The verve and variety

“There’s no doubt that, in the beginning, it was almost young guns against everyone else.”

There’s also a cultural dimension, with Melbourne’s now international reputation for gastronomy and the arts. “If you’re going to go to one city in Australia for a vacation, it’s got to be Melbourne,” says Wadsack. “The culture, the food, the music – it’s awesome.” With no budget to head there ourselves, our venue is Swain’s, a wine-led eaterie adjoining Hampstead Heath, owned by Victoria native Victoria Sharples. She and her team have put together a menu that begins with eggplant chips, inspired by the Gypsy Bar in Melbourne, and is followed by burrata with peach, figs and almond and then a main of saffron risotto with beef short rib. Dessert is almond and amaretto cake.

We experiment a little with the wines and find that King Valley Sangiovese is pretty much tailormade for the beef.

“There are people all over the world trying to make Sangiovese, and the vast majority of them are failing really badly,” says Wadsack. “Good Sangiovese has all those wonderful umami notes. If Sangiovese is doing its job properly there’s a little bit of Worcester sauce in it that makes it the ultimate companion for beef. For me it’s an inexpensive hit.”

Wadsack reminds us that “there are 22 separate sub-regions in Victoria, and some of them have been making great wines since the 1920s”.

“The soil structures in this part of the world are crazy,” he adds. “Obviously, being Australia, these are ancient soils. They have high water retention which means low-yield vineyards and concentrated fruit. What we get here are wines that come from relatively temperate vineyards, in the main, though the further inland you go in, the more continental it gets. It’s not uncommon in King Valley to hit 41˚C on