Hot new red wines

Let’s make one thing clear. Tempranillo, nebbiolo and nero d’avola et al are not, were never, and will never be the Next Big Thing for Australian red wine. Don’t get me wrong, I quite like the stuff (especially nebbiolo), but these are not the red wines that will walk us into the future.

It’s high time we extinguished the Australian varietal fire we stoked throughout the 1980s, poured fuel on in the 90s, and watched burn out of control through most of the noughties. New varieties are interesting. Great reds are convincing and it’s time we moved on and focused fairly and squarely on wines of authenticity, pedigree and place.

Today’s Next Big Things in red wine are the drops that strike a unique chord, tap into the dirt, the hill, the proximity to the sea or the mountains, the mist, the fog and the accumulated knowledge of up to six generations in some places. They are wines that deliver something truly unique.

It is this renewed and, in some cases, re-invented aura of authenticity that makes contemporary Australian red wine more relevant, cutting edge and downright exciting than it has really ever been.

It’s time that courage, confidence and capability superseded sound chemistry as the most important attribute underpinning great Australian red wine.

Whether it is technique, terroir or ambition leading the charge, the red wines on the following pages clearly represent a diverse weave of styles, united under a banner of both quality and provenance.

Tasmania
The great thing about Tasmania is that it is ours. No-one else in the world has such a beautiful magic isle of vinous promise. The landscape and climate present a mix of rugged challenge and opportunity and there’s a generation-in-waiting tending close plantings of pinot noir, newly arrived grüner veltliner and any other cutting-edge cuttings they can get their chill-hardened hands on.

The biggest news for Tasmanian wine most recently is the fact that Gunns got out of making wine there and Brown Brothers got in. The lumberjacks left the keys in the ignition and the engine running on the Tamar Ridge van and one of Australia’s most successful winemaking families piled in, full of smiles and confidence.

Tamar Ridge and Brown Brothers is a much happier marriage already, and the Brown family must have been chuffed when they arrived to find the stash of 2009 pinot noir that Andrew Pirie had left in the cellar.

They served several wines at the official handover party late in 2010, but the one that really stood out was the 2009 Coombend Pinot Noir (A$27). It’s a dark purple wine that seems custom-made to grab attention. Tasmania needs a legion of wines like this.

Also from the same east coast area of Tasmania is an equally striking, 2009 Kelvedon Estate Pinot Noir (A$25). This bathes in the warm, bright conditions, delivering dark, fleshy wines. It’s redolent with deep cherry fruits, meaty complexity, swarthy yet athletic tannins and an exciting, upbeat finish.

Other east coast Tasmanian pinot producers, such as Stefano Lubiana and Claudio Radenti of Freycinet Vineyards, make more serious and slow-moving wines. The wines reward time in bottle and in the glass. The 2008 Stefano Lubiana Sasso Pinot Noir (A$90) is a current case in point; its complexity unfurls with all the entrancing slither of a drowsy python. If you’re less patient, the 2009 Stefano Lubiana Primavera Pinot Noir (A$27) will do the trick.

Jim Chatto epitomises the kind of forward-thinking generation that has looked south to Tasmania to craft their magnum opus. With 10 clones planted on five acres in 2007 and 2008, this year was to be the first crop harvested, but 120mm of rain just before picking meant that the tiny 500 kilogram crop wasn’t to be. Chatto’s first wine is now marked in for 2012 with a 2013 release. We continue to wait patiently.

Chatto’s done the hard yards in setting the place up for success and Glaziers Bay is a chilly southern outcrop destined to challenge his considerable skill. “We planted 10 clones, including the Abel (Ata Rangi) clone as well as 777 and many of the Dijon clones, which is an important strategic move for such a marginal site,” he says.

The Tasmanian pinot story, largely a tale of yet-to-be-realised potential, is moving slowly but steadily in the right direction. Whether the commercial edge that Brown Brothers will add becomes a catalyst for the rest of the island’s winemakers to chase their dream more quickly, remains to be seen.

Tasmanian pinot has been tidied up; the first pencil-sketch bottlings emerging from new plantings and revamped vineyards are pretty ones. What it needs now is some courage and you’d expect there’s plenty of that.

Mataro
Now, at the risk contradicting my anti-varietal introduction, I am going to plug a single variety – mataro. It’s certainly not a case of the Next Big Thing, rather it’s an ancient beast of a vine that has survived in Australian soil for longer than just about any other grape variety we have. It’s as tough as old boots and makes darn formidable wine.

The truth is that in many generations, fads, trends and phases of the industry and the economy, mataro has been largely overlooked in favour of more fruity grapes, such as shiraz and even grenache. It’s not a variety that makes obvious wine; it’s more cryptic, elusive, soulful and moody. Its survival tactic has basically been to keep its head down and stay out of trouble.

Yet, when skillfully deployed, it delivers an Oscar-worthy supporting performance, adding depth and anchoring otherwise flighty young wines firmly to the ground.

It’s a late-ripener too, and needs to have some time to hang on the vine to get its form-idable tannins right. And that means it demands a confident winemaker to make it work. Yields are all-important in order to ensure ripeness – over-cropping is simply not an option. There are easier varieties to work with, but it’s the road less travelled that often leads to the most engaging drinking.

Glenn James, formerly a corporate winemaker, established the Ducks in a Row project when faced with a field of old-vine mataro. “The essence of mataro is that it encapsulates the best of everything winemakers look for when they blend,” he explains. “If you have the right vineyard, it delivers the fruit weight of something like shiraz. It has the structure and the longevity of something like cabernet, yet it has different tannins to both.”

He also adds that, because it is such a late ripener, it yields one of the most complete pictures of the growing season. “Our 2009 is so plump and luscious and full of cherry pie and dark colour, yet the 2010 is such an
elegant wine, it’s hard to believe it’s from the same vineyard. What you’re really seeing is the season.”

The 2009 Ducks In a Row Erect Habit Mataro (A$60), from a single vineyard in Willunga that was planted more than 60 years ago, is a hedonistic expression. Full of deep and dark fruits, its spiced black cherry and dense, dark, stony complexity is remarkable – not often seen with this wily grape.

Auctioneer, retailer, painter and regular Gourmet Traveller WINE contributor Andrew Caillard MW is an erudite and intelligent chap. His foray into winemaking has been solely to realise his desire to interact with mataro in the Barossa Valley. Through his work with Penfolds, he has been privy to much history and information, and he is determinedly threading the ancient and the contemporary with his single-wine project. The 2009 Caillard Mataro (A$45) shows ripe dark-plum fruit and is fleshy and smooth, with deeply toasted spice and long-rolling tannins.

Tim Smith is also an old hand at this black beast. He got hooked whilst making wine at St Hallett, and one of the first things he investigated under his own label was a mataro-led blend. The forefront of his current work is the 2009 Tim Smith Wines Mataro (A$28). A black beauty with dark licorice and leather, ripe black fruits and deep-seated spice, it has structure and resonance in spades.

Spinifex is responsible for much that is great and relevant in the scheme of the modern Barossa Valley, and this year marks the release of a trio of new wines. One of these is the 2009 Spinifex Tabor Mataro (A$70), sourced from just east of Tanunda on sandy, silty soil. The vintage suited the innate strengths of the variety adding abundant spice and texture, in a way that caught Pete Schell’s attention. “Getting mataro with this kind of completeness is not all that common, so I wanted to showcase that as a separate expression,” he says. And he would know, he’s seen more mataro than most.

It would be remiss not to mention the 2008 Hewitson Old Garden Mourvèdre (A$39/375ml), though it’s puzzling that wine made from vines that have been in Australian soil for almost 160 years shuns the local mataro moniker. Never mind, for this quiet old-vine beauty is hauntingly elegant with subtly articulated red and blue fruits, dark moody elements and a long, gently winding train of tannins. It sailed through the 2008 vintage in impressive form.

One other Barossan maker that has boldly and successfully promoted mataro is Kym Teusner. Whether it’s the Astral Series, in heavy bottle with a large price tag, or the less expensive 2009 Teusner Independent Shiraz Mataro (A$19) blend, he illuminates the innate greatness of this grape.

Mataro – it’s Australian wine’s reluctant hero.

Whole Bunches
This is about technique, for sure, but when it is used just right, it’s one that can really enhance a sense of place in a wine. Whereas, in the wrong hands, deployed with inexperience, it works against a clear expression, but it still delivers pleasure.

Simply put, instead of removing berries from the stems, winemakers will choose to include a percentage of whole grape clusters (bunches) in order to change the way in which the fermentation proceeds. It changes the structure of the ferment for starters, a bit like putting steel reinforcement through concrete. If you’ve ever dug out a fermenter including whole bunches you’ll understand, it’s a much tougher job.

It also provides a kind of slow-release system for winemakers to work with. As the berries remain intact and effectively a closed vessel, they can hide some sugar from the surrounding fermenting juice. Winemakers can break them up, more or less, as quickly as they choose. Berries also begin to ferment internally via enzymatic activity, not via yeast. This carbonic fermentation produces a complex and ethereal character (think Beaujolais), an important part of whole-bunch fermentation’s magic fragrance.

And then there’s the tannin question. Its heresy to quote a Kiwi in an Australian red wine story, I know, but Nick Mills of Rippon Vineyard in Wanaka insists that chewing the stalk is an essential clue to deploying whole bunches in pinot noir fermentation: “If I want to swallow it, then it’s going to work in the wine,” he says. The danger is that stalks can add excess green, aggressive tannins and green characters, adding vegetables where we really would prefer fruit.

Stalk tannins are different, some say stronger, and an invaluable stabilising force in wines. But that can be offset by the added opportunity to create more glycerol as well. Once again, when this is negotiated with experience, it can create some real magic.

Some of you may have read about Allen Meadows of Burghound fame in my inaugural “Pinot Files” column in the previous issue of GT WINE. On whole bunch wines, he claims, “They are actually more complete wines,” but adds, “There’s no free lunch; if you want early accessibility then don’t build your wines using stems, because you’re then into it for 20 to 25 years.”

Here, he is talking about pinot noir, specifically from Burgundy, but there are a number of Australian examples that have led the whole-bunch pinot idea along with great results. Think of the Bannockburn wines made by Gary Farr and the wines made there today by Michael Glover.

Glover canvasses several issues with the use of whole bunches. “In 2006 we used varying degrees of whole bunches to the point that in 2009 and 2010 we have used only whole bunches in all shiraz and pinot noir ferments. It’s site and season specific, and it’s not an affectation, in 2011 we have had to back right off.”

Then we come to the essence of how this technique can leverage terroir, as it will produce very diff-erent results that are governed by the unique qualities of each parcel of grapes. Glover is after more softness and elegance: “We pursue whole bunches in our pinot because we have a masculine character in the old vines that have been dry grown in Geelong,” he says. “The weakness here is perfume, femininity and finesse.”

Sandro Mosele, of Kooyong and Port Phillip Estate, has been experimenting with de-stemming his fruit and then adding stalks back to the fermenter, something he has only started to do after many years of stalk-free winemaking. In fact, he’s long been dead against stalks and known to mumble about Henri Jayer whenever it’s been brought up.

It’s a curious approach. Mosele claims he’s searching for something more in his pinot noirs – a structural impact, more perfume and more tautness, as well as some additional savoury complexity, but that he doesn’t want the ultra-fragrant perfume of berries fermented on stems, at least not in his pinot.

He loves them in his shiraz though. In fact, shiraz seems to be emerging as the fastest-growing candidate for the deployment of whole bunches in Australian reds. Tim Kirk of Clonakilla cleverly includes it in all manner of wines, as does Alex McKay in his Collector Reserve Shiraz and Marked Tree Red Shiraz. Dan Buckle is moving more and more down the path of whole bunches when crafting the old-vine Mount Langi Shiraz and the yet-to-be-released 2009 is handsome proof of the virtues of his decision.

The Yarra Valley’s shiraz brigade, or syrah as they mostly like to call it, are well and truly committed to the whole-bunch philosophy too. With De Bortoli, Jamsheed, Luke Lambert and Oakridge all weaving their fragrant magic. Michael Dhillon shows exactly why it works well for Heathcote in his spellbindingly aromatic Pyrette Shiraz and Adam Marks’ 2009 Bress Le Grand Coq Noir confirms the same.

It’s probably viewed as a slightly radical technique in some more traditional shiraz circles, but it’s worth remembering that mechanically de-stemming grapes is a relatively recent thing. You don’t have to go back all that far to arrive at a time when whole bunches ruled the roost. As Glover reminds us: “Terroir definitely pre-dates the mechanical de-stemmer – it’s liberating to work without it.”

Whole bunches are dishing up much that needs to be investigated, decanted, drunk and celebrated.

Regional Blends
This is an exciting and perhaps already familiar category of authentic red wine drinking in Australia worthy of fresh consideration as many newer, smaller players are weighing in with a more brash approach. It’s a mode of enjoying wine that offers an experience of regional character, as well as all-important vintage style as an overlay.

I count many of these kinds of wines among Australia’s most approachable, reliable reds too. These are wines to drink on any night, at lunch, with family, friends, or maybe just your trusty hound by your side. Regional blends can also be routinely adjusted from year to year to make the best wine possible in any given vintage and that’s what it’s all about. Individual grapes are not important; they are all servants of style. Simple pleasure is the reason for drinking these.

There’s also a move, right around the world, towards embracing younger reds and drinking them whilst they’re still precociously youthful. It’s a complete counter-play to the idea that great wines need cellaring and it also provides a very different, perhaps more vibrant, snapshot of terroir.

The 2010 Spinifex Papillon (A$23) is one of the best-value young reds and as good a liquid preview of the overall Barossa red vintage as you could hope for. The blend is built around the charming ways of grenache, but it’s a wine that speaks about the Barossa. It simply couldn’t be made anywhere else and boasts unmatched drinkability.

Also from Spinifex comes an array of new-release reds, including 2009 Spinifex Tabor (A$70), a mataro; 2009 Spinifex Vallée des Roches (A$80), a single-site shiraz; and 2009 Spinifex Le Chemin (A$60), a five-way co-fermented blend of grenache, mataro, shiraz, carignan and cinsault. The latter was made as a way of expressing the region’s performance in the 2009 vintage.

“The three new wines were some of the most distinctive, charming and complete wines we saw in 2009,” says winemaker Pete Schell, “They’re naturally more moderate expressions of the inherent power of the Barossa Valley, more understated and distinctive.” They’re all worthy of your attention, most notably Le Chemin – a wine that conjures up comparison with great Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

The 2009 Spinifex Esprit (A$28) and 2009 Spinifex Indigene (A$48), two regular stars, are both looking every bit the part in 2009, a vintage where it’s clear some very handy blended wines have been assembled. Esprit, also made in a five-grape format, is an array of dark fruits, some savoury mataro driving the finish in a brash flurry of densely-sheeted tannins. Indigene is back to the double act mataro and shiraz and it delivers a strikingly spicy deep array of flavours in a lush, velveteen structure. It hits the spot in terms of authenticity, uniqueness and value for money.

And finally, a newcomer that widens the regional focus, is the 2010 Vinteloper Adelo (A$27). It’s an unlikely combined effort of touriga, shiraz and pinot noir from the Adelaide super-region that delivers a vibrant array of dark-spiced fruits weig-hted right into the middle of the palate. A confident red that defies any of its constituent grapes to take charge, style is king here.

Classic Prestige
Well-heeled wine lovers take note. There are some worthy Australian reds upon which to lavish your wine budget this year.

The 2006 Penfolds Grange (A$599) has been one of the most widely praised in recent times and there’s very good reason. It’s a ‘great’ Grange, as some like to call them, a wine that reminds all who will taste it of the heights that Penfolds’ top wine can reach in a vintage that defied early enjoyment only to double the reward later, much like 1999.

You see, Grange is very much a wine of the vintage. Its heart is inevitably plucked from the warm depth of the Barossa’s rich resources of old-vine shiraz and, when vintage dictates, other parcels from other places are deployed to make the best wine possible.

In 2006 it consists of 97-per-cent Barossa shiraz, one-per-cent Magill shiraz and two-per-cent cabernet sauvignon from Coonawarra. It’s an inky dark wine in the glass and oozes deeply ripe dark plum and blackberry fruit, roasted coffee, spiced fruit cake, dark chocolate and strident 100-per-cent new American oak.

It’s young and layered, and gives an impression of a wine in the making, yet the palate demonstrates just where this muscular assembly is headed. It is full of energy with unctuous, fleshy concentrated black and purple fruits. Tannins land slowly and build weight, then keep coming in waves. It’s a pillar of a wine, with rock-solid foundations and it will be best if given further time to arrive.

2005 Torbreck’s The Laird (A$700) is sourced from a single parcel in Barossa Valley’s Maran-anga district, planted in 1958. But buyers beware, it’s not a blockbuster. Far from it. It’s striking for its precision and approachability, delivering apparent depth and effortlessly so.

It will surprise many fans of Torbreck’s other top-flight shiraz, the 2006 Torbreck Runrig (A$225). The Laird is a gentler wine with more softly spoken wisdom and less showy and immediate impact. It has a striking texture of soft fleshy fruit and deep purple velveteen tannins with long, complete and seamlessly integrated Laurent ‘Magic Barrel’ oak. The richness builds through each glass, making it fascinating to study.

Leaving the Barossa Valley floor and heading up the hill to the Flaxman’s Valley there’s a magic wine made from one plot of ancient, 100-plus-year-old vines. The 2004 Chris Ringland Shiraz (A$690) is a concentrated and impenetrable wine that, like the ’06 Grange and ’05 Laird, fuses richness and elegance with engaging conviction.

Ripe black fruits, dark blood plum, blackberries and cocoa powder, dark toffee, roasted spices and more – the nose is immensely complex. But it’s the texture that captivates, and the length. Precise yet dense tannins stretch longer than almost any wine I’ve tasted, carrying a soft centre of rich, ripe dark-fruit flavours that linger for what seems like an eternity. Complex spices and savoury layers peel sheet-like across the finish. It’s one to marvel over.

Venturing far across the country to the Hunter Valley and we find another Australian outpost of ancient vineyards and carefully articulated reds. 2009 Tyrrell’s Wines Winemaker Selection 4 Acre Shiraz (A$70) is a 500-odd dozen parcel made from a selection of 130-year-old vines.

Here’s an elegant wine with silk-cut precision and fine, essential tannin structure, made in accordance with Tyrrell’s Wines’ establ-ished open-vat and large-format oak traditions. Dark cherry, spiced plums and an effortless sense of balance, this is a lovely, gentle wine made for quiet enjoyment and reliable maturation.

PHOTOGRAPHY BEN DEARNLEY

This article is from the June/July 2011 issue of Gourmet Traveller WINE.