Canberra’s wineries celebrate 21 years

4 April 1992WineChris Shanahan

Canberra’s local wineries this week showed a mature self-confidence in bringing Australia’s leading wine writers to the district. With generous help from Australian Airlines and the Canberra Tourism Commission, our local vignerons acted as one, flying the influential guests in and then busing them around on Monday and Tuesday.

That’s not the thing to do if you’re at all apologetic about the area’s wines. Certainly, the winemakers could not have mounted a public relations venture on this scale just a few years back without expecting brickbats and bouquets in equal measure.

Well, the scribes jetted home on Tuesday night leaving their hosts to ponder what the verdict will be. But speaking to the writers at The Vineyard Restaurant on Tuesday, and tasting a wide range of local wines, it’s hard to imagine the locals earning anything but praise.

I find it amazing when wineries as small as Kyeema and Clonakilla consistently turn out high quality wine. I was particularly impressed by a 1990 Shiraz from Kyeema. Andrew McEwin has made not just a sound red, but one with a lovely, fleshy depth of fruit flavour and good firm structure. Kyeema offers no cellar door service yet, but Andrew can be contacted after hours on 254 7557.

And what a delight it was to taste a terrific Rhine Riesling 1991 from David Madew’s Queanbeyan vineyard. The last batch of Madew wines tasted a few years back were badly flawed. Now, with the professional services of winemaking consultants, Oenotec, quality has been transformed. A couple of Madews reds also scrubbed up quite well on the night.

Christine and Allan Pankhurst are on a winner with Pankhurst Chardonnay 1990 (available mail order from the winery). It’s a full-flavoured dry white with fruit nicely backed up by oak flavours. Dr Roger Harris (of Brindabella Hills Winery) made the wine. But grapes were sourced solely from the Pankhurst vineyard. With the vines only three years old, we can expect future vintages to show even greater depth and concentration of flavour.

While on the subject of local chardonnays, Dr Edgar Riek from Lake George winery dropped in recently bearing a huge smile and an unlabelled white. The smile grew as the bottle emptied. Edgar’s mystery wine, a 1991 chardonnay, is the first made for him in the Hunter Valley by Murray Tyrell using Lake George grapes. It’s the most polished local chardonnay I’ve tasted to date. Again, it speaks volumes for the potential of chardonnay in the area.

At Lake George winery with a visiting Italian winemaker last August, Edgar produced for us a particularly good Cabernet Merlot 1988. He made this lovely, supple drop himself. It was the sort of wine you could drink by the bucketful. Which is about how much of it he made.

A similar blend topped my scoring at the Vineyard Restaurant last Monday. Lark Hill’s Cabernet Merlot 1988 is surely one of the best reds yet made in the area. Proprietors of Lark Hill, Sue and David Carpenter, tell me the last of it’s just been sold to the Australian Embassy in the Netherlands.

Another Lark Hill wine looking good at the restaurant was the 1986 Auslese Rhine Riesling. Where so many Aussie sweeties are just that, this little gem showed rich fruit flavour and fresh, lively acid…a few years bottle age had done it nothing but good.

Murrumbateman Winery…now something of a landmark on the left side of the Barton Highway on the way to Yass…never really made its mark as a winemaker under its old ownership. New management’s changing that. A 1991 Rhine Riesling served last Monday was clean, fresh, and easy to drink…better than anything else I can recall in the winery’s long (in Canberra terms) history.

The visiting scribes enjoyed nineteen local wines at the dinner, every one a medal winner. It was, literally, a showcase of Canberra’s show winners. A few old favourites like Helm’s Rhine Riesling 1990, Clonakilla Shiraz 1990, and Brindabella Hills Estate Cabernet 1990 opened particularly well on the night.

Many other wineries participated in the event and I hope that neither they nor readers take it as a criticism that their wines are not mentioned here. Other commitments kept me off the bus. My comments are therefore limited to what I tasted on Monday at Murrumbateman.

After twenty-one years, Canberra’s wine industry seems to have reached a new level of maturity. There are now over ninety hectares of vines planted and more going in. Qualified winemakers, working with modern equipment, consistently make wines good enough to win medals in open competition. As Ken Helm says, our winemakers now ring show organisers and ask not if they’ve won any medals but how many.

Coonawarra not as flat as it looks

29 March 1992Vineyard, WineChris Shanahan

If you lived and died in Coonawarra, you could well believe the world was flat…an endless plain dotted with vines, gum trees, cows, windmills, wires, wineries, cars, and the odd jogger.

But, to a grape grower, the almost imperceptible undulations in the flat landscape – and where your vineyards lie on them – may mean the difference between making medium-grade champagne base or one of the best, most powerfully concentrated reds in the world. For in Coonawarra, some of the greatest vineyards lie alongside some of the least.

Growers worked out…are still working out…many of the complexities by results. Success with grape vines this century often came on sites where fruit trees prospered last century. But there are also previously untried plots turning out marvelous wines.

That odd jogger, painfully recalling last night’s 1954 and 55 Wynns Coonawarra Estate Clarets – not to mention the Cognacs – finds it hard to spot the differences in the lie of the land. Heading north for several kilometres on the main road out of Coonawarra, vineyards either side spring from a red soil (‘terra rossa’) liberally sprinkled with varying size chunks of white limestone, presumably dragged to the surface during cultivation.

Had the jogger continued a few more kilometres and not turned back to his motel room, he may have noticed that the cloud enveloping southern Coonawarra and the town of Penola was not to be seen in the north.

Vic Patrick, vineyard manager for Mildara and previously with Wynns – two of the biggest vineyard owners in the area – believes this cloud cover makes a big difference between Coonawarra’s northern and southern vineyards. In an interview during winter, 1990, he expressed the view that while cabernet seemed to do well north or south, shiraz did not. He believed that cloud cover in southern Coonawarra in the vicinity of Penola prevented shiraz from ripening properly.

Presumably the cabernet, an earlier ripening variety, reaches maturity before cloud cover becomes a problem.

Peter Douglas, Chief Winemaker at Wynns Coonawarra Estate, spends a great deal of time in the vineyard at this time of year walking up and down rows, tasting grapes. He believes in chemically analysing grapes to help determine the best picking times but his own palate is the final judge. And he, too, notes the big north-south differences identified by Patrick.

A few hours driving, walking, and tasting in Coonawarra’s vineyards with Douglas demonstrated what huge flavour differences exist from block to block. While we stuck only to shiraz and cabernet, I’m sure similar variety exists amongst any grape type grown in the area.

Douglas took us to the vineyards after a lunchtime question as to the source of grapes for Wynns top-of-the-line John Riddoch Cabernet – an amazingly powerful and concentrated red described in last week’s column. Douglas had been asked if John Riddoch was simply the cream of the cabernet grapes from Wynns quite vast Coonawarra holdings or whether it was derived from a particularly favoured spot.

His answer was yes to both questions. Yes, John Riddoch comes from the cream of the crop but, in fact, most of that comes from the same few plots each year. The chief one, he said, contained the oldest Cabernet vines in Coonawarra, having been planted by David Wynn after founding Wynns in 1951

That vineyard came as a surprise after passing others rampant with leaves and tendrils and drooping with huge, purple grape bunches. Vines on the original Wynn block appeared stunted and less vigorous. Grape bunches were sparser, the bunches smaller, and even the berries themselves quite tiny. But the flavours, although the grapes were yet several weeks from harvest, were of rich cassis.

Douglas explained there were many factors accounting for the unusual flavour intensity of these grapes. The soil was shallow and well drained and the vines so lacking in vigour that yields limit themselves to around half a tonne an acre…an accountants night mare unless the resulting wine can fetch $30 a bottle.

The site is in northern, sunny Coonawarra. And as Douglas points out it straddles the main limestone ridge which gives its name to the adjoining Lindeman Vineyard which makes another of the area’s top-notch reds.

Just seven kilometres south of the Wynns Coonawarra Estate vineyard we tasted cabernet from lusher looking vines. Douglas estimated these grapes at perhaps two degrees Baume less ripe than the ones we first tasted…and sure enough a green herbaceousness came through in the flavour. But to the eye we were in the same place…hard to believe seven kilometres could make so much difference.

Short as the distance was, Douglas said harvest would be two weeks later there than seven kilometres up the road.

O’Leary puts Hardy’s red back on track

8 March 1992People, WineChris Shanahan

South Australia’s 1990 reds are spectacularly good. That was the one sure thing learned visiting a handful of wineries and tasting dozens of reds over there a few weeks back.

At Hardy’s Tintara winery in McLaren Vale, winemaker David O’Leary opened a dazzling array of 1990 reds from the humble $6 a bottle Hardy McLaren Vale Hermitage to the top-of-the-range Reynella Stonyhill Cabernet Sauvignon, Hardys Collection Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, and Hardy Eileen Hardy Shiraz.

The 1990 McLaren Vale Hermitage is one of the greatest friends the wine drinker will ever find when it is released in a few weeks time. It perfectly demonstrates many of the points made in last week’s column about good vineyards and winemakers’ skills maturing at about the same time.

With a keen appreciation of McLaren Vale’s ability to produce robust reds from the shiraz (or hermitage) grape, O’Leary, with encouragement of the marketing department, set about making the real thing in volume and on a low budget.

With so many new vineyards coming on tap, he had no trouble sourcing grapes from the McLaren Vale area. In fact, about ninety five per cent of the local shiraz goes into this one brand. The balance, the cream of the crop, goes into Eileen Hardy and Reynella.

Gone are the days of picking grapes early to make lighter reds. O’Leary uses only fully ripened shiraz even in the mass-produced budget wine. And while the grapes for this are crushed in a continuous press, not the old basket presses mentioned last week, about half of the total undergoes fermentation in open concrete vats.

These open fermenters allow the fermenting wine plenty of contact with air: two funnels per tank plunge through the wine three to four times a day forcing warmer wine from under the cap of skins to the surface. As well, the wine is drained off sending the header boards and skins (the cap) to the bottom of the vat, breaking it and allowing hot spots to cool as the wine is pumped back over, refloating the cap.

During this process, the wine absorbs oxygen, producing mellow flavours and introducing a firmer texture and structure.

Meanwhile, the other half of Hardys McLaren Vale Hermitage undergoes anaerobic fermentation in modern stainless steel Vin0matic fermenters. Fermentations is at a lower temperature than in the open vats. As a result this portions captures more of the pure fruit aromas and flavours.

After fermentation, both components are blended together and placed in five to six year old oak barrels for a twelve-month maturation period. The wine’s sleep is disturbed several times as it is drained out and put back into the barrels (racked). This aerates the wine and allows winemakers to remove sediment.

By the time it is bottled, the wine retains some of the aromatic characters of the anaerobically handled portion with its lively fresh fruit characters on the palate. But the aerobic part finishes the wine giving it the firm mouth feel…or structure…that all red wine drinkers look for.

In the better reds, where more time (and therefore money) may be spent in production, O’Leary leans ever further to aerobic handling. In his view the wines are simply better to drink.

Thus, the Reynella Stonyhill and Eileen Hardy reds, for example, are crushed in the old basket presses, fermented entirely in open vats, finish off their ferments in small oak barrels, and are regularly racked during maturation.

The quality of these wines from the 1990 and 1991 vintages is nothing short of sensational. There is no doubt in my mind that the Reynella Cabernets are at least the equal of the fabled, long-lived reds produced from the same vineyards under the Chateau Reynella label in the 1960’s. Chances are the new wines are even better, but only a decade in the cellar will tell for sure.

While the 1990 Reynella would have to rank as one of the best and most complete Australian cabernets I’ve ever tasted, the 1990 Eileen Hardy Shiraz is also bound to make its mark.

Here we see that Padthaway, renowned for its whites but tending to make lighter reds, has at least one great patch of shiraz. O’Leary spent three years down at Padthaway where the Hardy winemaking team identified a low yielding block that consistently produced outstanding berries.

Blended with a small amount of Clare shiraz, grapes from the selected Padthaway block have produced one of the best Eileen Hardys yet in the great 1990 vintage.

Deadline nears for French name wrangle

1 July 1990People, WineChris Shanahan

Historic material: From the Canberra Times Sunday 1 July 1990

IT’S TIME to stop stealing French names for our wine labels.

If the Australian wine industry is to exploit the huge European Community market after internal boundaries fall in1992, it must now phase out the use of European place names on the labels of wine sold in Australia and in those export markets which still allow their use.

We no longer need to use French names. To continue to fight in our courts for the right to appropriate them is futile. Even if we win the legal fights locally, we will be losers in the bigger battle. The French will certainly see to it that non-tariff barriers are erected around the world’s largest pool of wine drinkers if we dig in our heels.

A country that sinks ships in friendly ports won’t have any qualms at all about doing its best to keep Australian wine out of the EC.

Speaking at the inaugural Maurice O’Shea Award dinner in Sydney on June 22, the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy, John Kerin, made it clear to gathered leaders of the industry and press that progress in negotiations with the EC is conditional on this issue.

“Our negotiations with the European Commission also present some new challenges,” he said. “If you are willing to place restrictions on the use of generic names of European geographical origin, the EC has indicated it is prepared to accommodate some Australian wine making practices. It will also agree to simplified certification of wine exports to the EC.

“Following further consultations with industry over the next few months, I expect formal negotiations to be held in 1991 with the EC on a wine agreement with Australia,” Mr Kerin said.

Despite the closeness of this deadline, Australian wine companies are now doing battle with the French over the use of two French geographical names: Champagne (now in court in New Zealand) and Beaujolais (yet to be heard here in Australia).

These, and especially Penfolds current battle with the French Government over use of “Champagne” in New Zealand, were the subject of a bitter attack by Wolf Blass in Canberra on June 23.

He was in town to launch his 1985 Black Label Cabernet Shiraz (a superb drop). It was a clumsy, buffoon effort as trade functions go (surprising for a man whose wines are marketed with such aplomb), salvaged only by Wolfs brilliant and inspiring speech.

It was a speech of vision and hope for the Australian wine industry, replete with bouquets and brickbats hurled atlightning speed towards a dazzled audience.

Wolf sees an industry producing wines that excel on an international level. But faced with a sated domestic market, it’s an industry whose future lies in exporting.

Being culturally European, our wine companies should now be setting up European head offices in England (because of the common language) to take advantage of the greatest economic explosion in human history about to unleash itself on the Continent.

If Ian Mackley, managing director of Penfolds Wines, had been sitting in the audience at this stage of Wolf’s speech, he’d have copped a flying brickbat between the eyes.

Wolf is outraged that his ambitious plans for Europe may be jeopardised by Penfolds’ insistence on fighting the French in Australian and New Zealand courts over the use of French regional names on Australian wines.

Wine writer and expert witness for the French in their “Champagne” wrangle against Penfolds, James Halliday, believes Penfolds’ persistence is amazingly short-sighted, and bitterly opposes it on two grounds: firstly, he believes that Australian wines simply no longer need to “borrow or steal” French names, and secondly, he says “the French have made it clear they will not cooperate on Australian/EC wine matters without an undertaking to phase out the use of French geographical names”.

With Ian Mackley in New Zealand, I’ve been unable to gauge Penfolds’ response to this strong industry criticism.

As a major exporter of wine to Europe, you can bet that Penfolds have not taken on the French without giving thought to the EC ramifications of their actions. Perhaps they hope that by winning the right to use the word “Champagne” in New Zealand they can later negotiate a phasing out of French names on their own terms.

But meanwhile the clock moves quickly towards 1992. With Mr Kerin seeking an EC wine agreement with Australia next year, and relying on a phasing out of European names to achieve a satisfactory outcome, it’s not surprising people are becoming edgy with the belligerent stance being taken by Penfolds, Australia’s largest winemaker.

Mr Mackley was there to hear the Minister’s speech last Friday. Was he listening?