As I've mentioned elsewhere, one of the first things I did once I'd acquired an interest in wine in general and Australian wine in particular was to acquire a copy of Len Evans' Complete Book of Australian Wine to go with it. That particular wrist-breaker is long gone and would be mightily out of date in any case, but it would be interesting to be able to go back and have a look at the material that did a lot to formulate Hughesy's personal wine iconography.
As also remarked elsewhere, and not just but Yours Truly, Iconic would run as close to a short-priced favourite in the Overused Vocabulary For Writers Who Can't Make The Effort To Find The Appropriate Word Stakes. Iconic's cousin-brother Legendary wouldn't be far behind.
My copy of the Apple Dictionary defines iconic as of, relating to, or of the nature of an icon, which is, in turn, a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol of something.
Legendary, in turn, is of, described in, or based on legends or remarkable enough to be famous; very well known.
That personal iconography referred to tended to be rather Hunter-dominant, with The Rothbury Estate and Lake's Folly dominating the notional landscape, with honourable mentions for Tahbilk Marsanne, Bill Chambers and Rutherglen Muscat, and Coonawarra as a region.
Now, regardless of how large those figures loomed, you couldn't really describe all of them as legendary or iconic.
Tahbilk Marsanne, for instance, while it continues to be outstanding value for money in a style that's close to unique in Australia and was difficult to track down in the early years probably doesn't qualify under either of those definitions.
The Rothbury Estate, at least in its initial form, was definitely very well known, and could be slotted in under legendary, but that particular incarnation is long gone and bears no resemblance to the entity currently trading under that label.
The fortunes of Coonawarra as a region have waxed and waned, and while you could apply iconic to particular wines as a representative symbol of the district, Coonawarra is probably too commonplace to qualify as anything other than very well known.
Legends, of course, are basically stories, particularly traditional stories sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated, and it was the stories that went with the other names mentioned above that did a lot to attract Hughesy's attention. There was the unnamed French wine expert who was allegedly carted around the country from region to region, sampling the best of what was on offer and finding most of them lacking in comparison with their classic continental counterparts until he tried a Rutherglen Muscat. Mon dieu! (or Sacre bleu! or words to that effect), he allegedly exclaimed. I have never tasted anything like this in my life and it is magnificent.
The story may or may not be true, but it did plenty to shape some of Hughesy's tasting priorities.
Associated with that story, I noted the existence of stocks of aged Muscat in Rutherglen, incredibly thick, viscous wines with the consistency of ice cream topping and best sampled from a teaspoon, and the possibility of doing so if someone like Bill Chambers considered you worthy.
I didn't get to Rosewood on my first visit to Rutherglen because I wasn’t in charge of the itinerary and the driver didn't head that way, but I suspect I wouldn't have been considered worthy, so I wasn't too bothered by the omission.
We were back in Rutherglen in December '06. This time I made sure we got there, and was mildly gobsmacked to find the legendary winemaker present behind the counter in the Cellar Door as a steady stream of visitors came and went. Most of them, I suspected, were either unaware of, or chose to ignore, the presence of someone who definitely qualifies as a living legend. He mightn't be among the eighty photographs at http://www.richardsimpkin.com.au/Australian-Legends/80-Names.htm but one suspects he wouldn't be far off.
More...