WINE ... with David Bray
It was 40 years ago that the Queensland Department of Primary Industries (or whatever it was then called) told me it would be a good idea to think about other grape varieties than those then being used to make wine here in the sub-tropics.
Trouble was there didn’t seem to be much to choose from. Didn’t have the knowledge to realise there were interesting grapes growing in the world apart from France and Germany.
We thought we would have to wait for new varieties bred by CSIRO, as indeed some were and still are. These days, with the Australian industry in serious over-supply trouble, many of our enterprising winemakers are working with an ever-widening range of grapes from the wide world of wine.
It wasn’t so long ago that we were introduced to verdelho, tempranillo, pinot gris and/or grigio, to list but a few of the better known newcomers. Interesting example, verdelho. Anywhere else in the world, specifically the island of Madeira and in the Douro Valley of Portugal, it goes into fortified wine. In this country and notably in the Swan Valley and the Granite Belt it is giving us very drinkable and increasingly popular white wine.
One place to see how the trend is progressing is the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show, first held in Mildura in November 2001. It now attracts more than 600 entries from throughout Australia and New Zealand.
The show aims to provide an alternative to the mainstream wine shows, a dedicated forum for alternative or emerging wine varieties and to encourage alternative, more cutting edge judging procedures. See www.aavws.com/ - And then there is Strange Bird, guide to the Granite Belt Alternative Wine Trail. It will lead you more than a dozen alternative wine grape varieties growing in vineyards across the Granite Belt. The list is growing and Golden Grove, for example, has recently added vermentino and nero d'Avola. See http://www.granitebeltwinecountry.com.au/pages/strange-bird
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Which brings me now to assyrtiko, well on the way to your local shelves and wine lists. Jim Barry Wines says it is set to be the first in Australia to plant what is apparently the popular Greek wine variety when 200 cuttings are released from quarantine in February.
Managing director Peter Barry says: “Assyrtiko is to Santorini what riesling is to Clare. It is the grape variety most commonly grown on the island and is considered by wine experts to be one of the greatest wine grapes in Greece.
“I tasted Assyrtiko when I visited Santorini in 2008 and again in London in May the following year. I liked the fresh, crisp, acidic qualities of the wine, as well as its low pH and steel backbone. I particularly liked the unwooded style, as I believe this wine carried itself well without the need for oak.”
Peter said he plans to grow the variety at a micro level in South Australia’s Clare Valley, producing a small volume initially, on a west facing slope at 480m.
“At this stage, my interest is in micro-viticulture not macro-viticulture,” Peter said. “We will be using a single vine to take the eight dormant cuttings, thus establishing the true mother vine and our very own Santorini clone.”
The vines are expected to be producing fruit by 1214 or 2015. The plot is for the style to be crisp and dry.
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Australians are used to their wine being labeled according to the grapes squashed and fermented to produce the liquid inside the bottle. The French and a good deal of the rest of the old world tend to buy by the geographical location of the vineyard. But things are changing.
The Confederation of French Wine Cooperatives has come out in favour of introducing “easy-drinking” products with labels stating the type of wine instead of the appellation. Example: wine maker Chamarré, whose motto is “Made in France, Enjoyed Everywhere”, exports to around 30 countries.
It has, we understand from several respected newspapers including the Guardian, tossed away the concept of terroir and uses grapes from thousands of growers across the country to produce single varietal and blended wines with catchy, stylish labels. (This of course is what has been happening in Australia for quite some time.)
Côtes du Rhone wines like Le Freak Shiraz-Viognier and Rhôning Stones are showing up on supermarket shelves around the world, as are Languedoc wines like Bois-Moi (“Drink Me”), Abracadabra Blanc and Petit Bistro Syrah, which has a label depicting a romantic Van Gogh-inspired café scene. Reforms recently approved in Brussels allow all European wine producers to list the grape variety and vintage on their labels. Makers of low-end wines had previously only been able to call their products table wine in many countries.
