Trends in Australian Wine 2006

Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon



Wine is a fashion product, make no mistake. There could be no greater expression of this than the present deluge of sauvignon blanc – much of it from New Zealand – and blends between semillon and sauvignon blanc, a healthy percentage of which come from Western Australia.

It’s not difficult to appreciate why so many people enjoy the intense primary fruit flavours, herbaceous background and refreshing acidity of these wines. In many ways, they’re a direct reaction to the over-blown and over-oaked chardonnays that flooded the market for so long. These are uncomplicated, undemanding and often rather delicious wines that suit a warm climate and outdoor dining.

Similarly, so are the cool-climate pinot gris that are experiencing such demand today. Most, quite frankly, are pedestrian at best, but they offer a savoury, if not always dry, alternative. Personally, I’d rather a less-fashionable riesling in most cases, but I am now of course over forty!

The question being asked by the marketers must concern where the drinkers of these wines go next. Will they follow those who took part in a similar phenomenon – the semi-sweet riesling and Liebfraumilch boom of the early and mid 1980s – and head towards chardonnay?

If ever there was a group of people hoping they won’t move too far, it’s the New Zealanders, whose wine industry is massively dependent on the trend towards sauvignon blanc being a long-term one.

Cabernet Sauvignon



It’s interesting to hear mutters that people are tiring of shiraz and looking for top-level cabernet sauvignon again. It’s very early days, and these tiny tremors would hardly register on any scale, but several wineries which do produce smart cabernet are reporting an increase in sales.

Big things start from such small beginnings. From a quality perspective, there are very encouraging signs from makers in the Great Southern, Margaret River and Yarra Valley, while several Coonawarra producers are extremely bullish over the prospects for their 2005s. I sincerely hope they’re justified.

Stressed Grapes



Read the tasting notes in this edition, and you will doubtless notice the number of times I have referred to stressed fruit and dehydrated flavours, often in conjunction with meaty, greenish and herbal influences. Recent poor seasons have undoubtedly played their part here, with long-term drought seriously affecting the ability of people to irrigate their wines. Severe spikes of mid-summer heat have also had a major effect, as ripening grapes are inevitably affected by extended periods of heat above 40?C.

Of more concern is the apparent widespread adoption amongst Australian viticulturists of an American grape growing philosophy: that grapes need to be left out on the vines past normal harvest time to develop some shrivelled characteristics, which relate to the development in the fruit of flavours resembling prunes, currants and raisins. I have no doubt that many vineyards are deliberately managed this way, and I am no fan of the results.

A significant percentage of vineyards given this ‘hang time’ treatment do so through the result of poor management. Vineyards left to ripen excessively high crops do so later in the season. They are most vulnerable if the vines begin to lose their leaves – whether because the season was just plain early like in 2005 – or because extreme heat – as in 2000, 2001 and 2003 – actually delays the fruit’s ability to accumulate sugar and stresses the vines themselves, causing their leaves to drop.

If this happens when sugar levels are too low, the only hope for growers is that sugars will gradually accumulate through the shrivelling of the grapes – hardly an ideal situation, but not an uncommon one. Furthermore, when this happens the berries still retain green, under-ripe flavours as well as green seeds, which typically impart herbaceous, celery seed flavours to wines.

Many South Australian reds from the cool 2002 season reveal the meaty, greenish characters that result when grapes are left and left some more to ‘ripen’ this way once vines have entered senescence, or else it just became too cold for them to photosynthesize adequately.

Another reason for the widespread presence of shrivelled characters in wine relate to the instructions given by many winemakers that the fruit they purchase must come from unirrigated vineyards. Even our cooler regions, like the Yarra Valley, can be hot enough and dry enough to cause considerable stress to grapevines.

A modest and controlled irrigation program that simply maintains a vine’s ability to metabolise and photosynthesize can alleviate the stress experienced by vines. It doesn’t necessarily lead to increased or diluted crops.

Stressed vines produce grapes that make wine that tastes like it comes from stressed vines. It’s not something you can easily hide. There is a misguided belief prevalent in the Australian wine industry that quality wines are made from stressed vines.

On the contrary, I would argue that quality wines are made from healthy but well-managed vines in balance with their environment and the aims of the winemaker.

Screwcaps and Corks



Virtually all who drink, make or sell wine want a seal that won’t adversely affect the product. If cork were able to achieve this, we wouldn’t be having this debate. Anecdotally, while I am happy with the notion that actual cork taint has reduced to something around 3, the sleeping issue, and one that is considerably more serious – of random oxidation – is in my opinion several times higher. It remains to be seen whether or not the cork makers can deal with this challenge.

Of the various alternatives available, some of which are so recent it is not possible to say with conviction that they present a safe long-term option, screwcaps have taken the lead. When they are applied correctly, they make a perfect seal. This might mean that an imbalance in the wine – such as a minor excess of reduced sulphur – is exacerbated by the sheer impenetrability of the seal.

By and large, once winemakers learn to adjust their settings of gases like sulphur dioxide, oxygen and carbon dioxide at bottling, screwcaps do indeed offer an excellent long-term cellaring option.

It’s only a matter of more time and consumer acceptance before more icon-standard wines, as well as the early-drinking quaffers, are sealed this way. I applaud any winemakers who attempt to ensure the long-term quality of their product. Most winemakers have only resorted to alternative seals because they felt they had no choice.

In my experience, provided that a wine has been bottled to take into account the all-encompassing nature of the screwcap seal, wines matured this way are at least as good if not indeed significantly better than those of the same wine on cork.

If cork is able to match the reliability of screwcaps, well and good. But the bar of expectation has been raised, and not inconsiderably. Hopefully I will never again have to listen quietly as someone explains what a pleasure it is to open a dozen bottles of the same wine, and to then enjoy the variation between the bottles that were caused by the pieces of bark from an oak tree! Please login to post comment