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New Zealand to establish GIs

New Zealand is to define the boundaries of its wine regions, much as Australia has already done. The NZ Minister for Trade, Tim Groser, made the announcement at the Cloudy Bay 30th anniversary celebrations in Marlborough on April 1. He said the New Zealand Government had given the green light to establishing national Geographical Indications, or GIs, which means drawing boundaries and determining territorial limits. 

No doubt this will cause some battles, as it did in Australia - especially in the Coonawarra region. Marlborough itself has sprouted outcrops of vineyards both inland from the original Wairau Valley plantings and along the coast towards Kaikoura. A committee will have to be established to decide where lines are to be drawn. 

The Cloudy Bay 30th anniversary was a distinguished occasion: it was also attended by the French ambassador to New Zealand, Florence Jeanblanc-Risler, the CEO of the Paris-based Estates and Wines division of Moet Hennessy, Jean-Guillaume Prats, New Zealand Winegrowers CEO Philip Gregan, and former consultant to Moet Hennessy, Yarra Valley-based Dr Tony Jordan. Moet Hennessy owns Cloudy Bay (tastings). 

Gregan said the GI move would equip the wine industry with the tools to protect its premium brands from misappropriation or misuse, as well as help secure market access in some regions, winebiz.com.au reported last week. "Governments could say unless there is a system of registration of Geographic Indications in New Zealand, then you can't export wine to our market using those geographic indications on the label,” Gregan said. "If that was to occur, that would stop us using Marlborough or Central Otago or Waiheke Island on the label, and that would be a major, major issue for us."

He expects legislation for Geographical Indications to take effect next year.

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Wirra Wirra buys Ashton Hills

Great news that Wirra Wirra has bought Ashton Hills. It’s like hearing that two of your best friends are hitching up: they could only have beautiful kids, no?

In this case, a highly respected McLaren Vale winery buys a similarly respected Adelaide Hills micro-boutique. They can only make sweet music together. Stephen George established Ashton Hills (tastings) in 1982, and built it into a leading pinot noir producer. The tiny 3-hectare vineyard at Ashton in the Piccadilly Valley is dry-grown and cool – its altitude is 570 metres. 

Wirra Wirra (tastings) was re-established in 1969 by the Trott family. I say re-established because it was begun in 1894 by Robert Strangways Wigley, and went out of production between his death in 1925 and Greg Trott rebuilding it in 1969. It has grown gradually but has never acquired another winery before. 

Wirra Wirra has been making white wine from Adelaide Hills grapes since 2003, but not red. Managing director Andrew Kay said “The chance to build on the legacy of Stephen’s work was too good to pass up, and for it to happen not only with his blessing, but also his ongoing contribution, is incredibly satisfying for us.”

Kay said George had a definite role to play in the future. “Stephen will continue to reside at his home at the winery and is keen to mentor our winemaking team in the intricacies of pinot making ‘Ashton Hills style’, as well as be involved in a hands-on capacity in the vineyard.”

George seems very comfortable handing the reins over to Wirra Wirra. “I feel a definite rapport with their people and having seen how respectfully and successfully they have managed their business in the wake of Greg Trott’s passing (in 2005), I believe the legacy of Ashton Hills is in safe and sensitive hands,” he said.

Kay said Wirra Wirra would continue to make its own Adelaide Hills range of white wines, but did not rule out an expanded offering under the Ashton Hills label. “Wirra Wirra was named most successful exhibitor at last year’s Adelaide Hills Wine Show, with all our wines performing well and our Lost Watch Riesling (tastings) scoring a trophy, so it makes good sense for those to continue,” he said.

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Wine competition woes

Some wine competitions seem to be in business only to earn an income for their owners. How else to explain the hyperbole they use to ramp the credibility and importance of their results – results which, after all, are only as good as the wines entered in the competition. Sometimes their gold-medal lists read like a “Best of a bad lot”. 

Germany has a competition called Berliner Wein Trophy. The title itself is ridiculous. A competition may award trophies to various wines, but it is not in itself a ‘trophy’. Yet that is what this one is called. 

Barossa Valley winery Chateau Tanunda (tastings) recently trumpeted its considerable success at 2015 Berliner Wein Trophy. No argument about the wines – they are superb – but the poor old consumer who tries to make sense of the names of show awards will quickly find his or her head in a spin. Chateau Tanunda won a premium gold, five gold and six silver medals. The picture accompanying the announcement shows a sticker for a ‘Grosses Berliner Gold’. What is the difference between a gold, a premium gold and a grosses gold, we are not told. 

In many international wine competitions, there is a superior type of gold medal, called – variously – double gold or grand gold. These terms are by now reasonably well understood as awards for a particularly high-scoring gold-medal wine. They are higher than a gold medal but not as high as a trophy. But why introduce more levels of gold, and more names no-one understands? Also, as the name of the show, Berliner Wein Trophy, appears on all of the medal stickers, who can blame the punter for assuming the wine has won a trophy? 

A trophy is normally awarded to a wine that is judged the best of a number of gold-medal winners. To include the word trophy in the name of a competition is misleading and confusing.

[huonhooke]

Screwcaps highlighted in Italy

Brisbane wine writer Tyson Stelzer has used his International Wine & Spirit Competition Communicator of the Year 2015 award to give him a platform to turn on a few light-bulbs in Italy regarding screwcaps. 

Stelzer, a long-time screwcap advocate and author of two books on the topic, was presented with his award at the opening ceremony of the annual Italian wine exposition Vinitaly in Verona recently. He used the opportunity to present a blind tasting of five mature flagship Australian wines sealed under both screwcap and cork. 

Italy, of course, is one of the last bastions of blind loyalty to cork. Italy has gone so far as to legislate against the use of alternative closures on its DOCG wines. But the expert panel voted the screwcapped wines ahead of the cork-sealed wines in the blind tasting. 

The wines included Henschke Hill of Grace 2004 (tasting), Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Merlot 2004 and ‘05 (tastings), Yalumba The Signature Cabernet Shiraz 2003 (tastings), and Brokenwood Rayner Shiraz 2001. 

“The result was ground-breaking for Italy, where screwcaps remain controversial and until recently have been prohibited on the country’s top wines,” Stelzer said. He said the tasting was significant for Australia, whose global reputation as a fine wine producer relied on overcoming the misconception that screwcaps are inferior.

Venice sommelier Annie Martin-Stefannato admitted “we will have to change our mindset”. Panama wine expert Fabrizio Cezzi was impressed with the aging of the wines under screwcap. “I did not expect that they would age so well – even better than under cork; it really surprised me.” Argentina sommelier Ariel Morales agreed, saying the tasting demonstrated that red wines can mature reliably under screwcap.

Well done, Tyson, on both counts. We in Australia see the evidence every day that screwcaps are reliable and that cork is fallible, but the rest of the world will never wake up unless they are shown.

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New Tasting Notes: sauvignon blanc

It always surprises me that despite the flood of sauvignon blanc Australia imports from New Zealand, there’s a lot of it also grown – and, presumably, sold - here. My latest tastings suggest there is no easing of Aussie sauvignon blanc production. We aren’t hoisting the white flag just yet. 

Sauvignon blanc is our second-most widely grown white grape variety, although it’s a long way behind the leader, chardonnay. We’re not likely to catch New Zealand, though. In 2013, we grew 43% as much sauvignon blanc as those across the ditch. 

Most of the top scoring wines in my latest tasting were Kiwis, but of the best Aussies, a couple were of special interest – they were fermented wholly or partially on skins. Now, I’m no great fan of the ‘orange’ or ‘amber’ wine movement or the fashion for so-called ‘natural’ wines, but what excites me is the way intelligent winemakers draw on fashions such as these to improve their own wines – without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. 

Three Dark Horses MC (maceration carbonique) Sauvignon Blanc 2014 (tasting), from the Adelaide Hills, is a very interesting wine. Winemaker Matt Broomhead says 75% of the grapes underwent carbonic maceration for 7 days, then full-solids fermentation in barrels. The other 25% were fermented on skins for 40 days. The wine is full of flavour and personality, and is clean and technically unimpeachable. It has undoubted sauvignon varietal character and the extra structure built into it by the skin contact helps it partner food. 

Bannockburn 2014 Sauvignon Blanc from Geelong (tasting) is another partially skins-fermented style which works beautifully. The colour, like all skins fermented white wines, is scarily dark yellow, but the wine has monumental personality and charm. Far from being tannic and coarse, it is concentrated and powerful but beautifully balanced. The array of aromas and flavours has to be experienced to be believed. It’s 86% sauvignon blanc, of which one-third was whole-bunch fermented. Just by the by, the wine was aged for 10 months in French oak and Italian acacia barrels. There were one or two other whole-bunch savvies in the tasting that didn’t work so well, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. 

I’d also like to highlight three very tight, fine, minerally styles of Aussie savvy that I really liked: Ross Hill Pinnacle Series 2014 (tasting) and Swinging Bridge 2013 (tasting) (both from Orange), and Port Phillip Estate 2014, from Mornington (tasting). Sauvignon blanc doesn’t have to be pungent, mawkish and smelling of sweat or cat’s wee.

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Join me for a Champagne masterclass

A handful of seats are still available for my Champagne and sparkling wine masterclass at The Grace Hotel on April 14. We’ll be sampling some leading Champagnes and Aussie bubblies. This tasting would make a fine gift - birthday or not - for your significant other. It will put some sparkle into both of your lives! 

My co-host will be Kate Laurie, winemaker and co-proprietor at the up-and-coming Adelaide Hills winery Deviation Road (tastings). Kate has worked and studied in Champagne and is now making superb sparkling wines of her own. She and her husband Hamish make wine from the Laurie family’s vineyard, established by Hamish’s father and formerly known as Hillstowe. Hamish Laurie’s great great grandmother, Mary Laurie, was South Australia’s first female winemaker. 

All 12 wines are top wines in their categories, and the idea is to taste, discuss and compare - it’s not a competition. 

The wines will include: 

Krug Grande Cuvée, Pol Roger, Delamotte Vintage Blanc de Blancs, Deutz Cuvée William Deutz, Deviation Road Beltana Blanc de Blancs, and the stunning Arras E.J. Carr Late Disgorged 2002.

An antipasto plate will accompany the wines. Lucky door prize is a magnum of Lake’s Folly 1989 Cabernet.

When: Tuesday 14 April 6 – 8pm Where: The Grace Hotel, Level 2, 77 York Street, Sydney Cost: $144 Bookings: www.boutiquewines.com.au

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Waxing lyrical about aged wines

I would love to be able to write about aged wine all the time, but the reality is that most wine is consumed young, and most wine is sold even younger. But, every now and then I beg your indulgence as I rhapsodise about some lovely aged wine that has wandered across my path. I’ll begin gently. And finish with a bang.

A friend produced out of his magician’s hat a magnum of 1980 Lindemans St George Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon (tasting). This is a wine that I have shafted mercilessly in the past. When released (far too young, of course) it was excessively oaky, but the main thing I disliked was its green, capsicum-like herbaceous aroma. A product of the minimal pruning era of both Coonawarra and Lindemans, it was a left-field wine and I always had a hunch that its different-ness was one reason it won so many show awards, including the Jimmy Watson Trophy. Lindemans’ chief winemaker at the time, Phillip John, and I used to argue about it, and I’m even sorrier that Phillip died recently, before I could tell him how much I enjoyed this magnum. 

At 35 years old, it was no longer at all oaky, but the lifted herbal notes were still there, albeit transformed by age. But it was the palate of the wine that seduced me so. It was superbly elegant and balanced, finely textured and harmonious, and endowed with marvelous complexity of flavour. No doubt a 750ml bottle would have displayed more age development, depending on the temperature of the cellar and quality of the cork. 

The second wine was an imperial of 1989 Chateau Haut-Brion (tasting). This was simply breath-taking. A great vintage of a great chateau - a first-growth Bordeaux - from a very big bottle, starting to drink beautifully at 25 years. An imperial holds six litres of wine, or eight bottles. The fact that our group was reasonably small, meant we could all actually imbibe a decent quantity – we could actually drink it rather than taste a teensy pour.  What an indulgence! 

This was a thoroughly wonderful wine, and it seemed that it would live and thrive for another 25 years at least – especially in an imperial. How much more slowly the wine would age in a six-litre bottle is open to conjecture. There is little of detail published on the subject and even the Oxford Companion to Wine is sketchy. 

What’s known is that a 1.5-litre magnum doesn’t live for twice as long as a 750ml bottle. It should last longer, but whether it’s by 10%, 5%, 2% or less depends at least in part on the wine. The greater the wine’s potential longevity (eg. red Bordeaux or port), the greater the difference is likely to be. And the older the wine becomes, the wider the gap is likely to grow. We do know that half-bottles are not good for cellaring, as ageing is accelerated significantly in bottles smaller than 750ml. Anecdotally, the magnum is widely regarded as the optimum size for aging.