AUSTRALIAN WINES

This article first appeared in my wine column 
in Specialty Food Magazine.

One could make a credible case that Australia is the most exciting winemaking country in the world today. Yes, the Aussies make popular fat and fruity Chardonnays and jammy Shirazes, but they also make a range of wines I never imagined from Down Under until I tasted many of them on my first trip there a few years ago: crisp and fruity Rieslings, velvety Pinot Noirs, older Semillons that tasted like white Burgundies, refreshing unwooded Chardonnays, even table wines made from the Verdelho grape used in white Port. Not only are these wines remarkably diverse, but they are often world class in quality.

Amazingly, until about 40 years ago, Australians made almost nothing but cheap fortified wines (called "stickies"), primarily for the British, who continue to be their largest export consumers. (The United States is second.) A turning point came in the 1950s when Max Schubert, winemaker for Penfolds, made his Grange Hermitage in the Bordeaux style. But instead of Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot he used Shiraz (known as Syrah in France, where it achieved fame in the Rhone Valley), and he aged it in American oak barrels instead of French oak. (American oak continues to be a staple of Australian winemaking, though more French oak has been employed in recent years.) By 1962 Grange Hermitage had established itself as Australia's premier wine. In 1995 Grange (as it is called today) became the Wine Spectator's Wine of the Year.

Since the early success of Grange, Australian wine making technology has become the envy of the world. More recently, Australian winemakers have paid more attention to where vines are planted. Most of Australia is forbiddingly hot, so 90 percent of wine is grown in the southeastern corner of the country-from just north of Sydney in the state of New South Wales to just above Adelaide in the state of South Australia, with the smaller state of Victoria in between. There temperatures are moderated by cooling Antarctic breezes. Smaller production of mostly boutique wines can be found in Western Australia, near the city of Perth, and on the island of Tasmania, due south of Victoria.

South Australia produces about half of Australia's wine in several regions. The Barossa is the oldest, settled by German immigrants, which explains some of the names and the fondness for Riesling, made primarily in the Eden Valley, just above the Barossa Valley. Richmond Grove and Henschke Cellars are two excellent examples.

But Shiraz and Shiraz blends are the best known Barossa wines. The affable, chain-smoking Peter Lehmann makes a string of them, most at reasonable prices. The Stonewell Shiraz is particularly impressive as are Shiraz blends Clancy's and Mentor. Lehmann's Semillons are also terrific. Other Shirazes of note come from Henschke, St. Hallett, Turkey Flat, Grant Burge, and Rockford. Rockford also makes a stunning sparkling Shiraz, a particularly Australian phenomenon, which is light years beyond the Cold Duck of your senior prom days.

The hills surrounding Adelaide provide a cool microclimate ideal for varietals such as Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Noir, and sparkling wines. Indeed, there are several microclimates within the hills themselves -- like Piccadilly Valley, where top quality Chardonnay is produced. Winemaker Brian Croser of Petaluma is the best known winemaker in the area. Chain of Ponds is an emerging star. Shaw & Smith makes one of the best Sauvignon Blancs in Australia and a crisp, unwooded Chardonnay that is a perfect aperitif.

Penfolds, which is owned by Southcorp, Australia's largest wine producer, continues to make a slew of terrific wines sourced from all over South Australia, though Adelaide is its home base. Kalimna Bin 28 and Magill Estate are two outstanding Shirazes. Yattarna is Penfolds' white wine equivalent of Grange.

The Clare Valley, an hour and a half due north of Adelaide, isn't as tourist trodden as the Barossa, but it has loads of charm and many fine wines, particularly the Rieslings of Mitchell, Pikes, Sevenhill, Grosset, and Mt. Horrocks. Jeffrey Grosset and his significant other Stephanie Toole, who owns Mt. Horrocks, get my vote as Australia's winemaking couple of the year. Toole's 1996 Cabernet/Merlot blend has incredible extraction, her 1998 Cordon Cut is a superb dessert wine, and her 1996 Shiraz is one of the best I've ever tasted. Grosset, whose Polish Hill and Watervale Rieslings are among the Australia's elite, also makes a single vineyard 1997 Pinot Noir (sourced from the Piccadilly Valley) with a perfumed nose and gamy flavors; a mouth-filling 1997 Semillon/Sauvignon; and a spicy and delicious dessert wine, the 1997 Noble Riesling.

The McLaren Vale (vale means valley) lies southeast of Adelaide and is known primarily for its big red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon (often blended) and Shiraz, though an increasing variety of other reds and whites is being made. BRL Hardy, one of Australia's four top producers-and owners of Leasingham (in the Clare Valley) and Chateau Reynella-makes fine wines for almost every taste and price range. At the other end of the spectrum is the brilliant and eccentric Roman Bratasiuk, whose limited quantity Clarendon Hills wines have astonishing character and depth of flavors, in particular the Astralis Shiraz, Clarendon Grenache, and the hard to get Brookman Cabernet Sauvignon and Higgenbothem Merlot.

The Coonawarra Region is the most southern in South Australia and encompasses Padthaway as was as Coonawarra appellations. The Coonawarra appellation is particularly cool (cooler than Burgundy, in fact) with rich limestone soil that make it perfect for Cabernet Sauvignon and less overt styles of Shiraz.

Until phylloxera devastated its vineyards in the 19th century, Victoria was Australia's largest wine producing state. In recent years Victoria has made a comeback. The cool Yarra Valley northeast of Melbourne is one of the most exciting areas because it possesses a variety of microclimates, which will eventually subdivide the valley into smaller appellations much like Sonoma and Napa counties. Domaine Chandon (of Moet Chandon) has a sparkling wine facility in the Coldstream area, which produces solidly made Green Point wines. The well-manicured Napaesque Domaine Chandon facility is in stark contrast to the nearby country farmish Yarra Yering Vineyard, which, to continue the California analogy, looks like the back country of Mendocino County. The wines of Bailey Carrodus are distinctive and delicious, particularly his Dry Red No. 2, a Cote-Rotie blend, and Underhill Shiraz.

Geelong is a smaller appellation west of Melbourne along the coast with a cool climate and volcanic soil. Gary Farr's Burgundian-style pinot noirs, Chardonnays, and Shirazes are sensational. Scotchmans Hill also takes the Burgundian route with great success.

Located about 100 miles north of Sydney, New South Wales is the second largest wine producing state. The Hunter Valley, the state's best known grape growing region and Australia's oldest, is divided in two. The more humid Lower Hunter Valley is home to Lindemans (now owned by Southcorp), which produces a variety of reasonably priced Chardonnays and Semillons that are widely available on the US market. Rosemount is king of the drier Upper Hunter Valley and makes affordable and well-made Chardonnays, Semillons and Shirazes.

The irony of Western Australia is that it produces more premium wines (as a percentage of overall production) than any other Australian state, yet we see so few of them here. "Western Australian wines generally command a higher shelf price than other Australian wines, probably because of the unique growing conditions and smaller quantities and because it's a long way away," says Nicole Renton of the Australian Wine Bureau, an industry trade group.
The best known appellation is the Margaret River, of which Tom Stevenson in "The New Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia" says, "The greatness of Margaret River wines cannot be disputed. This is because the quality of fruit is better than elsewhere in Australia." That fruit is evident in Cape Mentelle's bright and herbaceous 1998 Semillon and ripe but well-balanced 1997 Chardonnay. Sandalford, which sources fruit from the Mount Barker and Pemberton areas well as the Margaret River, makes an aromatic 1997 Verdelho that would be smashing with Asian food, a rich 1997 Chardonnay, and a 1996 Shiraz with chocolate and game notes. Other names to look for, if and when they make it into the United States are Amberley, Capel Vale, Castle Rock Estate, Evans & Tate, Goundrey, Plantagenet, and Salitage.

I've always been a big believer in trusting wines imported by people who have good taste -- Kermit Lynch or Bobby Katcher, for example -- when it comes to French wines. When it comes to Australian wines, you can always trust wines from the Australian Premium Wine Collection, owned by John Larchet (lahr-SHAY). John, a big, affable Irishman (who spends a great deal of time in the United States because he's married to a Chicago woman), represents many of the wines I've mentioned above, such as Grosset, Mt. Horrocks, and Clarendon Hills. For more information, the Australian Premium Wine Collection web site is www,tapwc.com.au. A smaller importer but still one with quality wines is the San Francisco-based Scott Street Portfolio of Fine Wines, owned by Carl Jaeger. Jaeger imports such fine labels as Punters Corner from Coonawarra, Simon Hackett from McLaren Vale, and Yering Station from the Yarra Valley.