The Rise and Rise of Lenswood

It’s just not easy to pioneer a new wine region. Which varieties are the most suitable? How should the trellis systems be established? How much should you crop? And most importantly, once it’s harvested, how do you go about making the stuff? Difficult questions all, especially as the answers may vary from site to site.

Making life even more difficult, most newly emergent Australian wine districts have set off with a dangerously low proportion of qualified winemakers to vineyards; with the near-inevitable result that they make their debut with amateurishly-made wines selling at professional prices. It must have been Sunday when God and I do not mean Brian Croser in this case decided to plant the idea that vines should be cultivated at Lenswood.

The three wise men of Lenswood who answered the call in the early years of the 1980s were Tim Knappstein, Stephen Henschke very much in conjunction with his wife, Prue and Geoff Weaver. Knappstein was doing what members of his family have traditionally done best – making classic styles of riesling in Clare and fashioning reds of remarkable elegance and restraint; Steve and Prue Henschke were in the process of turning a traditional Eden Valley winery into one of the country’s first growths; while Geoff Weaver was steadfastly climbing the winemaking ladder at Hardys, where he was appointed chief winemaker in 1988 until leaving the company to take on Stafford Ridge full-time in 1992.

In 1981 Tim and Annie Knappstein bought some land already planted to vines – mere months ahead of the Henschkes and Geoff and Judith Weaver in 1982. All began planting their own vines in 1982. Oddly enough, neither group had been aware that the others were eyeing off the area at all.

It’s unprecedented for a new Australian wine region to have such a trio of professional and well established winemaking talents arrive to commence business from scratch. Furthermore, aside from a couple of very tiny producers, they’re effectively still the sole winemaking vignerons in the area, given that neither makes their wine on site at Lenswood.

The Knappstein vineyard is the area’s largest, presently at 21.5 ha which is being expanded to a total of 26.3. The Hensckes have 16.9 ha of vines, while the Weaver are planting another 2 ha of sauvignon blanc to take their total area to 12.5 ha.

Knappstein’s Lenswood Vineyards label is hand-picked into small containers and trucked to the winery of his name in Clare for all processing, the Henschke fruit is shunted off to the family vineyard in the Eden Valley, while Geoff Weaver’s Stafford Ridge fruit is processed at the nearby Piccadilly complex of Petaluma.

Since the first releases from these vineyards, the Lenswood name has burned high and bright as a benchmark Australian cool climate region. With a Mean January Temperature of 19.1oC and a heat summation of 1350 heat degree days, its climate fits somewhere between Alsace and Auckland; cool enough to nurture intense, fine flavours, yet sufficiently warm to allow the full ripening of most varieties. Cool by day and warm by night, the vines have a relatively long active period each day to develop flavour.

Lenswood’s soils are ancient, well-drained and relatively unfertile grey clay loams and deep red clay loams. Its frequently steep slopes between 20 and 40 have proven no barrier to viticulture and its vineyards have a distinctly European feel and flavour. Excessive vegetative vigour is not an issue with varieties other than semillon, which grows like a weed in many cooler areas. The vines achieve a fine balance between fruitfulness and vigour.

Stafford Ridge and Lenswood Vineyards both grow intensely-flavoured, succulent sauvignon blancs. The Stafford Ridge has a New Zealand-like herbaceous quality which wows the show judges, while the Lenswood Vineyards wine expresses piercing blackcurrant and passionfruit flavours with a chalky finish and a mere hint of grassiness. Both are top ranking and elevate the humble plate of fish and chips to dizzy levels.

The Lenswood rieslings of Henschke and Stafford Ridge offer intense, lingering fruit and sharpish acids. The Stafford Ridge style is musky and perfumed; the Henschke Greens Hill Riesling fragrant, Germanic and tropical in its youth. A native of Clare, Tim Knappstein has an understandable philosophical block about growing riesling anywhere else.

But chardonnay is the region’s true white hope. Each of the three makers is working hard to introduce winemaking-derived complexity to the intense varietal flavours the region produces. Their wines are tight-knit and restrained, textured and heavily-worked. They’re made for the long term of 8-12 years.

1991 was a stand-out vintage for Stafford Ridge’s delicate fruit style. The Lenswood Vineyards chardonnays are riper, more concentrated and fuller, while I rate highly the Henschke wine – recently christened ‘The Crofts’ – for its rich, creamy structure and texture.

Lenswood Vineyards’ pinot noir and Henschke’s ‘The Giles’ Pinot Noir are well established amongst South Australia’s leading examples of this variety, which isn’t meant to sound like a back-handed compliment since they don’t have a great deal of competition. The Henschke wine are pretty indeed – sweet and supple, spicy and finely structured, although they don’t have the richness of the Lenswood Vineyards pinots nor the top Yarra examples.

Evolving from early excessively ripe and extractive styles, the Lenswood Vineyards Pinot Noir is an up-front, intense and fragrant wine with a soft, fleshy texture and remarkably pristine pinot flavours. The recently-released 1994 is the best yet and should improve for at least five years in the bottle.

The Henschkes and the Weavers are also directing their energies towards cabernet-based of true Bordeaux-like style and weight. It’s not beyond possibility than Lenswood might ultimately become known as a great claret region, but the present wine show system simply does not acknowledge the delicate, sophisticated styles it produces.

Named ‘Abbotts Prayer’, the Henschke blend of cabernet and merlot is an ethereal dry red of surprising richness, astringency and length. Suited to long-term cellaring, it is a remarkable achievement given that the first release was only in 1989. The Stafford Ridge style, given more mature vines and a greater familiarity with the region in recent years, is even more Bordeaux-like and elegant, with mushroomy, earthy qualities.

It may only be the tiniest of dots, but Lenswood is well and truly on the wine map. Please login to post comment