Once used primarily as a base wine for Australia's version of Port, the noble syrah grape, or "shiraz" in down-under parlance, yields wines of grandeur when treated with respect
Photo: Matt Turner
Proprietary Shiraz - Australia's Best of ShowBy Steve PitcherBy nature, Australians possess a certain engaging swagger.
So, too, do their wines. Most are bold offerings with dynamic characteristics. Expressive wines deserve distinctive names, and Aussie winemakers have a penchant for bestowing proprietary monikers on their favored bottlings. The practice is not so unusual in an age where upper-tier, blended New World wines are frequently given special names to elevate their standing in the marketplace. What sets the Aussies apart, however, is their propensity for naming even wines that are 100 percent varietal - and in most cases 100 percent shiraz. This novel practice has served to distinguish a handful of the country's great Shiraz with evocative names that further differentiate what's inside the bottle from competitors.
An element of irony exists, however, in the very fact that Australia's greatest wines are made today from syrah - shiraz in the local vernacular.
Until the 1950s, this widely planted grape was used almost exclusively as a base wine for Australia's version of Port until the late Max Schubert, chief winemaker at Penfolds, demonstrated that a hearty red could be made from it in the form of the wine he called "Grange Hermitage," the country's international icon wine. This new dry wine didn't change the prevailing Aussie preference for sweet wines overnight, but it did establish a benchmark. Yet as tastes eventually swung toward dry reds, the Australian wine industry instead embraced Cabernet Sauvignon - because of its classier image - over Shiraz.
Throughout the 1960s, '70s and much of the '80s, shiraz, with its natural vigor and propensity for high yields, was relegated to the role of workhorse grape, much like California's zinfandel during the same general period. Shiraz was often used as a blending grape in inexpensive, undistinguished wines. A few winemakers who were persuaded by Schubert's example experimented during these years with small lots of low-yielding, old-vine shiraz that produced rich, age-worthy wines, but their results were not sensational enough to slow the cabernet bandwagon.
The final indignity came in the mid-1980s, when the Australian government encouraged growers to pull out old shiraz vines (even a variety as prolific as shiraz has lower yields as it ages, and those yields were considered a commercial liability rather than a source of superior wine). Many growers, particularly in the Barossa Valley, responded by uprooting 70- to 100-year-old shiraz vines and replanting with cabernet sauvignon. Fortunately, some savvy growers held out and these venerable vines were not totally eradicated.
Meanwhile, insufficient nursery stock of virus-free cabernet vines was failing to meet growers' needs in the face of a surge of worldwide demand in the 1980s for moderately priced, Australian wine, especially reds. Like a wallflower with an open dance card, shiraz was readily available. By the mid-'80s, it had a growing number of suitors, all of whom had warmed to the variety out of necessity, but would soon come to treat it with the same respect as cabernet sauvignon.
Didn't syrah, after all, produce the legendary wines of the Northern Rhône like Guigal's La Mouline and Jaboulet's La Chapelle? Early results of this change in approach were encouraging. Grapes that had produced acceptable wine almost in spite of circumstance produced great wine when well treated. This evolution of attitude, coupled with winemaking knowledge and skills accumulated over time, made possible the upswing in quality of Shiraz, which continues to this day.
To date, the current top flight of proprietary Shiraz surpass all similar Australian efforts undertaken with Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz' erstwhile rival.
Penfolds "Grange Hermitage" launched the category, taking its proprietary name from Grange cottage at the Penfolds family's Magill Estate on the outskirts of Adelaide in South Australia. Created in the 1950s as the Australian answer to the dry red wines of Bordeaux, Grange today shares - but never relinquishes - the spotlight with a number of other noteworthy Shiraz that have recently come into their own.
These relatively new efforts make up an impressive collection of proprietary wines, each of which has a dedicated following, often bordering on cult frenzy.
Declaring which of Australia's proprietary Shiraz should be at the top of the heap is no less daunting a task than determining a finite list of California's top Cabernet Sauvignons. The critic is bound to be challenged at every turn - by connoisseurs enamored of the tiny-production, cult Shiraz who bewail their omission, as well as by those who champion the somewhat more widely available, sometimes leading-edge wines that have made impressive statements of quality and distinction.
Nevertheless, eight of Australia's most extraordinary proprietary Shiraz are profiled here and footnoted by an agreement with the reader to disagree on the others.
These limited production wines are presented by region, chiefly because climate has a distinct impact on the style of Australian Shiraz. Price and quantity accompany the tasting notes. While there are exceptions, generally cool-climate Shiraz, from an area such as the Bendigo region of Central Victoria, have more black and white pepper character, and most producers will age these wines in French oak. Temperate areas, such as the Eden Valley, tend to produce Shiraz that have red berry and plum flavors with sweet nutmeg and cinnamon spices; in warmer climes where American oak is favored, such as the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale and the lower Hunter Valley, flavors such as blackberry and mulberry are more common, and tend to turn jammy in hot spots.
South Australia
Penfolds "Grange"
The story of Grange, Australia's undisputed "First Growth" and its most collectable wine, has elements of excitement, faith, humiliation, intrigue and suspense - all of which contribute to the triumph of the wine.
While on a research tour in Europe in 1950, Penfolds' Max Schubert was taken under the wing of Christian Cruse, one of the most highly regarded members of Bordeaux's old school. Cruse afforded him the rare opportunity to taste and evaluate 40- to 50-year-old Bordeaux, which Schubert was surprised to find still sound and possessing magnificent bouquet and flavor - Australian table wines of the day were made for early consumption.
Schubert, whose career at Penfolds spanned 60 years, recalled in a speech delivered at the first Australian National University Wine Symposium in Canberra in September 1979, "[That tasting] imbued in me a desire to attempt to do something to lift the rather mediocre standard of Australian red wine in general at that time." He was determined to produce a wine in the 1950s from Australian fruit capable of taking at least 20 years to reach its peak and comparable with great Bordeaux.
The problem was, precious little was available in the way of Bordeaux varieties in Australia in 1951, and certainly not enough to be commercially feasible. "After all," Schubert observed in the same speech, "the development of a new commercial wine, particularly of the high-grade range, depends on the quality and availability of the raw material, the maintenance of standard and continuity of supply."
Because it was in plentiful supply, he elected to use Hermitage (another Aussie name for shiraz) exclusively for the first experimental wine to be made at the Magill estate. He told his audience he combined shiraz from two separate vineyards and areas consisting of the Penfolds Grange Vineyard at Magill (in the foothills overlooking Adelaide) and a private vineyard in Morphett Vale (south of Adelaide). Schubert had already noted "that both vineyards produced wines of distinctive varietal flavor and character with a great depth of color and body weight, and felt that by producing them together, the outstanding characteristics of both vineyards would result in an improved all-round wine eminently suitable for my purpose."
One of Schubert's greatest innovations was to mimic the cold conditions of a Bordeaux winery in October. He achieved this by using a simple form of refrigeration to slow Grange's fermentation, bringing about maximum extraction of tannins, coloring agents and flavor compounds. Use of refrigeration is now almost universal in winemaking today.
This first Grange Hermitage was pungent and rich, and Schubert determined that only American oak barrels would be up to the task of taming it. He chose five, 66-gallon, untreated barrels for his experimental lot, plus a 1,000-gallon, well-seasoned dry red cask for the control wine.
His objective, he said, was "to produce a big, full-bodied wine, containing maximum extraction of all the components in the grape material used."
After one month, the raw oak and the rich fruit were producing an explosively exciting bouquet and taste. After one year, the experimental wine's intensity of fruit was tremendous. "It was almost as if the new wood had acted as a catalyst to release previously unsuspected flavors and aromas from the Hermitage grape," Schubert observed. After 18 months in barrel, the wine was bottled and cellared.
In the meantime, the 1952 vintage had come and gone with an increase in the quantity of the Grange, which Schubert made in exactly the same manner as the first vintage. "It was a superb wine to my mind," he declared.
His efforts went on through the 1956 vintage with none of the wines released commercially, and with Schubert's superiors at Penfolds' head office in Sydney becoming increasingly concerned about the large investment languishing in their Magill cellars. Accordingly, a tasting was arranged for top corporate management, the board of directors and well-known wine personalities in Sydney.
Schubert deemed the result "absolutely disastrous." Apparently, no one liked Grange Hermitage. Determined to prove the Sydney people wrong, Schubert and a few loyalists arranged tastings in and around Adelaide and at Magill, and donated various vintages to wine societies for evaluation. The general reaction was little better than the earlier disaster in Sydney.
Schubert later noted some of the assessments made by experts and critics alike during the darkest hours of Grange Hermitage:
"A concoction of wild fruits and sundry berries with crushed ants predominating."
"A very good, dry Port, which no one in their right mind will buy - let alone drink."
Another taster wanted to use it as an aphrodisiac, theorizing that the wine was like bull's blood in all respects and would raise one's blood count to twice the norm when the occasion demanded. A doctor friend even thought it could be employed as an anesthetic.
Just before the 1957 vintage, Schubert received written notice to stop production of Grange because he was accumulating large stocks of wine that were considered unsaleable and the adverse criticism directed at the wine was considered harmful to the company image as a whole. "It appeared to be the end," Schubert noted.
However, with the tacit approval of a couple of supportive senior management people, Schubert continued to make Grange in smaller quantities through the 1959 vintage - albeit covertly and without the benefit of new American oak, the one element that he claimed "made the difference between a good wine and a great wine."
By 1960, earlier vintages had become less aggressive and more refined with bottle age, and people began to praise the wine. The board of directors got wind of the reversal and just before the 1960 vintage Schubert was instructed to officially start making Grange Hermitage again.
From that moment, he never looked back. Having joined the company at age 16 in 1931 as a messenger boy and in his later years serving as winemaker emeritus until his death in 1994, Schubert's career at Penfolds proved to be a remarkable journey.
Single-handedly, he had ushered in the modern age of Australian wine and demonstrated convincingly that shiraz is the preeminent red grape variety for the growing conditions of South Australia. With the release of the 1996 Grange last year, Penfolds celebrated the 50th anniversary of this landmark achievement in Australian winemaking.
Since 1986, Grange has been the responsibility of Chief Winemaker John Duval, who also directs all of Penfolds' red and white winemaking.
Grange ("Hermitage" - a name borrowed from the Northern Rhône - was dropped from the label with the 1990 vintage as the result of an agreement between Australia and the European Union) is distinguished from other top echelon Shiraz in that its fruit comes from several vineyard sources in South Australia and, since the 1955 vintage, by the addition of a small amount of cabernet sauvignon (never exceeding 14 percent). According to Duval, the cabernet is used in years when the shiraz doesn't possess the tannin structure required for the Grange style established by Schubert. "I'm not looking for cabernet flavor so much as the benefit of cabernet's tannins to the overall structure and balance," he says.
The hallmarks of a mature Grange are ripe, opulent, spicy shiraz flavors and a plush structure that is attributable to the deep, sandy soils and warm, even climates of Barossa Valley, Clare Valley and McLaren Vale.
Penfolds owns more than 1,200 acres of vineyards throughout South Australia, including some exceedingly old vineyards in Barossa, and buys grapes from many independent growers who benefit from quality incentive rewards of up to 400 percent for Grange-level fruit. With a strict eye for quality, Duval and his winemaking team have the luxury of selecting only the finest fruit from a range of vineyards in various districts.
"Our multiregion, multivineyard blending policy enables us to reduce the impact of vintage variation to the point where experts the world over consider Grange to be among the most consistent of the world's great wines," Duval says. "Our vast vineyard resources, and our relationships with growers in the country's premium winegrowing regions, mean that even in a difficult vintage we have been able to source enough shiraz of the quality and style we need to make a little Grange each year. It is the ultimate answer to the proponents of single-vineyard wines."
Always limited (in some years less than 3,000 cases), Grange is released five years after the vintage, rather than the more typical two years, in order to allow the wine's elements more time to mesh.
Barossa Valley
Yalumba "The Octavius"
From its modest beginnings in 1849, the Yalumba Wine Company, Australia's oldest family-owned winery, has grown to become one of the country's most successful, medium-sized wineries. Its flagship Shiraz, "The Octavius," has established a solid reputation as one of Australia's premier Shiraz in the few short years since its first release of the 1990 vintage, designated "Edition I." Produced in tiny quantities - 680 cases of the current 1997 vintage (Edition VIII), 63 of which were allocated to the U.S. market - its $80 price tag seems reasonable when compared to most other cult bottlings.
Sourced from several of Yalumba's century-old, dry-farmed Barossa Valley vineyards, the fruit selection process for Octavius, like that of Grange, is ruthless.
The Octavius then undergoes an aging regimen that is singularly unique, maturing in American oak "octaves" with only a 90-liter capacity (less than half the size of a normal barrel). "Octavius is the only red wine in the world that is matured in such small barrels," asserts Yalumba's Managing Director Rob Hill Smith. "The wine isn't overpowered by the oak because the oak is seasoned at Yalumba for eight years before the octaves are crafted by our own coopers." The maturation period is 27 months in American oak, 65 percent of which is new, but "seasoned."
The result is a powerfully stunning wine with a palate of incredible richness, intense flavor concentration and warmth with a firm, sweet oak finish. It has the potential to age for decades.
Elderton "Command"
In 1979, the Ashmead family acquired a neglected 70-acre vineyard on the banks of the North Para River planted to wonderfully gnarly, head-pruned shiraz vines dating back to the 1890s. Working diligently, the late Neil Ashmead and his wife, Lorraine, progressively turned the vineyard into a great estate.
The shiraz grape excels in the Barossa Valley's Mediterranean-like climate, and the reputation of Elderton Command was quickly established with the initial release of the 1984 vintage, which won a prestigious Jimmy Watson Trophy at the Royal Melbourne Show. The 1996 Command, made by Richard Sheedy, was even more successful, winning the trophy for the best Shiraz in the world at the 2000 London International Wine and Spirit Competition. Importer John Larchet, whose Australian Premium Wine Collection includes The Command, likens the wine to "an elegant monster."
Fruit for the Elderton Command is estate-grown on rich, river silt soils and red brown earth over limestone. Minimal pressing, long fermentation and extended aging for more than three years in French and American oak puncheons and twelve months of bottle age prior to release result in a 100 percent varietal Shiraz wine that is at once big, rich and brooding, yet elegant and well balanced.
The Elderton Command deservedly commands respect from those who relish powerful, muscular Shiraz showing opulent fruit, lots of French oak and the ability to age 15 to 20 years.
Among the other highly respected Barossa Valley proprietary Shiraz are "The Meshac" from Grant Burge, Peter Lehmann's "Stonewell," Saltram No. 1, St. Hallet's "Old Block," Barossa Valley Estate's "E & E Black Pepper," Penfolds "RWT" (which stands for Red Wine Trials) and "RunRig" from Torbreck.
Clare Valley
Jim Barry "The Armagh"
A legendary Clare Valley personality, Jim Barry was one of the earliest graduates of Roseworthy Agricultural College (the Aussie equivalent of UC-Davis), which was established in 1883 in a town of the same name just north of Adelaide. After he graduated in 1946 as only the 17th qualified winemaker to study at the institution, he went to work for the Clarevale Co-operative, becoming the first trained winemaker in the Clare Valley.
In 1959, while still at Clarevale, Barry purchased his first property and vineyards on the northern outskirts of the town of Clare, and established his own brand. The property, known as Burton Cottage, was part of the original estate of Edward Burton Gleeson, the founder of Clare. Over the next 30 years, Barry and his sons, Mark, Peter and John, purchased additional acreage in Clare Valley in keeping with Barry's simple philosophy: Own the vineyards to ensure the development of the best fruit possible, and retain the flavors of that fruit during winemaking.
One of those vineyards was the Armagh, which was purchased by Barry in 1964 from Duncan McCrae Wood. Now a precious parcel of Australian viticulture, the 8-acre vineyard is called Armagh (the "g" is silent) after the district in Clare in which it is situated, an area settled by Irish immigrants who named it after their homeland's County Armagh.
In 1968, Barry and his sons planted shiraz in the vineyard's poor, sandy-gravel, low-fertility soils. The average yield in this largely dry-farmed site - then as now - ranges between 1 to 2 tons per acre, resulting in grapes with high sugars and great concentration. Throughout the 1970s and early '80s, the fruit went into Jim Barry's "Sentimental Bloke" Port blend. In 1985, the first Armagh, 100 percent Shiraz, was released - a powerful wine, the style of which is immortalized in the Armagh of today.
The grapes are picked very ripe, at between 24 and 25 degrees Brix, just as they begin to shrivel on the vine, but before they cross the line into jammy. After fermentation in barrel, which lasts about two weeks, the wine is left on the skins under a gas blanket for another two to three weeks for maximum extraction. The must is then pressed to extract as much juice from the skins as possible, and then added back to the barrel, where it is racked weekly for six weeks. Finally, the wine is racked off into heavily toasted American oak casks that have been seasoned with previous vintages of cabernet sauvignon, where it ages for another six to eight months. Prior to bottling, the wine is egg white-fined and coarsely filtered.
Winemaker Mark Barry recommends that his Armagh be allowed to breathe for a minimum of two hours before being consumed to fully appreciate the distinctive aromas and flavors. This in-your-face, full-bodied, highly extracted Shiraz cries out for bottle age, although it is a glorious mouthful of explosive Shiraz when consumed young. Australia's esteemed wine writer, James Halliday, summed up the Armagh best when he wrote in 1997: "Made in a consistent and impressive 'Battleship Galactica-style' over the past decade, showing that sometimes more can be better."
Another Clare Valley proprietary Shiraz worth seeking out is Leasingham's "Classic Clare."
Eden Valley
Henschke "Hill of Grace" & "Mount Edelstone"
One of Australia's first named vineyards, Hill of Grace, was originally planted in the 1860s near Keyneton in the Barossa Ranges from pre-phylloxera plant material brought from the Rhône Valley to Australia by German immigrants in the 1840s. Located not on a hill, as the name suggests, but in a shallow, horseshoe-shaped valley with red, alluvial soils, the 20-acre vineyard takes its name from a beautiful, historic Lutheran church that stands across the road from the vines. (The church was once the house of worship for the now-vanished town of Gnadenberg, which is German for "hill of grace.") The original vineyard consisted of four acres of shiraz and three acres of mataro (mourvèdre), and was expanded to its present size between 1914 and 1920. All the vines are head-pruned, dry-farmed and hand-harvested. Some of the oldest shiraz vines, at more than 140 years of age, survive to this day, and are integral to the production of the wine. The vineyard has belonged to the Henschke family since the late 1800s.
The late Cyril Henschke made the first vintage of Hill of Grace in 1958. His son, Stephen, the fifth generation of the family to run the winery, makes the wine now, one of several produced at the Keyneton winery. He is also a trained botanist and viticulturist, as is his wife, Prue, who, since 1987, has marked off a section of the vineyard to serve as a nursery for replacing "grandfather" vines that fall prey to the inevitabilities of advanced age - susceptibility to disease and eventual death. She has made clonal selections to gradually replant the entire vineyard, as necessary, with the highest quality cuttings from existing vines, identifying 150 vines offering the characteristics that she prefers. Her criteria include numbers of bunches, timing of bud burst (important because of frost considerations), sugar and acid levels, berry color and growing and ripening rates. "At pruning time, we'll keep cuttings from them and gradually replant some areas of the vineyard, so that in maybe 35 years' time it will be completely replaced," Stephen explained.
Vines in the original shiraz block of Hill of Grace are older than those on the Hermitage hillside in the Rhône Valley today. They've survived while their French forebears were devastated by phylloxera in the last quarter of the 19th century. With its wealth of pre-phylloxera material, Hill of Grace is something of a living viticultural museum.
Henschke's other highly regarded Shiraz, Mount Edelstone, first released as "Claret" in 1952, comes from a 40-acre vineyard about two miles from Hill of Grace. Here the vines are about 80 years old and are also head-pruned and dry-farmed. In a good vintage, Mount Edelstone can produce 10,000 cases, as compared to 2,000 for Hill of Grace.
Both wines are fermented at a comparatively low maximum temperature of 64 to 68 degrees with wood "header" boards inserted into the top of the stainless steel tank to keep the cap of skins submerged. The juice is pumped over the skins each day, and passed through heat exchangers to keep the temperature below 68 degrees. After six or seven days, Henschke draws off the juice, at least half of which goes into new, 66-gallon American oak barrels. The remainder rests in seasoned first-year American and French barrels, where the fermentation continues for up to two more weeks.
"During this time in barrel, the oak flavors are drawn into the wine and integrated in a way that isn't possible if you simply ferment it entirely in the tank," Henschke says. He then transfers the finished wine to new wood for aging.
The wine matures for 12 to 18 months in this mixture of new and seasoned oak. The new oak is mostly American with 10 to 15 percent French wood for Hill of Grace, and 15 to 20 percent French wood for Mount Edelstone. Henschke employs minimal rackings, no finings and only a slight filtration, as coarse as possible. After bottling, the wines are cellared for up to three years before release.
"Hill of Grace is the longer-lived wine and can be somewhat closed and austere on release, but develops a wonderfully plush texture in time with rich, silky, mature berry flavors," he notes. With bottle age, it becomes an amazing blend of grandeur and elegance with a depth of dark and exotic flavors that are jammy, rich and ripe. He suggests pairing the wine with rare grilled fillet of wild hare or kangaroo and a game-based demi-glace lightly infused with juniper berries or a similar fruit.
Mount Edelstone tends to be spicier and more approachable on release with predominant gamy plum and blackberry fruit flavors accented by mint and eucalyptus, pepper and leather, and notes of chocolate in the aromas.
McLaren Vale
Clarendon Hills "Australis"
Research scientist turned self-taught winemaker Roman Bratasiuk bought the old Elysium Winery near the town of Blewitt Springs in McLaren Vale in 1989, and renamed it Clarendon Hills. An imposing man - some might say larger than life - Bratasiuk has a name for each of the many wines he makes, and each of them is big and robust in style, particularly his flagship wine, "The Australis" Shiraz.
Soon after establishing his winery, which came with a small, old-vine vineyard, Bratasiuk began to build a network of growers. He ferreted out the best of the low-yielding plots of old vines planted on their own roots in and around the town of Clarendon, some dating back to the late 1800s, to produce the range of single-vineyard wines he wanted - including, among others, "Kangarilla" Chardonnay, "Hickenbotham" Pinot Noir and "Liandra" Shiraz. Each wine has its own unique character, which is remarkably consistent vintage to vintage.
At the pinnacle of his single-vineyard production, "The Australis" is heroic stuff - immense and brooding - sourced from tiny, twisted patches of ancient, low-yielding vines; it's proof-positive that terroir can speak loudly. It combines the power of McLaren Vale old-vines fruit with Roman's hands-off winemaking. His model is more French than Australian; he believes his wines are made in the vineyard, and therefore avoids intervention. This means natural yeast fermentation, minimal racking in barrel and no filtering or fining. Limited in pro-duction (there were 700 cases of the 1999 vintage), "The Australis" is priced accordingly at $150 per bottle.
d'Arenberg "The Dead Arm"
Founded in 1912 in the hills just north of the township of McLaren Vale on South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula, d'Arenberg Wines has been run by four generations of the Osborn family. Winemaker Chester Osborn took over from his father, Francis, known to all as "d'Arry," in 1984, and was the first of the Osborn clan to have graduated from Roseworthy Agricultural College.
Each of the 20 or so wines in d'Arenberg's portfolio has a distinctive name, none more startling than "The Dead Arm" Shiraz, which debuted with the 1994 vintage. It followed the popular Shiraz and Grenache varietals and blends developed by d'Arry Obsorn in the 1950s and '60s, christened with evocative names such as "The Ironstone Pressings" Grenache-Shiraz and "The Footbolt" Old-Vine Shiraz.
"Dead arm" is a vine disease caused by the fungus eutypa lata that randomly affects vineyards the world over. Often, vines with its symptoms are severely pruned, replanted or abandoned. At d'Arenberg, the disease is considered to be a natural part of vineyard life. One half, or arm, of the vine slowly becomes reduced to dead wood. That side might be lifeless and brittle, but the grapes on the other side display amazing intensity of flavor.
Although d'Arenberg's dead arm-affected shiraz blocks are considered by local grape growers and winemakers as having "one foot in the grave," these truncated, gap-toothed old vines have been producing small bunches of highly flavored grapes since the 19th century.
Osborn leaves more buds than usual on the producing part of the vine, which yields more clusters, but because the vines are not irrigated during flowering and fruit set, the berries are smaller and more intensely flavored.
Each year, the small, low-yielding parcels from The Dead Arm blocks are vinified separately from other shiraz at d'Arenberg. After hand-harvesting into recycled kerosene tins, the very small-berried fruit is then gently crushed by the open-mouthed, rubber-toothed Demoisy crusher and pumped into traditional open fermenters fitted with header boards.
A week or so later, the still-fermenting shiraz is gently pressed by the winery's 19th-century Coq and Tregoning basket presses into new and first-year American and French barriques for 22 months of maturation before blending and bottling.
The result is one of McLaren Vale's darkest and brawniest wines, exhibiting deeply extracted fruit and an appealing earthiness.
Other superb, proprietary Shiraz from McLaren Vale include "Balmoral" Syrah - not Shiraz - from Rosemount Estate, "Vale la Testa" from Classic McLaren, Hardys "Eileen Hardy," "Anthony's Reserve" from Simon Hackett, "Foundation" from Tatachilla and Coriole's "Lloyd Reserve."
Central Victoria
Jasper Hill "Georgia's Paddock"
After taking early retirement from the corporate rat race in 1975, Ron Laughton and his wife, Elva, bought two vineyard tracts in the Heathcote region in Central Victoria, about an hour's drive north of Melbourne, the state's capital. They were drawn to the area both by the unusually deep, ferruginous red earth of the vineyard land and by the desire to grow their own grapes and make their own wine. Named for their two daughters, the 37-acre "Georgia's Paddock" and the 8-acre "Emily's Paddock" vineyards are situated at 1,000 feet elevation on the inland slopes of the Great Dividing Range, where the cool climate has proven ideal to fully ripen low-yielding, unirrigated shiraz. Both vineyards have been totally organic since the beginning, Jasper Hill's first vintage was 1982.
"Central Victoria is warm enough to ripen shiraz, but cool enough to give it an elegance not often found in warmer climates," Laughton says. In spite of low but adequate rainfall, irrigation isn't necessary because of the depth of the Cambrian soils. "The great depth holds moisture, and the roots have volume to explore," he notes. Yields are accordingly low, usually between one and two tons per acre.
Laughton believes in minimal intervention, allowing the vineyard's terroir to fully express itself in the resulting wine. In the vineyard, no artificial chemicals, herbicides, insecticides or fungicides, other than elemental sulfur and copper sulfate, are applied. In the winery, indigenous yeasts induce fermentation, and the wine is neither fined nor filtered. Unlike other Shiraz icons, Georgia's Paddock is fermented in open, 8-ton stainless steel fermenters, after which the wine is macerated on the skins for up to eight weeks for maximum extraction of color and flavor. Finally, the wine is aged 14 months in a mixture of mostly new French and American barrels, weighted toward French - about 80 percent. The result is a gloriously rich, ripe, full-bodied Shiraz.
Jasper Hill's style of Shiraz is much more approachable on release than other top-echelon Shiraz, yet is also capable of long-term cellaring for greater complexity.
Among the other excellent, proprietary Shiraz from Victoria are "Langhi" Shiraz from Mount Langhi Ghiran, Chateau Tahbilk's "1860 Vines," "Classic" from Summerfield, The Green Vineyards' "The Forties Old Block" and Dalwhinnie's "Eagle" Shiraz. While not sporting a proprietary name, the wonderfully peppery Craiglee Shiraz, made from grapes grown in a vineyard first planted in 1863 in the Sunbury district of Victoria, is up there with the best of them.
Tasting Bar
The eight profiled wines were tasted blind with the addition of two other highly regarded, proprietary Shiraz, "The Graveyard" from Brokenwood Wines in the Hunter Valley and the new, top-of-the-line "Henley" from Geoff Merrill in McLaren Vale. The scores are based on the BuyLine's 100-point scale:
d'Arenberg, 1999 "The Dead Arm" Shiraz, McLaren Vale - $65: Somewhat restrained nose of warm earthiness, medium-char oak and ripe red fruits from a low-yielding vintage. Quite oaky on the palate with medium-full tannins and good acidity, offering berry-cassis fruit and a note of licorice that lingers nicely into the extended, toffee-mocha finish. The oak overpowers the fruit at this point in the wine's development; return for another taste in six months' time. Experience shows that after time in bottle, The Dead Arm gains a biscuity, cinnamon, caramel and eucalyptus-based bouquet on top of rich blackberry pie aromas, and the flavors will expand to include mushroom, malt and chocolate elements. (1,000 cases) Old Bridge Cellars, Napa, CA / (800) 622-2234. Score: 90 points
Jim Barry, 1998 "The Armagh" Shiraz, Clare Valley - $100: A wine from a great vintage, The Armagh entices with aromas of plummy, liqueur-rich, blackberry-raspberry fruit enhanced with juicy pomegranate and tinged with milk chocolate. Rich, full-bodied and silky-smooth on the palate with copious, kirsch-like dark cherry-blackberry fruit - such glorious fruit! - and just a hint of vanillin oak. A perfectly nuanced wine with excellent balance and concentration and a wonderful essence of blackberry flourish in the finish that extends at least a minute, but who's counting? (1,750 cases) Négociants USA, Napa, CA / (707) 259-0993. Score: 98
Brokenwood, 1999 "Graveyard" Shiraz, Hunter Valley - $69: Forward scents of medium-high char oak, dusty earth, mocha, clove spice, cherry-cassis fruit and a subtle, Rhône-like barnyard element. Deep, dense, concentrated, layered blackberry-red cherry fruit fills the mouth, joined by nuances of vanilla and coconut from the well-integrated oak, some char and toasted almond flavors. Smooth and luscious, with medium tannins and excellent acidity, finishing with the tang of American oak. (800 cases) The Australian Premium Wine Collection, San Rafael, CA / (800) 485-5753. Score: 92
Clarendon Hills, 1999 "Australis" Shiraz, Clarendon, McLaren Vale - $150: Seductive, very fragrant, complex nose of toasty oak, black cherry, blackberry and plum, mushroom-like earthiness, sweet brown spice and vanilla. Rich and well-stuffed on the palate, bursting with spicy black fruit plus white pepper and a hint of dried herbs superbly balanced by acidity and sleek, ripe tannins. Seamless and captivating from first sniff to the cascading finale. (700 cases) The Australian Premium Wine Collection, San Rafael, CA / (800) 485-5753. Score: 97
Elderton, 1997 "Command" Shiraz, Barossa Valley - $62: Fragrant, appealing aromas of cocoa, blackberry, cherry and plum, dried herb, vanilla and a blast of coconut. Rich, round and super smooth in the mouth offering delicious flavors that replicate the nose, enhanced by mocha, crème de cassis and brown spice. Powerful and muscular, yet focused and profoundly flavorful with medium-full tannins and good acidity. This wine takes a while to show its stuff; let it breathe for at least an hour if drinking it young. Excellent aging potential. (900 cases) The Australian Premium Wine Collection, San Rafael, CA / (800) 485-5753. Score: 93
Henschke, 1996 "Hill of Grace" Shiraz, Eden Valley - $250: Slow to open, eventually offering an elegant, appealing nose of subtle green herbs, vanilla and sweet blackberry, red cherry and plum. Beautifully rendered wine with generous flavors that replicate the nose with the green herb evolving to green peppercorn enhanced by notes of anise and fennel, and the black fruits developing a kirsch-like richness. Concentrated, luscious and rich on the palate with great depth and length; medium, ripe, silky tannins. (625 cases, of which 38 were allocated to the U.S. market) Négociants USA, Napa, CA / (707) 259-0993. Score: 97
Jasper Hill, 1999 "Georgia's Paddock" Shiraz, Heathcote, Victoria - $65: Very fragrant, almost jammy aromas of sweet berry-cassis fruit, dark chocolate, brown spice, white pepper and dried savory. Ultraplush and rich in the mouth with superb balance and delineation of fruit, this is an elegant and refined Shiraz, yet generous as well, offering exquisite blackberry essence and a wisp of vanilla. The tannins are powerful yet supple, and the acidity is perfect. (1,000 cases, of which 500 were allocated to the U.S. market) Old Bridge Cellars, Napa, CA / (800) 622-2234. Score: 97
Geoff Merrill, 1996 "Henley" Reserve Shiraz, McLaren Vale - $150: The premier release of the pinnacle of Geoff Merrill's reserve wines, the Henley sees only French oak (38 months' worth), a departure from the McLaren Vale norm, which results in a wine of elegance and restraint instead of ripe power. Aromas of opulent spice, blackberry and raspberry, licorice, dried herbs and leather. Smooth and silky on the palate with bright acidity and medium tannins, the wine's flavors focus on dark berries and chocolate. Sophisticated Shiraz. (200 cases, of which 70 allocated to the U.S. market) Brown-Forman Wines, San Rafael, CA / (800) 945-9463. Score: 92
Penfolds, 1996 "Grange" Shiraz, South Australia - $195: The ultimate icon Shiraz from a great vintage, this Grange is monumental in structure and depth, still mostly undeveloped and all potential. The reticent nose suggests black currant and boysenberry interlaced with cinnamon toast. The palate is densely packed with a mélange of black fruit with a strong note of blueberry, toasty oak, black pepper, dried herbs, mushroom earthiness and Asian spices, finishing with subtle hints of red meat and smoky oak. Lock this away for at least ten years. Blended with six percent cabernet sauvignon. (10,288 cases) Southcorp Wines North America, Napa, CA / (707) 258-8755. Score: 97
Yalumba, 1997 "The Octavius" Shiraz, Barossa - $80: Attractive, distinctive nose of mocha, dill weed, vanilla, red cherry and raspberry, candied violets and black olive. Smooth and silky on the palate with bright acidity and ripe, medium tannins, The Octavius is bursting with sweet, dark berry fruit, dark chocolate and black pepper spice. (680 cases, of which 63 allocated to the U.S. market) Négociants USA, Napa, CA / (707) 259-0993 Score: 94
By lavish use of proprietary names, Aussie winemakers seem to be trying to imbue their beloved Shiraz with a personality and identity, both inside and outside the bottle, that transcend the country's preeminent grape variety. And waiting in the wings, are dozens of Shiraz - some named, some not - that appear poised to enter the upper echelon. ¶
Based in San Francisco, Contributing Editor Steve Pitcher is vice president of the Vintners Club and president of the Bay Area chapter of the German Wine Society. He can be reached via e-mail at wine2words@aol.com
