Stephen Pannell wins big gong
to help kick McLaren Vale along:
years of effort falling into focus
by PHILIP WHITE
"Stephen Pannell is one of this country’s most
articulate winemakers: thoughtful and compelling when talking about wine; keen
to place his work in a philosophical context," said Peter Forrestal,
editor of Gourmet Traveller's WINE magazine.
Forrie was announcing Steve's victory at the
magazine's annual Australian Winemaker of the Year awards at a big deal dinner
in Sydney last week.
"While many would agree with Pannell’s ideas
about making wines that are suitable for and reflect our climate, his comprehensive
and classy portfolio of wines illustrates this thinking more clearly than any
other we have seen in Australia."
Stephen's win follows hard on James Halliday
announcing Yangarra Estate winemaker Peter Fraser as his Winemaker of the Year
at his Wine Companion awards in July.
Peter (below) and Stephen are close friends, neighbours and
co-operative rivals in McLaren Vale.
At the risk of being bagged for writing too much
about the area in which I very deliberately choose to live - Peter is indeed my
landlord - I feel these announcements mark an important turning point in the
history of winemaking in McLaren Vale.
As well as recognising the outstanding individual
achievements of these clever, visionary blokes, the wins combine to give the
region new confidence in various layers of collective endeavour that have taken
some five or six years to show fruit.
The region's determined crash-course in
understanding its confounding geology; its co-operation in adopting the
revolutionary Sustainable Farming template devised by Dr Irina Santiago-Brown
while she worked at the local wine and tourism association; the evolution of
the Scarce Earths project to lift the image and quality of the district's
dominant variety, Shiraz; the recent elevation of Grenache to the heady
gastronomic altitudes it deserves - all these things, with all their irritating
teething troubles, are finally locking in for the better of the Vale's common
weal.
Steve's victory came just as I completed reading a 270
page draft of William Skinner's important thesis, Fermenting Place - wine
production and terroir in McLaren Vale, South Australia.
This remarkable document, William's submission for
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Discipline of Anthropology at the
University of Adelaide, takes a cool look at the way the people of McLaren Vale
have developed life patterns which intricately entwine with not just the
growing of grapes and the making of fine wine, but the rocks beneath their
feet, their water, their geography, their seaside climate, their blue blue sky
-- their terroir.
significant component of McLaren Vale terroir: ancient seabed sediments on the top of the Willunga Escarpment, McLaren Vale ... interesting to compare them to this image from Mars ... photo Curiosity Rover NASA
Of course there are thousands of books about wine
and wine regions, but I know of no other work quite like this. William takes the
anthropologist's view, not that cold technical jargon of the biochemist, the
geologist or the plant physiologist. He uses none of the exclusive jargon of
the wine critic. It's even quite different to the approach a historian would
take.
On my first fast bite of this work, I risk
summarising it as being about humans and what they say about themselves as part
of their region. How they fit in it, live on it and influence it during the
evolution of their unique community.
Kristina Dukic, William 'Bill' Skinner and the author at a pickers' picnic on the McLaren Vale Piazza, end of vintage 2013
The thesis is the first opportunity, for example,
some locals have had to go on the record, anonymously, as is the practice with
anthropological works, to voice their frustrations with such issues as the Barossa
Valley and McLaren Vale Protection Legislation, which came into effect in
January 2013.
Instigated with the determined assistance of local
MP, Leon Bignell, this law is the result of years of hard work, lobbying, public
demonstrations and interminable pow-wows. While this is there to protect
valuable, historical famland and vignoble from inappropriate development, there
are those, largely borderline vineyard or winery businesses one would presume,
who seem keen to develop their land contrary to the Act.
Others remain doggedly insistent and proud that
their achievement stands, and their region retains its inimitable aspect,
feeling, style and overall economic success.
The Tractor Action anti-housing sprawl demo in 2010 blocked the southern roads and attracted international attention, doing a great deal to finally convince government that the villa rash must stop ... photo James Hook
I have stated that this document starts cool. I
must also conclude, that without losing any of its scholarly approach, it
reflects its author's building passion and fascination for his subject as it
becomes more confoundingly complex and fluid as his research years ground by.
I eagerly anticipate its eventual publication. As
the community gradually digests it, this work will become an important part of
the very subject it discusses. It will
last. It will have its own constructive influence.
Maslin Beach, McLaren Vale, South Australia ... since Christo Read took this photograph for our collaborative book Trott's View in 1999, volunteers have reforested most of the Willunga Escarpment, which you can see in the distance
But back to the achievements of Stephen Pannell and
Peter Fraser. Their ascendency marks another of the cyclical changes of the
guard of the wine industry.
In my career I have watched the post-war
winemakers, many of whom made wine before the war, reluctantly pass their baton
to the young turks, the likes of Brian Croser, Dr Andrew Pirie, Dr Tony Jordan,
Adam Wynn, Pam Dunsford, Robert O'Callaghan and their like in the 'eighties.
These people, often very political, consolidated their grasp through the
'nineties, since when there's been a great deal of chaos, a flame fanned by the
advent of the internet, and a whole new wave of biodynamicists, organic freaks,
orange wine people, natural fermenters, wildcats and folks of uncommonly high
gastronomic intelligence.
Not to mention the eternal takeovers, many totally
destructive, the consolidations and rationalisations of the Big End of Wine
Town, which seems increasingly to be a separate business unto itself, although
often devastating in its regional influences.
Now we see middle-aged folks like Peter and Stephen
getting recognition for their efforts in cultivating and harvesting the best of
all the above.
This is a good thing.
photo by Christo Reid from McLaren Vale - Trott's View; Wakefield Press 2007
While great mates, their businesses are chalk and
cheese. Peter runs the two premium estates, Yangarra and Hickinbotham
Clarendon, for the big family-owned Californian super-premium wine outfit,
Jackson Family. Barbara Banke, the widow of founder Jess Jackson, makes her
respect of these properties and this district very clear: she's in for the long
haul: this is no flash-in-the pan colonialism.
And neither is Stephen's bold new business across
the hills on Oliver's Road. After many years as chief red winemaker at
BRL-Hardy/Tintara he finally set forth on his own a decade back, and immediately
attracted the attention of the cogniscenti. With his wife, Fiona Lindquist, he
recently bought Tapestry Winery from the businessman, Rob Gerard, who'd bought
it from Brian Light, who'd bought it from Krondorf owners Burge & Wilson
when it was Merrivale.
Steve Pannell and Fiona Lindquist at the WINE awards ... photo Nick Stock@stockwine
Stephen has rebadged it as S. C. Pannell, and has
made some very tasteful and funky adjustments to its architecture, just as he
is busy rejuvinating its old vineyards, and training its winemaking insides to
step up a big notch to justify its famous new livery.
Sydney
Morning Herald wine critic Huon Hooke
added to the WINE citation:
"It would be difficult to conjure a more complete all-round wine
guy than Steve Pannell. He really understands the vineyard, the winery, the
market, the zeitgeist, and wine quality. His wines result from this, so little
wonder at his success."
Success? Indeed. It's no instant achievement. But I
can feel more coming as my home region really begins to hit its straps.
rainbarrell at S C Pannell ... unless otherwise attributed, all photos by Philip White
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