Originally published by Brian Miller in the Adelaide Review, in November 2011
Fragrant, ethereal, unpronounceable wines winning McLaren Vale trophies? What next?
Things do not really happen in threes, unless you are selective as to when you start and stop counting, but three recent events did reinforce a revelation.
- A Tasmanian wine won The Jimmy Watson Trophy, an award South Australia assumed it owned.
- At The Adelaide Review’s ‘Hot 100 South Australian Wines’ there was barely a blockbuster in the room, and the event may have be renamed the Cool 100.
- At the McLaren Vale Wine Show, crimson was the new black.
Strange days indeed. Hot ‘n heavy has been the order of the past decade. How did wines become so big? Reasons range from dire drought and global warming to new yeasts and American tastes.
Robert Parker, an imperially influential American wine writer, favoured big, bold, behemoth wines, so we obediently obliged him. As ‘Mad Men’ reminded us, the American male is historically conditioned to strong spirits, to the extent that it was once a Presidential campaign issue. When Jimmy Carter condemned the “three-martini lunch” for endangering the US economy, Gerald Ford responded that it was “the epitome of American efficiency – where else can you get an earful, a bellyful and a snootful at the same time?” Perhaps he played too much golf with Bob Hope.
With their taste-buds singed by straight gin and a whisper of vermouth, when Americans turned from the grain to the grape, small wonder they wanted wines with wallop. It may be no coincidence that the first Australian chardonnays to achieve halleluiah success in the USA were redolently reminiscent of Southern Comfort – alcohol, American oak, sugar and peaches.
But blaming America is way past its use-by-date. This year McLaren Vale imported a wine judge, the accomplished and incisive Lisa Perotti-Brown. Her ‘International Judge Trophy’ was awarded to a a perfumed steamroller – the Shingleback 2010 ‘Red Knot’ Grenache-Shiraz-Mourvèdre. This label has long been good value, but rarely regarded as the trophy type. The wine is fresh, fragrant, vibrant, stylish and seamless. At a seductive $12 a bottle it will be my house red this La Niña Summer. Lisa is American, and who does she work for? Robert Parker. The earth just shifted on its axis.
The old familiar juices – Chardonnay, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon – were given a noticeable nudge by newcomers that Lisa described as “more expressive grapes”.
Indeed, the varietals on the winners list read like an opera program – Fiano, Vermentino, Tannat, Touriga, Tempranillo, Tintara and Taranga. (Oops, sorry, those last two are actually wineries). All bound for the new breed of bar that only serves wines ending in “a” and “o” except for Yalumba and Orlando.
Tradition was not missing completely. The Dan Murphy Trophy was seized with all tentacles by ‘Squid Ink’ Shiraz which accurately describes itself, and the 2008 Kay Brothers Basket Pressed Shiraz took me back in time – “Smells are surer than sounds or sights to make your heart-strings crack” – Rudyard Kipling.
McLaren Vale wines were always magnificent, in the true sense of the word; their flavours were magnified – big in body and soul, extraction and reputation. Other wine regions once mocked McLaren Vale’s munificence while quietly plundering its bounty to bulk up their own weedier wines. So to see pale, delicate whites and reasonably priced reds win such accolades indicates a fresh breeze of change in the vineyard in response to nascent criticism of wines becoming too damn big.
This is an international syndrome, not just Australian. Alcohols are increasing in Argentina, Austria, Bordeaux and Beaujolais. When French winemaker Hubert Trimbach said, “These rich, thick, heavy wines are aberrant, crazy,” he was not talking about us, but his own region, Alsace, where it snows. His neighbour endorsed the concern: “The average ripeness of the grapes in Alsace has increased dramatically. Today’s best vineyards are harvested at levels that our grandfathers would only dream to have once every twenty years”. Welcome to the club.
Fresh new styles, varieties and recognition are early indicators, but not every winemaker is kowtowing to the trend, and professional research indicates that alcohol levels are not a major concern to the majority of wine buyers. When told that Chris Ringland released a $18 Barossa Shiraz boasting an alcohol of 16.8%, one friend’s response was, “And the problem is?” Perception plays a part. When a wine is well made, subtly oaked and in balance, you don’t notice the kick, and wine should be made from ripe grapes. Alcohol emerges from grape sugar, and you can’t just keep picking earlier each vintage, or you end up in Verjuice territory and last New Year celebrations. If wine is expected to be an expression of place – le nouveau cliché – then climate is a part of that place.
To oversimplify a complex equation, the 2008 vintage was a bit hot and 2011 was a lot wet. But the best of the 2009 and 2010 inbetweeners are blossoming. More wines today are made to be enjoyed immediately, are released young and are drunk yesterday. Few of us now age wines for ages. The impressive contents of your long established, hard-dug cellar will reach optimum drinking just as your doctor, liver, bank manager or Pilates-prone second wife urge you to ease up. Even if you are still fit to fight, as your wines mature from too-young-to-drink to too-old-to-drink, over that same period, your tastes will have changed beyond earlier recognition. Australians who once pilloried Pinot for being to pale are now propounding it. Not only because their palates have lightened but because Pinot Noir has darkened. They met in the middle. Wines change and we change with the wines.
And the Tasmanian wine that won that Jimmy Watson Trophy? For local reassurance, the winemaker is South Australian. Nick Glaetzer. He is hoping things do happen in threes.
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About Brian Miller
Brian Miller is a past president of The Wine Service Guild of Australia, council member of the Society of Wine Education, marketing manager for small, medium and large wine companies and an award-winning public speaker. He lectures and writes occasionally, eccentrically and erratically on wine matters, wine marketing and wine culture.