Bobbie Burns Shiraz

It’s a shame that some people honestly believe that the only good red wines around come from cool climates, are made from grapes like cabernet sauvignon and merlot, or else are branded with names like Blass and Penfolds. In 1989 it is unfashionable to be writing about a wine like Campbells Bobbie Burns Shiraz, an honest style of Rutherglen red which could never compete with a Jamiesons Run or a Domaine Nouveau at your trendy little pastel pub or bistro. But that’s the problem with going by fashion alone – you would miss out on an awful lot.

It was an experience to sit with Colin Campbell as he tasted and talked his way through every Bobbie Burns ever made – the first time he had ever done so. What the tasting ultimately revealed was that Campbells have tried just about every conceivable technique or theorem in the making of this wine, and have turned full circle to now be using almost the same techniques they used in the early ‘seventies, give or take a few fundamental progressions.

That could be said of many wines and winemakers in Australia today, as we selectively choose which aspects of technology to accept and reject, rather than to adopt a technique simply because it was available. That’s hardly being fair, however, because if no-one tries a concept, no-one learns.

Bobbie Burns Shiraz showed itself to remain consistently a wine to cellar and, with considerable reliability at that. The 1972 is still to hit its straps and the 1977 is ages away. There wasn’t a dud in the whole array – all wines would have found a place at my table. But perhaps most interesting of all – the modern wines show that Rutherglen shiraz is relevant, modern and whatever. It is a wine for our times – ready to drink, elegant, balanced and clean, while still a sure-fire bet for the cellar.

Here follows some notes taken during the tasting. Where Colin Campbells’s thoughts have significantly differed from mine I have mentioned them. Fortunately for me, we were pretty close!

“We’ve been trying to make our wine for two markets,” says Colin Campbell, “the small proportion who cellar wine and the 85 or so who drink it straight away and don’t want their heads blown off”.

1970 Developed brown colour with a rich complex earthy nose still showing some fruit. It’s a restrained, spicy, elegant old wine, quite delicate and velvet-like and the structure is When made it was a fine role model for the style.

1971 Tawny brown colour and a rich chocolate-spice nose with developed earthy fruit and perhaps a trace of volatility that I didn’t mind and Colin Campbell didn’t agree with. Although the palate is slightly over the hill it was a bigger wine than the ’70.

These early Campbells wines were made with little cooling, which was achieved by pumping water over the vats.

1972 Inky deep colour with a slight haze. Nose rich and earthy, still a little closed. Voluminous porty fruit on palate, big tannins, still needs 3-5 years.

1973 Tawny brown-red, slightly greenish, geranium nose, losing fruit. Full, flavoursome, not much life left.

1973 was a wet year producing unripe fruit harvested in a quick vintage, causing the wine to lack liveliness.

1974 was the first time Colin Campbell used his new fermentation cellars. “We pumped over instead of plunging the cap down, and installed the first rotovat in Australia. At the time the industry was in revolution with red wines, and people were coming up with different ideas, so we thought we’d try them.

“We played with new techniques like heading down, pumping over, stabilising colour with tannin, adding SO2 to the fermentation to retain colour, pH adjustment, cold and hot ferments from 10-15oC to over 30o, different times on skins, and leaving wine on skins to different Baumes – basically buggering around and doing different things in different years.”

1974 A ripe, developed nose precedes an intense palate with good attack of flavours of ripe fruit, but Colin Campbell found a chocolate bouquet, although thought it a little too old and lacking in the fruit department. We agreed on the good balance of fruit and tannin.

Colin remembers that 1974 was the first vintage made with closed fermenters, and was the last year his father was alive. In order to get the colour extraction exactly right, he watched it carefully every time the cap was pumped over, which meant taking his bed into the winery and catching the occasional hour of sleep when he could.

1975 A very full brown colour and a slightly stinky, tarry, earthy nose. The palate was restrained but hollow, with big tannins I found had perhaps not integrated. Still quite drinkable.

Tannin was used to stabilise colour for the 1975 vintage.

1976 Full brown in colour, with a sweaty, earthy nose. Palate spicy and sweet, but complex, with good length and integrated tannins. Colin thought the oak was a shade overdone.

1977 Another brown wine with a little red remaining, and a full-on rich earthy leafy nose. I thought the palate sweet and ripe, soft and full, with chocolate and liquorice flavours and was perhaps a shade more forgiving that Colin of the slight mercaptan and rubbery notes.

1978 Intense fruity nose, with berry flavours and faint hints of eucalypt. The palate is spicy ripe and rich, ripe and full. Colin was more critical again, finding mousey flavours and a sweet and sour finish.

1979 A full brown colour with a red tinge. Rich, spicy, earthy flavours on nose, palate soft and fruity – quite developed with a burnt character. It’s just beginning to lose its fruit and get a little acidic and bitter.

“1979 was our last bad year, says me hanging onto a wooden chair…”. Colin Campbell.

1980 Developed brown colour, and an unusual German oak and vegetative geranium nose. The palate is soft, supple and sweet and to me lacks real character and intensity. Colin found the fruit quite fresh, showing good integration of fruit, oak and tannin, although he would have preferred more fruit.

“From 1981 to ’84 we made more of the same, but made wine more refined and lighter in style than the 1980. We were particularly aiming for a more elegant structure.” Colin Campbell.

1981 Full red with a faint brown tinge. Complex new oak nose showing spicy, berry fruit and malolactic creaminess. The palate is elegant, a little thin in the middle, with good weight at the finish.

1982 Full red-brown, with a more pungent, leathery nose, with typical earthy fruit. The palate is soft, rich and ripe, made in the more traditional style. It’s a good wine, with tannin added to increase the depth of colour, although the acids are perhaps a little unbalanced? Colin found some mercaptan and thought it marginally too thin

1983 Full red-purple colour, rich, firm and oaky. A complexity of vegetative, spicy and creamy flavours on the nose, with intense, but youthful and immature fruit. With loads of pepper, spice, redcurrant fruit, it’s a good elegant wine.

1984 This is an older, earthier style with a pencil -lead nose with greenish and spicy characters. The palate is long and soft, showing terrific weight, although Colin would have preferred even more depth.

From 1985 onwards the Campbells used no old oak for their table wines, firstly fermenting them in stainless steel followed by an induced secondary fermentation before storage in newer wood, with an average age of two years. Cool temperature storage helps to retain colour and freshness.

“We’ve now gone back to an improved version of older Bobbie Burns wines and we’ve found that what was happening before we went mucking around was pretty right anyway…”. Colin Campbell.

1985 An inky, full purple-red, and a rich, spicy and intense redcurrant nose. On the palate is intense fruit, balanced with a soft tannic backbone.

1986 Terrific wine, with an intense spicy and peppery nose with redcurrants and spiciness. Vanillin oak is also found on the palate, with excellent fruit, weight, softness, and structure.

1987 Deep young purple colour with sweetish redcurrant and strawberry fruit showing good oak support. Already soft and drinkable, the palate has loads of depth and character. This will make an outstanding Bobbie Burns.

1988 Still showing youthful floral and yeasty notes on the nose, but with an excellent palate, with good weight and length, sweet fruit and excellent oak balance. Look for this one in a couple of years. Please login to post comment