Why you simply must try to taste Giaconda’s 2002 releases

With full knowledge that Giaconda’s wines are not exactly the day-to-day drinking affair of every Australian, I would still like to present some brief thoughts on the bottled versions of the wines from this signature vineyard. Why? Because although the quantities released of these wines are still vanishingly small, I still believe that where the will is strong enough, people do have the opportunity to taste them. Why is that important? Because at this particular moment in time, Giaconda is the best-performed small Australian winery across a range of different varieties.

Giaconda’s signature wine is its Chardonnay, although I am not yet convinced that in a decade’s time it might not be its Cabernet Sauvignon or its Shiraz. Right now, despite the fact that its maker, Rick Kinzbrunner, is striving to make a wine of similar richness and flavour but with marginally less alcohol, I believe it to be Australia’s premier chardonnay, a view I have held for the last decade. The 2002 vintage is sumptuous and seamless, perhaps revealing less artefact and more fruit purity than the signature 1996 vintage, but it looks capable of attaining similar complexity with bottle-age. Beneath fresh melon and stonefruit flavours, nutty and oatmeal-like influences lie suggestions of earth and mineral, while the palate’s succulent babyfat texture culminates in a lingering, dry and savoury finish. Rated 19.3, the wine will develop classically. Drink 2007-2010+.

I have been looking for a successor to my favourite 1992 vintage of Giaconda Pinot Noir and in 2002, I think I might have found it. There’s a suggestion of Chinese fivespice beneath its rather pungent and assertive aromas of raspberries, redcurrants and dark cherries, offset by a pleasing background of slightly musk, meaty aromas. It’s a powerful, sumptuous pinot whose spicy expression of cherries and plums settles down towards a fine, elegant finish. Rated 18.7, its track record suggests best drinking between 2010-2014.

Of much interest is the Giaconda Shiraz, especially since I have rated each of the wines under this label since the inaugural 1998 vintage rather highly. I won’t easily forget the pace at which noted American wine critic Dan Berger’s right eyebrow shot upwards immediately after his first sniff of the excellent 2001 vintage, just the third crop from the relatively recent Warner vineyard. It was broadly a cooler season, but additional vine age has helped 2002 to produce a more substantial wine, despite the fact that some tobaccoey, slightly herbal notes lurk beneath its bright array of genuinely ripe fruit flavours. It’s an essay in pepper and spice, wild and briary dark and red berry fruits with more than a suggestion of the charcuterie. It’s a fine Hermitage in style, but a spotlessly clean one in top form. It has depth, richness and structure, but despite its dramatic dimensions, remains perfectly harmonious, balanced and tightly composed. In short, it’s a treat, and could consider itself marked rather hard at 19.3, best drinking 2010-2014+. I might have been the first to say this, but at this spectacular rate, Giaconda could well be making Australia’s finest shiraz in the very near future, if it isn’t already.

The surprise in the range, which would indeed only be a surprise if you hadn’t followed Rick Kinzbrunner’s progress with cabernet sauvignon since 1991, is the Cabernet Sauvignon 2002. It’s fleshed out rather considerably since the bottling sample I tasted late in 2003, attaining the weight and texture one might associate with a respected Paulliac growth from a fine warm vintage. There’s pristine violet, cassis and dark olive-like cabernet aroma aplenty, with the tightness, firmness and integration that we used to seek in Australian wine long before over-ripe shiraz became the Holy Grail for so many of our winemakers. It’s a positive, assertive claret style whose harmonious integration between fruit, oak and tannin suggest to me an exceptionally long cellar life. Rated 19.2, it should peak between 2014-2022.

Love Giaconda’s Chardonnay as I undoubtedly do, you might by now understand why I’m not so certain it will retain its place at the head of the ultra-competitive stable that is Giaconda’s wine today. Please login to post comment