Tuesday, 29 September 2009
I’ve been watching recent developments in the Australian wine industry with more than a little interest. There’s little doubt the industry has found itself in the middle of a crisis, but an observer could have arrived at the same assessment at regular intervals over the past thirty years. I suspect the current state of affairs has more than a little to do with that old bugbear market forces and quite a bit to do with the equally topical subject of climate change.
Taking climate change first, it’s obvious that until there’s a serious reshuffle in the water allocation and environmental flows landscape much of the irrigated fruit that makes up such a substantial chunk of the wines that come labelled as ‘South-East Australia - the big-selling multi-region blends that take up much of the visible display space in your local chain liquor outlet - is likely to disappear.
A lot of that vineyard space has, from what I can gather, been planted by organisations more concerned with reducing someone’s tax bill than producing actual wine, though the result of vast areas of vineyard developments has been vast quantities of surplus production which producers are going to have great difficulty shifting. Much of the justification for those plantings has been the Australian wine industry’s success in overseas markets, which brings us back to market forces.
There’s no doubt that over the past twenty years Australia has become very good at producing large quantities of reasonable quality wine at extremely attractive price points. Much of the problem at the moment seems to be that other countries have woken up to the possibilities and, as a result, there’s competition in the grog shops in the U.K. and North America that wasn’t there before.
There seems to be a parallel development in those parts where Australian wine has become boring and consumers are heading towards other sources at around the same (or preferably a cheaper) price point. Hardly surprising, really. If you’re going to treat something as a commodity and work on volume you’re not going to be looking too much at the quality side of the equation, though there are always going to be instances where quality wine will appear at extremely attractive price points. You just don’t expect it to happen consistently.
For instance, back in 2004 and 2005 Angove’s Butterfly Ridge Riesling was exceptional value with genuine varietal character and the mineral/lime characters you’d expect in much more expensive Rieslings in a range that I was able to pick up for around $5 a bottle. I’d tried the same wine from later vintages and, frankly, it’s tasted more or less like what you’d expect from a good wine at that price point.
But the 2004 was an outstanding wine at that price point.
These days when I’m looking at that price point (and I do, regularly) I’ll probably go for the consistent, high-value-for-money Tahbilk everyday drinking range rather than scouring the bottle shop for whatever’s on special this week.
The recent launch of Australia's First Families of Wine brought a lot of those issues into focus and, predictably, among the dozen producers on the list are three names you’ll find discussed in these parts - Brown Brothers, Tahbilk and Jim Barry. Each of the dozen producers on the list have their own take on the road ahead, but most are in the process of exploring the possibilities raised by new varieties and vineyard sites.
Brown Brothers have a particularly strong record in that regard, and opening a bottle of the 2006 Tempranillo gave me a chance to reflect on some of the issues raised above. For a start, issues associated with climate change mean that wineries are going to have a serious look at the varieties they’re growing and the optimum locations for the vineyards where they grow them. Brown Brothers have been doing that for a while and have evolved a fairly efficient way of introducing and evaluating new varieties. The 2006 Tempranillo is their third release of the variety and I was looking for something to go with a chilli con carne when I reached into the wine rack and selected the bottle.
You won’t find the wine on the shelves at your local bottle shop at the moment. It’s at the Cellar Door Only stage, though I don’t expect that’ll be the case for too much longer.
Having selected the wine I was a little lighter than usual on the chilli content of the con carne, opting for mildly spicy rather than out-and-out hot. Heavy on the garlic, enough chilli to make it interesting, savoury rather than incendiary.
Actually, I suspect that approach would also work with quite a few of the new red varietals that are turning up, because the trend seems to be towards softer more savoury styles rather than the hearty monsters that were all the go a while back. On reflection I could just as easily have tried the chilli with a Grenache, a Mourvedre or a GSM.
Tempranillo is an early-ripening variety with a short growing season, and this version is mainly sourced from their vineyard at Heathcote, which is their premium red grape source, with some fruit from Banksdale in the King Valley.
The wine’s a bright ruby red, with a mixture of berry notes, fruit and oak on the nose, medium-bodied with fine savoury tannins that went down a treat with the chilli. Cool climate Tempranillo can be spicy, and Heathcote is definitely temperate so there are some of those elements in there as well. Overall, a pleasantly elegant medium-bodied style that I’ll be happy to reorder. Drink now, or in the not-too-distant future rather than a long-term cellaring prospect.