So What are the best Australian Wines?

And now, to put the lid or not on that greatest argument of all in Australian wine, here is a genuinely credible classification of what is indeed the best. Stand by for the Langton’s Classification of Distinguished Australian wine, based around the performances of Australian wines on the auction floor. How many better indicators of wine quality are there than that?

Langton’s Fine Wine Auctions is Australia’s leading wine auction house. Its Managing Director, Stewart Langton, developed his classification, which will be updated every five years to reflect the rapidly changing status of Australia’s youthful wine industry, in conjunction with his Sydney-based director, Andrew Caillard. I predict it will become as important to Australian wine as the 1855 Classification of the French wines of the Medoc, whose degree of accuracy to the present day is quite remarkable.

Credibly and commercially based, Langton’s and Caillard’s classification will in all likelihood incite more arguments than it solves. The criteria they employed to allocate ratings include an assessment of average auction prices over two and a half years of trading at Langton’s plus many previous years of auction records, the number of bids entered and auction prices against those of currently available vintages.

The thirty-four wines nominated fall into three categories. Top of the pile, not entirely unexpectedly, sits Penfolds Grange Hermitage, whose performance has been such that it is the sole occupant of the premier or “Outstanding A” category. “Grange stands alone,” says Langton. “It has barely altered course over thirty years and more. Australia is finally waking up to what the rest of the world says about it. We sell as much Grange to overseas buyers as we do to Australians.”

The second bracket of wines is rated as “Outstanding B” and, even though it includes six wines, white has yet to make an appearance. “We haven’t had the time and the experience yet with chardonnay,” says Langton. “Experiments like Piper’s Brook’s Summit Chardonnay will get us there, by choosing a particular combination of aspect and site, just as they do in Burgundy and Bordeaux.”

The wines listed in “Outstanding B” are Henschke Hill of Grace, Mount Mary Cabernets, Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 707, Petaluma Coonawarra principally cabernet sauvignon, Wynns Coonawarra Estate John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon and Yarra Yering Dry Red No. 1 also principally cabernet sauvignon.

“Most of the top level wines are based around cabernet,” says Langton, “which reflects the effort put into this variety in recent years which has not been put into shiraz. That is now changing, so our next classification in around five years will take this into account. Given the right approach by their owners, the B wines could well move into the A category.”

The remaining wines are found in the third or ‘Excellent’ category. They number ten whites, fifteen reds and two fortified wines. One of the more surprising aspects of the classification is the inclusion of only a single riesling in the entire top 34 the Petaluma, despite the grape’s pre-eminent status in Australian white wine until chardonnay’s recent introduction.

Langton puts its apparent lack of recognition down to marketing. “Riesling has been promoted more as a variety and not in specific individual brands,” he says. “There are no riesling brand leaders, apart from those at the bottom end of the market. Petaluma, the only inclusion, has carefully nurtured its brand and to that end it has been successful.”

Six of the ten whites listed are chardonnay and no-one could dispute the presence of the only sweet wine, De Bortoli’s Botrytis Semillon. The chardonnays are Lake’s Folly, Leeuwin Estate, Mount Mary which is holding its value in the face of trenchant criticism by James Halliday, Petaluma, Tyrrells Vat 47 and Piper’s Brook. Langton believes that he and Andrew Caillard have given loud, clear messages to the wine industry. At one level, the owners of Piper’s Brook and Leeuwin Estate could do worse than to plant more chardonnay.

The two dry semillons to make the grade are Tyrrells Hunter River Riesling Vat 1 and Rothbury Individual Paddock Semillon. Lindemans famous series of Hunter River Semillons, labelled as anything from ‘Riesling’, ‘Chablis’, ‘White Burgundy and more recently even as ‘Semillon’ fail to attract the buyers to the same degree, although their wines have certainly been as good as anything else.

“Lindemans completely lost it with all those great Hunter River wines,” says Langton. “Lindemans used bin numbers to identify their wines, which changed year after year and are impossible to remember.”

The branding of prestige wines is obviously crucial to their marketing success. “How long did it take for the John Riddoch red whose first vintage was only in 1982 to become an established brand?” poses Langton. “No time at all.”

Adamant that the only way for Australia to succeed at the highest level is to build on the success of its outstanding brands, Langton says “The first growths of Bordeaux are the best because they can afford to be the best. We must establish benchmarks like these and then let the benchmarks afford to indulge themselves. Otherwise we’ll be a great big wine lake priced at $4.99.

“It would be disastrous for Australia only to be seen as a mass producer of good cheap wine,” says Langton. “The French sell most of their wine because of a small number of wines like Chateau Lafite and Chateau Latour. Australia must project itself as a quality producer. And it’s time Australians woke up to the quality of their own wine.” Please login to post comment