This evening’s tasting had an Aussie flavour. Australia is very big. You could fit the UK into Australia more than 30 times, and although most of the wine regions are in the slightly cooler South, it is 4000 km from Sydney on the East Coast to Perth on the West. With a land mass not much smaller than the US, winter snowfields bigger than those of Switzerland, summer heatwaves up to 48°C, all manner of ocean, river and mountain climate influence, and very few rules to constrain its wine-makers, Australia is the 6th biggest wine producing country, making every style of wine at every price point. It has had a significant impact on the world of wine, particularly for the consumer’s benefit, introducing labelling by grape variety, revolutionising branding and contributing greatly to research and technology. Britain is Australia’s biggest export market (85% of that wine is shipped in bulk and bottled in the UK), so we get an excellent and wide selection. Despite the variety, there are a few styles Australia is famous for: fruit forward Chardonnay (it makes 10% of world production), rich and potent Barossa Valley Shiraz and unoaked, long-lived Hunter Valley Semillon. We tried all of these amongst our selection of some of the wizard wines being made in Oz today, accompanied by some vaguely Australian related food.
The chosen wines were:
- Dr. Edge Tasmania Chardonnay 2023
- Grosset Polish Hill Riesling Clare Valley 2023
- Peccavi Sauvignon Blanc – Semillon, Margaret River 2017
- Tyrrell’s Vat 1 Semillon, Hunter Valley 2016
- Tolpuddle Vineyard Pinot Noir, Coal River Valley 2022
- Torbreck The Steading 2019 (Grenache, Syrah, Mouvedre) Barossa
- John Duval Eligo 2017 Shiraz Barossa
- Cullen Diana Madeline 2017 (Cabernet, Merlot) Margaret River
- Mac Forbes ‘Hugh’ Yarra Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2019
- Stanton and Killeen Rutherglen 12 year old Muscat
Organised by Richard Pearey