Chris Wilson picks his top 10 wines from Australia Day Tasting 2018 based not on a meticulous plan but rather a grab and taste approach to try new wines and ones recommended by fellow hacks or the most pushy producers and importers.
Generic; collective, sweeping, common, non-specific, inclusive, cross-disciplinary, multidisciplinary… the synonyms continue to tumble, none of them particularly exciting, enticing, tempting… but that’s the name we use to describe industry body wine tastings, be they regional or national like last week’s Australia Day Tasting.
Making its intentions clear. Australia Day Tasting 2018, January, London
The phrase ‘generic tasting’ can fill the head with gloom, slow the heartbeat, make one reach for the WSTA diary to see what else is on. But, they are often the source of interesting stories, brilliant wines, talkative producers, and the opportunity to taste a whole country in a single day, under one roof.
“Some girls are bigger than others/Some girl’s mothers are bigger than other girl’s mothers,” sang Morrissey in 1986 on The Smiths hit of the same name. Now he probably wasn’t alluding in a roundabout way to the respective size of wine trade generic tastings, but he could have been as they come in all shapes and sizes.
Australia Day 2018 was literally packed with buyers this year
Wine Australia’s is surely the biggest and is certainly the first big one of the calendar year. There were over 1,000 wines from 255 producers and 41 regions crammed into Bloomsbury’s Victoria House which is a pretty daunting prospect for even the most hardened Aussieophile slurper. But this is one generic tasting that’s absolutely not to missed.
Just as every winery wants to be there, every importer makes a point of being there and even the most flighty wine hacks attend. It’s a great place to hobnob so the trick is not to get (too) sidetracked by industry gossip and small talk and actually make a dent in those 1,000 wines. Harder said than done.
What I like to do at big tastings is flick through the tasting bible and come up with a plan of attack of what to taste and why – be that a theme that marries varieties, stories or winemaking approaches, a trail to follow or a masterclass to dip into.
At last year’s Australia Day Tasting I tasted a lot of classic Aussie grapes and styles and made a case for Australian producers getting back to basics and remembering exactly why the world fell in love with Australia in the first place.
This year I struggled to find such a strategy; the classics I’d written about (they are still as good as ever), Italian varieties are a bit old hat (in terms of a story, not in terms of wine quality and style), the masterclasses were booked up and the Focus Table didn’t really excite… so I went for a scattergun approach instead, shooting from the hip and tasting wines left right and centre:
- new wines
- new vintages of old favourites
- wines foisted upon me by over-eager importers
- recommendations from fellow pen-pushers.
So here – in no particular order, okay fizz, white, red – are 10 top wines from the tasting. Not the top 10 wines from the tasting, just the best or most noteworthy I tasted on the day. On a different day this list would be completely different, from top to bottom, such is the nature of these big tastings and the quality of Australian wine across the board.
La Violetta ‘Spunk Nat’ Mount Barker Shiraz-Riesling 2017 (The Knotted Vine)
The name is pretty base and it’s difficult not to make a gag (sorry) about enjoying a splash of Spunk, but, name aside, this is an interesting fizz made in the ‘pét-nat’ style. It’s a 50/50 blend of Shiraz and Riesling and is fleshy and dense with pink grapefruit and cherryade notes. It really is delicious; the type of thing you could drink all day.
‘Smashable’ is probably the word the person who named this wine would say.
Magpie Estate ‘The Tight Cluster Sparkling Shiraz’ Barossa Valley Shiraz 2012 (Boutinot)
Cambridge-based wine merchant Noel Young makes this wine alongside Barossa winemaker Rolf Binder.
Sparkling Shiraz isn’t the most fashionable serve, but Noel hopes to change that. This will certainly help; it’s fresh and bracing with a depth of fruit (plum, cherry, blackberry) and so much complexity. It’s sweetened to 19.7 g/L residual sugar with fortified wine, and it’s this which adds the dusty tannins and complex iodine and black olive characters which makes it stand out.
Tahbilk ‘Museum Release’ Nagambie Lakes Marsanne 2010 (Armit Wines)
This is an ethereal drop. It’s clean and salty and spicy and fruity, and so so complex. Every box ticked. Aged a minimum of 18-months in French oak, and made from fruit nearly eight years old, it’s a wonderful wine. There’s greengage and green apple fruit, wood smoke, green olive, lanolin and kimchi all competing for attention and somehow compromising to create a lush, full wine that’s deliciously smooth.
Maverick ‘Trial Hill’ Eden Valley Riesling 2013 (Amathus)
Textbook Alsace Riesling this, only it’s not. There’s petrol, salinity, lime and stone fruit, but the giveaway is the abundance of that fruit and how it drifts ever-so-slightly into tropical territory. It’s a classy wine, all the same, and so precise in its execution.
Larry Cherubino ‘Beautiful South White Blend’ Sauvignon-Semillon 2016 (Hallgarten)
Who knew that curly-haired winemaking god Larry Cherubino was a fan of Paul Heaton’s music? Looking at him you’d think he’d be more of a Lenny Kravitz fan. Whether this wine is named with a nod to Hull-based troubadours The Beautiful South is anyone’s guess, but it’s a barnstorming white Bordeaux blend; succulent and bright with a hit of grassy, green pepper and a steely poise.
Koerner ‘Pigato’ Clare Valley Vermentino 2017 (The Knotted Vine)
This Corsican-influenced Vermentino from the Clare Valley is a revelation. It rolls around the mouth leaving you mesmerised and begging for more. There’s a herby juiciness to it that’s so seductive, as well as fresh fruit and limey acidity, but it’s the complexity that comes from 4-5 months on lees in a concrete egg that takes this to the next level. An amazing drop.
Alpha Box & Dice ‘Icona’ McLaren Vale Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 (Boutinot)
Weighing in at a hefty 15.9% abv, this pure Cab from McLaren Vale ‘wears its alcohol well’, or so says Boutinot’s New World Product Manager Robin Naylor. I asked him to show me one wine from the Alpha Box & Dice stable that would blow my socks off and he chose this. Good choice… it certainly did. It’s crunchy and mineral with juicy black fruit and a Peppermint Crisp minty, herby edge.
D’Arenberg ‘The Dead Arm’ McLaren Vale Shiraz 2014 (Enotria & Coe)
I always enjoy tasting The Dead Arm as it’s a benchmark Shiraz that’s made in exactly the style that works for me. The 2014 didn’t disappoint – it’s opulent and long with spicy black fruit, just-jammy-enough red fruit and the earthy, savoury, umami characters that seem to elevate it above other Shiraz in its competitor set. A stone cold classic.
Mount Langi Ghiran ‘Billi Billi’ Grampians Swan Hill Heathcore Shiraz 2014 (Bibendum)
Made from 25-year-old vines this is another Shiraz that seemed to be one step ahead of the rest. It’s racy and supple with cranberry and raspberry fruit rather than the more typical black fruit. There’s dried herbs too and eucalyptus, fine tannins and a keen, very welcome, splash of acidity.
Oliver’s Taranga McLaren Vale Sagrantino 2014 (Wanderlust Wine)
This is wild; an untamed mash-up of candied fruit, black cherry and chewy, woody characters. It’s a bold and out-there wine with complexity, spicy tannins and an unexpected floral note on the finish which rounds this off beautifully.
