Time for Pemberton to answer the hard questions

If ever an Australian wine region is searching for an identity, it’s that patch of dirt called Pemberton, Manjimup or the Warren Valley, depending who you’re talking to. Either way, there are currently around 580 ha of vines planted in this new and unfulfilled wine region, located roughly midway between the Margaret River and Great Southern areas. Its largest maker is presently the Salitage brand owned by John Horgan, while its largest vineyard is a 94 ha development owned by BRL Hardy.

Although the proposed name before the Geographical Indications Committee, which rules over such things, is Pemberton-Warren, I will refer to the region in question for the time being by the name that has my vote, Pemberton. A number of growers in the Warren Valley, some distance in fact removed from the town of Pemberton itself, are however keen for some representation in the region’s ultimate designation.

Even before it had ever made a wine, this region was feted before the wine drinker. Keith Mugford of Moss Wood thought it would do something really special with chardonnay. John Wade has told me it would be Australia’s best region for pinot noir. Other WA winemakers have said its cabernet sauvignon would be a world beater. A merlot from Smithbrook, one of the region’s major vineyards, won a major award in Perth. And now we’re hearing about its shiraz.

Pemberton is blessed with reliable rainfall and free draining, ironstone and gravel soils of low fertility and has become an important grape supplier to wine makers based in other regions, several outside WA. It grows tall trees and vigorous grapevines. The ripe, juicy flavours of its fruit is commonly deployed to beef up and add complexity to WA multi-regional blends or wines made elsewhere using the permissible 15 of fruit permitted from other regions under present Australian labelling regulations.

Until the emergence of a couple of new, small high-targeted brands such as Batista, Picardy and Bronze Wing from John Kosovich at Westfield, Pemberton’s reputation in eastern states has been entirely the property of medium-sized producers like Smithbrook and Salitage. Houghton, Capel Vale and Sandalford have used Pemberton fruit with great effect in multi-regional chardonnay and cabernet blends, but there’s been a dearth of fine Pemberton-dominant table wine on which this region can be fairly and squarely evaluated.

Let’s look at what has happened on the commercial front. Keith Mugford no longer sources chardonnay from the region since he lost faith in its potential. Of the region’s other chardonnays, Salitage’s wines have been adversely affected by cropping levels well beyond their quality aspirations. Although I am informed that the fruit for the Smithbrook chardonnay is cropped around 3 tonnes per acre, a level which should produce acceptable flavour and concentration in premium wine, the wines have been marred by greenish or over-ripe fruit characters. Irrespective of their oak and malolactic creaminess when applied, the chardonnays of both companies have tasted thin and lean while young and have not stood the test of time.

The best Pemberton chardonnay I have tasted was the 1996 from Bronze Wing but, quite sensibly, John Kosovich declined to put too much in the way of winemaking-derived complexity in the way of fruit from such an immature vineyard. Its pure, intense primary fruit of peach, cashew and melon suggests a fine future once the vines gain some age. But there’s hardly an area in Australia incapable of half-decent chardonnay. Only time will tell if Pemberton can do something different.

Is pinot noir the answer? Nothing I have tasted to date would suggest that Pemberton can do anything the Great Southern region cannot. Again, the wines of Smithbrook and Salitage appear to have have been over-cropped. They have shown some true pinot noir fruit flavour, although recent releases from Salitage have tended to be excessively spicy and constructed around too astringent and aggressive a tannic backbone to be compared with top-level New World pinot noir.

Although their 1996 wines are their first releases, the pinot noirs from both Batista and Picardy do show some potential, although my concerns over the structure of Pemberton pinot noirs remain. Both wines were made at Bill Pannell’s Picardy winery, both reveal the stalkiness and aggression derived from perhaps an excessive amount of whole bunch fermentation, but both are clearly made from pinot noir. The Picardy wine is too green and stalky, but the Batista opens up to reveal intense dark cherry/plum fruit, even if there’s a slightly sunburned note. With just a single vintage of these wines released, the jury must still be out on Pemberton pinot.

One person who wouldn’t be surprised if shiraz and cabernet sauvignon ultimately performed better is Brian Croser, who is using the 1998 vintage at Smithbrook, in which Petaluma Ltd has recently acquired a 51 share, as something of an experiment. Smithbrook, the region’s third-largest vineyard, was initially established by the founder of Moss Wood, Bill Pannell, backed by a Sydney-based consortium whose other vineyard holdings include the Domaine de la Pousse d’Or in Burgundy. Petaluma’s takeover values the vineyard and surrounding land in the 107 ha property at $4.5 million. It retains an option to increase its ownership to 70.

The 1995 Smithbrook Cabernet Merlot reveals attractive depth and fruit flavours suggestive of dark berries and sweet cherries, but like the Merlot 1995, is marred by excessive volatility.

It’s Croser’s intention at the present time to persevere with the Smithbrook pinot noir and chardonnay wines, but he’s prepared to introduce a new premium label from the vineyard if shiraz and cabernet look better. At this stage, it wouldn’t surprise me if they did. Until that day, Pemberton may, like the McLaren Vale for chardonnay, be more sought after by winemakers looking for blending material than by consumers looking for the distinctive tastes and textures which only fine individual vineyard wines can ultimately deliver. Please login to post comment