John Geber at his Château Tanunda winery at Tanunda in the Barossa Valley ... "Darling I've bought a Château!" ... It's always tricky photographing this front side of the mighty building: the sun never hits it full-on. This keeps the biggest wall face, and thus the vast cellars behind, beautifully cool ... photo Philip white
So you think you're a wine hero?
Take a look at this here dude:
Mr John R Geber is a wine hero
by PHILIP WHITE
John Geber could talk the shell off a snail. This thought
slid into my mind while he was talking about money. He's one of those rich
people who talks about money a lot. Sometimes he talks about how hard it is to
spend because it just plain hurts to see it go, other times he talks about how
hard it is to spend it properly. Enjoyably. Like he talks about always flying
economy and he flies a lot. He'd rather spend the money when he gets there.
"It's only twenty hours on the plane," he said.
In 1998, on a whim, John bought Château Tanunda. Having
kicked off in diamond country in South Africa he made a lot of money in the tea
business and sought a new challenge. When he rang his Swiss wife Evelyn to tell
her he'd bought a château she asked how many bedrooms it had.
Little did she know.
The enormous Château had been let run down to an almost
terminal degree, and Southcorp/Penfolds as it then was trashed a container full
of its priceless historical documents. All the history. All the records. Typically,
that pre-Fosters-pre Treasury Penfolds regime regarded this jewel of the Australian wine
world as an unfortunate liability.
It just wasn't shiny enough. At one stage it
was set for demolition; at another it was to be converted to a posh hotel.
John wanted it to do what it was designed to do.
John Geber makes a point ... photo Philip White
The story of how this incredible building came to be is
breathtaking in its audacity and vision. It is a telling reflection on the
bull-headed types of folk that set this colony on its feet. It silently boasts
of the way men like John Geber were smart enough to see a chance, and
rambunctious and rich enough to give it a proper go. Long may Bacchus bless
them.
In the 1880s the vineyards of Europe were still dying
from the dreaded phylloxera root louse, and eager Australian wine businessmen
saw an opportunity for export. The wine industry, however, was mainly small of
scale and disorganised, with many peasant-sized growers--560 in the Barossa--but
little strong uniting leadership.
Vineyards were expanding, but many grapes
were left to rot in the good years. There simply wasn't the winery space to use
them.
In 1889, in The
Inheritance in the Hills, George Sutherland suggested "The great thing
that is needed for the advancement of the wine industry is a large increase in
the cellarage or storage. Any new investment of capital having this object in
view would be gladly welcomed."
A couple of the remaining 'ovals' ... photo Philip White
In her forensic 1980 work, Winery Buildings in South Australia 1836-1936, the architecture
historian Katrina McDougall offers perhaps the best source to discover the
secrets of our old wineries. She explains that in 1888 Beaumont winemaker G. F.
Cleland amalgamated his winery business with that of William Jacob of
Moorooroo, Barossa, and went on to form G. F. Cleland and Co. Ltd., which lured
big investors and wine pioneers Sir Samuel and Lady Davenport, Dr. and Mrs. E.
D. Cleland and C. J. Horrocks. Together with many smaller investors, led by
Barossa growers kingpin John Basedow, they raised ₤38,700.
One of the few historical records the Southcorp ghouls didn't throw in the garbage ... click to enlarge ... photo Philip White
That was an enormous amount of money. Especially when you
consider that Australia was tumbling into a terrible depression. Foreign
investors were tired of sinking money into the wild blue yonder down under for
little quick return, and were recalling what was left of it. The Great Maritime
Strike was followed by the Australian Shearers' Strike and banks and building
societies were beginning to fall like cards.
Fortunately for Cleland and his mates, the resultant
unemployment supplied a lot of extremely cheap labour: The Barossa was
populated by men who were handy with stonemasonry. The building supervisor was
Basedow. They dug the schisty bluestone they needed from the quarry Bethany
Wines now inhabits, and erected brick kilns at the front of the site they chose
at the highest point of the Barossa Valley floor, overlooking some of the first
Barossa vineyards.
Basedow and his men completed that vast edifice, the
biggest building in the Southern Hemisphere, in eleven months. Builders of
today take note.
The identities of the designer and architect, if there
was one, went into that Southcorp skip. Whoever drew it, the plan was not only
massive, with walls a metre thick at the ground, but ornate for factories of the
day, and very easy, if mighty, on the eye. Where the Flemish gable flourishes came from
is anybody's business; they add a strange but easy counterpoint to the austere
Tudor arches.
For some reason its brick-and-bluestone
form reminds me of the Model School (above) that architect Edward John
Woods designed in Adelaide in 1872. Like the Château, it's after the Roman villa form via
the Gothic revival style of the day, and miraculously survives on the corner of
Grote and Morphett Streets.
There's constant reshuffling of barrels at this time of year ... ground floor of the Château at vintage ... photo Philip White
As far as winemaking technology went, the Château was a
mixture of ancient and modern. Grapes were taken by steam-driven elevators to
the destemmers and crushers before falling by gravity to the slate or timber
fermenting vats and thence further down to smaller wood.
The winery could
handle 100 tons of fruit per day and held a million gallons. By 1902, exports
totalled 80,000 gallons of Château Tanunda brandy and 700,000 gallons of wine
at ₤1 per gallon.
Tasting in the smallest room in the building: the old brandy bond storeroom can seat 100 at one long table down the centre ... that's winemaker Stuart Bourne, left, John Geber and daughter Michelle (seated) and general manager Matthew McCulloch leading us through an astounding array of back vintages ... photo Philip White
John Geber's fastidious restoration has seen the top
floors converted to tasting and spacious, lofty entertainment areas, while
downstairs it's all winemaking apart from the cellar sales shop. The grounds
have been exquisitely landscaped and planted, the courtyards cobbled with blue
British basalt that came to Australia as ships' ballast. With all the waste
concrete and stuff he cleared up, John filled the slope below the winery and
made a full-sized cricket oval. Great battles are fought there by ancient
cricket tragics, many of them very famous practitioners of the sport.
Caucasian artefact ... teams for a David Hookes Foundation fundraising cricket match, chalked on a piece of old Mintaro slate from a broken fermenter ... photo Philip White
With typical mischief, John's next plan is to build a
pizza oven into the base of the omnipresent chimney which provided exhaust for the boilers
which in turn provided the steam to run all the factory's engines and stills.
This, he is convinced, will be the world's tallest pizza oven. As it's
octagonal, its eight sides should make those pizzas highly popular amongst
Taoist Chinese, who revere the bagua with its eight trigrams.
Which leads me to the wine. Holy Bacchus and Pan. This
joint's got it covered.
For starters, they make five red bargains exclusively for
Dan Murphy's. The cheapest ($15) is the Chorus Tempranillo Garnacha, made after
the Rioja style. But there are bargains to be had at the winery: beautiful
Riesling ($15); and all manner of reds, blended or straight. There are wines of
many varieties over all price ranges, up to the ravishing 100 year old vines
Semillon ($49) and the truly wondrous The Everest Old Bush Vine Grenache
($195).
The crowning glory is the 150 Year Old Vines Field Blend,
a tantalising bottle of Grenache, Mourvedre and Malbec grown, picked and
fermented together from the vineyard David Randall established at his South
Rhine Estate east of Springton between 1858 and 1873. This is one of the truly
great and rare Australian treasures.
Speaking of vinous treasures, John Geber has every reason
to talk. He is a fair dinkum wine king. I bow.
Guests now arrive at the rear of the Château. Only the top floor is evident. It's built into the hill to facilitate easier gravity feed of musts and wine to diminish the need for pumps and pumping. Note the Flemish gable flourishes contrasting the austere Tudor arches.
Barossadeutscher
and local historian Don Ross stood on the edge of the Château Tanunda cricket oval in the sunset and taught the best of Australia's wine
writers some of his region's history. Don's one of the last remaining
speakers of the old language. The first winery in the region was built
close by on the flats behind him. The Bethany quarry, in the base of those hills in the distance, was the source of all the stone used in the Château building ... photos Philip White
Grand Barossa
Riesling ($20; screw caps)
2014 - (current vintage) This smells a lot like the old
Orlando Ribbon Series Rieslings from the seventies, which were made I think
from the vineyards south of Roland Flat on the very recent alluvium of the
valley floor and up the gully on Trial Hill Road to the higher country with its
500 million-years-plus rocks. It's soft and creamy to sniff, with that
old-fashioned babypowder perfume drifting like a cloud above the creamy
lemonbutter and lime below. It seems broad and cosy till you hit the stern
authority of its acid, which goes on and on, ensuring happy results in the
cellar. The 40% of the fruit that comes from the 1920s vineyards on the recent
alluvial flats east of the Château is probably the bit that reminds me of those
beloved Orlando wines, some of which lived for decades, corks willing. They
make around 100,000 cases of this each year, which must help keep that price
down. 80+++ points
2013 - More of that old Orlando style: bathpowder; broad;
honey; then in comes that wave of firm natural acid. 80++ points
2010 - Five years have seen the honey bit grow ... this
is more relaxed and warmer, even closer to that old Orlando style. It's softer,
Riesling for the lover of buttery Chardonnay (which John Geber is). Much more
approachable than the previous two. 85+ points
2009 - Even broader and more traditional ... I'd love to
see it as a spätlese ... honeycomb/cinder toffee aromas ... like a mouthful of
blancmange and soft nougat ... a wee bit short but a delightful drink. 90+
points
2008 - Picked before the big heat spike, this is even
more buttery and honeycombed ... it's a lovely chubby friendly wine in perfect
balance. 92 points
Grand Barossa
Shiraz ($25; corks)
2012 - Rich creamy conserve with lots of fatty acids ...
soft marshmallow around all those ripe blackberries and part-dried prunes ...
good wine for this price 85+ points
2010 - This seems to be younger, tighter and leaner wine than
the 12. It has much tighter focus. 87+ points
2009 - Too ripe and jammy for me but still juicy and
cute. 80 points
2008 - The cork has left this wine smelling of wet black
wood fungus. Cork enthusiasts will probably love it. 75 points
2007 - More of the above. 70 points
Grand Barossa
Cabernet Sauvignon ($25; screwcaps 2012-13; corks 2010-06)
2013 - Rich, ripe, soft, like a Fifth Growth Bordeaux ...
creamy marshmallow over blackcurrant and blackberry ... lovely structure,
tannin and acidity ... good value! 85+ points
2012 - beautiful musky perfume adorning the fruit ...
alrmingly good wine for $25! ... some pepper ... slender, tight, looong;
elegant but forceful ... a really good drink. 92++ points
2010 - Pretty fragrance: musk, violets and lavendar ...
lemon and cedar oak ... very much like Michel Dietrich's Cabernet from Ch
Haut-Rians on the Garonne at Rions on the Côtes-du-Bordeaux, overlooking
Sauternes and Barsac ... even though his model is Merlot-based ... perhaps
because this is all Cabernet (presumably) it still seems a tad brash and raw.
92++ points
2009 - Leafy Cabernet and tight tea tin ... green and raw
like a Merrill Reynella from the early 80s. 75 points
2008 - Sweet marshmallow and oyster mushrooms ... umami
... clean tight acid pulls it all together. 84+ points
2006 - Wet black fungus from cork spoilage, like a lot of
French wine. The staunch acid highlights the lack of primary fruit. 75 points
Discovery Wines -
new adventures (mainly screwcaps)
"Above all,
the real relevance of discovery is that it cannot happen without some kind of
learning experience, and this is the most productive exchange of all between
brand and audience." John Geber
The Three Graces
Marsanne Viognier Roussanne 2013 ($24; screw caps)
Pears poached in ginger ... clean, elegant, delicate,
simple. 85 points
Chorus Tempranillo
Garnacha Graciano 2013 ($15; exclusive to Dan Murphy's)
Raspberry and Morello cherries ... taut Rioja-style
tannins ... like most of those wines, it looks a little awkward in this its
yoof ... probly need to drink it in Spain! 79++ (?) points
Newcastle Shiraz
Grenache Mourvèdre Carignan Cinsault 2013 ($22; exclusive to Dan Murphy's)
Oak dominant ... licorice and Morello cherries ...
slender ... bit brash and green rather than soft or soulful. 78+ points
The Château Shiraz
Nebbiolo Primitivo 2012 ($30; exclusive to Wine Selectors)
Oak edge obvious ... Morello cherries, raspberry ...
slender ... quite powerful aniseed all the way through it ... they think this
Primitivo may in fact be the Zinfandel side of that strange family ... a bit
raw. 80 points
The Château Shiraz
Primitivo Montepulciano 2013 ($30; exclusive to Wine Selectors)
As it had been bottled only days, this wine was looking a
bit kicked in the head ... but it's really promising, and easily the leader in
this bracket ... dark charcuterie meats; raspberry; bitter cherry ... slender -
almost skinny - but highy promising ... lovely fine tannin. 86++ points
Primitivo di Gioia
2014 ($30)
This was made from one of the strands of Zin/Prim with
small berries, each containing one big seed ... delightful aroma! ... bright
aniseed; mace; grappa grappa grappa; sweet soft blackstrap licorice and meaty
blueberry. 88+++ points
Tasting in the Château Tanunda vineyard in the very old rocks high in the Barossa Ranges, overlooking the Eden Valley ... photo Philip White
100 Year Old Vines
The Château 100
Year Old Vines Semillon ($49; screw caps)
These are made from the precious pink-skinned type of
Semillon the Barossadeutschers call the Madiera clone, or Red Semi, which I
suspect is the same grape as the old Hunter Valley bushvine white they called
Verdielhao, and which I suspect has all gone. It was a favourite of Neville
Falkenberg when he was working on the first attempts at the 'White Grange'. Falky
and Caj Amadio planted a few acres of it at the Amadio vineyard on the
reservoir near Williamstown, which was marketed as the brilliant Red Semi, but
because of market and dumb trade resistance to the word Semillon, it's been
largely uprooted, which is a terrible pity.
2015 - barrel sample - just fermented to bone dry and
served very cold ... lemon, gentle butter ... curds and whey ... bright
exciting palate ... highly promising
2014 - really creamy lemonbutter ... crême caramel ...
beautiful acidity. 94+ points
2013 - even more butter (white, unsalted) ... some fine
white pepper ... slightly lessy and cheesy ... really lovely wine! 95+++ points
2012 - all the above with a tantalising acrid reek of
matches and cordite, a little like Tim Knappstein's early Lenswood Semis after
the fumé blanc style ... remarkable, beautiful, rare. 95+++ points
The Château 100
Year Old Vines Grenache 2012 ($99; cork)
Grown in the recent alluvial gravels on the Barossa Range
piedmont at Vine Vale - very similar to bits of McLaren Vale's Kurrajong
Formation - this comes close to being the best Barossa Grenache I've enountered.
Like Grenache grown in the Kurrajong, it just pumps the juicy bittersweet
pickled black Morello cherries. Just a little too much alcoholic heat in the
tail is the only blemish. 94 points
The Château 100
Year Old Vines Shiraz ($99; cork)
2013 - Shy; closed; peppery ... bit short and simple ...
very very dry; austere. 88++ points
2012 - Similar in style ... peppery; swarf ... simple,
raw and short ... Hill of Grace style. 84 points
2010 - More promising: musky topnote; chocolate crême
caramel flesh below ... lemony finish. 88 points
2009 - More conventional ... bittersweet Morello cherries
... much more fleshy ... nice tight tannins. 93++ points
2008 - corky; woody; lemony oak ... thin Hill of Grace
style. 85 points
Ancient River Red Gums at the Eden Valley vineyard
Rare and distinguished
The Everest Old Bush Vine Grenache ($195; corks)
2012 - Dense: perfect example of the very best of the Barossa
Grenache style ... shares the Morello cherry of the best of McLaren Vale, but over
a tighter, more austere framework, which I suspect is because of the lower
relative humidity of the Barossa, which is not beside the sea like the Vales
... sweet soft middle palate (rarely attained in the Barossa) then she winds up
all tight and dry, like Dutch licorice ... leaving, overall, a lovely
recollection ... beautiful texture and warmth ... what Max Schubert would call
"a mother wine." 94+ points
2010 - More of the same lofty standard, but with aniseed
balls in place of the Dutch licorice ... meaty charcuturie and nutty, figgy panforte
aromas ... but overall, more jujube and conserve than the McLaren Vale Morello
style. 90+ points
2009 - Cork/Brett worries here? Smells of cork dust ... More
after the old French/Spanish border style ... old harness aromas building ...
at an awkward stage: see-sawing between fresh and aged, then slightly bitter
tannins. 88+(?) points
2008 - Cork worries here? Musty barn/hessian/cardboard
... otherwise it's all face cream over iron ... lovely sweet juicy cordial
texture. Like an old High Sands with a cork in it. 94++ points
2006 - Smell the ironstone! Rain on rusty barns ...
beneath that galvo there's a beautiful rich juicy wine at its peak ... Morello
cherries and tight Barossa Grenache style bone china tannin. 93+ points
The Everest Château Cru Shiraz ($195; corks)
2013 - Aha! Here we go! Real Barossa: anise, panforte,
slightly peaty ... sweetly scented with musk above; cordial below ... long,
lush and fleshy then focussed. 94+++ points
2012 - Spoilt by cork: cardboardy cork dust all over the
redcurrants and meaty blueberries ... tight, hard, slightly bitter and tart. 83
(?) points
2010 - Better assimilation happening here ... the wine is
mature ... freshly-dressed harness ... softer anise/blackstrap licorice ...
sweet, exquisite cordial ... swampy, decaying laurel leaves and mossy earth.
95+ points
2009 - Max Schubert could have made this ... scented,
oily Shiraz ... sweaty but not at all acrid ... smooth and sweet; stewed and
sensual ... flesh ... still has lovely acid and length. 94+ points
2008 - Even more Maxy - like his Shiraz Ouillade ...
leather and licorice ... still quite active and fresh ... meaty capocollo fat
... sweet fruitmince. 93+ points
2005 - This one's falling away: stewy, mature, fluffy,
soft ... still amrginally sweet and juicy. 90 and falling (generous?)
150 Year Old Vines 1858 Field Blend 2013 ($295; cork;
only 1066 bottles)
The guff claims this vineyard was planted in 1858, but while
David Randall started his remote vineyard then, it actually took him another
fifteen years to get it finished. From a good Northamptonshire family, he came
to Adelaide in 1845 on The Templar, along with his wife Eliza, her parents, and
no less than forty servants and farm labourers. An enlightened and tireless
pioneer, he built Corryton Park and Lindsay Park, Glen Devon, and then a winery
building beside this wild vineyard in the ancient rocks east of Springton, way
out where the metamorphic stuff begins to dominate the geology.
Winemaker Stuart Bourne selected bits of Grenache, Mourvèdre
and Malbec which were picked and fermented together.
The wine is tight and edgy, and ready for a good long
spell in the dungeon. It has whiffs of acrid cordite and summer dust over a
welling syrup of mossy earth, blueberries, cassis and framboise ... it has
whiffs of jamón
ibérico and other dark charcuterie meats ... unusual but truly beautiful wine!
95+++ points
Current vintages of all above ranges are available for tasting at the Château, apart from the Field Blend. A small fee is charged to open and pour The Everest series and the 100 Year Old Vines.
Don Ross delivers his quiet history lecture in the sunset ... that's Don Ross Senior above left, doing his delivery rounds in 1932
1 comment:
After reading your comments on the Chateau Tanunda 1858 Field Blend, I am very interested to hear more about your knowledge of the Stonegarden vineyard at Springton, as it recently became my home away from home. Glen Monaghan
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