Where to now for West Australian wine? By Ray Jordan

Where to now for West Australian Wine?

Vasse Felix Estate

After successive years of outstanding show and critical acclaim, West Australian winemakers have been brought down to earth, not necessarily with a thud, but with a decent jolt. For the first time in many years – 2006 brings a chilling reminder, literally of the last really challenging vintage – winemakers have been confronted with a difficult vintage. Ray Jordan reports.

Frosts, a cooler spring and summer, and then unseasonal rain in some areas, have resulted in significant crop losses of up to 50 per cent in some cases.

The counter to that has been the high quality of the fruit, but of course that only goes so far. The healthy demand built up by recent successes and consumer acceptance of the outstanding quality across the board will go largely unmet in many cases.

This reduced crop compounds the broader issue for the Australian wine industry for the 2019 vintage, with volumes significantly down in other areas such as the Barossa in South Australia. A slightly reduced vintage will create an unusual headache for the industry, with the Australian Wine: Production Sales and Inventory Report revealing Australian wine sales exceeding production in 2017-18 by an estimated seven million cases (5 per cent of production).

This is the biggest margin since 2010-11 and comes as inventories have been drawn down to meet the strong growth in exports and stable domestic sales, together with the smaller grape crush in 2018 leading to a drop of 10 million cases in wine production.

For retailers and wine consumers the good news is the previous few vintages have produced some excellent wines and many of these are pumping through into the system. For instance, the robust and powerful 16s are offering superb wines across the board, the cooler and elegant 17s are providing expressive modern drinking, while the much anticipated 18s are only just starting to emerge.

For many winemakers the 2018 vintage produced some of the finest fruit, especially the reds, and the best of these should start to find their way into the shops later this year. Many winemakers are convinced this is one of the great WA vintages across the board.

Already the aromatic whites, and some of the less sophisticated reds, have snuck into the market. The indications are exciting.

Expect them to perform very well in national wine shows as well.

There have been many highlights in the past years as the state’s winemakers continue to lift the bar. For instance, for the first time, two wines – the Vasse Felix Tom Cullity Cabernet Malbec 2014, and the Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 2015, were both awarded 99 points in my West

Australian Wine Guide 2019.

Sitting just below those two great wines were a few other stars which all recorded 98 points, showing yet again the tremendous depth of the state’s wine industry.

At the 2018 Perth Royal Wine Show, West Australian wine producer, Peter Fogarty, dominated. Three of his WA wineries, Evans & Tate, Millbrook and Deep Woods, won a total of 10 trophies. The star was the modestly priced Evans & Tate Broadway Chardonnay 2016, which won five trophies, including best wine of the show, best white of the show and best Chardonnay.

Fogarty’s Perth Hills based Millbrook won four trophies, including the unlikely double of best WA producer and best WA producer under 300 tonnes, and for the best Sauvignon Blanc, and for the highest average score for five or more wines.

His Margaret River based Deep Woods won the trophy for best Cabernet with the Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, against some stiff competition, which also included two other WA wines the Xanadu Stevens Road and Ringbolt.

Of note was the performance of West Australian Chardonnays in winning 11 of the 20 gold medals awarded for 2016 and 2017 Chardonnays, against some of the best Chardonnays in the land.

This mirrors the recent vintages of many of the superstar producers from Margaret River. These wines such as Leeuwin Estate and Vasse Felix are never shown in wine shows, but critical acclaims points to the supreme quality that has them ranked with the finest Chardonnays in the world.

The new Leeuwin Art Series Chardonnay 2016 was released at the beginning of April, and already has been awarded 99-plus. At the same time, it has got a lot of industry people excited about it. And when you look at recent releases from others such as Vasse Felix Heytesbury and Cullen’s Kevin drinks trade|35

Leeuwin Estate

John, which are the equal or better than anything they have released, you get an idea of how good these wines are.

In a year of show success, it’s hard to go past the Jimmy Watson, which headed west for the fourth time in a decade with Margaret River’s Xanadu Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 winning the trophy against the hottest field of red wines assembled at any capital city wine show this year.

This is the sixth West Australian wine to win the trophy. Cape Mentelle’s famous wins in 1983 and 1984 focused the global spotlight on Margaret River for the first time, and then Flametree in 2008, Harvey River Bridge Estate in 2010, and Deep Woods in 2016 had success.

The success and quality of WA wines is not hard to understand. Viticulturists have made subtle and sometimes significant changes in the vineyard that have resulted in better quality and more consistent fruit being delivered into the weighbridge for the winemakers.

In the winery, the winemakers have also developed a better understanding of the fruit, and the styles of wines they are seeking. For instance, the Chardonnays are predominantly made with very little new oak – Leeuwin is an obvious and significant exception – and varying amounts of malolactic fermentation. As well many, if not most, winemakers are using natural yeasts.

The results are wines that have better balance and a purer expression of the natural fruit qualities. They are also finer in the modern style, but not so fine and delicate to be insipid and lacking flavor. There is a balance here and they are getting it right.

The reds too have seen significant change. The Cabernet also uses a mix of new and old oak and the retention of the fruit characters is exceptional. The wines are better balanced as winemakers have moved away from the big chunky massively robust styles, towards wines that are elegant and refined.

The Shiraz too has changed with wines from Frankland River showing more vineyard expression and less full-blown opulence. They are still rich and flavorsome but present with more finesse.

And of course, the blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc is made increasingly with more winemaking influence, resulting in wines of great complexity and ultimately greater interest. There is still a place for the totally fruit-driven styles, but these newer expressions provide a compelling alternative.

For producers exporting, the Chinese market continues to provide exciting opportunities as this massive potential wine drinking country becomes increasingly interested in wines from the New World. Those producers who have put in the time to build relationships over several years are being rewarded with good sales.

The encouraging thing is the price per litre of wine being exported is increasing, marking the shift from volume to quality, which is what West Australian wines are all about.

A lot of WA wines have pushed through the $100 mark in recent years. When you stack these wines up against the best in the world, they match them on quality that means in comparison WA wines are very cheap.

It is inevitable a few are going to push even higher, and we are seeing that now. It is a sign of a maturing wine industry that wines sold for $200 and $300, or more in a few cases, are finding eager markets. It is inevitable that, especially in China where price is still seen as a good guide to quality, a few more are going to head towards $500 soon.

At the other end of the price spectrum, there is a lot of great value for money wines, offering excellent drinking. In fact, some of these wines are truly exceptional and could easily sell for a lot higher prices. drinks trade|37