Interesting article in the Epicure lift out in the big paper in Melbourne today. If you're interested I can post a list of the wines tasted Cheers Andrew
Australia v The World May 10, 2005
Do you usually - if not always - buy the wines you know? Might be time to think again. By Jeni Port.
Go into any wine store, look on any shelf and there is competition aplenty for Australian winemakers from their international counterparts. Do we buy the zesty La Chablisienne from France for $20 or the ripe and sunny Penfolds Thomas Hyland chardonnay for $19? Or should it be the velvety smooth Guigal Cotes-du-Rhone from the Rhone Valley or the fruity Mitchell grenache blend from Clare, both for around $20? It's a closer call than you might imagine. Move up a price peg or two and doubts start to niggle. We wonder whether the foreign wine compares favourably with its Australian counterpart. Will we understand the style? Was the vintage that much different from our own? Will we get value for money, and just what is the grape variety exactly? These are all good questions. Hopefully some might be answered in our Australia versus The World wine tasting. It's a modest snapshot comparing Australian wine styles we have become familiar with - sparkling, riesling, chardonnay, shiraz, etc - with their overseas equivalents. They're the kind of wines you'll see on almost any wine store shelf. Prices range from $20 to $120. The styles were presented in lots of four - two Australians and two from overseas - in a blind tasting. Our panel of experienced tasters were wine show judge/educator and consultant winemaker Gary Baldwin of WineNet; importer and president of the Australian Sommeliers' Association (Victoria) Ben Edwards; and retailer/wine educator Alex Wilcox of The Prince wine store. Sparkling Four non-vintage styles were chosen for the sparkling taste test. NV is regarded as the best representation of house style and the most consistent. It's also a bigger seller than vintage. The Australians were admittedly cheaper than their French and Italian counterparts, but would this put them in a stronger position when it came to value for money? Not necessarily. Chandon was regarded as "fruity, simple and confectionery" and identified immediately as Australian. The other Australian, Jansz, with its "terrific acid and length", showed up a little better. But overall the Australians lacked the emphatic depth, richness and structure of their counterparts. Riesling Australian makers quite rightly pride themselves on their prowess with riesling. The Clare Valley - citrussy and structured - and the Eden Valley - floral and elegant - lay claim to being the best two sites for the grape. Strong competition is now coming from Germany and Austria. The aim was to present like against like but again the Aussies were obvious to our panel, standing out with their (mostly) clean, crisp lines and purity of flavour. The Old World styles were definitely in a richer and more unctuous flavour zone, spicy, complex and lingering. Sauvignon blanc The Australians have their tropical fruit, the New Zealanders have their herbaceousness and the French their minerality. The world of sauvignon blanc seems nicely divided, but the utter purity of New Zealand fruit seems to make it a winner every time. Well, not this time. On paper it was going to be difficult for the Australians and a Sancerre to compete with New Zealand's top-selling international superstar, Cloudy Bay. But little did we realise the pulling power of Australian Dominique Portet's wine, one that reveals a deliberate change in style, which is softer, more textural and food-friendly. Chardonnay This was always going to be very interesting. We had a New Zealand heavyweight up against a Burgundy of fine reputation, with two contrasting Australian styles. The Burgundy was sheer class, with "fantastic" minerality. That it's an older, more developed wine (1996) that is still available says something about the ageworthiness of Burgundy. The Australians, in the eyes of the judges, lacked the same weight, power and intensity. Pinot grigio The story of pinot gris (the French style) and pinot grigio (the Italian style) is a complicated one. Pinot gris in Australia is all over the place, many styles without direction. However, pinot grigio fares better. The earlier-picked Italian style is punchy and direct, acidity is clean and there is a stirring salty, rockpool character in the better examples. Here we have wines (T'Gallant, Miceli) more than capable of standing up against the Italian imports (Bortoluzzi, Bollini). The results reflect impressive progress by Australian makers. Marsanne/roussanne Before we became besotted by viognier, there was marsanne. The white Rhone Valley grape, along with its partner in many a wine, roussanne, share a simple rusticity that makes them utterly drinkable but somewhat forgettable (well, by some). Marsanne by itself can show light florals and honeysuckle. When blended with roussanne there is generally greater texture but often at a sacrifice of fruitiness. The Australians stood out with their fresh fruit and crisp acidity while the French showed either an unattractive cooked bean character or hard acidity. Pinot noir If ever there was a category to show the enduring style difference between the Old World and New, it was this one. New World is fresher, fruitier, more upfront. Old World is darker-berried, more complex, less oak with contained power. Well, that's the theory. The quality gap must be closing because while our panel could identify Burgundy, New Zealand and Australia, they just couldn't agree on which wines they were. And that was after the removal of the Burgundy (Domaine des Lambrays) because of cork taint. It was decided that the winning Australian (Stonier) was the sort of wine "you want to send out a message about". Shiraz Australian shiraz is big and warm and friendly. French syrah from the Rhone Valley is more reserved. The styles are worlds apart - literally - but would our panel see the difference? They certainly did. The Delas from the Rhone had richness and great length with savoury appeal. It was decided it was the kind of wine to enjoy with a game bird. The Seppelt Great Western was definitely not the shy and retiring kind. It was clearly a steak wine with vibrant fruit, although in the cooler-climate Australian style. The Mitolo shiraz from McLaren Vale was your classic Aussie - big, thick and alcoholic - but the style didn't appeal. Nor did the second Rhone entry, from Jaboulet, with its pleasant briary savouriness soured a little by the spoilage yeast, brettanomyces. Cabernet sauvignon Australian cabernet is in the doldrums, but there are still producers who believe in it. You tend to look for them in Margaret River and Coonawarra. Overseas, the grape variety is enjoying a far better run in regions such as California and, of course, Bordeaux. With the Australians, the panel liked the clean fruit although comment was passed on the level of noticeable alcohol and oak. The Bordeaux, with its angular acidity, was recognised as French, but the Californian was not considered a good example, showing a hollow middle palate. Sangiovese You know you've got a good wine tasting when the judges get emotional, and they got emotional here. Each scored individual gold medals to wines, making it one of the highest-scoring classes. Quality was obviously high but how would they rate style-wise, with the Italians favouring a drier, more astringent wine than the Australians? The tasting pitted a traditional old-style chianti (Poggerino) against a modern chianti with stronger fruit definition (Cerro del Masso). Both were overshadowed by two outstanding Australian examples. It might be argued that the judges' tastebuds were more attuned to the Australians, except some picked them as Italian. Grenache blends In the southern Rhone Valley, the style of grenache blends is anywhere between rich and jammy to rich and tannic. In Australia, grenache also likes the heat and is at home in the Barossa and McLaren Vale, where it too is often blended with other grapes (mourvedre and shiraz). On paper it should have been an exciting showdown between the two styles. In reality, one Chateauneuf-du-Pape rose above all others. The Barossan and Australian benchmark, Charles Melton Nine Popes, was too oaky. The other Barossan (Penfolds Bin 138) showed too much lolly-sweet confection. The winner (Chateau La Nerthe) was simply complete, well balanced with vibrant fruit, something its Rhone colleague (Domaine Pontifical) lacked under its blanket of brettanomyces. So, what did we learn? Although modest in scale, the tasting helped confirm what many of us have suspected. Australian wines in general can't help but reveal their origins, and Australian winemakers more than ever seem relaxed about being different. They've stopped beating themselves up for not being more French than the French or more Italian than the Italians and appear far more comfortable with their place in the wine world. Perhaps as a result of this, they're making some impressive wines. As Gary Baldwin said: "The style difference is there but the quality is getting closer." And as the gap closes, the rewards are there for all of us to enjoy. Can we be so parochial that we can't taste and enjoy the intrinsic value of a wine, no matter what its origins? I don't think so. There is great value and good wine out there and it isn't always Australian. Enjoy