It has been one of the most remarkable wine weeks of my life. After all that had gone before, it was only appropriate that we should finish with two of the most remarkable wines I have ever tasted. James Godfrey from Seppeltsfield presented the final session on Fortifieds, and this started off well and just got better. The list of wines reads:
Morris Show Amontillado, Rutherglen
Seppeltsfield Museum Oloroso DP104, Rutherglen
Seppeltsfield 2005 Vintage, Barossa Valley
Seppeltsfield DP90 Rare Tawny, Barossa Valley
Grant Burge 30 year old Tawny, Barossa Valley
Penfolds Great Grandfather Series 1, Barossa Valley
Campbells Isabella Rare Topaque Muscadelle, Rutherglen
Seppeltsfield Paramount Rare Topaque Muscadelle, Rutherglen
Morris Old Premium Liqueur Topaque Muscadelle, Rutherglen
McWilliam’s Show Reserve Muscat, Hunter
Morris Old Premium Liqueur Muscat, Rutherglen
Campbells Merchant Prince Rare Muscat, Rutherglen
Chambers Rare Muscadelle, Rutherglen
1928 Morris Liqueuer Muscat, Rutherglen
Seppeltsfield 1909 100 year old Para, Barossa ValleyThe final three on this list were served blind as a separate flight. The Chambers was utterly remarkable. Then came the 1928 Morris Muscat. It was viscous - almost solid, and clearly very old. But when I tasted it I was profoundly moved. I felt quite emotional: this was one of the most incredibly complex and profound wines I’ve ever been lucky enough to taste. No spitting. Just awe. The room was hushed as clearly many others were similarly moved. As if that was not enough, the Seppeltsfield 1909 Para was also mindblowing: darker, more intense and with a huge weight of sweet and savoury complexity. I’ve never had two wines quite as amazing as these before, and next to each other, too! A great way to conclude a memorable week.
The Buzz
A recap of day 5 - the conclusion of the 2010 tutorial
Taken from corkd.com, Jon Troutman, one of the 2010 Landmark Australia Tutorial participants writes about the finale of the 2010 tutorial:
With the conclusion of the week’s Master Class tastings, a lunch among a few dozen winemakers, industry figures and #LAT10 participants was the perfect icing on the cake for a week I will surely never forget. The week did much more than reshape the way I think about Australian wine, or simply shed light on regions I previously had little experience with. It served as a reminder for why wine, Australian and beyond, is so special. It brought together great people and great minds, to share great food and drink
To read the full article, please click here.
Landmark Australia Tutorial 2010: a recap of day 3
Taken from corkd.com, Jon Troutman, one of the 2010 Landmark Australia Tutorial participants writes about the standouts for the Historic masterclass:
In a day that started with breaktaking tastings of Australian Semillon and Australian Cabernet Sauvignon (blind), it was the third and final Master Class tasting truly stole the show. Day 3 of the Landmark Australia Tutorial featured a Master Class session of Australia’s most historically significant wines. The 1955 Penfolds Grange Hermitage kicked off the tasting line up of 20 wines spanning 55 vintages of Australia’s modern day wine industry. Led by esteemed Australian wine authorities James Halliday, Andrew Caillard MW and Dr. Tony Jordan, the session served as a timeline of country’s greatest viticultural achievements.
While the entire line up of wines proved nothing short of mind-blowing, there were a couple of bottles that really sang to me for a variety of different reasons. The 1986 Brokenwood Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz from Hunter Valley again challenged the notion that even top notch Australian wines don’t age as gracefully as their French counterparts. I wouldn’t hesitate to put this wine up against the top 20+ year old bottlings of Chave or Jaboulet Hermitage. Stewed black cherries, black pepper, leather and top soil aromas give way to a rich palate of black fruits, solid tannin structure and acidity that keeps the wine fresh. At nearly a quarter decade old, this wine still has at least another 25 years ahead of it.The 1996 Three Valleys Shiraz from Barossa Valley is a wine that represents the glory days of Barossa Shiraz during the late 90’s and early 2000’s. This is right up Parker’s alley, with creamy black fruits, big doses of oak, candy-like richness and ripe tannins that carry on for a minute plus. You don’t have to like this wine (I didn’t really), but it represents a certain style of Australian wine that is undeniably appreciable.If you’re thinking that my prior note is representative of all high end Barossa Shiraz, you’ve clearly never tasted the 1998 Rockford Basket Press Shiraz. Pure black fruits, iron and sage leaf jump out of the glass, with a medium-full bodied palate of cassis, sour plums, spice and black pepper covered figs on the finish. Balance is the name of this wines game, and it just was crowned MVP. Eye opening juice for sure, this wine made me rethink the way I view Barossa Valley as a whole.
Off piste varieties
The Wine Detective’s (aka Sarah Ahmed) Ozzie Odyssey at Cutler & Co: off piste varieties
Matt Skinner, Cutler & Co
I survived the onset of jetlag for long enough to enjoy dinner at Cutler & Co, the hot and happening Melbourne restaurant de jour, whose wine list is overseen by Matt Skinner, for Brits (everyone actually!), Jamie Oliver’s wine man at Fifteen.
As you can see, Skinner (pictured) had to sing for his supper – he’d been charged with choosing our dinner wines. His aim? To showcase some deadly serious but fun winemaking talents as a cheeky overture before this week’s classic kit. Here’s a quick word on my favourites.
De Bortoli Reserve Release Riesling 2010 (Yarra Valley) – as Steve Webber cheerfully admits, Riesling shouldn’t work in the Yarra, but it does. Sarah Fagin did vintage at Leitz in the Rheingau and for Webber, the secret to this off-dry Riesling is getting enough dappled light in the canopy to keep the focus on the fruit and avoid phenolics and second, getting the numbers (sugar/acid) out of your head – just focusing on the balance in the glass, which was exemplary (7g/l residual sugar). Quite Pfalz like with the talc of a warm climate rizza on the nose together with greengage and stone fruits, especially on the palate, which is round and a little earthy. Very good, good balance.
Arrivo Nebbiolo Rose 2009, (Adelaide Hills) – it’s about the clasp of (ripe) tannin, a lovely firmly textured, dry rose with rose petal and dark chocolate hints to its pretty cherry fruit. Tensile, with good freshness – just loved that texture. From an elevated vineyard at 450m, fermented on the skins, 4 months on the lees.
William Downie Pinot Noir No S02 2010, (Gippsland) – 100% stems provide antioxidant ballasting tannins for this unsulphured Pinot Noir. Though quite stemmy on the nose at first, it soon blows off, revealing a super pretty floral bright nose and palate, bright and savoury actually with a tang of cool clay to its delicate red cherry fruit. Downie uses old oak, native yeasts and niether fines nor filters. In a word, dewy.
Freeman Rondinella Corvina Secco 2005, (Hilltops NSW) - my favourite wine of the night, a beautifully textured, digestible red made from Valpolicella vareties which have been dried in solar powered prune kiln (of course!). Very Italian in its slightly sour dark plum/cherry/berry fruit, liquorice spice, tealeaf and a fresh espresso edge. A well balanced finish is long and lingering, textured with a fine spine of tannin.
By the way, the food was great too - dense, chewy, but not too chewy rye bread, King George whiting, prawn vinaigrette, broccolini and guanciale for starter, followed by pillowy sweet potatoe gnocci with almond crumble. I nosedived by cheese course…matchsticks at the ready now for the first tutorial!”
AUSTRALIA: Whats the story?
Australia’s new promotional campaign focuses on the backgrounds to the country’s brands. It’s a smart and apt approach, reckons Penny Boothman.
When it comes to marketing premium wine, we’re used to hearing about terroir, the age of the vines, the history of the winery and the winemaking know-how – not so much about the winemakers themselves. But a couple of new initiatives from Australian producers are changing all that.
Australia made its name on the international wine scene as a fun place full of wine-loving eccentrics who didn’t take themselves, or their wines, too seriously. Different, irreverent, taking wine to the masses. As brilliantly as this worked for the popular premium sector, it didn’t fit comfortably with the push to high-end premium that inevitably followed.
Unfortunately, once Australia started trying to sell sensible, premium wines, it quickly began to look a bit boring. The challenge now is to get Australia’s image back, without losing the premium positioning.
A “regionality” initiative was a logical next step – an attempt to remove Australia’s image as a source of homogeneous, high-volume, multi-regional blends and drive home the genuinely unique characters of the country’s many, and varied, wine regions. The snag is that some of Australia’s best wines are multi-regional blends – Penfolds Grange, for example – which blurs the focus a bit.
One thing Grange does have, in common with all other great wines of Australia, is a personality behind it. There can be few better-known figures in the wine world than Peter Gago. From Chester Osborne to Charlie Melton, Peter Lehmann to Bruce Tyrrell, pretty much any winery you think of has an entertaining and articulate winemaker somewhere behind the scenes. These are just a few of the names that are already well known in the UK market; you’ll be meeting many more if the latest Australian campaign delivers half of what it is promising.
There’s been a shift in thinking when it comes to marketing premium Australian wine. The marketing brains have realised that quality should be a given and is no longer enough to sell wine – not for Australia, and not for anyone – so they now have to redefine what makes their wines worth buying. And this is where “A+” comes in.
The “A+ Australian wine – every one has a story” campaign was launched in June this year. The promotion uses short, catchy tales of good times, high achievement, and humour about Australian winemakers to remind consumers of Australia’s fun side, and tempt them back to the wines. Participation in the web-based initiative was free for wineries, just as long as they had an engaging enough story to tell.
People power
Lucy Anderson, marketing and communications manager at Wine Australia, explains: “Over the last five years I’ve had the opportunity to meet wine professionals and consumers from around the world, and what they love most about Australian wine is the people and their stories. In marketing terms this is our ‘key attribute’ and something that can be communicated in a number of ways, but A+ has been developed to take this message to consumers in an aspirational and engaging manner.
“Fine wines are made and enjoyed by people around the world. Where Australian fine wine is different is that you can meet the winemaker, they are happy to share their story and will always enjoy a glass with you.”
By making the campaign about the people themselves, A+ avoids the problem that most winery stories are crushingly boring – old vines, unique dirt, non-interventionist, yawn. Generation X and Y consumers are much more likely to check out a bite-sized feed about a winemaker who surfs 20-foot waves and wrestles crocs in his spare time, it’s just so much more… Australian.
“The heartbeat comes from the people – winemakers, grape growers and historical mentors – of the industry,” says P-J Charteris, winemaker at Hunter Valley winery Brokenwood.
“If someone researches a site, plants a vineyard, suffers the pain of seasonal variation for 10 years establishing the vines, watches them mature for 10 years then spends another 20 years defining the wine style, they are doing it for good reason. And it just so happens that Australians like to talk about what they have been up to.
“In the last 20 years Australian wine has grown so fast that many people involved have forgotten about that pulse and some don’t even know it existed. Fortunately, some good people have got the defibrillator out.”
The taglines “Every one tells a story” and “Join the conversation about Australian wine” certainly encourage a bit of consumer interaction. The australiaplus.com website is very good: lively imagery, fun to read, not too much info – and of course they’re backing it all up with plenty of Tweeting. “Phase two” of the project hopes to create an online community, encouraging consumers to interact and share experiences.
The power and premium credibility of this campaign is in the calibre of names it has behind it. Tom Carson, of Yering Station fame and now winemaker and general manager of his new Yabby Lake project, was one of the winemakers touring for the initial launch of this global campaign, in China.
“I think it is a bold, but well overdue initiative, that we present and discuss the great wines of Australia as our front line,” says Carson.
“On the basis that A+ is a selection of the best wines from Australia, then to personalise the wines and provide the depth to how, why and by whom they have been made completes the story. It’s about providing authenticity and integrity so that if you scratch the surface of what’s being presented then there is real heart and soul to the wines.”
That other exercise in premiumisation, the Landmark Tutorial, is on again this year. The tutorial sees 14 lucky participants flown in from around the world to taste and be schooled in the very best Australia has to offer, and – you guessed it – meet many of the winemakers. Then they are sent home again to spread the good word, which last year they certainly did.
Another interesting move to bring Australia’s premium wines into the spotlight is the Australian First Families of Wine initiative (AFFW), which was launched by a group of longstanding, family-owned wineries a year ago and premiered in the UK this May. This is an example of a collection of well-respected, mostly medium-sized producers differentiating themselves from the masses by lining up their multi-generational involvement in the wine industry and quality-producing credentials.
Extract from The Drinks Business, September 2010, for the full article please click here.
Harpers Wine & Spirit - Australia, October 2009
Andrew Catchpole, Harpers Wine & Spirit supplement editor, travelled to Australia earlier this year and reports on the discoveries he made:
Songlines - Australia is at a turning point as it seeks to move on from its easy-going image of yesterday and celebrate its maturing legacy of fine and regionally distinct wines.
Australia is at a turning point as it seeks to move on from its easy-going image of yesterday and celebrate its maturing legacy of fine and regionally disctinct wines.
Like so many songlines coming together, this supplement aims to present a fresh insight into Australia, while conveying the excitement, passion and quality being delivered in the wines.
After a break of almost four years from touring Australia’s vineyards it was refreshing to return Down Under recently to catch up with the good and the great in Victoria. Refreshing not just because winter in Victoria’s high country is as chilly as any London winter’s day, but also because there is a palpable sense of a reinvigorated and renewed direction in the Australian wine industry. And, in many ways, the wines of Victoria perfectly encapsulate the messages that are coming out of Australia today.
The cool of winter is a great time to taste,with wines poised and palate fresh. At cellar door after cellar door, I was met by elegant, fresh Chardonnays, perfumed, sensual Pinot Noirs, spicier, intense, yet finely structured, Shirazes, and finally, warmed by the raisiny rich fortified wines of Rutherglen. Across regions and within, the wines spoke eloquently of climate, people and a sense of place, of terroir.
All this helped impress that Australia has been fine-tuning the way in which it presents itself to the world. Within this renewed focus, much emphasis is being placed on the highest quality wines, on Australia’s still evolving, but already Australia is at a turning point as it seeks to move on from its easy-going image of yesterday and celebrate its maturing legacy of fine and regionally distinct wines well defined, sense of regionality, with this year’s Landmark Australia Tutorial and Regional Heroes campaign as highlights of this move. It is precisely these themes that are examined in this supplement. Taking Victoria as a microcosm for Australia as a whole, we look at the quality of the fine wine offering, exploring both this and the maturity of Australia’s regionality through blind tasting, round-table debate and interviews with leading winemakers from Victoria and across the diverse states.
Elsewhere, we canvass opinion-formers in both the UK on and off-trades and invite feedback from those involved in the Regional Heroes promotion, also assessing how our retail and restaurant environments compare with the innovative wine scene in Victoria. This is topped off by interviews with wine critic James Halliday and Wine Australia’s Lisa McGovern for good measure.
Remarkable in all aspects…
The feature story in this week’s Cuisine & Wine Asia is an interview with Lim Hwee Peng CSW about his involvment in the Landmark Australia Tutorial:
Telling Australia’s Fine Wine Story
There just isn’t another better name for this wine conglomeration. Remarkable in all aspects, the recently concluded Landmark Australia Tutorial is truly a landmark event. Consider this – the event’s executive committee is made up of the who’s who in the wine world (the likes of Andrew Caillard MW, Michael Hill Smith AM MW and Gordon Gebbie, among others), then there’s the whole list of master tutors (Max Allen, Tom Carson, James Halliday and a host of others) and not forgetting also the panel of twelve international guests from the UK, US and Singapore, just to name a few. To further prove the vastness of this event, from the picture above, it’s beyond doubt a sight to behold – 248 wines were tasted in a span of five days!
Held in Barossa Valley, this wine event is the most significant investment to date in telling Australia’s fine wine story to the world via these twelve international guests. Singapore was represented by Lim Hwee Peng CSW. He is the partner of WineCraft Marketing & Services, a registered wine marketing company. He is also an award-winning wine journalist and a regular contributor at Cuisine & Wine Asia. About the event, Lim had this to share, “I personally find this tutorial a rare and prestigious one and it could well be one of the wine programmes in the wine world that a serious wine professional should participate as part of their wine learning journey.” It truly is a once-in-a-lifetime learning experience for the participants as the event allowed them to learn first hand from many renowned Australian vintners and wine professionals.
Though it was only held for five days, according to Lim, there were many highlights and it was almost impossible to pick just one that really stood out. For him, what stood out were the three wise and knowledgeable wine tutors – Michael Hill Smith MW, Andrew Caillard MW and Dr Tony Jordan. He had this to offer, “The lubricant of the tutorial, Smith kept the momentum of each session progressing smoothly. Caillard, the calm and steely tutor, is a walking historical reference of Australian wines and its industry. Last but not least, Jordan is the down-to-earth vintner who provided all the technical information of Australian viticulture and vinification.” Moreover, he also said that having some of Australian wine greats such as James Halliday, Brian Croser and Ian Riggs being part of the event was a surreal encounter.
To have an article devoted to a wine event but not have anything to say about the wines tasted would be a travesty. Thus, it’s only apt for Lim to share with us some of the 248 wines that he tasted along with the other international guests at the event….“The Riesling segment showcased the purity and elegance of what Eden Valley and Clare Valley can produce. Australian dry Rieslings are definitely a force to be reckoned with.” He went on to say, “The Pinot Noir segment is a personal favourite. It displayed a huge potential for this grape variety. I particularly enjoyed the wines from Mornington Peninsula, Yarra Valley and Macedon Ranges.”
Click to read the full article.
More than just Shiraz…
Taken from Forbes.com, Tyler Colman, one of the inaugural Landmark Australia Tutorial participants writes about how Australian wine is under appreciated:
Underappreciated Australian Wines
Starting in the mid-1990s until last year, Australian wines enjoyed eye-popping growth as a menagerie of kangaroos, wallabies, koalas and penguins stormed the supermarket and wine-shop aisles. Australian shiraz became synonymous with the big, sweet, high-alcohol “fruit bombs.”
The growth of wine from Down Under was so rapid that in 1996 the Australian government’s wine authority drew up a 30-year sales target for the industry–and reached it 20 years early. Unfortunately, starting last year, consumers who previously scooped up the look-alike shirazes are now reaching for the wines of other countries–ignoring the great-tasting wines Australia makes.
Cheap or boozy shiraz, it turned out, wasn’t much of a stepping stone to the good stuff. While overall wine sales are flat in the U.S., worldwide exports of Australian wine declined 17% year over year from 2007 to 2008. Yet, amazingly, even when you throw in a 13-year drought, bush fires earlier this year, static domestic demand and a global financial crisis, Australian wine is still much more than a one-trick pony.
Shiraz and chardonnay, as ubiquitous as they may seem on the retail shelf, account for only half the vineyard acreage in Australia. In fact, there are over 60 distinct winegrowing regions and 2,300 producers there–making everything from zippy whites such as Brokenwood Semillon to lean reds like Giant Steps pinot noir–and even super-sweet dessert wines, such as Chambers muscadelle. And the wines either clock in at wallet-friendly prices or are just plain great examples of the grape.
European Grapes, Aussie Style
If you think of Riesling as a sugary-sweet wine from Germany, then Australian Riesling will change your mind in a hurry. Almost all the wines are dry and have lively, mouth-watering acidity, making them excellent and refreshing wines for summer. And for your picnic convenience, they are almost all bottled in screw cap. Try the excellent Grosset from Australia’s Clare Valley in South Australia or the value Rocky Gully from Margaret River in Western Australia.Some of the white grapes from France’s Rhone Valley–such as marsanne and viognier–have also found a good home in Australia. These grapes can make big wines, low in acidity and often high in alcohol that can handle as well as an SUV. But in the right hands, they are like a Mustang, with a lot of horsepower and a relatively low price tag.
Yalumba viognier, for example, costs about a third of what the variety runs for when it comes from Condrieu, a small appellation in France’s Northern Rhone Valley, yet the Yalumba still delivers the lush apricot flavors the variety is known for when it’s at its best. And the Tahbilk marsanne from Central Victoria is only $10, but still has a rich texture.
Pinot noir has gotten off to a slow start in Australia, in part because of the country’s quarantine restrictions on new plant material–but the variety is gaining in production and popularity. Many of the country’s microclimates are cool, thanks to either higher altitude or the cooling effect of the Great Southern Ocean; cool temperature is widely believed to help pinot vines thrive.
Unfortunately, not very many of the small-production pinots are exported to the U.S., but the ones you’re likely to find on these shores come from the Yarra Valley, near Melbourne. Try the aforementioned Giant Steps, which is loaded with dark fruit flavors but isn’t overpowering.
Rich, Ripe Reds
Cabernet sauvignon, the signature grape of Bordeaux and Napa, has found a home in two particularly good growing areas in Australia: the Margaret River in Western Australia and Coonawarra in South Australia. Margaret River has a maritime influence and iron-rich soils that tend to give the wine a minerality and earthiness; Coonawarra cabernets tend to have more fruity character perhaps thanks to the terra rossa soils of red earth over limestone.Australia can hold its own with red Rhone Valley varieties as well, such as mourvedre (pronounced more-VED). Even if you haven’t tried one from France, the Hewitson Old Garden mourvedre is one from Australia worth tracking down. The deep-rooted vines were planted in 1853, and the mourvedre variety loves the Australian heat; the end result is a powerful, dark purple wine with gamey aromas.
To paraphrase Dr. Strangelove, the Australians need to start worrying and learn not to love the (fruit) bomb that is all too often Aussie shiraz. Their world wine domination plan has presumably been significantly revised (since American palates soured on some styles of shiraz) and will hopefully involve bringing more of Australia’s diverse wine flavors to foreign shores. We can all raise a glass of Riesling or cabernet to that.
Dr Vino provides his take on Australia’s fine wines
A historic tasting Down Under - Bin 60A, Grange, Hill of Grace - taken from drvino.com
Eyebrows arching, James Halliday spots an opening and intercepts the ball. He dribbles to the other end of the court, pulls up for a jumper right before the three point line, shoots, and scores! Orlando over the Lakers at the buzzer!
Okay, Halliday, the 71 year old former vintner and author of some fifty wine books, wasn’t really in the NBA finals. But a tasting last week in the Barossa Valley did showcase some of Australia’s most amazing wines of all time. By showcasing talent old and new, it was kind of like one of those sports questions about who would be better head-to-head, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar vs LeBron James or Hank Aaron vs A-Rod kind of thing. While the younger wines showed some flash, for me it was the seniors that stole the show.
Andrew Caillard of Langton’s, an auctioneer, told us that it took him nine months to arrange the tasting, adding that many of the bottles were among the last available. He presented a history of Australian wine making and how the wines we were tasting were landmark wines in one way or another.
While I knew that mature cabernet could be incredible, I wasn’t so sure about mature shiraz.
First up was the 1954 Seppelt Great Western Hermitage K72 Shiraz Great Western Grampians. Looking very mature in the glass, almost tawny in color, I thought it was going to be shot. Despite only muted aromas, the wine was actually holding together well and had a good balance and finish.
Next was the 1955 Penfolds Bin 95 Grange. Inspired by a trip to Bordeaux, Max Schubert of Penfold’s decided he wanted to make a grand vin a l’australien–or something like that. So he took the best shiraz and cabernet grapes he could, blending regions as well as grapes, and put them in open top fermenters and then finished the fermentation in small American oak barrels. The first vintage of the wine was 1951 but it wasn’t sold; 1952 was the first commercial vintage and is no longer good. The 1955 we had was a wine originally developed for the show circuit and was showing very well. Much more red than the Seppelt K72, it was also more youthful, richer, rounder with a hint of shiraz sweetness on the finish. A mature wine to be sure, but very rewarding. Incidentally, this bottle was recorked under the Penfold’s recorking program, which can provide a greater degree of certainty that a bottle will still be in good condition since it has been tasted by a member of the Penfold’s staff (with a wee dram of the current Grange added for topping up any ullage–love that word).
The 1955 Wynns Coonawarra Estate, Michael, shiraz followed. An excellent and interesting wine, with more meaty and savory aromas than the first two. Caillard described the wine as a “freak,” since there was no power shiraz produced in the Coonawarra and the wine was low alcohol.
But the wine of the day, and one of the best wines I have ever tasted, was the 1962 Penfolds Bin 60A, a blend of Coonawarra Cabernet and Barossa Shiraz. I had the good fortune of tasting this wine last fall in New York, and, sadly, the bottle I tried was off. This bottle, however, was on. Big time. It’s the wine tasting equivalent of a buzzer beater and a walk off grand slam all in one. Although it has that kind of excitement, an important difference is not the power of those moments but rather the delicacy and elegance of the wine, with aromas of cigar box and dried fruits, a fine tannic structure with a finish that lingers for the whole afternoon.
As if that wine alone wouldn’t have made the tasting, there were fifteen more. Next was another Penfold’s Grange, this time a 1971 vintage. As you may recall from a magazine article I once wrote about finding birth year wines, 1971 is always a vintage that I keep an eye out for. (The wine’s success in the auction market for a time made it a barometer of economic activity according to a leading think tank.) Max Schubert, the winemaker, apparently did not like to add acid and in this case picked the grapes early and the resulting wine was a deliciously refreshing 11.5% alcohol. Andrew Caillard said that they did add “heaps and heaps” of tannins, which are still present today although finely integrated. The wine is really in a good place today.
Next we had four wines from the eighties, an 82 Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet, John Riddoch, a mature cabernet that was tasting great, the idiosyncratic 1985 Wendouree Shiraz Clare Valley with its odd hint of iodine, the 1986 Henschke Hill of Grace, probably Australia’s most famous single vineyard wine still with a toasty oak influence, and 1986 Brokenwood Graveyard Vineyard shiraz Hunter Valley that still had quite lively acidity.
Up next was the 1990 Mount Mary Vineyard Lilydale Cabernets Quintets, a lighter but rewarding style of cabernet that showing very well with a secondary blackcurrant note, lovely delicacy and great precision with no greenness or herbaciousness. Apparently Robert Parker described this wine as a “cru bourgeois.” The 1995 Cullen Wines Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot, Margaret River still had a lot of tannic vigor that Andrew Caillard amusingly described as “a hairy armpit, long hair style wine that is no shrinking violet.”
The 1996 Clarendon Hills Australis was included as emblematic of the cult wine scene, which Caillard admitted that even he hadn’t really seen coming. The 1994 Clarendon Hills sparked controversy since it didn’t do well on the Australian show circuit but Robert Parker bestowed it with a 96 point rating, sparking demand around the world. The wine was made from 75 year old vines and 100% new French oak barrique aging. In the glass today, the aromas had an odd blend of plummy red fruits and menthol while it tasted disjointed and tannic.
Of the remaining wines (see the full list here), I wanted to particularly highlight the 2001 Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier. Hailing from vineyards around the national capital of Canberra (and some joked that it’s the best thing to ever come out of Canberra), the wine is a beautiful blend of Shiraz with a touch of viognier. In this case it was about seven percent Viognier cofermented with Shiraz but that has been declining in recent vintages. The hardest thing about adding Viognier, in my view, is to get Viognier that is as good as the shiraz since Viognier can be a pretty rough and tumble category. But in this case, the Viognier gives the wine tremendous aromatic lift and this particular wine was singing.
From JancisRobinson.com: Landmark Australia - Day 5
A long week with a fitting conclusion from Landmark Australia tutorial participant, Julia Harding MW posted on Jancis Robinson’s website:
At last night’s dinner, fatigue was starting to show among the participants and the tutors and so the usual commentary on the wines by the evening’s guests went by the board and the kitchen seemed to take pity on us with a slightly lighter (less meat-heavy) menu. Try as I might, I couldn’t quite muster the strength to make worthy notes on the last five reds (though the last two were particularly tannic) and I left the table before the Stanton and Killeen Vintage port-style wine. It was all just getting too much of a good thing. However, I did very much enjoy the Rieslings and the Pinots. KT and the Falcon’s Peglidis was as pure and more steely (and drier) than the Melva the previous evening and caused a spirited debate between myself and Frank Kämmer, the only German in the group and a very experienced sommelier, as to whether the Peglidis was closer to a Saar Riesling (me) or to a wine from the western Rheingau (him). I yielded to his superior knowledge of German Riesling and greater firepower but didn’t change my mind!
The Main Ridge Pinot was delicious, as was Brian Croser’s 2008 from Foggy Hill, though in quite different styles and at very different stages of evolution.
With dinner:
2006 Petaluma Croser Pinot Noir/Chardonnay, Adelaide Hills
2008 KT and The Falcon Peglidis Vineyard Riesling, Clare Valley
2005 Radford Wines Riesling, Eden Valley
2007 The Lane Beginning Chardonnay, Adelaide Hills
2006 Savaterre Chardonnay, Beechworth
2007 Tapanappa Foggy Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir, Fleurieu Peninsula
2008 Tapanappa Foggy Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir, Fleurieu Peninsula
2004 Main Ridge Estate Half Acre Pinot Noir, Mornington Peninsula
2006 Mitchelton Crescent Shiraz/Mourvèdre/Grenache, Nagambie Lakes
2005 Mitchelton Crescent Shiraz/Mourvèdre/Grenache, Nagambie Lakes
2007 The Yard Riversdale Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Frankland River, Great Southern
2007 Cherubino Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River
1998 Wirra Wirra The Angelus (Dead Ringer) Cabernet Sauvignon, McLaren Vale
2006 Wirra Wirra Dead Ringer Cabernet Sauvignon, McLaren Vale
2004 Wirra Wirra Dead Ringer Cabernet Sauvignon, McLaren Vale
2005 Stanton and Killeen Vintage, Rutherglen
Had to start ultra early this morning (Friday), to get packed and checked out before the first session. Today was even more of a military exercise than usual as there was no slack in the lunch start time - we were due at Peter Lehmann’s fine cellar door for lunch with winemakers and press and had to fit the sparkling and fortified sessions in before that. And the inevitable group photo.Talking of photos, the most astonishing sight of the week was all the wines we had tasted lined up along the wall of the hotel courtyard. With only a press-button camera, I couldn’t do it justice (see picture below) but it highlighted what a remarkable and intense week it has been. But I am getting ahead of myself.
The sparkling wine session was led jointly by Ed Carr, Group Sparkling Winemaker for Constellation Australia, and Dr Tony Jordan, who until recently held various senior positions with Moët Hennessy at home and around the world, ending up as CEO of Domaine Chandon Australia, Cape Mentelle and Cloudy Bay. He told me he was hoping to work a little less than in the past but it didn’t sound very likely, given everything he had lined up. (He also makes his own Spear Valley wine at Spear Valley.)
It was unfortunate that the tight schedule meant we had to race through these traditional-method sparklers, all made from Chardonnay or Pinot Noir or a blend, and the occasional contribution of Pinot Meunier. There was a strong diversity of styles, depending very much on the varieties, the sweetness level, the use or non-use of oak in the making of the base wines, and the period of ageing on the lees, etc, as you would expect for a wine that is so dependent on its handling in the winery. I particularly liked the House of Arras ‘Grand Vintage’ Chardonnay/Pinot Noir and the Domaine Chandon Brut Rosé Pinot Noir, which was handy since the former was made by Ed Carr and the latter by Tony Jordan!
2005 Domaine Chandon Z*D Vintage Blanc de Blancs Chardonnay, Yarra Valley
2004 Yarra Burn Blanc de Blancs Chardonnay, Yarra Valley
2004 Josef Chromy Wines Pinot Noir/Chardonnay, Tasmania
2004 Brown Brothers Patricia Pinot Noir/Chardonnay/Pinot Meunier, King Valley
2003 House of Arras, Arras ‘Grand Vintage’, Chardonnay/Pinot Noir, Tasmania
2002 Domaine Chandon Vintage Brut Late Disgorged Chardonnay/ Pinot Noir/Pinot Meunier, Yarra Valley
2001 Jansz Late Disgorged Chardonnay/Pinot Noir, Tasmania
2000 Hardys Sir James Tumbarumba Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier, Tumbarumba
1998 Petaluma Croser Proprietor’s Reserve Pinot Noir/Chardonnay, Adelaide Hills
1998 House of Arras, Arras Late Disgorged, Chardonnay/Pinot Noir, Tasmania
NV Hanging Rock Cuvee VIII Macedon Late Disgorged Pinot Noir/Chardonnay, Macedon Ranges
MV Bay of Fires Rosé Pinot Noir/Chardonnay, Tasmania
2005 Domaine Chandon Brut Rosé, Pinot Noir, Yarra Valley
1994 Seppelt Show Sparkling Shiraz, GrampianThe fortified session did not disappoint, despite the big build up these wines had been given all week. These were treasures, many rare, and wines to sip and reflect on rather than speeding along but the intensity of flavours in all these wines was show-stopping nonetheless. The tutor for this last session of the week, James Godfrey, is one of the most experienced and committed fortified wine makers in Australia and has just completed his 32nd vintage at Seppeltsfield. Some of the greatest wines in the Seppeltsfield cellar, such as the 100-year old 1909 Para, now thickly viscous and tasting of an astonishing array of coffee, dark chocolate, fruit cake and cloves, were made well before his time, but he takes ultra seriously his role as custodian of these rare dark gems.
Most of the group were particularly besotted by these thick, dark, tooth-rotting elixirs. Although I thought they were stunning, I was very taken by the first two wines in the tasting, the Amontillado and the Oloroso. The former had become fantastically concentrated after more than 40 years in the solera casks but was still delicate on the nose with aromas of nuts and deeply caramelised oranges, even a whiff of iodine. The latter looked and tasted like dark walnuts but still showed finesse and a long tangy finish.
We tasted:
Morris, Show Amontillado, Rutherglen
Seppeltsfield, Museum Oloroso DP104, Rutherglen
Seppeltsfield 2005 Vintage, Barossa Valley
Seppeltsfield, DP90 Rare Tawny, Barossa Valley
Grant Burge, 30 year old Tawny, Barossa Valley
Penfolds, Great Grandfather Series 1, Barossa Valley
Campbells, Isabella Rare Topaque Muscadelle, Rutherglen
Seppeltsfield, Paramount Rare Topaque Muscadelle, Rutherglen
Morris, Old Premium Liqueur Topaque Muscadelle, Rutherglen
McWilliams, Show Reserve Muscat, Hunter
Morris, Old Premium Liqueur Muscat, Rutherglen
Campbells, Merchant Prince Rare Muscat, Rutherglen
Chambers, Rare Muscadelle, Rutherglen
Morris, 1928 Morris Liqueur Muscat, Rutherglen
Seppeltsfield, 1909 100-year-old Para, Barossa ValleyThen straight off to the press/trade lunch and our chance to give feedback on the week, meet more producers and sip a little instead of assiduously spitting. My brief comments were in appreciation of the highly nuanced fine wines I had tasted throughout the week and a suggestion that boredom and security are finely divided when it comes to wine consumption; whereas boredom derives from everything tasting the same, security comes from knowing that everything would taste good.
And now I have my feet up in the spacious Peter Lehmann guest house, with the rain tipping down outside, and don’t have to rush off to dinner. Hurray! In fact I am looking forward to a bowl of cereal or a piece of toast in front of a DVD (though quite a few of the selection look rather patriotic) and then an early night.
Although the Landmark Tutorial is now wrapped up, I still have a full programme of visits in the Eden, Barossa and Clare Valleys over the next three days and then a day at the Australian Wine Research Institute before I fly back on Wednesday, thoroughly exhausted.
Some emotional wine at the Tutorial
Jamie Goode writes about Day 5 at the Landmark Australia Tutorial - “one of the most remarkable wine weeks of his life!” Jamie’s blog:
Landmark Australia TutorialLatest News
- Taylors Wines: #vintage 2012 has officially begun! We started picking the luscious #gewurztraminer early this morning in the #ClareVally #apluswine ^CS
- 02/02/12 8:16am - adelaide tweet: RT @chapelhillwine Top video about Protecting McLaren Vale by @stockwine http://t.co/ZvnucuIA Check it out & RT. #wine #adelaide #apluswine
- 02/02/12 7:13am - Chapel Hill Winery: Top video clip about Protecting McLaren Vale by @stockwine http://t.co/jmZpK8co Check it out and RT. #wine #adelaide #apluswine
- 02/02/12 7:06am - Thobiasinkblot: RT @corkscrewnation: Check out Chester! An Australian wine story from McLaren Vale http://t.co/glYgGpV5 #apluswine #darenberg
- 30/01/12 10:24pm - The Corkscrew Dublin: Check out Chester! An Australian wine story from McLaren Vale http://t.co/glYgGpV5 #apluswine #darenberg
- 30/01/12 10:22pm - Clover Hill: Clover Hill will soon be available in Indonesia! Now to organize the work trip... #apluswine #taswine
- 30/01/12 9:49am
- Taylors Wines: #vintage 2012 has officially begun! We started picking the luscious #gewurztraminer early this morning in the #ClareVally #apluswine ^CS
