful fruitiness suits ham now, I suspect that if cellared the wine’s flavour will progress to a more complex, savoury, gamey state over the next five to 10 years.

WITH THE ROAST TURKEY

Ruchottes Chambertin Clos des Ruchottes (Armand Rousseau) 2005 $350
Well, there’s pinot noir and there’s Burgundy. Perhaps it’s vinocide to quaff this illustrious, potentially long-lived classic so young. But surely we can indulge in absolute luxury once year. 2005 is a great year for Burgundy and Domaine Armand Rousseau is one of the great producers.

WITH CHRISTMAS PUDDING

Champagne Krug Brut 1996 $500
Best to finish on a high note. Good vintages of Krug, like 1985 and 1996, are the Bradmans of bubbly. They possess the finesse and elegance of Champagne but also the power and gravitas of truly great wine. Like the Chambertin of Armand Rousseau, above, Krug vintage is truly awe-inspiring.

Beer review — Moo Brew

2 December 2009Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Moo Brew Hefeweizen and Pilsner 330ml $5.50
The Hefeweizen, made in the Bavarian wheat-ale style, offers fruity, fermentation-derived esters and a light, tasty, delicious palate with refreshing acidity rather than the hops bitterness of barley beer. The Pilsner takes on this role. It’s based on pale crystal malt flavours, balanced by aromatic, bitter, firm Spalt hops.

Moo Brew Pale Ale and Dark Ale 330ml $5.50
These are based on the American pale and dark ale styles. The pale version is stunning – featuring high-toned hops aroma and opulently malty palate, offset by a lingering, bitter, dry hops finish. The dark version delivers caramel and chocolate malt flavours meshed with hops flavour and bitterness.

Tasmania’s class brewing act

2 December 2009BeerChris Shanahan

The late Max Lake wrote that taste begins with sight – and when you see the Moo Brew packaging, designed by John Kelly, you anticipate great beer. The expectation heightens when you visit the magnificent glass and steel Moorilla Estate building, fifteen minutes drive up the Derwent from Hobart.

In the ceiling above, as you ascend stairs to the restaurant and wine and beer tasting area, stretches the imposing, six-metre, John Olsen painting, The Source; while underfoot stands the beautifully preserved mummy case of Heryshefembat, circa 730–528BC.

These art works are precursors to the central attraction of the Moorilla complex – David Walsh’s museum of modern and ancient art, scheduled for opening in 2011.

In the two-story, elliptical glass and steel brewery, tacked on to the restaurant end of the building, Owen Johnston makes the Moo Brew beers.

The packaged versions have been consistently outstanding since their Canberra release in 2006. But if you’re in Hobart, you can savour absolutely fresh draft versions at a number of outlets, including the New Sydney Hotel and, of course, at Moorilla’s cellar door and restaurant.

The beers are complex but beautifully balanced and very, very drinkable.

Wine review — Craigow, Kelvedon and Spring Vale

29 November 2009Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Craigow Tasmania

Riesling 2005 $28
Sauvignon Blanc $25
Gewurztraminer 2005 $23
Dessert Riesling 2008 375ml $19

Today we’re taking a little stroll through Tasmania, beginning with this delightful, maturing, dry riesling discovered at the excellent Smolt restaurant of Salamanca Square, Hobart. We followed up with a visit to Craigow’s cellar door in the Coal River Valley, about half an hour’s drive from Hobart. Other classy wines from the estate, founded in 1989 by Dr Barry Edwards, are the light, fresh and zesty sauvignon blanc 2009, the purely-varietal, sweet Dessert Riesling 2008 with its bracing, fresh acidity and the most delicate gewürztraminer imaginable – its sweetness offset, again, by remarkably fresh acidity. See www.craigow.com.au

Kelvedon Estate East Coast Tasmania

Sauvignon Blanc 2009 $22
Pinot Noir 2008 $28

In 1829 Jack Cotton’s great, great grandfather established a 200-hectare farm, just south of Swansea on Tasmania’s east coast. In 1998 Jack planted one hectare of pinot, within spitting distance of the sea, on the now 2,200-hectare sheep property. In 2006 he established 0.9 hectares of sauvignon blanc near the original vines; and in 2000 and 2001 planted a separate, slightly more elevated site, to 2.5 hectares each of chardonnay and pinot noir, contracted to Constellation Wine Estate’s Bay of Fires operation. And he’ll be adding another two-hectares this year. The wines are first rate: the pinot ripe and generous but finely structured; and the sauvignon, light, herbal zesty and mouth-wateringly fresh. Order through kelvedonestate@bigpond.com

Spring Vale Vineyard Freycinet Coast Tasmania

Melrose Pinot Noir Pinot Meunier 2009 $22
Pinot Noir 2007 $40,
Sauvignon Blanc 2009 $24
Pinot Gris 2009 $28

William Lyne took up a land grant at Cranbrook, north Swansea, in 1826. Since 1986 Rodney and Lyn Lyne have planted 6.6 hectares of grapes on the property and 2007 purchased a neighbouring property ‘Melrose’ and its vines. The Lyne’s daughter Kirsten and her husband, David Cush, make the wines on site. The ‘ Melrose’ expresses a deliciously fresh, fleshy drink-now version of the two pinots; but the 2007 pinot is a far more serious wine – penetratingly varietal in aroma and flavour with a fine, taut acid and tannin structure. The richly textured, finely structured sauvignon offers ripe, tropical flavours. And the very dry pinot gris offers pear-like varietal flavour and savouriness www.springvalewines.com

Tasmania rolls Burgundy and Champagne into one

25 November 2009Travel, Vineyard, WineChris Shanahan

In the nineties as Australian wine regions agonised over their boundaries, Tasmania got smart. Its winemakers saw that as small, comparatively homogenous producers, their interests would be best served by promoting the island as a whole. In opting for ‘Tasmania’ as their only entry in the register of protected names they neatly avoided the distraction of formally defining the state’s widely spread wine producing areas.

In the ensuing decade, as other states with vastly more varied wine styles defined zones, regions within zones and even sub-regions within regions, Tasmania stuck to its guns and still has ‘Tasmania’ as its only official appellation. But this hasn’t hindered the emergence of regional identities within the state.

Indeed, as soon as you set foot in a Tassie winery you’ll be given a copy of the excellent Tasmania’s wine routes 2009–10 and see on the map four regions: North-West, Tamar Valley, East Coast and Southern. And if you happen to be Hobart based, you’ll see the Southern region further sub-divided into the Derwent Valley, Coal River Valley and Huon Valley/d’Entrecasteaux.

But the location of Bream Creek Vineyard in the East Coast region, for example, demonstrates the difficulty of formally defining boundaries. It’s just a spit from Coal River Valley or Hobart but more than two hours’ drive from the northern end of the East Coast.

With vineyards located between 41 and 43 degrees south, and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, Tasmania enjoys a moderate climate with an extended, cool ripening period. This suits the production of delicate wine styles, dominated by pinot noir and chardonnay, used in both sparkling and table wine making The two varieties accounted for 71 per cent of production in 2008.

While the split between sparkling and table wine production is anybody’s guess, it could be as high as fifty-fifty given increased Tasmanian sourcing from mainland sparkling-wine producers and a growing number of home-grown brands.

Talking to grape growers across Tasmania it becomes clear that Constellation Wines (formerly BRL Hardy) is a major buyer of grapes for both still and sparkling wine. And Foster’s, Australia’s largest winemaker, is on the scout, too, snapping up top quality fruit for its Heemskerk brand and multi-regional icon blends, including Penfolds Yattarna Chardonnay.

In the latter, Foster’s has simply discovered, as Hardy’s did a decade earlier, that some of our greatest chardonnay grapes come from Tasmania. For example, Eileen Hardy Chardonnay, Constellation’s flagship white wine, has been predominantly Tasmanian for around ten years.

While the big producers, especially Constellation, exert a profound and positive impact on the Tasmanian wine scene, the view from the ground is of tens of small and medium sized independent makers sprinkled around the island.

The Australian Wine Industry Database lists 84 Tasmanian vignerons. But I suspect the number might have grown since it was compiled a year ago.

Tasmanian makers, focused at the top end of the bottled wine market, account for half a per cent of Australia’s wine grape output, contributing just 9,628 tonnes of the 1,827,647 tonnes crushed in 2008.

Pinot noir, at 4,355 tonnes, is the state’s most widely grown variety, accounting for 45 per cent of the crush in 2008 – highlighting the vast difference between this cool little Island and the mainland, where pinot accounts for only about two per cent of the harvest.

In 2008 Tasmanians harvested 2,501 tonnes of chardonnay, its second most important variety; 992 tonnes of sauvignon blanc; 732 tonnes of riesling; 452 tonnes of pinot gris and tiny quantities of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, gewürztraminer, shiraz and other niche varieties.

In effect, given the dominance of pinot noir and chardonnay, Tasmania is the equivalent of France’s Champagne and Burgundy regions rolled into one, albeit on a far smaller scale.

Tasmania’s first modern vineyards appeared near Launceston in 1956 (Jean Miguet’s La Provence, now Providence and owned by Stuart Bryce) and on the Derwent in 1958 (Claudio Alcorso’s Moorilla Estate, now owned by David Walsh and partners).

But growth was slow. Thirty years after Miguet planted his first vines, Tasmania had only 47 hectares of bearing vines, producing 154 tonnes of grapes – equivalent to about 11 thousand dozen bottles.

By 1999 the area under vine had grown almost tenfold to 463 hectares, producing 3,199 tonnes (224 thousand dozen bottles). And by 2008 vines covered 1,315 hectares, yielding 9,628 tonnes (674 thousand dozen bottles).

As we’ve seen, this accounts for only half a per cent of Australia’s wine production. But it’s all pitched at the top end of the market. While some of it may disappear anonymously into mainstream sparkling wine blends, the majority come to market under Tasmanian labels.

It’s far more than the Tasmanians themselves can drink, so producers look to the mainland, tourists and exports for sales in an increasingly competitive market.

Fortunately for them, they have something unique and delightful to offer, as we’ll see over the next few weeks.