SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 wbmonline.com.au
IN THIS ISSUE: MCL AREN VALE | CABERNET FRANC | CLIMATE CHAT | PACKAGING: 10 TIPS
AN HOUR WITH
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WINE REVIEWS
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WORDS ANTHONY MADIGAN
PHOTOGRAPH DRAGAN RADOCAJ
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THERE’S NO INVESTMENT HYPE IN MCLAREN VALE – JUST A STRONG RESOLVE TO MAKE FINE WINES AND LEAVE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE. MORE TOP-END WINES ARE APPEARING – REFLECTING A QUIET CONFIDENCE AMONG THE MAKERS. ANTHONY MADIGAN SPENT A WEEK THERE. THIS IS HIS STORY.
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hester Osborn is sitting at an old table stained with wine from thirty or so vintages. Once borrowed for a Bushing King lunch, the table is the centrepiece of a modest tasting room. It does the job – clearly. The 53-year-old takes the screwcap off another new d’Arenberg wine with another strange name – The Conscious Biosphere Aglianico Petit Sirah 2012. The crazy name is apt for a region leading the way with sustainability in Australian wine. “The vines for this wine were planted in the century in which humans have become more conscious about their biosphere – their planet,” explains Chester. “Scientists talk about it as being the era of The Conscious Biosphere.” In a nod to managing the effects of global warming, Chester points out that Aglianico and Petit Sirah are warmer-climate varieties. McLaren Vale is not seeing the same level of investment as the Barossa. It seems more a case of going quietly about its business while investing in wine quality – and sustainability. No bad thing in this brave new world of quality over quantity, and increased consumer scrutiny about food provenance and ethical farming. “I think people here are bedding down a longer term vision for their businesses and pursuing what they do best,” says Jennifer Lynch, general manager of the McLaren Vale Grape Wine & Tourism Association. Steve Pannell and Peter Fraser are the dynamic duo of Australian wine; both ply their trade in McLaren Vale. Pannell, who showed his commitment to the region last year by buying the old Tapestry cellar door, brought the Jimmy Watson home to the
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region last year with 2013 Adelaide Hills Syrah. He thinks all the soul-searching McLaren Vale has done with new varieties over the past 10 years is paying off. “McLaren Vale has embraced a new future,” he says. “A difficulty in the past was, ‘well, how are we going to sell all these new varieties?’ The truth is, we can sell them – and we are. It’s one of the most progressive regions in Australia. In the past it was all about becoming the next Barossa, but over the past five years that has changed dramatically – the focus now is on doing our own unique thing. That’s important.” Fraser, who won James Halliday’s 2016 Winemaker of the Year title, with all 10 new Yangarra releases scoring 94 points and more, says he’d like to see even more focus on varieties and wines styles that suit the region. “And more premium producers doing stuff like what Bekkers is doing.” What Bekkers is doing is helping to brand McLaren Vale as a fine wine producer, at a time when there are local concerns about too much local fruit being sold too cheaply. Toby Bekkers hit the market a few years ago with a $100 Shiraz. The confidence seems to be spreading: d’Arenberg has a range of $99 singlevineyard wines and is about to release two new $150 flagships; Oliver’s Taranga has released the 2010 M53 Shiraz for $180 a bottle, and Hugh Hamilton has released Pure Black 2010 for $180. The shock closure in November last year by Treasury Wine Estates of the Ryecroft winery at McLaren Flat – the home of Rosemount – was a blow for the region. There’s better news, however, from the other prominent corporate in the region, Accolade, which is investing heavily in the Hardys Tintara
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winery and cellar door in the main street. The new cellar door everyone is talking about is the ‘d’Arenberg’s Cube’, a five-storey building under construction. Chester has talked about it for years and it’s finally happening. Some are nervous about it; most are positive. It will apparently borrow from MONA in Tasmania. “Bring it on,” says one winemaker. “It will be like Port Adelaide – you’ll either love it or hate it – but everyone will have an opinion and want to see it.” Jennifer Lynch says, “I think the intrigue is that it goes beyond just another cellar door, beyond a wine offering. It creates a talking point and that’s got to be a good thing.” One of the more interesting transactions involving a McLaren Vale winery in recent times has been Wirra Wirra’s purchase of Ashton Hills, Adelaide Hills’ foremost Pinot Noir producer. Pinot is hot in wine bars and having one in Wirra’s portfolio appears sensible. On nearby Ingoldby Road, Beresford is building a new cellar door to complement the big new winery built on a hill on the same property. Among those planning cellar doors is Chalk Hill. McLaren Vale seems to generate a disproportionate amount of good press, perhaps because there is always something happening there, whether it’s the Scarce Earth project or wine show innovations. The big story is sustainability. In March last year Dudley Brown of Inkwell Wines won a $5,000 WBM advertising package in a vintage selfie competition. He used it to promote Sustainable Australia Winegrowing (SAW) – rather than his own brand. His wife, Irina Santiago-Brown, took the program to another level. Those ads announced that the program was being gifted to other wine regions. The response has been overwhelming, with the program
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Chalk Hill’s Tom Harvey, outgoing chair of the McLaren Vale Grape & Wine Tourism Association, believes the best years for McLaren Vale are in the future – “rather than some legacy we are living off”. “As a regional Association we are now in the best position we have ever been in – a clear plan, money in the bank and a strong staff to build the value of the McLaren Vale brand and deliver benefits to our members,” he says. “There are more intangible assets, like the sense of collaboration and community shared across the region, and the focus on quality means we should continue to be at the forefront of Australian grape and
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currently being rolled out across the country. There are further positive developments with the program that fall in the ‘watch this space’ category. “The response has been amazing, with interest from many other wine regions as well as overseas,” Jennifer Lynch says. McLaren Vale has a reputation as an innovator, including for its wine show, introducing consumer dinners last year. This year it’s taking it to the Adelaide CBD. There are plans to go interstate and overseas. It’s possible that only SAWaccredited wines will be eligible for the local show one day. With non-mainstream varieties, McLaren Vale won’t die wondering. Back at the wine-stained tasting bench, Chester Osborn says Sagrantino could one day rival Shiraz as the region’s top variety. “We have five sites we’re working with for Sagrantino,” he says. “They are all completely different, and every one of them works. I think Sagrantino in McLaren Vale works even better than it does in Montefalco.” The last say – for this intro – goes to tireless McLaren Vale promoter, Corrina Wright, of Oliver’s Taranga Vineyards: “I think the Vale has come a long way, but still has a little way to go. I don’t think we have capitalised as yet on the natural beauty, the coastline, the proximity to Adelaide, sustainability, the amazing restaurants and experiences to be had. I feel like it is on the precipice of people going- ‘holy crap, that place is awesome and it’s so easy to get to.’ I am genuinely pumped for the next generations of my family and the opportunities they will have. We need to make sure everyone understands that we are an agricultural tourism region and leverage ourselves as that. We also need to get better at giving customers experiences and knocking the socks off them.”
wine production. It’s compelling, so I’m optimistic enough that I’m making further investment in the Chalk Hill business and expect the coming decade to be far, far better than the last 10. Tourism is the great opportunity, with nearly everything else remaining constant across viticulture and winemaking but we are able to achieve better margin and develop a stronger relationship engaging directly with the end purchaser. It is again a regional issue, we need plenty of attractions across the Vale because very few people will visit just one cellar door. Expect some movement in this space from both Chalk Hill and the McLaren Vale region.”
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Our family is made up of Originals, Artisans and Icons. And that’s the people as well as the wines. With a style to delight every palate, there’s over 100 years of McLaren Vale history in every bottle. All so easy to spot with that famous red stripe. The d ’Arenberg family of wines. @darenbergwine | darenberg.com.au
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WORDS ANTHONY MADIGAN
TOBY BEKKERS IS NOT AFRAID TO CHARGE A PREMIUM PRICE FOR A PREMIUM WINE. HE’D LIKE A FEW MORE TO DO THE SAME.
PHOTOGRAPHY MIKE SMITH
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chalkboard outside Bekkers’ new cellar door in McLaren Vale advertises a tasting of three red wines for $10. Toby Bekkers says it makes a few people turn around and drive straight out, but he has no issue with that because he’s set up his business to attract the premium dollar. Besides, the 500 cases sell out. “We’re asking $80 to $110 a bottle, so they’re not for everyone,” says Toby, who released his first wine, a McLaren Vale Syrah 2011, three years ago. It’s a beautiful tasting space with large windows providing panoramic views of the vines and hills. Quality glassware and good bottled water and cheese add to the premium feel. The Grenache, Syrah Grenache and Syrah are served in that order. “The wines show a gentle stepping up in density,” Toby says. “Our winemaking philosophy is based on texture. People who are not educated tasters always say, ‘that’s smooth’. Whether it’s whisky or wine, people talk texture. At the pointy end of fine wine, that last increment between good and super-good is textural. It’s a fine line: we need stuffing to go the distance in the cellar for the prices we’re asking, but we also want to release wines that are soft, silky and elegant.” Toby, one-time GM of Paxton Vineyards, decided to focus only on high-end wines after studying top wineries on numerous trips to France with his winemaker wife, Emmanuelle, who was born in Toulon, close to Bandol. The first thing Toby did when planning the business was to write an A4 tasting note of the wine he had in mind. He then chose the sites, including the Gateway Vineyard, which he part-owns, for “the rich, layered, textural mid-palate” and Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyard for “aromatic punch”. An AWRI Board member and a Future Leader, Toby believes high-end wines are good for any wine region – especially in one where the feeling is too much wine is sold too cheaply. “McLaren Vale has been a fabulous region for mid-range consistency and bang for your buck, but there is an opportunity to showcase the beautiful things at the pointy end, the small individual gems,” he says. “I see so much potential in McLaren Vale for people to be at the fine wine end of the market. It’s a matter of having enough confidence to do it. I believe you need a couple of people at that super-pointy end to give the region a stamp of authority in a world context. All the guys who have done well here have done the hard yards walking every corner of the valley. If you have an intimate
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knowledge of the region, you can do amazing things.” Bekkers is building its business on a mailing list. The plan is to produce 2,000 cases, with no more than 500 of any one wine. “We’re conscious we’re a small part of the market and have to walk before we can run,” Toby says. “I think a shed too full of wine is the worst thing you can have. People smell it on you. I’ve been in the game long enough to know that wines at this price can be agonisingly slow to sell, but I think over the longer term it’s going to be a niche for us.” Toby stands by the pricing. “You’ll often hear people say McLaren Vale sells world-class wines, but then we turn around and sell them for twenty bucks,” he says. “That doesn’t make sense, does it?” Emmanuelle and Toby utilise some fermentation space at Yangarra Estate Vineyard to make the wines. Toby says the berry-sorting technology is a key to purity; the downside, 10 percent fruit loss. “We’re very wasteful with our winemaking,” he says. “We get rid of all the raisins and it ends up looking like caviar in the bin. Hand-picked bunches look pristine, but when you put them through the sorting machine, the amount of shrivelled-up stuff hidden inside them is amazing. No one
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would want it in their ferment. Our extraction rates would also make your average winery accountant have a heart attack. The world over, fine wine producers have in common attention to detail. You could eat off the floor at Yangarra; being boutique doesn’t have to mean working in a dirty little shed.” Toby and Emmanuelle travel to France each year with their two children. And every time, Toby comes home feeling more positive about McLaren Vale. “Our spirit of collaboration is a massive asset,” he says. “Consistent feedback from the media and trade who visit McLaren Vale is that we all work together. There are so many good people in this region. Another natural asset is the diversity of landscape in a small footprint and the ability to come up with any idea and go somewhere in this valley and have a crack. Innovation is also a strength. If someone wants to trial a new viticulture or winery product, they bring it here because they know we’ll have a go. The same goes for researchers wanting help. We have a crack.” A viticulturist by trade, Toby says hosting intimate tastings doesn’t come easily to him, but he’s working on it. “I’m an introvert, I don’t like being front and centre,” he says. “If I had my way I’d be pruning 365 days a year, but if I’m confident on the subject – like wine – it’s fine. For the past few years I’ve worked from home, so this is good for me. When it comes to the hard sell, I’m at the soft-sell end of the spectrum. The idea is to give people an experience that is commensurate with the money we’re asking and the quality. Part of it is imparting knowledge.”
Don’t expect a Bekkers Fiano any time soon. “I’ve worked with a lot of alternative varieties,” he says, “and I’m yet to find any that are better than Shiraz and Grenache for this region. There are plenty of regions in the world that do great Shiraz, and we’re one of them. If you were to pick a variety that McLaren Vale can do better than anyone in the world, it’s Grenache.” Bekkers has made 250 bottles of Premier Cru Chablis. “It’s some fun for our mailing list,” says Toby. “It’s also a way to tell Emmanuelle’s story and maintain good links in the wider world of fine wine, which is important to what we do.” But McLaren Vale remains the focus. The words McLaren Vale dominate the front labels. “Our story is about intimate knowledge of a region and trying to put our best foot forward to be an emblem for McLaren Vale,” Toby says. “Understating the Bekkers brand shows some quiet confidence in our abilities and where we think we sit in our understanding of the region.” The $10 tasting fee is refunded to customers who spend $150 or more. Most who make it inside, buy. “Our strike-rate is good,” says Toby. “At this early stage, some days we see only two cars – sometimes none – but we have a clear vision for our business and we will stick to it.” It’s not as if Toby sits around waiting for them. “There’s always a hole to dig or a vine to prune,” he says. “That’s what I love about what I do. I can be covered in dirt one day and the next day be sitting in a great restaurant in my best clothes showing the wines to people. When people in this industry complain, I remind them how good we’ve got it.”
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WORDS NICK RYAN
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OLD VINE AT OLIVER’S TARANGA IN MCLAREN VALE PHOTO: DRAGAN RADOCAJ
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couple of years back a young bloke from Coffs Harbour got in touch and in a moment of naivety or downright stupidity, asked me for some advice. He’d developed a real interest in wine and thought the best way to take that further was to pack up his shitty station wagon and set off with his girlfriend for a stint in a wine region. “Tell me Obi-Wan, where should I go?” Margaret River seemed a logical choice for a kid who could surf before he could read, but the chances of his car making it across the Nullarbor were slim and he didn’t really have the classicist’s mind Cabernet Sauvignon requires. The Hunter was close but his parents were old friends of mine and if I introduced him to Thommo they’d never forgive me. The Barossa wasn’t an option because his swimwear model girlfriend was a vegetarian and anywhere in Victoria or Tassie was just going to be too bloody cold. The compelling choice was McLaren Vale. It’s an interesting exercise espousing the virtues of a wine region to someone with no preconceptions. It sharpens your own assessments of a place; forces you to really consider your own position, to look at what you already know in a different light. So in no particular order, here’s a bunch of reasons why I reckon McLaren Vale is a pretty special place. It’s hard to think of another region in the country with the vinous versatility of the Vale.
It has an innate ability to do a lot of things well. Shiraz is the obvious strength, but I’m also set solid in my belief that the best Grenache in the country grows in McLaren Vale dirt. If we ever get to the point where we truly appreciate just how good we’ve got it with Grenache, it will be McLaren Vale that leads us there. McLaren Vale is the region that will put us in a Mediterranean frame of mind, not just with all those olives and almonds, but with the varieties that thrive on those distant shores. McLaren Vale has enthusiastically embraced the alternative, both the newly planted and the sadly neglected, and it’s a far more interesting and exciting place for having done so. It’s become a really thoughtful place, too. They recognised their good fortune in having Irina Santiago-Brown in their midst and turned ‘sustainability’ into something more substantial than just a buzzword with the industry-leading Sustainable Australia Winegrowing program. The vignerons of the Vale have thought long and hard about what lies beneath their feet. The Scarce Earth initiative – a series of wines selected to showcase the unique geology of specific vineyards – is a brilliant idea for many reasons, foremost among them the opportunity to deploy Phillip White and his fertile mind to help explain it all. McLaren Vale also understands that the most important contributor to terroir is people and it’s a winemaking community that nurtures, challenges and inspires in equal measure. When you spend time talking to the vignerons of the Vale you’re struck by a sense of energy and excitement. Not just Chester, all of them. There are good things happening right across the region and you can almost feel the place hum. But even a region with its eye in can sometimes play right across the line. The less said about that orgy of self-stroking on YouTube promoting the Valo project the better. And then there’s Doug and his pub. The AWRI should be working on ways to clone Doug Govan just so he can go and open a Victory Hotel in every region in the country. Starting in the Hunter first. They need him more than anyone.
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ennifer Lynch, the new general manager of the McLaren Vale Grape Wine & Tourism Association, says sharing is alive and well in the region. “I have only been in the region for a year – a drop in the ocean compared to the generations here – but the support I have had and the willingness to share knowledge and see everyone progress, has been quite phenomenal,” she says. “One hundred percent hands down, if we didn’t have the committees we have within the region and their level of interest in the bigger picture approach and the community – there is no way we could have progressed anywhere near as much as we have. And they are all volunteers. If you look back at the development of Sustainable Australia Winegrowing three years ago, through Irina Santiago-Brown’s PhD project, that was a massive team effort. And even prior to that when we were looking at securing our own water sources and the way that put a line in the sand for McLaren Vale, taking ownership of our long-term sustainability, that was teamwork at its best. The development of all these programs has required community input, knowledge sharing and an open source. Without that, we wouldn’t get anywhere.” Jennifer says McLaren Vale remains buoyant in the face of hardship by some. “There have been a lot of the doom and gloom stories come out in the Australian media about the state of the wine industry. While it’s important to acknowledge that not all parts of the industry are moving well and grapegrowers in other regions, for example, are unable to derive a profit, at the same time there is still a sense of optimism and collaboration within McLaren Vale. It’s still there. It’s what’s going to propel us forward.”
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n 1996 Penfolds initiated the Grange Growers Club for growers whose fruit goes into Grange. Don Oliver, with fruit from the Oliver’s Taranga Vineyards, was one of the founding members. Penfolds also brought in the Triple Crown – for when your fruit makes Grange three years in a row. The first grower to achieve this was Kalleske in the Barossa, in 1997, 1998 and 1999. Ten growers from the Barossa have achieved the Triple Crown. Oliver’s Taranga was the first from McLaren Vale to achieve it, in 2012, 2013 and 2014. “I love being able to contribute fruit for such an iconic Australian wine and brand in Penfolds,” says Don. “It makes me very proud and I feel that aiming for Grange really drives the quality of the entire vineyard forward every year. We are super-lucky that the generations before us decided to settle on this land in McLaren Vale. It has turned out to be extraordinary dirt for growing high quality grapes. I only wish that they would put McLaren Vale on the label one day, instead of just South Australia.” There have been other suppliers to Grange from McLaren Vale over the years, notably the Booth vineyard (now owned by Treasury) and the Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyard (now owned by Jackson Wine Estates), but none have been as consistent in supply over such a long period as Oliver’s Taranga. Its vineyard has contributed to Grange 14 times now since 1996. “Which was when Penfolds started telling growers,” says Don. Oliver’s Taranga has five blocks in the Grange Growers Club: the Old Block, North and South Blocks, Top Block and Rayments Block.
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CHILLI KRANSKY FROM WILLUNGA BAKERY… BEERS FROM JEFF AT GOODIESON BREWERY… COFFEE FROM BLESSED CHEESE… Local Knowledge is Priceless. WineWorks Australia, proudly McLaren Vale Locals.
Your ‘go to’ guys for warehousing, rework, export & logistics PH +61 08 8382 8882 26 Aldershot Road Lonsdale, SA 5160 www.wineworks.com.au
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WORDS ANTHONY MADIGAN
STEPHEN PANNELL FINDS IT LIBERATING MAKING WINES THAT SPEAK OF WHERE THEY COME FROM.
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hen Stephen Pannell was 15 years old, he found an old ship’s bell on the ocean floor while diving at the end of Busselton jetty in Western Australia. It turned out to be from the SS Koomilya, a wood-lugger that sailed between WA and South Australia. Stephen took it home and cleaned it up. Now, 35 years later, he has called his recently-purchased vineyard Koomilya, and the first release is Koomilya DC Block Shiraz 2013 – the label featuring an illustration of the old bell. Stephen’s desert-island Australian wine is Wendouree and
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there are shades of that famous Clare brand in this wine. The fruit is from a vineyard planted in the 1850s. Wendouree is an Aboriginal word meaning sense of place; Koomilya means woman in Port Lincoln Aboriginal dialect. The words SC Pannell only appear in fine print on the back label. The 2014 Jimmy Watson winner says he wasn’t happy coming out with a premium Shiraz until he owned the vineyard and grew the fruit himself. “Australia still needs to do a lot more work in the vineyards and make wines that reflect a site,” Stephen says. “The truly unique thing about wine is it can express a sense of place, and the understanding
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and protection of this sense of place is paramount in all my winemaking decisions. So I don’t pick it at 15 baume, overacidify, add artificial tannins or over-oak the wine. It concerns me that now the Australian exchange rate has come back into favour, we will go back into the export game with the same Frankenstein Shiraz that people didn’t like last time. Great wine has one thing in common all over the world: it is not over-ripe, over-acidified or over-oaked.” Koomilya DC Block Shiraz is tannic. “And I like real grape tannins, not tannin from oak or chestnut tree,” Stephen says. “Tannin is our number one tool in controlling the natural fruit sweetness of McLaren Vale Shiraz, and I’m not scared of it. In fact I think every grape variety has a tannin character or signature, the same as it has a varietal fruit character or signature.” Stephen says he is proud of the wine and has never worked harder on any one wine. “I am aware, though, that the driving force is the site,” he says, “and there is a degree of freedom about this experience.” He says he never wants SC Pannell to be a huge company. “I want to always be in control of the winemaking side of it and so I can’t see us growing a lot more, but I can see us consolidating,” he
says. “Some people judge how successful a wine company is by how many cases of wine it makes, and how fast it grows, but all you’re doing is turning money into new product, you’re not actually consolidating. Wendouree is the perfect model. We’ve got a way to go to reach that. I’m a programmer’s nightmare, in a good year I make more, in a bad year I make less.” Asked what the cellar door has brought to his business, Stephen quips, “People can find me now. After Greg Trott, I was the best hiding champion. I have strong ideas about food, so having the opportunity to put a restaurant in has been great. This is only the beginning of where we sit with this – putting food out to people that marries the ideology behind the wine, is important for us. Our wines are designed for food and drinking. Sometimes wine is all about impact and not enjoyment. I am still concerned about whether we are making wine that reflects our climate and way of life and, most importantly, that suits the food we like to eat. Quite often that is Asian style and contains chilli.” And is the Jimmy really worth a million dollars? “I’m not sure, but it’s been a wonderful thing for us,” Stephen says. “It was perfect timing for us – absolutely sensational.” The RRP of Koomilya DC Block Shiraz is $100.
OUR MISSION Growing better wine ~ naturally. We grow multi-award winning, biodynamic and certified organic wines in McLaren Vale. James Halliday 5 Star Winery 2009-2016
GEMTREEWINES.COM
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ike Brown, chief winemaker and managing director of Gemtree Wines in McLaren Vale, says he’s more motivated than ever about cementing the long-term success of the family business – despite a highly-publicised joint venture with a Chinese business partner coming to an end. “I haven’t lost my enthusiasm for this business,” Mike says, “and Gemtree has never been better placed as a business to meet the challenges. “Look, we all knew what we were getting ourselves into. It represented an enormous opportunity and we had to give it a go. Someone believed in us and that’s not a bad thing. I’m much prouder of our business now than I was in 2010. Our wines are better quality, we’re employing more people and we have much more control over every facet of production. Gemtree is well placed to go through to the next generation. There was once a question mark in terms of the sustainability of our business. Not now.” Gemtree made its first wine – 500 cases – in 1998, and steadily grew production using mostly organic fruit. Three years ago Gemtree announced that Chinese property developer Song Yuangang had bought close to 50 percent of the company from the Buttery family, with plans to increase production to 150,000 cases a year to service the planned expansion of the brand – called Sacredtree Wines –
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across China. Mr Song committed $30 million of working capital to Gemtree over five years. It was a good news story widely reported in the media, and South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill was with Mr Song in Beijing for the announcement. The cashed-up Gemtree Wines built a new cellar door in McLaren Vale and acquired the old Kangarilla Road facility at McLaren Flat. Gemtree went from six employees to 30 – along with 300 full-time sales reps in the main provinces of China. The business model had Gemtree selling directly to Mr Song’s distribution
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network in five Chinese cities and nine provinces. Gemtree went to 150,000 cases a year as planned, but then the austerity measures in China began to bite and the market turned sour. “It just didn’t work out,” says Mike. “The outcome wasn’t what we were looking for. After that, Andrew (Buttery), and my wife Melissa and I sat down and discussed where we wanted to go with the business. We all agreed we wanted to push on with Gemtree and create a sustainable future for the next generation. “We’re working on a healthy strategy for the business with 70 percent domestic sales and 30 percent export. We’re producing 100,000 cases and we’re sustainable at that number. China got to 70 percent of our market, but now that’s down to five percent. It’s a much more comfortable market mix from our perspective.” Mike thinks McLaren Vale is in a good place. “I think it’s in an amazing spot,” he says. “The opportunity the region has is it’s still learning what it’s capable of. There are a lot of exciting new producers and younger people trying new things.”
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n a chilly winter’s morning David Paxton, proprietor of Paxton Wines, gives me a whirlwind tour of his McLaren Vale vineyards in his 4WD. His global sales director, Brian Lamb, and winemaker Richard Freebairn are in the back seat. Our first stop is the Gateway Vineyard near the western entrance to McLaren Vale, part of which is farmed biodynamically; David is the local BD pioneer. The vineyard slopes away and there is a dam at the bottom of a gully – the holding dam for the recycled water project. It’s surprisingly small. “We’d have half as many viable vineyards without that,” says David. “It supplies more than half the region’s water needs for grapegrowing.” He says 50 percent of his cost of production is water. “It’s not cheap!” he says. A worker on a tractor is doing under-vine weeding in the BD block. “We’re using traditional methods,” he says. “No chemicals, of course.” Born in Willunga, David once made a living with the help of an almond-cracking machine that he built, before investing in vineyards. “I was going to be a peasant farmer if I didn’t get a wriggle on,” he says. David, a viticulture consultant, has set up some of Australia’s most celebrated vineyards including Petaluma in the Adelaide Hills, The Islander Estate on Kangaroo Island, James Halliday’s vineyard Coldstream Hills and Innocent Bystander in the Yarra Valley, and Devil’s Lair in Margaret River. He sold grapes to other producers for years before starting the Paxton label from the 1998 vintage. He still sells to 30 premium Australian wine brands. He sold grapes to other producers for years before starting the Paxton label from the 1998 vintage. Production has grown to 20,000 cases a year, and the past 12 months has seen a big push into the US. “In simple terms there are 21 million people in Australia, and six billion in the world,” David says. “To survive in the wine business at the volumes we’re talking, you must be global.”
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The goal is to produce 40,000 cases. “We are at 20,000 cases now,” says David. “You have to have a vision for where you want to be – and 40,000 cases is what we have our sights on.” The mainstays are MV Shiraz and AAA Shiraz Grenache, which retail for $20. “The premium end is $20,” David says. “Of course there are sales in $50 and all that, but that can’t be your core business.” Brian adds, “And what we hear from people is they drink like $30 wines, so they have this over-delivery element that really works; $20 is still the price most punters are comfortable with.” Next stop is the 40-acre 19th Vineyard, which sits on a sandhill on the Seaview Ridge. It used to be a golf course. “Mum used to play here,” David says. Richard adds, “It’s sandy and produces lovely fragrant wine styles perfect for GSM.” David says the wine industry still has opportunities. “Especially for professional operators,” he says, adding salespeople are underrated. “Some people just don’t accept how important the salesman is,” he says. “It’s about constantly harassing people until they say yes.” We reach the Thomas Vineyard, where it all started. David bought the property from Dolly Thomas, grandmother of astronaut Andy Thomas, who played there as a kid. The vineyard, planted in the 1870s, was run down and he couldn’t give the fruit away. “Now we get $5,000 a tonne for it,” he says. He once approached Andy Thomas about producing a special wine, but NASA got involved and said “no way”. There’s still plenty of Chardonnay planted. “And
it’s still in demand,” says Richard. The tour ends at a small heritage-listed building near cellar door on Landcross Farm, an old sheep farm established in the 1860s. The BD shed was once a blacksmith shop. “Sadly, someone nicked the bellows,” David says. There’s an old wine barrel overflowing with cow horns. “Biodynamics wasn’t made as some sort of religious sect, it’s purely a practical farming system which has evolved. People have hijacked it and turned it into some mystical religious thing, which I’m not the slightest bit interested in,” he says. “I’m interested in the practical aspects of biodynamics. It’s about soil health. It’s changed our vineyard from being something that you didn’t really want to go into, to a place I really like being in. Soils have changed, they look healthy; edible, almost. We’re holding about 25 percent more water in our soils. The vines hang on in hot weather better. They got through 2011 as well... if the vine’s healthy, you can go through the flu epidemic, to put it in human terms.” So BD has been good for business? “It’s been one of the best business decisions I’ve made,” he says. “It was done to improve the viticulture. We thought we were pretty good before BD, but we weren’t, really.” David’s not getting a premium for the BD grapes. “But it will happen – one day,” he says. “But that was never the idea, it was just to grow better grapes. It’s a good story for Brian to use around the world.” He admits the Barossa is “hot”. “We’re all grinding away in McLaren Vale, but I think we’ll catch them within five years,” he says. “I’m not saying they’ll drop off; we’ll catch up.”
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ou know you’re in a quirky wine region when you can knock off from pruning at 5 o’clock in the afternoon and be walking along a deserted beach nude 20 minutes later. The beaches near McLaren Vale are spectacular, none more so than Maslin Beach, Australia’s first nudist beach – or ‘unclad’ beach as they now call it. The nude thing is an unusual feature of a wine region that owns the word quirky and is not afraid to flaunt it. Chester Osborn once stripped down to his boxer shorts at a business lunch to demonstrate one of McLaren Vale’s features. d’Arenberg and Wirra Wirra pretty much have quirkiness covered between them. The king of quirk was Greg Trott, former custodian of Wirra Wirra, an eccentric who was prone to go missing for days. It was always going to be a hard act to follow after Robert Strangways Wigley, who established Wirra Wirra in 1894. A cricket nut, Robert designed the hallway of his home to replicate the exact size of a cricket pitch and once stole a pie cart for a joyride with his horse. True to its history, Wirra
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Wirra has been known to invite journos over to launch watermelons through the air. It has an in-house trebuchet, as you do. Chester is in a league of his own; the strange names keep coming: Shipsters’ Rapture Single Vineyard Shiraz and JRO Afflatus Single Vineyard Shiraz. The weirdness extends to the fivestorey ‘d’Arenberg Cube’ being built. It will look a bit like a Rubik’s Cube. Neighbours are nervous. If nothing else, it will be a monument to McLaren Vale’s hard-won eccentricity. Everyone will want to see it – which makes it a smart business decision. The quirkiest thing about McLaren Vale is the song they sing at the Bushing King lunch. Weird. Really weird. The quirkiness is spreading. At Sellicks Beach, just down the road from the local winemakers’ second home, The Victory Hotel, the Nan Hai Pu Tou Temple has spent $1 million erecting an 18 metre-high Buddha statue. There have been many near-misses on that busy section of Main South Road as tourists stop for a selfie. Greg Trott would surely approve.
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he Leask family has been growing grapes in McLaren Vale for 36 years. In 2011 brothers Malcolm and Richard Leask produced their own wine, and Hither & Yon was born. They opened a cellar door in an old butcher shop in Willunga’s main street. Their aim is to connect with consumers direct, and the interaction with them at cellar door – which features one big table in a rustic space – has driven the wine style: fresh, juicy wines from alternative varieties. The 2015 Tempranillo and Nero d’Avola were bottled in July and will be released in September. “Last year these types of releases were around for no more than a few months before selling out,” says Malcolm. It was a testament to the types of wine they envisioned producing when they started out. “We want wines that people can take to their mate’s place any day: simple wines with drinkability and great with food,” says Malcolm. They originally produced a super-premium, “super-complex” Shiraz in 2012, but soon realised “that’s not really what the modern wine consumer is after”. Order forms are printed on paper; it works: Hither & Yon has built a big database of loyal followers in just a few years. The family has 90 hectares of vines in seven sites, keeping 20 percent of the fruit for their own wines. The labels and cellar door feature striking branding. An individual artist is chosen for each label, using the brand’s distinctive ampersand as the core and illustrated in the style of the wine.
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very day for 125 years the winemaker at Kay’s Amery Vineyard in McLaren Vale has filled out a diary, noting when grapes were picked and babies born. These notes are being used to publish a book about the winery, set for release before Christmas. Stalwart Colin Kay still writes in the diary. “In an old diary entry someone wrote that they were pruning Block 6 – and that Mrs Kay had a son.” Winemaker Duncan Kennedy recently joined the business. Colin says his new role is “chief interferer”. He says the business was built on making bulk wine for Britain. “And that is what we did until the early 1960s,” says Colin, adding profitability has “waxed and waned through the years”. Is it profitabile now? “The waxing has stopped, put it that way.” The Basket Press Shiraz is the bread and butter wine. “Direct selling and cellar door is the way of the small business,” he says.
Even the smallest alcohol correction makes a big difference. To make your wine shine, visit
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www.memstar.com.au or call 08 8562 1139
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ccolade Wines has reaffirmed its commitment to McLaren Vale with a $4.5 million upgrade of the Hardys Tintara winery. Accolade has built viewing platforms in the winery and plans to upgrade the cellar door and eventually build a new cafe. Accolade’s Travis Fuller says the plan is to bring the property back to its former glory. “Not unlike what Warren Randall has done with Seppeltsfield,” he says. “Tintara is certainly the spiritual home of Hardys. We want people to stop here and for it to be the gateway to McLaren Vale, and also a place where they can learn about the history of Australian wine and the brand. We’re spending in the vicinity of $3.5 million to renovate some of the sections. We have a new VIP room, which overlooks the winery. We’ve also got an old fortified room downstairs that we’ve opened up and re-established the solera in there and we’re starting to put in place a whole stack of story-boards, not dissimilar to what museums and other places do to bring to life some of the history of the wines and how they’re made and what they used to be like back in the day.” On top of the initial $3.5 million investment, the fourth phase of the redevelopment involves spending another $1 million on a new cellar door, with the plan to offer light meals and encourage visitors to hang out in the beautiful grounds. “The idea is to increase the dwell time of people so they spend a little bit more time getting to know the Hardys brand, before they venture off into the rest of the region.”
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ames Hook says don’t believe everything you hear about the majority of wineries not making money. His small winery, Lazy Ballerina, in Kuitpo, 12 years old now, is doing okay; he supplements the income by providing viticultural advice to customers, and he has a stake in DJ Growers. James is one of those who finds himself on many committees, including current chair of the Vale Cru, a collective of small-production winemakers. James thinks McLaren Vale has “enormous potential” and applauds the likes of Toby Bekkers who are focusing on fine wine. “What Toby is doing is very exciting for the area,” James says. “He’s showing that you can sell wine for $100, and it’s legitimate, it’s not smoke and mirrors – and $100 is what the stuff’s worth. There should be more like that. That’s part of the Vale Cru philosophy, encouraging world-class wine production.” James says the biggest technical issue locally is salinity. “Everyone ignores it,” he says. Lazy Ballerina has a cellar door at Kuitpo, opposite Kuitpo Forest, a popular picnic spot. James backs Montepulciano to do well in McLaren Vale. “It has some very handy characteristics for the climate,” James says. “There are a few exploratory plantings occurring.” The Vale Cru members come and go; once you hit 5,000 cases, you no longer qualify. Current members include: Bekkers, Brash Higgins, J&J Wines, La Curio, Lazy Ballerina, Ministry of Clouds, Rudderless, Rusty Mutt, Ulithorne, Vigna Bottin, Waywood Wines and Wistmosa. www.valecru.com
Gently remove VA from your fine wine. We’re here to help, so visit
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cott Collett recalls the challenge of being up to his armpits in winemaking while trying to run the cellar door at the same time. “I’d leave customers with bottles to pour samples themselves,” says Scott. “I’d say, ‘if you want to buy anything, ring the bell.’ Then I’d go back to winemaking.” It was a one-man band. Now Ben Glaetzer helps out at the sophisticated 25,000-case operation and it’s one of the go-to places for wine tourists with its Woodstock Coterie restaurant and beautiful surrounds. Scott dabbled in the cruise-ship business but has put that behind him to focus on wine. The Woodstock Coterie restaurant is still one of the better eating places in McLaren Vale. Scott says the wood-oven pizzas are also popular, along with the kangaroo-feeding session at 11 every morning. Scott says business is steady. He’s upbeat about the future of the industry. “If the Aussie dollar stays low for a while – and I think it will – there will be better opportunities,” he says. “There’s always an oversupply of poor quality wine, and a shortage of the good stuff. I don’t think that will ever change. There’s always opportunity.” Woodstock exports 40 percent of production. Scott has never put huge pressure on the restaurant to make money. “It’s more about keeping people happy and showcasing our wine in the best environment with good food and a good time,” he says. “But no one wants to lose money; restaurants have the ability to do that if they’re not monitored.” Scott still gets his hands dirty making fortifieds. What’s the one thing his father Doug told him about business, that has stuck. “Every deal should have something in it for both parties,” he says.
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he future of Ryecroft Winery at McLaren Flat – the long-time production home of Rosemount, founded by billionaire Robert Oatley, is under a cloud. The owner, Treasury Wine Estates, closed the winery late last year and put it on the market, transferring Rosemount production to other facilities including Wolf Blass in the Barossa. The winery’s future is a big talking point in the community, with some rumours pointing to another corporate wine business having shown interest in buying it. The winery’s closure was a blow to McLaren Vale, especially considering Treasury had made a big deal about Rosemount calling McLaren Vale home. Rosemount winemaker Matt Koch won the 2012 and 2013 Bushing King titles.
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ost Buoy Wines has a unique point of difference – the vineyard is only 50 metres from the edge of the cliff that overlooks Gulf St Vincent. The closest vineyard to the sea in Australia, it has private beach access and offers stunning views to Lion Point at Port Willunga. It is owned by South Australian-born businessman, Grant Kelley, who spends most of his time in Singapore, Hong Kong and New York. Marc Allgrove, ex CEO of the McLaren Vale Grape Wine & Tourism Association and Chapel Hill, is on the board of the business. Kelley bought it in November 2011 from Kingsley Mills, who planted the first vines – Shiraz and Grenache – 15 years ago. He released the first wines – labelled Lion Point – in 2001. “To me this property is about the potential that exists in McLaren Vale,” says Marc. “Grant Kelley sees so much opportunity in the food and wine scene in South Australia that he has invested in this estate and wants to make something of it. It’s a small but exciting project.” Creating a destination is part of the long-term plan for the property.
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ary Hamilton, CEO of Hugh Hamilton Wines, has a background in advertising. She’s interested in what makes people tick. And what does make them tick? “It’s not just what’s in the bottle – there are thousands and thousands of brands of wine to choose from – what they want is a personal connection. They want to feel like they are somebody with the brands they relate to,” she says. Hugh Hamilton’s business is based on consumer engagement – and it starts with the quirky ‘Sheep Dip’ spoon-drain signs lining the driveway to the cellar door, which sells a lot of merchandise along with local jams, fudge and olives. “We focus a lot on consumers having a great experience at cellar door,” Mary says. “We see it as the first step for people to hopefully enjoy a lifelong relationship with us.” Black Sheep Club members get access to a range of immersive experiences and off-beat wines like The Oddball Saperavi.
And 35 club members actually spend time in McLaren Vale at vintage. They hand-pick grapes and have lunch in the currant-drying shed. The winery keeps them informed of the progress of the wine including video diaries of the process through to packaging. Members’ names are listed on the back label of the finished wine, called Shearer’s Cut, which is produced in tiny quantities. Last year Hugh Hamilton released a $180 flagship wine, Pure Black Shiraz 2010, and showcased it with an impressive cellar door display including video presentation. “That wine has really changed the way we do business,” Mary says. “It’s provided a halo and everything else feels better for it.” Business is good. “It’s going really well considering how tough it is to be in the wine business,” she says. “We’ve found our little niche – loving the customer at cellar door and giving them great experiences that they want to come back for. And I’m amazed by how many do come back.”
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cLaren Vale is a world-class wine region, but at the end of the day it’s a caring community that has a solid history for looking out for people down on their luck. In February, Chapel Hill winemaker Michael Fragos and his wife Marianne found out their seven-year-old son, Archie, had a rare condition called desmoplastic small-round-cell tumour. The family has travelled to Texas for treatment. Michael’s colleagues including Bryn Richards and Bodhi Edwards wanted to do something, of course, and they came up with the idea of selling a wine. That wine is a 2014 blend called The Archibald, and it’s available for purchase online for $25 a bottle. All funds raised will assist the Fragos family. They needed seven barrels for the project and Bryn only had to
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make seven calls. Archie and his younger brother, Gabriel, and older sister, Evie, painted the artworks for the label. The project followed another major McLaren Vale fundraiser during vintage this year, when Jock Harvey of Chalk Hill posted a message on Facebook saying he had three tonnes of “beautiful” Shiraz he wouldn’t be able to pick, and offered them to anyone who was willing to make a donation to the Hutt Street Centre for the homeless. Vinomofo co-founder Andre Eikmeier put his hand up. Peter Fraser, Shelly Torresan and Charlie Seppelt made the wine at Yangarra Estate Vineyard. Andre put it on the Vinomofo site and it sold out in five hours, raising $36,000 for Hutt Street Centre. A large group of local volunteers and other supporters rolled up in Willunga on a Sunday morning to pick the grapes. www.thearchibald.com
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“One of the exciting things in McLaren Vale is SAW (Sustainable Australia Winegrowing). We are getting good adoption among growers. The big guys (Warren Randall, Treasury and Accolade) are yet to get on board, but I think it will be only a matter of time. The program is encouraging best practice. I was talking to Brad Hickey of Brash Higgins who, through SAW, started to analyse his practices. He didn’t see too big a change to step up a notch and seek organic certification, which he is now working on. I had a meeting with Australian Certified Organic, and McLaren Vale has the most certified growers of any region in Australia. Grenache seems to be building so much recognition. It is only eight percent of the region’s reds, but is one of the darlings. This will only strengthen. Consumers are coming to the Vale on Grenache discovery tours; who would have thought! I would love to see more people embracing this and replacing the lesser-performing varieties sooner than
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later, as Grenache takes time to settle to produce top standard wine. We planted 30 acres of bush vines in 2008, and they are just starting to settle in, but I have another five or 10 years before they start hitting their straps. The influx of Mediterranean varieties is another great coup for the region; we are producing interesting, delicious wines. However, there needs to be caution for winemakers to keep focused and not end up with a fruit salad brand that has no rhyme nor reason, and end up trying to be everything to everyone! The great regions of the world have focus, and producers should be aware of not taking ‘interesting’ to ‘confusing’. Producers like Bekkers and our own Hickinbotham show that McLaren Vale can play at the top end of town. I would love producers to see that, with quality, volume doesn’t need to be a measure of success. There is still room for producers to work at this, and it will only continue to elevate the region further.”
– Peter Fraser, Yangara Estate Vineyard
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