Freycinet

Wine being the sort of paradoxical thing it is, nobody should be surprised that much of the best from the rather warmish 1998 Australian vintage should come from its coolest regions. The amount of heat on tap that year in some of the hotter South Australian regions like the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale created its own particular problems, while many of the cooler regions were able to harvest their fruit with optimal flavour and composition. And nobody had a better time of it than Freycinet on Tasmania’s East Coast.

Freycinet is a well-sited vineyard near Bichenot about half-way up the Tasmanian coastline. Like a Greek theatre, its vineyards form a basin-like valley, focusing its vines towards the north and east where they perfectly capture early morning sunlight and warmth. It’s a site straight from the viticultural textbook and gives its fruit every chance of making the most of every season. Furthermore, the vineyard’s terroir is moderated by its proximity to Great Oyster Bay and its cover of shale-like stones that retain heat into the night. None too fertile, its soils are old podsols and decaying granite over a friable clay base.

Ideally suited to pinot noir and chardonnay, Freycinet is also at the head of the pack of emerging Tasmanian makers of exceptional riesling. The advantages its vineyard enjoys also give it more chance than most in Tasmania to ripen cabernet sauvignon and merlot, although one would hardly describe its success with these grapes as consistent. Nevertheless, in 1998 Freycinet made a stellar showing with each of its Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling and Cabernet Merlot, each of which I have tasted recently and scored at over 18.5 points, the yardstick of gold medal quality in Australia.

Freycinet’s main vineyard comprises just nine hectares, planted by owner Geoff Bull to 2.8 ha of pinot noir, 4.0 ha of chardonnay, 1.2 ha to riesling, 0.7 ha to cabernet sauvignon and 0.3 ha to merlot. The pinot plantings include 0.35 ha recently top-grafted from the white German variety of questionable ability, Muller-Thurgau. Its sought-after ‘Radenti’ sparkling wine is made from a single hectare of pinot noir and chardonnay planted at a cooler, later site four kilometres away from the main block. The currently available vintage is 1996, rather a complex and mature alternative to the blandness of so many Australian sparkling wines.

Newly released to the market, Freycinet’s 1998 Cabernet Merlot is fine and stylish, with a smooth, creamy palate wound around tight, compact tannins. There’s a hint of leafy tobacco influence, some attractive chocolate and cedary oak, while the overall impression is one of restraint and balance. I’ve no doubt it needs at least another five years.

I rate them both highly, but neither Freycinet’s Chardonnay nor Pinot Noir from 1999 present quite the completeness of the 1998 wines. That said, the 1999 Chardonnay is clear, bright and minerally, offering a harmonious marriage of stonefruit, pear and apple flavours with creamy lees qualities and smoky, buttery oak. It’s clean and refreshing and will reward some cellaring.

The 1999 Pinot Noir is elegant and respectable wine, clear and lightly sappy. There’s a minty aspect to its penetrative red and black berry fruit which winemakers Claude Radenti and Lindy Bull have deftly knit with tight-knit chocolate oak. It will build in the bottle over the next three years.

Although the south and east of Tasmania were still in the grip of a drought during the 2000 growing season, like 1998 it was also straight from the copybook: long, warm and dry, without ever becoming as hot as many of the mainland’s name regions. The first of Freycinet’s releases from this vintage is a rather Alsatian-like Riesling, whose musky floral aromas of pear, apple and lemon precede a long, juicy palate bursting with fruit and finishing with limey acids.

Those of you with an eye for the smart money will already be pencilling orders for the rest of Freycinet’s collection from the last and indeed possibly ultimate Tasmanian vintage of last century.


Tasmania’s Top Twelve Winemakers

Apsley Gorge
Clover Hill
Domaine ‘A’
Elsewhere Vineyard
Freycinet
Jansz
Moorilla Estate
Piper’s Brook
Spring Vale
Tamar Ridge
Wellington
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