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Australia has a lot to offer to the world of wine. The country’s overall production is the sixth largest in the world, and wines made throughout the countries vast expanse of varied terroir are among the finest in the world. Yet, here in the States, these wines just don’t tend to leave the shelves as quickly as the AOP, DOC, or AVA bottles that consumers flock to.
I remember working for a shop that maintained just one shelf of Australian wines, proudly displaying their screw-tops, and ribbon-clad labels. I asked my manager why a country with such a vast quantity of wine production was so seldom represented amongst our other offerings, and to this he replied, “They don’t sell, simple as that.”
Two years ago, I attended a tasting of Australian Shiraz at a local wine importer, that I wasn’t extremely thrilled about initially, yet had decided to give it a shot anyway. We tried several offerings from the Southeast GI, each with their own expressive nature, differing terroir and interesting bottle motif to compliment. Several of the options were extremely surprising to me with a lot of earthy and complex undertones, hints of glistening raspberry, candied blueberry, and tasteful oakiness. But I was truly fascinated in how vastly different McLaren Vale options tend to taste, versus Barossa, and Eden.
Up until this point I’d ignored the country as a whole, due to my own prejudices, and recently became more fascinated by the wines made here, so to the extent that I’ve decided to write about its most famous regions: Barossa and McLaren Vale. Australia’s overall wine production is somewhat mis-categorized by the jammy, overripe offerings of the 1990’s, but in recent years has amended its winemaking to further search for quality.
These two major areas are alike in many ways, but also very different. They’re roughly thirty-five miles apart, surrounding the city of Adelaide, and the warm pacific currents that sweep through the plains, and regulate the twisted old vines here.
Barossa is one of Australia’s best internationally recognized winemaking areas. The finest winemakers in Australia are located here, including the very famous Penfold’s, who we will discuss later. The area was initially settled by Prussian immigrants and has a very Germanic heritage, and a lot of them for a long time were very poor due to their isolation. As a result, this area has some of the oldest vines in Australia, majority of which, are pre-phylloxera due to the soil’s natural prevention of the vine louse. Some of these vines are among the oldest in the world.
They’re also incredibly inefficient. In the 80’s the Australian Government began to pay the impoverished German winemakers, and grape sellers to tear up their old vines in favor of more international styles like Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache. Most of them jumped at the opportunity, but it was Peter Lehmann who was offering some of these farmers double to keep their grapes in the ground in an attempt to convince them that these vines would some maybe worth millions.
This turned out to be a wise investment, because in the 1990’s a boom in consumer interest in Australian Shiraz in particular, was underway. Prices skyrocketed as people looked to pay top dollar for D’Ardenberg and Penfold’s. These luscious, ruby-colored, bombastic and juicy delights came with a traditional kick of black pepper, black olive and cinnamon among other incredible flavors. Barossa was deemed to be one of the most expressive terroir available to Syrah.
Then consumer interest waned, and these old jammy styles began to look dated and disinteresting to the majority of wine aficionados, and stores carried less inventory, which resulted in a waning of sales outside of Australia. Though it goes without saying, that though these styles fell out of fashion with the rest of the world, they still have a place among the wine landscape, and many followers that seek out this type of wine. They also perform well at tastings, though most wine enthusiasts have never heard of Barossa Valley. This issue could come as a result of a failure of marketing.
Today, more modern versions are being produced with enhanced focus on terroir, minerality, and secondary characteristics. Less oak is used, often old French oak barrels that quaff less vanilla, almond and chocolate flavors as not to interrupt the grapes natural tannin. in 2013 a report was funded by the Barossa Shiraz Symposium which involved the media, and growers, winemakers and enologists, and invited them to taste thousands of unoaked wines made special for helping to cultivate a sense of terroir.
Their findings helped to break up the region into sub-categories separating Eden Valley and Barossa, and then finally, North, Central and South Barossa Valley, distinguishing them by soil type and grapes grown. In the Southern areas we see the lower elevations, similar to those in Adelaide, about 180m above sea level. This provides cooling breezes from the ocean, to keep the grapes ripening slowly. The Southern valley contains varied soil types including mixed clay, and sandy loam soils that are good for drainage, in an area the provides near all-day sunlight from its northern slopes.
Grapes ripen slowly and, the soils help to keep the area cool, especially in vineyards with more clay. The resulting product is a full-bodies expression of fruit, with notes of black currant, blueberry, and cacao. Some of the areas to the east especially, where the soils are more of a sandy loam, display notes of garrigue, sage, and cured meat. These wines are smooth, shapely and easy to drink. In good vintages they express themselves very well and demonstrate a full array of interesting secondary characteristics, but are perhaps not as well structured as their Central valley counterparts.
In the Central valley, elevations are bit higher, around 280m at the most, and this added elevation gives way to generous diurnal shift and less influence from the Pacific, however there are cooling breezes that blow in from the south to slow grape ripening. We also see slightly higher temperatures due to the continental air that blows in from the north as well, though the elevation offsets some of the need for irrigation.
These wines by comparison, are medium-bodied, with a lot of refreshing and interesting fruit notes. The wines five off elongated red fruit flavors of cherry pie, freshly picked sour blueberry, and clove-spiced almond. The wines are dynamic and explosive, some even carry hints of cayenne pepper. The tannins, as a result of the slow ripening, are silky, but brash, and would pair well with game.
To the North, on the western ridge near the town of Ebenezer, the altitude peaks sharply to 450m, and the climate gets warmer. In fact this is the warmest of the three Barossa areas by far, due to the influx of northern winds, and exposure to sunlight. To combat the heat, growers plant on the eastern slopes, to add sunlight exposure during the cool mornings, and shade the vineyards during the hot afternoons.
Similar to the Texas High Plains, which I wrote about a few weeks ago, the soils here are thin red dirt, over brown granite loam. This dusty soil is very good for cooling the vines as it retains water well, while still draining. A lot of shattered minerals can be found amongst the soils here which is really good for adding nuance to the wines. These wines are among the most interesting and sought after from Barossa.
Due to the heat, the Shiraz is rich, concentrated and powerful. They’re spicy and ruby-black, with overarching secondary characteristics of chocolate, allspice and clove. Buried under these, you can expect the fruit, with dynamic, shimmering notes of redcurrant, black plum, cassis, blackberry, and cracked pepper. The tannin is firm, nothing silky or smooth about it, and these wines can, thus, lay down for a great while before drinking, though they’re perfectly suited for some heartier meals as well. They are full-bodied and so much fun to demonstrate at tastings due to their ability to surprise unassuming guests in a daunting way.
Winemaker Massena is exploiting just such a fruit bomb in their Stonegarden Old Vine Barossa Shiraz. These wines come from the Northern lay of the land and definitely display the character associated with this terroir. The wine opens with an explosion of black fruit, black plums, cassis, bramble and canned jam, then carries into an acidic red fruit flavor of tender strawberry. There is a quaffing waft of mint, rosemary, and greek paprika. The this wine settles into a silky ribbon of chocolate and dough, with perhaps a bit of espresso. All around, an incredible force of nature.
About thirty-five miles southwest lies the region of McLaren Vale straddling the outermost reaches of the city of Adelaide. This area is located right on the sea, and constitutes an equally large portion of Australia’s overall wine production. Quality wines have been produced here since 1836, and the region boasts some of the most profound and astute winemakers in the country, like the very well-known d'Ardenburg.
Though the region of McLaren Vale is known for its incredible ability to produce some striking Grenache, renown the world over, Shiraz accounts for about 57% of the total vines. And this is a good thing, these old vines produce some astounding quality wines at low yields, and thankfully, a lot of producers here in McLaren Vale are recognizing this, and continuing to improve quality as time goes on.
Unlike Barossa, this is a strictly Mediterranean climate, with calm sea breezes settling in from the Pacific, these cool the grapes, while the sun bets down on the northern slopes. Most grapes are planted on the eastern facing slopes to protect them from sun damage. This is also throughout the region a fairly low-lying plain, standing at an average of 180m above sea level. Soils here are mostly variable, but some consistencies are throughout the region. One can expect to find sandy loam in certain areas, red dirt and the necessary brown loam as well. Also notable are the deposits of rendzina soil, schist-like limestone breakups containing high mineral content.
With over 6500h under vineyard, this is somewhat of a smaller wine region than Barossa, but the wines here are deeply prized. Like Barossa, the terroir here have been divided into different subregions, though these are more widely recognized as accurate, and are a better reflection of the climate and soils here. There are nineteen different subregions of McLaren Vale, all producing wines of their own unique distinction. though it should be noted that often, vintners have multiple holdings across the region, and choose to blend their final vintages between the subregions.
Clarendon Rocks is one of the larges regions, and sees all day consistent sunlight. This region produces the heartiest Shiraz and this is due partly to its proximity to the water, and its added elevation. Clarendon Rocks sits nearby the Southern Mount Lofty Ranges, and gets incredible convection via the breezes from the Onkaparinga river, and its temperature regulating properties. the soil here is,as the name would suggest, siltstone with patches of clay and gravel, reminiscent of Graves.
Nearby, to the east, is an area known as Range Escarpment, and as the name would have it, this area belies the Mount Lofty Ranges as well, but is at the lower elevations to the east, where the aforementioned escarpment is located. The area sees all-day sunlight and vines are also planted on the east to protect them from sunburn and over ripening in the afternoon. soils here are rocky with some silt and clay deposits, however water retaining clay soils are sparse, and the area is mostly occupied by limestone, dolomite and silt.
Lastly, there is the superb winemaking subregion of O’Halloran rocks, which lies north east of the Happy Valley reservoir. These are the highest elevations in McLaren vale, spanning about 240m above sea level. The added elevation benefits the ripening period of the grapes substantially and this areas proximity to the reservoir, and Onkiparinga river benefits the temperatures here greatly. The soil is sandstone and siltstone which is very easy for the old vines to spread their roots in, while searching for minerals. The soils retain cooling water, and slow the ripening of the fruit.
If you are looking for an incredible McLaren Vale wine to try, check out d'Ardenburg’s Dead Arm Shiraz. This is a blend of several subregions and all of them containing large percentages of old vines. The wine in question leads with brute force, and wild fruit. Firs theres blue fruit, surprisingly. Fresh blueberry, a bit of blackcurrant, then onto leather, old books, and a bit of thyme, honey and lilac. On the mid-palette, you get some oakiness in the form of vanilla and clove, then the wine finishes with refined tannin, not too coarse and fitting acid. This wine is reserved and eloquent, perfect as an introduction to Australian wine.
That's all,
~K