As the proportionate importance of really good wine
increases in Australia's export portfolio, this development is pushing more
winemakers to attempt the launch of better wines domestically.
Many producers think this means a more arty or extravagent
label, a heavier bottle, more extravagent oak, and a $50 hike in price. Some
even revert to stopping the neck of the bottle with a lump of bark from a tree
in Portugal, a quaint, rustic, corrupting romance upon which many of the wine's
imperfections can later be blamed.
Then, there are those who feel an obligation to build
better wines from the vineyard up; to design them from the start with more
viticultural wisdom and a heightened ecological sensibility and only then a great
deal more gastronomic intelligence in the winery.
A company which is pursuing this method with great
determination and success is Wirra Wirra. I wrote here in February of this
outfit's clever and sensitive purchase of Steve George's Pinot temple, Ashton
Hills. Time now to address the Wirra Wirra home patch in McLaren Vale, and
three bold new reds. Two of these are certified bio-dynamic. All three are
responsibly sealed with screw caps. Given their uncompromising quality, their
prices, while spendy to those committed to sub-$20 bottles, are modest, given
the quality of the opposition.
Wirra Wirra
Woodhenge McLaren Vale Shiraz 2014 ($35;
14.5% alcohol; screw cap) is named after the late Greg Trott's mighty red
gum log fence at the winery. Given its solid nature and provenance, the wine
seems likely to live nearly as long as that indestructable monument.
Like the other two wines, this really thrives with a
proper decanting: its tendency to bloom for two to four days after opening also
indicates it will cellar beautifully. It's a compressed, intense, surly brute
upon first opening; with the gradual ingress of air it becomes more sultry. Its
beautiful oak is never intrusive, but always present in its complex, velvety,
fruitcake juice.
The flavours are true to all these opening expressions.
It is first and foremost a stalwart example of the best of McLaren Vale Shiraz.
The velvet, the old-fashioned fruitcake, the insinuations of bitter cooking
chocolate all hover round the sensories like the ghosts of great knights hover
round old cathedrals. With that recommended airing, these seem to replace their
armour with fresh new flesh, take to the table beside you, and sing richly of
past triumphs. It evokes a vast history as much as glimmer of a more
peaceful, harmonious future. Five or more years in the dungeon will simply add
richer timbre, more volume and higher tenors to the old boys' bass choir.
The Wirra Wirra
Amator Biodynamic Vineyards Mclaren Vale Shiraz 2014 ($30; 14% alcohol; screw cap) has all the above, with a darker
streak of carbon in its resolve, offset by a touch more lively primary fruit.
It is never quite so surly or sultry, although it's still very obviously of the
same stable.
With a proper airing, the fruit even dares a felicitous
topnote: the berries of the fruitcake freshen up while those velvet tannins
soften. It leaves the sensories tantalised and tingling more than satisfied,
and reminds me of the great rounds of cheddar Trotty always had on his tasting
bench. Juicy lamb cutlets with a potato, pumpkin and parsnip mash riddled with
fresh parsley and chopped raw onion would set it off just jim dandy. Otherwise?
Cellar.
Men at work: the Wirra Wirra crew: Anton
Groffen, viticulturer; Paul Smith, chief winemaker, and managing director Andrew
Kay ... all photos©Philip White
Wirra Wirra Amator
Biodynamic Vineyards McLaren Vale Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 ($30; 13.5% alcohol; screw cap) is from
the start a more feminine and perfumed delight. It has all the pretty Cabernet
topnotes of violet and lavendar, blueberries, blackcurrant and blackberry
dusted with musky confectioner's sugar.
The slightly lower alcohol here has an influence at least
as profound as the change of variety: while it also deserves a proper airing,
the wine will be more supple and sinuous well before those monolithic Shiraz
wines.
It makes me dribble in the direction of country chicken
stewed very slowly in a casserole with Sauvignon blanc, shallotts, baby carrots
and a handful of fresh tarragon.
So. There are three bold new beauties that boast the best
of our new intelligence, but with a deep respect of what went long before. They
are prefect pointy-end ambassadors for their region and producer, and now I
realise I've been pondering these bottles for five days with only increasing
admiration, I guarantee that if you're one of those rare birds with a cellar,
you can exile them with perfect confidence that the years can only see them
ring your bells more profoundly.
This trio begins to explain the importance of McLaren
Vale's essential contribution to the most expensive top-end blends of Penfolds.
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