What exactly is a 'cool climate wine'

This may sound like a very simple question, but the term 'cool climate' has been overly used in Australia to the point where no one actually knows what constitutes a 'cool climate wine'. In this article we are going to (attempt to) arrive at a conclusion on what's 'cool' and what's not.

For the most logical answer, we went straight to the top - to Australia's peak government wine body, the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation. The AWBC (or these days, Wine Australia) define Australian wine areas (and the subsequent climate classifications) in terms of Geographical Indications (GIs). GIs are the official Australian description for a wine zone, region or sub region - so you can have a Limestone Coast GI (which is a zone and a conglomerate of regions including Padthaway, Coonawarra etc..) or a Frankland River GI (which is a sub region and is small & unique). (The AWBCs list of GIs is here)

As for delineating the cool from the rest, the AWBC then goes on to defines GIs as either cool climate or warm climate. There are only a handful of warm climate GIs - including the Riverland, Murray–Darling, Perricoota, Riverina and Swan Hill - all areas based around our warm, inland, irrigation fed wine regions. The problem then is that any wine producing area outside of these areas can, according to our peak Government body, call themselves 'cool climate'.

As anyone who has spent some time in the Hunter or Swan Valley in January can tell you, the AWBC definition is a long way from accurate & out of step with global expectations on what makes a cool climate wine.

For a better interpretation, we went to the National Cool Climate Wine Show (NCCWS). Held in Bathurst every year, this show is purely devoted to cool climate wines and thus has a clear definition of what constitutes a cool climate wine.

In the NCCWS regulations the definition of 'cool climate' is:

a) Heat Degree days 1600 or less
b) Cool nights in growing season
c) Four distinct seasons
d) Large variation in diurnal temperatures
e) Cool Autumns

Much of this is also quite broad in its definition (How cold is a 'cool night' or a cool autumn - it can get pretty cold in the Hunter in May, yet stifling hot in March). The 'Heat Degree Days' measurement however is a very particular measure of vineyard warmth that is used by grape growers around the world to compare climates.

Heat Degree Days are measured by taking the average temperature per day (°C) minus 10, multiplied by the number of days in the 7 month growing season (Oct to April in the Southern Hemisphere). The base is 10 as vines do not function below 10°C.

To get some perspective, the table below (from Geoff Weaver) shows Heat Degree Days (HDD) of some global wine regions:

Region	HDD
Champagne, France	1131
Burgundy, France	1264
Lenswood, Adelaide Hills, SA	1278
Bordeaux, France	1420
Coonawarra, SA	1437
Napa Valley, California	1499
Barossa Valley, SA	1587
Mclaren Vale, SA	1765
Hunter Valley, NSW	2075
Riverina, NSW	2201

As you can see, the Barossa Valley would scrape in, but with its quite low diurnal temps and warm autumns would be essentially ineligible.

So going by these guidelines and using the HDD measurements, we start to get a clearer picture of where a cool climate wine comes from. I've set the table up below to show a few examples of what are true cool climate GIs, what could be more accurately described as 'moderate' climate GIs and what are warm climate GIs (based upon HDD and climate figures).

Cool	Moderate	Warm
Tasmania	Barossa Valley, SA	Riverland, SA
Eden Valley, SA	Langhorne Creek, SA	Riverina, NSW
Coonawarra, SA	Clare Valley, SA	Hunter Valley, NSW
Orange, NSW	Mudgee, NSW	Swan Valley, WA
Yarra Valley, Vic	Mclaren Vale, SA	Murray Darling, Vic
Great Southern, WA	Rutherglen, Vic	Adelaide Plains, SA
Margaret River, WA	Granite Belt, QLD	Swan Hill, Vic
Canberra District	Goulburn Valley, Vic	Peel, WA
Mornington Peninsula, Vic	Hilltops, NSW	Perricoota, NSW
Adelaide Hills, SA	Bendigo, Vic	Cowra. NSW

This list is by no means definitive - Mclaren Vale, for example could be warm climate but it abuts the Adelaide Hills & thus has considerable variation within the GI. Similarly, Cowra is very warm, with a high HDD, yet has quite cool nights.

So beyond the scope of where cool climate wines come from, what do they taste like?

Cool climate grapes will be subject to less heat during the growing season, with the grapes taking longer to ripen and often achieving significantly lower sugar levels than their warm counterparts. This translates into finished wines that may have lower alcohol levels & higher levels of natural acidity.

Cool climate wines are often thus 'drier' and more 'savoury & elegant' in style. The flip side of course is that the soft, opulent generosity that characterises many Australian wine styles is often absent in cool climate wines, with cool climate wines regularly emphasising wine structure over obvious fruit (which not everyone is attracted to).

The problem also with cool climate vineyards is that they normally yield less than warm ones; are more expensive to maintain and prone to the vagaries of the very cool climate that imbues them with character - Frosts are the enemy of cool climate vineyards.
Following on from this, many varieties need the warmer climates to achieve full ripeness - In the Mornington Peninsula, Cabernet struggles to ripen & even Shiraz can have an element of greenness to it & Tasmania sticks to early ripening Pinot Noir as most other red grapes are challenged to even ripen in all but the warmest vintages.

What ultimately defines cool climate wines however is acidity. Acidity = refreshment. Acidity keeps wines tight and crisp even after decades in the bottle. In warm climate wines, acid is added to the final product to keep it stable and, well, fresh! Acidity is the lovely dryness that comes from cool climate Sauvignon Blanc. Acidity is what makes Orange Chardonnay's that much more taut & pristine.

In short acidity is a crucial ingredient of wine, and the more natural grape acidity (when in balance) the more vibrant the wine can often appear - particularly in white wines. Winemakers love natural acidity - it makes their job easier. Thus winemakers love cool climate wines. Thus we have a preference of quality focused winemakers towards cooler climate wines. Thus we have Australia's finest winemakers making wine in cool climate regions (or 'moderate' regions at the most. There are, naturally, many exceptions).

Ultimately we can conclude that cool climate wines = Premium wines.
Or do they?....

Andrew Graham

I am looking for a wine that will last for 20 years.....

Aren't we all! This is a question that we see pop up very regularly, yet the answer is, in a word, complicated. The problem is not actually about the wine, but about storage: Unlike European homes, most Australian households don't have chilly underground wine cellars (or even basements for that matter) and wine routinely ends up sitting on wine racks in hallways, lounge room and garages.

This is all well and good for wines that will be drunk within the next 18 months, but for longer term cellaring, the average lounge room wine rack is less than perfect. The ideal conditions for cellaring wine include a cool stable temperature (under 16C & the cooler the better, though consistency is just as important), a relatively high level of humidity (60-70% plus) and minimal light and vibration.

The bottles on your typical wine rack then doesn't stand a chance - with temperature variations in particular causing wines to mature much more rapidly than their well cellared brethren, so come the 20 yr mark, your wines will be dead and buried. Even in an airconditioned house the annual temperature can vary by 10C+.

But if you are Batman, for example, and live in a subterranean cave, or at least have access to a decent wine fridge/cellar etc. then there are plenty of wines out there that will comfortably live till their 20th birthday, often at entirely reasonable prices.

The perfect example of this is Hunter Valley Semillon - a vastly underrated style of unwooded dry white that is often not released until it is at least 5yrs old, with the finest examples lasting 30yrs plus. The 2008 vintage in particular will be a stunner for Hunter Valley Semillon, with the ultra cool summer producing intensely flavoured wines that will be extremely long lived. The best include Tyrrells Vat 1, HVD & Belford Semillon's, the Mcwilliams Lovedale and the Brokenwood ILR, with all retailing at release below $50 a bottle.

Whilst we are in the Hunter Valley, the 2007 vintage was particularly kind to Hunter Shiraz producers and the best wines will live for an extremely long time, with the earthy medium bodied Hunter Shiraz style can do capable of cellaring very well indeed. Best wines include the Meerea Park Alexander Munro, Mcwilliams Rosehill Shiraz and Tyrrells Vat 9. 2007 was also a top notch vintage in Margaret River where it produced classic full bodied wines of absolute cellarability - The top Cabernet's of Cullen, Moss Wood and Vasse Felix will be very long lived wines indeed.

From here we move to another underrated wine style - a wine that was once our nations favourite wine related tipple, yet has fallen from favour over the last few decades, even though we make some of the best in the world. I'm talking about Vintage Port: A wine style that can't even call itself Port any more and has suffered with the rise of table wines. The Vintage Port styles of Rutherglen, McLaren Vale & the Barossa, from good vintages, will easily last two decades - the best examples will live for 40 yrs plus!
What's more, because they simply aren't cool any more, the top wines can be picked up for tragically low prices. Look to Château Reynella, Stanton & Killeen & Noon's - all of which again sell below the $50 mark.

Finally, if you can afford the very best, the options are many and varied, with the sky the limit for French Champagne, Italian Super Tuscans or Hill of Grace. The secret is always to go to labels with a track record - choose producers that have a history of producing wines that will cellar and always choose the best vintages. We are spoilt for choice, so if the current vintage of Grange is a crap one, skip it and buy a good bottle of Burgundy instead - Don't be fooled into thinking that Grange is always the best, and be open to ideas from around the globe.

Just don't forget to find your bottle a nice cool dark home and then attempt to keep your hands off it for 20 years!
Andrew Graham

Wine Show Medals - Do they represent the best of the best?

As I sat glued to the television screen last week, revelling in the festival of sport that was the Beijing Olympics, I couldn't help but think about gold medals and wine show awards in the wine industry.

Australia has easily the world's largest and most active wine show circuit, though the results of which are often hardly representative of Australia's finest wines - contrast this to the Olympics, which represent the absolute pinnacle of sporting achievement, with each countries absolute finest athletes on board.

Admittedly there is a big change in scale between a one in four year world event and an annual wine show (that is one of many similar shows) but even the most prestigious international wine competitions, rarely award medals and trophies to a nations finest wines (and definitely not the worlds best). Why is this?

For the answer we need to start with the wine, and notably, the absolute complexity of this peculiar fermented beverage. Wine is one of the most magically complex consumables on the planet - it is accurately described as a 'living thing', changing in flavour, texture, colour and smell over minutes, hours, days and decades.

The challenge then is to award a finite score & arrive at a 'winnner' with this product of seemingly infinite variables. Indeed, Australia's finest wines often take many years to develop and hit their peak drinking and as young wines can be a long way from a 'winner'.

Take Grange for example. There is a mantra in the wine industry, that you should never drink a bottle of Grange that is less than 10 yrs old. Considering that the current release (the 2003 Grange) is only 5 years old (and the fabulous 1998 sold out very quickly) it is simply not practical for Grange to be entered in wine shows when at their peak. Thus no Grange in wine shows!

Beyond this, the challenge lies with the structure of wine shows themselves. Traditionally run by Agricultural Societies, it has been alleged that many wine shows are seen as real money spinners for the respective organisers - with each wine submitted requiring a fee for entry, leading to even the not-for-profit Ag. Societies cottoning onto to a little earnings potential: They all have admin & promotion departments that require funding for survival. This further results in entrant number skyrocketing, with individual panels now regularly required to move through brackets of 100-150 wines without respite (and often before lunch).

Even the most hardened professional can tell you that after Wine 120, many wines can tend to blur into one, so what chance has the Greatest Wine in Australia got if it is Wine 133? Further, if you have a lineup of 150 2 yr old Shiraz, which wine do you think is going to shine through and stick out in your mind? The subtle, elegant & light weight cool climate style or the massive, super sweet and incredibly rich Barossan power house? The biggest, which by default, must be the best!

To further compound the issue, two of the most famous trophies given to Australian wines - the Jimmy Watson & the Stodart - are both judged on one yr old red wines. These 1 yr old reds needn't even be a finished product - they can just be a tricked up barrel sample prepared especially for the one wine show, which will take out the trophy and then get poured back into the 10,00 litre blend!

The result is that Australia's finest wines (particularly those from boutique producers) are rarely submitted to wine shows, with top producers realising that word of mouth (and wine in mouth) will sell the wine, with critics and consumers doing more for a wine's reputation than a gold medal or trophy.

So what, if any, value should we place on a gold medal or trophy win? In essence, it all comes down to the individual show. The smallest wine shows are usually focused on wines from a single region - like the Adelaide Hills or Mudgee wine show. These regional specific shows serve to 'improve the breed' in the classic agricultural mindset, but their absolute focus on regional styles tends to lend itself to more relevant results. For example, the winner of the best Chardonnay at the Margaret River Wine Show will be, by nature, an excellent example of a Margaret River Chardonnay. As a result, if you are looking for regionality, then don't discount the results from the small wine shows.

From here, the next level up is the capital city wine shows - Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney etc. At this level things start to get murky, with the aforementioned unfinished wine fiascos, burgeoning classes and occasionally amazing results. A gold medal or trophy at this level usually indicates a good wine, but not necessarily a great wine. Five trophies and 6 gold medals however, is a fair indication that a particular wine has all the attributes that the judges are looking for. Given the quality of judges in Australia, this is a fair indication of a very fine wine indeed (but may never be the greatest).

Finally we come to the exceptions - there are two particular wine shows in Australia who take the quality expectations a further level up - The National Wine Show and The Sydney International Wine Show. At the National Wine Show, wines may only be entered if they have been awarded a medal at a previous wine show - effectively reducing the volume of crap submitted. The trophy winners from the National Wine Show are rightly considerd to be of a very high standard indeed (but still carrying the weaknesses of the wine show system on their shoulders). The other example is the Sydney International Wine Show, the only wine show in Australia where wines are judged with food. Entrant numbers are capped and the judging panel is international in flavour, leading to results that are often quite different in nature to the traditional wine shows - the winners are often much more subtle and skewed towards boutique producers & arguably more interesting wines.

In the end, all show medals, especaily when served in singular doses from capital city wine shows, should be viewed as an indication of a good wine, but not a great one. To find the greatest drinks, look for consistency - a wine that gets rave reviews, show medals and ultimately, most importantly tastes the best to you!
Andrew Graham

Winemaking - Scourge or Saviour (Part 2)

- The final rounds -

In this issue we continue our look at winemaking and the application of technology in the winery, further examining the contrasting notions of 'natural' 'non-interventionist' winemaking vs 'modern' winemaking via an old fashioned death match - Old World vs New World, Man vs Machine, Tradition vs Science in a battle for supremacy. (To understand more about this contest, read the first instalment)

In these final rounds we will see the two opposing sides battle it out on the issues of maturation vessels, filtration & closures, with the 'natural' approach fighting against the big guns of technology.

Round 4 of this fight is all about maturation and the rise of the now ubiquitous stainless steel tank

Traditionally, all wine was matured in oak - white, red, rose everything, all would see the inside of an oak barrel at one time or another, if only for a short period, as this was the main way to store & mature wine. In traditional winemaking, these barrels where usually old as to impart minimal oak flavour on the finished wine and allow the terroir to shine. The barrels themselves also allow a small amount of oxygen to permeate through the staves, with the resultant low level oxidation serving to soften the wine, with the oak barrels also giving structure. The problem is that oak maturation & aromatic intense don't always go hand in hand, with the light, delicate fragrance of wines like Riesling or Gewurtztraminer not benefiting from any oak influence.

In a modern winery, the same maturation can take place in a sterile stainless steel tank - a sealed vessel that has only a very limited ingress of oxygen and can be cleaned to the point of food grade sterility. The wines that are produced in stainless steel tank end up with much more pronounced 'crisper' flavours, no 'off' aromas and often show more 'fresh fruit' characters than those produced using oak barrels, but can conversely lack the complexity & inherent structure.

The introduction of stainless steel as a fermentation, maturation & storage vessel has been a boon for the producers of crisp dry white styles, particularly those who are looking for heightened aromatics and maximum freshness. Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, Clare Valley Riesling & Hunter Valley Semillon may not have scaled the heights of popularity without stainless steel tanks. Stainless steel tanks have also helped preserve the freshness of Unwooded Chardonnay & revitalised Rose, not to mention brighten up many early drinking red wines.

Round 4 Results - Score the win to technology here. Any winery that wants fresh whites, roses or light reds needs a stainless tank simply to compete. Red wine producers need not apply.
Winner: Technology

Round 5 and its smackdown time for technology, with some highly controversial aces up the sleeve to take this round. But the traditions of 'natural' winemaking make a comeback in this round, and the main proponents aren't who you would expect....

We could roughly call this round 'filtration' as these techniques fall under the banner of serving to remove certain elements from a solution, but it goes a little deeper than that.

Traditionally winemakers used (amongst other things) cheese cloth to filter their wines - allowing for the removal of seeds, stems and other residue. Filtration, even in this basic form, has been part of the winemaking process for a considerable time, mainly attempting to remove solids from the final product.

In a modern winery however, filtration has taken on a whole different form, with the wine industry now having to conform to the strictly controlled hygiene & sanity standards found in the food industry, with the expectation of quality product that is implied by these standards. Filtration in a modern winery serves two purposes then - clarification & microbial stabilization. In clarification, larger particles are removed to enhance the appearance of the wine, whilst microbial stabilisation serves to remove yeast & bacterial organisms which, if left in the wine, could lead to spoilage or, at the very worst, re-fermentation (and the odd exploding bottle!)

Clarification is de-reguer for white wines & openly embraced by many more 'traditional' winemakers, allowing for any cloudiness to be effectively removed, often with the use of very natural products (like egg whites or Isinglass - A derivative of fish swim bladders) however it must be noted that most young wines, if left for long enough, may reach the same levels of clarity naturally.

Microbial stabilization though is particularly intensive (and invasive), as it requires a filtration of at least 0.65 micrometers to be effective. The trade off is that at this size, there is considerable chance that colour, tannin & flavour can be removed in the process. Thus modern wineries invest considerable amounts into filtration devices in an attempt to create stable wines that haven't been stripped of their goodies in the process.

Interestingly the main push against filtration of this nature has actually come from a very unlikely source - the beating heart of the new world wine industry: Super premium red winemakers of the Napa Valley in California & the Barossa Valley in Australia. It is these cutting edge 'cult' producers who have picked up on the sentiment that filtration can strip flavours and colours & whom now label their wines as 'unfiltered'. This perhaps serves to instil some 'natural' winemaking credibility to some wines which are very 'modern' in their winemaking approaches (lavish new oak, considerable winemaking influence etc..).

The evolution of filtration though has taken an entirely different tact, with some of the latest technology in the winery rewriting the rules. In this case, it is reverse osmosis and spinning cone column processes: Two very exotic gadgets that use specialise membranes or high tech 'spinners' to separate wine into its various components - water, alcohol, juice etc.., then remove what they don't want before putting the wine back together again.
Some of the ways these technologies have been used is to concentrate grape juices (by removing water) and make more intense wines; to remove excess alcohol (if the grapes got too ripe) or even to remove the flavour and aromas of 'smoke taint' (as experienced in a few bushfire prone Victorian regions over recent vintages).

This ability - to break wine down to a molecular component level is arguably a phenomenal scientific advance, as is argued by the modern winemaker, or is conversely a horrible Frankenstein-like attempt to fiddle with nature, as argued by the 'natural', 'non interventionist' winemaker.

The argument for and against intensive filtration is muddy and complicated - on one hand, there is the desire to produce clean, rich, full flavoured stable wines, on the other there is a desire to produce a wine that is as its maker intends it. What's more is that a small amount of filtration goes a long way... and even the most 'natural' winemaker uses a little.

Round 5 Results - This is a draw, the arguments for both sides are strong and both sides have been known to 'dabble' with the application (or lack of) filtration technology.
Winner: Draw!

Round 6 This final round has been done to death by all and sundry, but we can't have a modern vs traditional winemaking death match without exploring the issue of closures.
A wine closure serves two purposes - as both a containment (keep the wine in) and preservation (keep everything else out) device.

Traditionally, wine bottles were sealed exclusively with cork. sourced solely from Portugal. The cork used in the production of wine corks is actually a product from the bark of the cork tree, with the production of wine corks a rather lengthy process - the tree itself must be a minimum of 25 yrs old for cork production, with the harvested cork requiring 8-12 months of seasoning before it is even considered for use. Cork was used as a closure as it naturally expands to form an air tight closure that both preserves and contains the wine in the bottle.

There are however a few problems with cork. Firstly, the big one: TCA or 2,4,6 - Trichloranisole, a compound that is produced by a reaction between the chlorine used to sterilise natural cork & a mould found in wood products. TCA affects a wine by giving it a mouldy, wet hessian type aroma and flattening the flavours on the palate. This cork taint is generally thought to affect somewhere between 2-5% of all wines sealed with cork seals, although that figure varies wildly according to which source you are quoting.
Another, less recognised problem is what is known as random oxidation - where the cork fails in its job as a preserver, letting oxygen into the wine and prematurely ageing the contents. When you add these two faults together (Random oxidation is estimated to run at between 1-3%) we have a significant problem with cork closures.

The modern winery (and plenty of traditional producers are taking the plunge now too) have comprehensibly embraced alternative closures. The most predominant of these is the screwcap - a screw on, metal cap that is already used in many other adaptations - from Tomato sauce to Vodka bottles. The advantage of a screwcap is that it is a manufactured, consistent preserver and containment device, with none of the possible taints associated with cork.
Another seal that has arisen as a potential premium closure is the glass stopper, which has already been adopted by some German producers as it seems a quite natural addition to 'glass' wine bottles (looks good too).

Perhaps the only major drawback to screwcaps is that they don't 'pop' like corks do, removing some of the romance associated with the popping of corks. But with even some of the top Bordeaux Château's (producing expensive 'old world' wines) confirming that they are trialling screwcaps, it looks like the days of cork are numbered. The only real retort from the cork loving, 'natural' winemakers has been that screwcaps are such an efficient seal, that wine cannot mature in the bottle like cork sealed examples, as there is no natural, minute oxygen ingress (as experienced with corks).

This writer can attest to the redundant nature of this theory, with a recent tasting of two 1998 Richmond Grove Clare Valley Rieslings confirming that wine will mature as steadily under 'screw' as it does under its cork sealed brothers (the screwcapped wine was much 'fresher' too).

Round 6 Results - Consider this: If 3-5% of our milk went off because of a dodgy lid, and there was a more effective lid that was almost a dollar cheaper and worked every time, what would the logical move be?
Winner: Technology
Andrew Graham

For another perspective on this debate, read this excellent article by Ric Einstein
(The Other Red Bigot)

Modern Winemaking - Scourge or Saviour

Following on the heals of our look at the complexities of terroir, in the next two issues we will take a closer look at winemaking & the application of technology in the winery - An area where Australia leads the world, yet also a highly contentious & contradictory issue within the global wine industry, with two very different viewpoints played out on different sides of the world – Traditional (old world European) vs Modern (new world – everywhere else).

On one stereotypical side of this argument you have the ultra traditional, 'non interventionist' style purists who rely on what could be classed as 'archaic' winemaking practises that are absolutely time honoured & 'natural' yet prone to very inconsistent results. Indeed some of the worlds most expensive wines are produced via this method, but also some of the most expensive flops!

The other extreme then is the scientific winemaker who utilises science and technology to produce the wine they want, effectively controlling the chemical & physiological processes involved in wine production to get a much more consistent, if overly homogeneous & 'industrial' result, lacking the soul of the traditional winemaking process, yet making much more consistent wines.

The reality is that most wineries sit somewhere in the middle of this battle, utilising the best of the old and the new world in the quest for vinous glory. What’s more, many old world producers have wholly embraced modern winemaking (just look at the raft of Aussie winemakers plying their trade in Southern France every Aussie winter) and plenty of New World producers who make their wines in a very traditional manner (Like McLaren Vale producer D’Arenberg who foot tread grapes and use century old basket presses).

In many ways, this argument pits man against machine in a grudge match that is the symbolism of our modern era – Art vs Science, Tradition vs Technology. Which way produces the finest wine? We've decided to test this out with an old fashioned ruckus:

Round 1 of this traditional vs modern winemaking fight is set in the vineyard. We will ignore the viticultural (grape growing) side, as this is a whole separate dilemma (see biodynamic & organic wines) and may well influence the result (after all, great wine is made in the vineyard - or is that the winery?)

Traditionally, grapes are picked by hand in whole bunches and remain this way until they get to the winery. This preserves the integrity of the grapes themselves, can enhance the freshness and allow for only top quality, ripe grapes to be picked. Hand picking is though limited by the human element - requiring a large, costly workforce and is largely limited to daylight hours (or whenever pickers can be found). Hand picking is essential when whole bunch fermentation is required (such as in the production of Pinot Noir & fine bottle fermented sparklings).

Conversely, the modern option is machine harvesting - machine harvesting is efficient and effective at harvesting large tracts of vineyards in a very short space of time, day or night. The problem with machine harvesting though is that it is very hard on both the grapes and the vine - with the vine literally beaten of its grapes, increasing the chance of berry splitting (which can lead to oxidation - the enemy of fresh aromatic whites). Machines are also indiscriminate - they will take all the grapes, regardless of their condition and include plenty of nefarious material with it. This can be combated by sorting in the winery, but considering the logistics of machine harvesting are not all that condusive to hand sorting, it rarely happens (especially with large volumes).

Round 1 Result: Handpicking wins for quality, but not efficiency. Machine Harvesting wins for convenience. Handpicking is essential for some varieties, but when it starts to really rain at harvest time, the machine harvesters can be the only way to get your fruit off in a hurry. Many winemakers in Coonawarra still use machine harvesting but they are the exception, as most premium wines are made by hand picking. Winner: Tradition

After an exchange of body blows, we move onto Round 2 & it is fermentation time – Time to convert grape juice into wine:

The traditional fermentation method is largely to let the wine begin fermenting on its own accord – with the naturally occurring yeasts found on grape skins, in the atmosphere or in the vats serving to start fermentation of grape sugars into alcohol 'naturally'. Natural yeast fermentation is thought to give more complexity to finished wines, with yeasts performing unpredictably & hence producing ‘wilder’ more pronounced flavours and less obvious alcohol (as wild yeasts are less efficient at turning sugar into alcohol). It is this unpredictability though which is the major downside of wild yeast fermentation – just one of the ambient yeasts floating around a winery can be working against the winemaker, producing off aromas or not working at all, resulting in a fermentation that dozen’t quite work like it should, leaving a stinky, semi sweet final wine that is largely undrinkable.
Some wineries have naturally occurring yeast strains that are consistent enough to allow them to naturally ferment every year (or their makers know exactly what tricks to use to make them consistent) but it is still regarded as a somewhat risky process.

Contrast this to the modern winemaking method, which involves the use of a cultured yeast in the fermentation process. Cultured yeasts are still all natural products, yet are cultured in a controlled label. They then can be ordered in bulk and added when appropriate (there are even yeast catalogues!). Wineries even cultivate their very own strain of yeast to be used in their wines – leading to similar characters in all the wines of a single maker (good for ‘house style’). The main advantage of cultured yeasts is their consistent results, producing ‘safe’ ferments that are clean and efficient, with nary a off aroma in sight. Cultured yeasts are particularly useful in the production of aromatic white wines – Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling etc.. The main disadvantage is, again, the homogeneity – cultured yeasts provide safe wines that may lack the complexity of their ‘natural’ brothers.

Round 2 Result: Small scale producers will go the natural ferment as they have much less to lose. On a larger scale, natural ferments are seen as an overtly risky 'unclean' proposition. Some large scale producers get around this by separating their wines into 'batches', allowing for individual parcels of grape juice to undergo natural fermentation (so if a batch goes astray there is little worry). Wild yeast ultimately wins for complexity though (and complex wines are uniformly the hgihest quality wines)
Winner: Tradition!
Andrew Graham

Next Issue: The Final Rounds - Winery Gadgets, Filtration & Closures

The Terroir Issue

Whilst Australia holds the claim for some of the oldest vines in the modern world, in the grand scheme of fermented grape juice we are only infants - Our wine history can only be traced back to the early 1820's cuttings of wine pioneer James Busby. In contrast, French wine production can trace its roots back over 2000 yrs to that of the ancient Roman societies, with wine having evolved alongside much of France's modern cultural history.

The result of these disparate histories is that the French have a richer appreciation of wine's complexity, in particular the different factors that can affect the way a wine tastes. The most important (and contentious) of these is known as Terroir (pronounced Tear-WAH) a French term that has no true English translation (which only adds to the aloofness) but is roughly translated as 'a sense of place'.

The premise of this notion is that the geography of a local environment can have an effect on the final product, giving rise to the applied term 'gout de terroir' or 'taste of the earth' - That is, we taste the region, the vineyard & the soil, the grapes (and hence, the wine) are then an expression of the environment in which they are grown.

The reason why this notion is contentious is that terroir is the backbone of French wine law. The Appellation d'origine Controlée (AOC) is the French Wine classification system that (theoretically) groups producers together by their geography, with strict defining laws about where grapes can be grown, when they can be picked, how much each vine can yield, how long the wine is matured for and even how much alcohol the final wine can have!

In this fashion, the principle terroir of each AOC area is preserved, leading to a vinous expression of the local environment, not what grape varieties are produced in that local environment. This is like the control tyre in Formula 1 - by having the drivers all drive on the same tyre, it is the drivers natural ability and driving style that becomes apparent, not what rubber they are driving on.

Theoretically this expression of 'place' is the ultimate goal in wine production. However, whether this actually produces the finest of wines is another point of contention, particularly when applied to the wine producers of the new world (Australia, NZ, America etc).

Penfolds Grange is the perfect example of this, as a blend of grapes (usually Shiraz with a small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon) sourced from vineyards all over South Australia, with the different vineyards and regions utilised changing every year to suit. The finished product is arguably the worlds finest Shiraz, yet terroir plays no part.

For a further example we move to the world epicentre of fine sparkling wine, Champagne, France & Moet's famous super premium Champagne - Dom Perignon: Drunk by James Bond & Jay-Z & purported to be the 'finest wine in the world', yet produced from a large spectrum of vineyards that similarly change every vintage according to demands. It remains as one of the finest Champagnes in the world and is priced accordingly, yet, again, consistency and 'house style' take precedence over individual vineyards or terroir (although it can be argued that the terroir is that of the Champagne region itself).

What can't be denied is that the same grape, grown in different regions will taste differently. (For an excellent investigation of this, check out this video from Campbell Mattinson, author of The Wine Front) Further, the same grape, in the same region, produced in exactly the same way, yet grown on different sides of the same valley can produce wines that tastes differently - A notion that is the very essence of terroir and is definitely not confined purely to the vineyards of France.

Australia may lack the archaic wine history, yet we have the old vines. Our major producers do eskew regional character in the quest for consistency, yet our small to medium sized, (often) family producers can proudly call themselves terroirists. Look at the magnificent Tyrrells single vineyard Semillon's as the perfect examples of celebrating 'a sense of place' - wines produced from vineyards that are bare kilometres apart, that look identical, produced in a near identical manner, yet taste distinctively different, thanks to their varied meso climates and soil profiles.

The key ingredient of terroir then is simple, and completely outside of man made control: That wines from a unique region, subregion or vineyard are incapable of being reproduced outside of that area. That despite all the edifices of modern winemaking, we will never be able to replicate the intricacies of Geography and its 'flavours'

How do they make Champagne Bubbly?

Have you ever stopped and wondered how Champagne gets (and keeps) its bubbles? Most people assume that it is produced by using the same technique as used for making soft drink - An injection of carbon dioxide bubbles into a still wine.

In reality, sparkling wine is traditionally made via three sometimes laborious methods, with a sliding scale of effort suitably matched to the intended final style (and price) - Only very cheap 'passion pop' styled bubblies are produced by the aforementioned carbon dioxide injection. The CO2 injection method is used as it is the simplest & cheapest, but produces large, coarse bubbles that dissipate quickly in the glass.

The second method is known as the 'charmat' or tank method and is most commonly used for the production of fruity sparkling wines where freshness is the key (such as the Italian sparkling Prosecco). This process involves a secondary fermentation that takes place in a pressurised stainless steel tank. The resultant bubbles (called the bead) are smaller and finer than the injection method but nowhere near as constant or long lasting as those bubblies produced using the bottle fermentation method below.

The final method is known as the traditional method (or Methode Champenoise) which French Champagne and most premium sparkling wines are produced by. This lengthy, labour intensive process involves a secondary fermentation in bottle and maturation process that can last up to 10 yrs for some super premium Champagne, producing the highest quality sparkling wines with the finest, most persistent bead.

Step by Step Sparkling Wine Production

1 In the vineyard
As the proverb says, great wine is made in the vineyard: Sparkling wine is no exception. Most grapes used in the production of sparkling wine are picked earlier than their still counterparts (except for sparkling red, but that is a whole other story) with the aim to retain high levels of natural grape acidity and create a refreshing sparkling wine.

If we are creating a traditional French Champagne style sparkling there are only three grape varieties that are used: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay & Pinot Meunier. However sparkling wine can be made from just about anything - From Sauvignon Blanc to Durif to Chambourcin.

Picking for sparkling wine is often done by hand and at night time to minimise oxidation & preserve the inherent crisp freshness. In Champagne this is taken to the next level wit press houses located in amongst the vines to attempt to get the graps in and crushed as soon as possible.

2. Making the Base Wine
Once in the winery the grapes are crushed and fermented like any other still wine with the yeast (natural or added) converting grape sugars into alcohol. Once this still wine is produced it can be blended with different base wines from different vineyards (or different years) to form a master blend - known as a cuvée. At this stage the base wine may simply be injected with carbon dioxide and bottled immediately if a low budget sparkling wine is the aim, or follow on to the steps below for higher quality examples.

3.Secondary Fermentation
After this the base cuvée has a mixture of yeast and sugar added which serves to start a secondary fermentation process - creating bubbles of carbon dioxide, which are gradually integrated into the wine over a period of time (making for smaller, finer & more persistent bubbles). This second ferment can take place in a tank (Charmat method) or will take place in the individual bottle (Traditional method).
With the Charmat method, the sparkling wine is bottled quite quickly (3 weeks to 3 months) after this secondary fermentation to aid in freshness (albeit with less bottle pressure and less persistent bubbles). If we are using the traditional method the bottle is then sealed with a crown seal and sent off for maturation on lees.

4.Ageing on Yeast Lees
The next stage in the sparkling production process can take the most time, but is the most crucial in the production of complex, premium bubbly. Once the yeast cells used in the second ferment run out of sugar to feed on, they simply starve and die in the bottle. However, their usefulness does not stop there, with the wine drawing more flavour out of the dead yeast cells (known as yeast lees) the longer they are in contact. This process is known as yeast autolysis - a poorly understood chemical process that serves to give top Champagne the lovely bready, creamy, yeast derived flavour that it is renowned for. Ageing on yeast lees is compulsory for French Champagne (15 months minimum) and can last for a decade plus in the finest vintage wines.

5.Riddling
Once the wine has spent its requisite time ageing on its yeast lees, we need to remove the lees from the bottle (or end up with cloudy sparkling). This was traditionally done over a six week period by hand, with the bottles gradually turned from a horizontal position to inverted vertical by human 'riddlers' - using a special wooden riddling rack called a 'pupitre' (Like those in the photo above). These days the task is covered by a 'gyropalette' which looks like a massive wine carton, mechanically inverting the bottles and then vigorously shaking the contents - Forcing the yeast lees down into the neck of the bottle.

6.Disgorgement and bottling
The final step in this complex process is delightfully dramatic. The yeast lees now lie in the top of the bottle and we just have to get them out! This is done by dunking the neck of the bottle in a freezing solution, which freezes the bottle neck and the yeast lees with it. The bottles are then upended & opened, with the lees deposit jettisoned out by the pressure contained in the bottle, taking the form of a flying frozen yeast pellet! The bottle is then topped up with a mixture of wine and sugar syrup known as the 'dosage'. The sweetness of the dosage can vary from nil (in Brut Nature or ZD wines for example) up to about 12g/l, depending upon the desired finished style.

The bottle is finally then sealed with a special sparkling cork (Champagne producers are said to get the best cork in the world) with a wire muselet cage ensuring that the approximately six atmospheres of pressure doesn't force the cork off.

A few of our favourite Champagnes produced using the Traditional Method

How to become a better wine taster

The Spit

Wine has a singular purpose – To be drunk. As a beverage, its intended purpose is to be consumed (via the mouth). The peculiarity of the vinous beverage is that it’s one of the most infinitely variable drinks on the planet – the interplay between fruit, oak, acid, tannins, winemaking influence, sugar etc serves to create easily the most complex drink on the planet.

So that we can better understand this capricious stuff, we need to appreciate how different regions, winemakers, oak maturation or varieties can produce such divergent end products. The way we do this is by the bizarre ritual that is the wine tasting.

The feature this issue is perhaps the most important skill that any taster can master, the one skill that will allow you to remain upright no matter how many wines you drink. – The spit.

Spitting itself is considered to be a dirty, messy habit, but if you want to still be a accurate taster by wine number 24, its almost a given that you can’t empty every glass down the hatch. Rather, in more serious wine circumstances, spitting is the most appropriate action. In France, its almost a given, with tasters spitting with aplomb in the vineyard, in gutters or even on the floor of the barrel hall. The French even have a name for it - recracher

At first it’s a serious challenge to spit out wine – Why waste good wine? But once you get the hang of it, you will only appear more sophisticated (and more sober). Some people have also argued that by spitting it out, you are not getting to fully enjoy the wine or appreciate the finish. In truth, as we have no taste receptors in our throat, the only taste sensation would be the alcohol warmth on the way down.

Most Australian wineries cater for spitters by integrating spittoons into their cellar door designs or at least providing plenty of buckets/containers to spit into. Considering our very strict drink driving laws & Responsible Service of Alcohol legislation it is of no surprise that pours are small and spitting accepted. At larger wine trade shows and wine festivals they will even use plastic bins filled with sawdust (reduces smell and splashback). In some US cellar doors (where payments for tasting are the norm) many staff will be more likely to let you try an extra wine or two if they recognise you are serious enough to be spitting (and not just another freeloading pisshead).

So what makes a good spit? Natalie Mclean of Nat Decants puts it best

‘The art of spitting (or expectorating, if you prefer) can be comfortably mastered at home. Start in the shower, then move to the bathroom sink, and finally, when you're ready to work without a net, graduate to the dining room table. The technique is simple: when you've finished tasting your wine, suck in your cheeks, purse your lips into a slightly open O, lean forward and expel a steady stream into the bucket. It's considered bad form to dribble, spray or ricochet.’

The best spitters I have ever seen are truly remarkable in their ability to hit targets from metres away – in wide, winey arcs of fluid that fly on a predetermined course and hit the target spittoon/bucket/winemakers leg with such precision that the wine looks to be travelling by wire. The better the spitter, the more defined, accurate and longer the spit (with the least amount of dribble).

Finally, the most important thing for novice spitters to consider before they leave home is attire – Only a novice (or someone very confident in their spit abilities) wears light coloured clothes at a wine tasting!

For more information, check out this glorious article on wine spitting:
http://www.slate.com/id/2071619/

Cheers,

Andrew Graham

Hunter Valley Semillon - The True Blue Chameleon

"Hunter Semillon is a national treasure, with no true equivalent anywhere else, either in Australia or overseas. Fresh, crisp and bracing in its youth, it is transformed and transfused with age, moving from pale straw to a glowing green-gold as it approaches maturity somewhere between its tenth and twentieth birthday. The transformation is a gradual one, allowing a continuous voyage of discovery as the wine moves through the various phases of its life."

James Halliday

As Mr Halliday suggests, Hunter Valley Semillon is a rather unique product in the world of wine, and can lay claim to being one of Australia’s few truly individual wine styles (along with Rutherglen Muscat & Tokay).

Hunter Semillon’s difference starts at the variety itself. Traditionally, Semillon has been viewed mainly as a blending grape – It’s dry, neutral & often simple green apple characters often translating into blandness. It is for this reason that Semillon is routinely blended with Sauvignon Blanc, crafting the classic dry white blends of Margaret River & Bordeaux. Interestingly though Semillon is also the main component of many of our finest dessert wines – the botrytised, concentrated, late picked Semillon fruit producing the richest of ‘stickies’ from Australia’s inland river regions & also the famous French Sauternes.

Ultimately, Hunter Semillon is vinously odd - 100% Semillon based, picked early, at very low alcohols (hovering between 10-11.5% alc/vol compared to 13.5% for most other whites) unoaked (fermented in stainless steel) & regularly able to mature in the bottle for 20 yrs+. Nowhere else in the world does Semillon ‘work’ like it does in the NSW Hunter Valley.

But why does Semillon perform like this? And why only in the Hunter? For answers, we should really start at the beginning. The Hunter Valley is one of Australia’s oldest vineyard areas, with plantings traceable back to the pioneer of Australian wine, James Busby, a man whose famous vine cuttings can lay claim to establishing the Australian wine industry. Whilst the Hunter Valley has little plantings that can be traced back to the original early 1830’s vines, a Hunter Semillon produced by James King won a medal at the Paris Exhibition in 1855 & the wine was placed on the table of the Emperor Napoleon at the closing ceremony.

There have been considerable changes to the Hunter wine scene since then, but the quality white wine roots were sown (although back then Semillon was known as ‘Riesling’ amongst a host of other names….). It is suitable then that truly ancient vines, some now reaching 115 years of age, still produce some of the finest Hunter Semillons (Vines surrounding Tyrrells Ashman’s Hunter Valley Winery for example are over 120yrs old). These ancient vines can lay claim to being easily the oldest white grape vines in Australia, now producing super low yields of intensely flavoured grapes, with the remarkable consistency of well established vines all surviving on their own rootstocks, producing glorious wines somewhat regardless of the season.

The next clue to Hunter Semillons success lies in the soil. Traditionally, the best Hunter Semillon is grown on the silty, sandy ancient river beds – largely infertile soil, relatively low in nutrients with often high proportions of clay. This harsh soil conditions tend to promote deep root growth in vines, whilst simultaneously reducing vine vigour, which all ultimately leads to tougher, stronger vines that produce smaller crops and inversely intense fruit flavours.

Finally, the last element that has contributed to producing this utterly unique wine style is the Hunter Valley climate – A challenging place to grow grapes. The Hunter Valley receives around 750mm of rain per year, with over 2/3 of this occurring between October and April (the grape growing season). An interesting flow on effect of this is that humidity remains high, which when combined with the afternoon sea breezes, effectively modulates the summer temperatures and creates perfect ripening conditions. Similarly, Hunter Semillon is deliberately picked early enough that it misses the torrential monsoonal rains that characterise the area in February & March, leaving it disease free & losing no flavour intensity to the flavour diluting effects of torrential rain.

Beyond the background influences, the reason why Hunter Semillon is so unique is that it is an absolute chameleon, with an innate ability to transform in the bottle. Most white wines tend to grow weight, become more rounded, integrated & more complex as they get older. Semillon takes this to the next level.

In its youth, classic Hunter Valley Semillon shows floral, simple characters of green apple, grass & citrus blossom, coupled with a palate that is intensely dry, grapefruit & green appley in an elegant & citrussy, with prominent acidity. However, given at least 6 years of bottle age, the style changes, with the nose taking on characters of toast, vanilla, limes & lanolin, the palate changing from lean, green & minerally tight into a rich, mouthfilling and honeyed jewel, without losing the mouth watering acidity.

Perhaps the most intriguing character of this style is that although Hunter Semillon sees no oak fermentation or maturation of any kind, you would swear that an aged wine has seen oak – such is the dominant, Chardonnay like buttery richness. Think of it like a Eastern Blue Groper, which grows up as a dull brownish coloured female until it reaches maturity, at which point it becomes a male and starts turning a bright blue colour!

Ultimately the attraction of Hunter Semillon also comes down to that elusive, maligned French term ‘terroir’, as the style is about as close as possible to the flavours of the grapes – no oak, minimal handling & no winemaker’s edifice (interference). When coupled with the quite unique environment that is the Hunter Valley, little wonder then that our Hunter Semillon is such an unusual, evolving & involving wine.

Wines to Try

To experience the individual & utterly Australian product that is a Hunter Valley Semillon, there are several makers that produce classic styles, many of whom release wines both young and old (a perfect way to get a better understanding of the style). Including:

Tyrrells: Widely considered to be the top Semillon producers in the Hunter Valley, their single vineyard Semillon’s display perfect style with minimal vintage inconsistencies. Most of their Semillons are released with a minimum of 5 yrs bottle age, however the highly celebrated Vat 1 Semillon is often released as a younger wine (at the cellar door only) for a considerable discount. Well worth seeking out this range of epic, trophy heavy wines.

Mount Pleasant (Mcwilliams): Another venerable Hunter institution with suitably stunning Semillons. In this range the ‘Elizabeth’ represents mind blowing value for money, released with a similar 5 yrs of bottle age and showing the first hints of aged characters even considering its quite modest price. Above this lies the single vineyard Lovedale Semillon – one of the finest in the valley, always drips with trophies. A must try.

Brokenwood: Sourced from richer soils than the many others, the Brokenwood produces a very popular and quite approachable younger Semillon as well as a late released and very rare ILR Reserve Semillon, a wine with considerable complexity and a little more body than many other reserve styles.

Lindemans: Lindemans have along the way been credited with producing some of the finest white wines ever produced in the Hunter. The revered 1970 ‘Hunter River Chablis (sic)’ is one of the most revered show wines in the history of Australian winemaking & after numerous changes in management over the past decade, the wine quality is finally back on the rise again. A Winery to watch.

Meerea Park: Led by the talented Rhys Eather, Meerea Park is a relatively new player, but supplied by some really awesome Hunter vineyards (as shown in recent show results). Try the Alexander Munro Semillon for an example of the classically long lived style.

Thomas Wines: A very new comer onto the scene, but again a talented winemaker & a first up fantastic wine. The Braemore is an epic Semillon, coming off a glorious 35 yr old Semillon vineyard & showing particularly well already.

For more Semillon & to purchase some of these wines, click here

Sold on Shiraz

Shiraz, Syrah, ‘Shee-Rahz’ or the latest high brow attempt ‘Shi-ra’. Shiraz, in its many forms, is the mainstay of the Aussie wine industry: The ‘go-to’ variety that initially put Australian wine on the map; the shining mascot of our dynamic and modern wine industry. The question is, why do we call it Shiraz? A grape variety that on its traditional European soil is known as Syrah (and has been for centuries), yet over just 180 years we have given transformed Syrah into Shiraz – giving Syrah the ‘Strayan’ treatment and came out with our much loved ‘Shiraz’!

Historically, Shiraz was one of the first varieties to arrive in Australia, (with references by the wine pioneer, James Busby, to the early misspellings of the word Syrah). However, it wasn’t until the late 1980’s that Shiraz really begun to garner worldwide attention. In 2006, there is no doubting the domination of Aussie Shiraz, both here and abroad. Almost one quarter of the wine produced in this country comes from Shiraz & it continues to be our most exported variety – with our eSnormous export growth fuelled by a parallel growth in Shiraz production.

In world terms, few grape varieties express their national character like Aussie Shiraz. The constant undertone of ripe, rich and luscious fruit characters is stamped into Shiraz Australia wide. Even the coolest of cool climate Shiraz shares this sunny, generosity & flavour. Shiraz has evolved to the point where it’s now a brand name – a wine formula that is copied worldwide, yet nowhere is this fruit intensity achieved on the same broad, consistent scale.

Stylistically, Australian Shiraz runs the whole gamut of flavours and fashions, reflecting the range of regional and climatic conditions where Shiraz finds its home. They range from: elegant, peppery, cool climate styles (Grampians, Vic or Pemberton, WA); intensely flavoured, savoury, spicy styles of Coonawarra and Margaret River; powerful and minty (Clare Valley); sweet and chocolatey (McLaren Vale); muscular, and ripe-fruited (Barossa); or leathery and rich (Hunter Valley).

Every style has emerged from Shiraz, which has traditionally been blended in both cool and warm climates with Cabernet Sauvignon is also blended with Grenache and Mourvedre in warm climates.

In recent years, with the availability of increased plantings of Viognier in Australia, winemakers have increasingly blended Shiraz Viognier combinations. Typically, Shiraz Viognier blends have a perfumed aroma and softer tannins, transforming occasionally gruff Shiraz into a softer, sexier style & crafting wines suitable to enjoy while relatively young.

Click here for our Shiraz range