Giving the French Their Own Medicine

How roles change. According to reports from the London Wine Fair in May, The Hardy Wine Company, one of Australia’s largest wine makers, is responsible for some of the best wines ever to emerge from Southern France. What’s more, just a year before this rather unheard of reaction, Hardy’s didn’t even have a winery in place!

And now, thanks to unprecedented demand for a southern French wine, the new Chais Baumiere Chardonnay 1990, the first run off the produciton line in marketable quantities, is available in Australia.

Keeping a lid on the whole affair is transplanted winemaker Peter Dawson, who also legitimately moonlights back home in Western Australia as Chief Winemaker for Houghton, another branch of the Hardy group.

Hardy’s have chosen as their French base Domaine De la Baume, near Beziers, in the Midi area of southern France. Although it’s the world’s largest wine region, responsible for a staggering 10 of the entire planetary tonnage, the Midi is hardly the most fashionable. Premium grape varieties are in short supply and obscure, while traditional grapes grow there, such as carignan and aramon, which according to Dawson, crops heavily and makes something pink.

“We’re careful to avoid any suggestion in the media and within the region that we’re Australians coming in to show the locals how to make wine”, he cautions. “Our story is that we’re winemakers from Australia who recognise the huge potential of the area, and that we’re keen to integrate with the locals and play a part within the area, rather than to exist as outsiders.”

Ultimately the Hardy’s investment in France will total just over $A10 million, $A5M having been spent up to 1990.

The locals took some convincing from the Hardy team that they were fair dinkum. They are used to making less than interesting wine, selling it to the local co-op, and then waiting the two years or so for the subsidy-assisted pay cheques to roll slowly in.

Someone prepared to give them incentive to strive for quality, to encourage them to plant quality grapes like chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon, and then to pay for it before the following season, was initially regarded with classic Gallic scepticism. Especially when it’s May and the grapes start arriving in three months time…

When Hardy’s took over La Baume it was a disused and completely run-down Domaine with 68 ha of questionable vineyards, at which no wine had been made for the previous three years. Nobody had even lived or worked there for two years. The buildings were filled with traditional French winemaking equipment such as concrete tanks and huge old mouldy wooden barrels.

Not much to a French eye, perhaps, but something entirely different to technically competent Australians with experience of quality wine in warm climates.

Looking back on one of the most remarkable years he’s ever likely to experience, Peter Dawson says the first vintage at La Baume was memorable for the sheer volume and the scale of the project. In its inaugural year they crushed 800 tonnes of grapes, no mean feat first up. The company will slowly build towards a ceiling of 4,000 tonnes per annum.

“It all happened so fast”, he says. “We started in May with nothing and by the time vintage commenced on August 23, we had fully assembled the winery. Every item of equipment was brand new, largely from France and Italy. We even imported an Australian heat exchanger.”

The locals thought they’d never do it, and initially showed concern at the Australian purchase orders. “Les Australiens, they’ll never finish on time” was a popular jibe only put to rest just before vintage at a barbecue Hardy’s threw for their local suppliers. “They were all very impressed”, says Peter Dawson, “although no-one seemed to notice that none of the machines were wired up or operational!”

Dawson’s team follow a winemaking approach virtually the same as in Australia. “It was a wonderful effort. There weren’t any failures or winemaking problems at all. In fact, we made better wine than expected.”

Hardy’s will make four straight varietal wines – from cabernet sauvignon, merlot, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc, plus a Domaine De la Baume red, a blend of merlot and grenache. Peter Dawson likes the potential of the local grenache, a grape that doesn’t often attract attention. “Up there it makes a very interesting wine when not over-cropped. It has an incredibly spicy character, a bit like smelling cinnamon sticks, and rich deep purple hues.”

But the most interesting aspect from a winemaker’s point of view is the unexpected fruit quality. “The chardonnay makes a wine easily recognised as a modern or ‘new world’ wine”, says Dawson. “It’s very different from Australian chardonnay, but not that far removed.”

The wine itself, from the 1990 vintage, backs up Dawson’s opinion to the tee. Although perhaps a little finer on the palate, it speaks of pristine chardonnay fruit, with attractive tropical fruit and cashew flavours. The finish is long and clean, the wine suited to three to five year in the bottle. At around $10 on the Australian market, it fits the genuine bargain category rather nicely.

The reds are quite distinct, with a much finer structure than the typical Australian red, although Peter Dawson enjoys their surprising colour and length of flavour.

But the real key to making good wine in the Midi, says Dawson, is fruit quality, the reason why Hardy’s have spent so much time developing personal contacts with the growers, encouraging them to redevelop their vineyards and linking them to the company with long-term contracts.

Although they have 5 ha of merlot on the property and are planting 18 ha of chardonnay later this year, there’s still an awful lot of work to do if the ultimate target of 4,000 tonnes is to be reached. All of a sudden the new-found interest in quality grapes has sent prices crazy, so the sooner more growers redevelop their vineyards, the better.

La Baume General Manager Bill Hardy has moved permanently with his family to the Midi to assist it this essential area of its establishment and to reassure growers that Hardy’s are there for the long haul.

Although the company’s presence has been well received by some progressive growers, who stand to benefit if the reputation of the region improves, Peter Dawson says the overall reaction has been mixed. The entrenched traditional outlook of some sections of the local grape growing community are occasionally evident, with a Gallicised version of the tall poppy syndrome.

“Some resent the fact that people are spending money and possibly jeopardising their government subsidies if the region is seen to improve”, Peter Dawson explains. “Many of the local growers don’t know much about basic winemaking practices, and a lot of good fruit is spoiled by bad handling. But they’re in a bit of a Catch 22 situation. The region needs to lift its image, but they can’t afford to do it”, he says. Perhaps Hardy’s is the answer.

Hardy’s expect that Domaine De la Baume will become a very important part of their overall business, based around sales into the European and North American markets.

“There’s a dearth of good value in white wines in the UK”, says Dawson, “especially chardonnay. One of reasons that Australian chardonnays sell so well there is that white wines aren’t exactly recognised as the strength of France and Italy.”

Although he’s worked at some of the great Bordeaux chateaux of Petrus and Trotanoy in Pomerol and Chateau Magdelaine in St-Emilion, Peter Dawson had no previous experience of the Midi. After all, it’s not exactly on the conventional wine trail. But he has now spent eight of the last twelve months there. “Everything we’re doing is for the first time and it has to be done well”, he explains.

Peter Dawson most enjoys the opportunity to handle completely different fruit from the Australian environment, and the opportunity rarely present at Houghton to get his hands dirty and kick around with ideas he wouldn’t have time to back home.

He says he appreciates the culture and change of scene, but misses some of the home comforts. At Domaine De la Baume he’s shacked up in the property’s fabulous-looking house, which from the inside could currently best be described as “having potential”.

The world has much to offer Peter Dawson. At 35 years of age he manages two wineries approximately 13,000 miles apart, lives an un-married life in two continents and has a dog that bites him every time he returns home. Vive la difference! Please login to post comment