Quality shift
South Australia’s underrated Riverland is producing some of our most in-demand wines.
Once overlooked as bulk-wine country, South Australia’s Riverland is now home to some of our most in-demand wines.
WHEN LEADING WINEMAKERS from outside South Australia’s Riverland region began buying its grapes and identifying the source on their labels, it signalled a significant change in mood. No longer dismissed as merely the province of bulk wine, the Riverland now informs some of the nation’s hottest wine bar selections – nero d’avola from Unico Zelo, zibibbo from Brash Higgins, sagrantino for Geelong’s Lethbridge Wines and even the rare Balkans grape slankamenka bela for Margaret River’s Amato Vino.
A new reputation for the Riverland as a quality wine producer is gaining traction. The Riverland revelation started a decade ago, when a few canny growers began changing their practices to address serious environmental concerns. Pam and Tony Barich were among these pioneers, planting their picturesque riverside vineyard near Moorook to exotic varieties such as petit manseng and montepulciano, and switching to organic and biodynamic vineyard management.
Their fruit was so distinctive that key buyer Yalumba used the grapes to spearhead its organic wine range, which has enjoyed significant commercial success, and prompted Tony and Pam to launch their own brand, Whistling Kite. “We retain only about two per cent of grapes to make our own wines, but we wanted to show the best of what the Riverland can do – especially with alternative grape varieties,” Pam says.
The Barichs believe education is as important as production to introduce a new era of change, which is why they host regular workshops in the tasting shed at their vineyard about their sustainable viticulture, careful water usage and prudent land management.
The way forward is also being signposted by Bassham near Barmera, where Bruce Bassham produces notable lagrein, nero d’avola and vermentino, and Cirami Estate, owned by the Riverland Vine Improvement Committee. Named after clonal selection champion Richard Cirami, who helped establish the RVIC in 1977, the valuable vineyard and nursery at Monash has more than 60 varieties. It issues several of its own distinctive wines – montepulciano, lagrein, albarino, verdejo and saperavi.
From little things, big things grow
The Riverland has long been the engine room of Australia’s wine industry, boasting the nation’s largest tracts of irrigated vineyards that crush more than 515,000 tonnes of grapes – about half of
South Australia’s total wine grape crush and almost one-third of Australia’s total production. However, the current story is not just about volume, even among the biggest wine producers.
Angove Family Winemakers introduced organic viticulture to a 40-hectare block within its huge 500-hectare Nanya vineyard near Renmark. It marked another step in a vine improvement project that winemaker Tony Ingle has driven since 2003, when drip irrigation replaced overhead sprinklers, halving Angove’s water use and triggering a significant leap in grape quality.
The launch of Angove’s three organic wines from this vineyard pushed the company’s quality improvement mantle further. Sold at a modest price, these wines show that a mainstream commercial producer can greatly improve its Riverland output by profitable and sustainable means – and has resulted in Angove transforming its entire Nanya vineyard to organic systems, though not all of it is certified as yet.
“We’ve changed for the better,” Tony says. “We now run one system across the entire vineyard, and we run it properly. It has given us significantly better grapes. And if this wasn’t reflected in increased sales, both here and overseas, we wouldn’t still be doing it.”
A different direction for the future
The Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show underlines the extent of change in the Riverland. Since the first ambitious show was assembled at Mildura in 2001 to look at a single bench of fledgling wine styles, the judging panel now examines
102 different grape varieties.
Wine writer and Halliday Wine Companion tasting team member Jane Faulkner has been its chair of judges for seven years, and noticed a willingness of growers and winemakers to broaden their ideas and strive for continued improvement.
“I understood that the Riverland could produce fruit that would make the types of fresh, lean wines that I liked to drink, so I decided to give it a crack.” Con-Greg Grigoriou, Delinquente Wine Co.
“This has been crucial in benchmarking quality for new varieties, and it points to the potential for several styles right across Australia,” Jane says. “This show has had a resounding influence on winemaking in the Riverland, instilling the confidence for many to continue down a new path. It needed to happen, for the Riverland to survive as a sustainable wine region – and striving for better quality with the right grapes, clones and viticulture is certainly the key.”
Generation next
Having grown up in the region and previously worked for one of its big wineries, Con-Greg Grigoriou established Delinquente Wine Co in 2013, choosing a suite of Mediterranean wine styles. The 30-year-old has firm ideas about how to produce better-quality wine, with reduced yields and organic viticulture, but insists they are sold at competitive prices – with sharp contemporary packaging also a big part of this equation. “I understood that the Riverland could produce fruit that would make the types of fresh, lean wines that I liked to drink, so I decided to give it a crack,” Con-Greg says. “It just required small-batch attention to detail and care.” Success for Delinquente has seen production increase from an initial half-tonne of grapes to 75 tonnes a year, resulting in six exciting wines, led by The Bullet Dodger Montepulciano and Pretty Boy Rosato, made from nero d’avola. These wines have won immediate plaudits for their delicious flavour and true varietal character. “I never thought the reception for these wines would be so good, but it proves there’s demand for these wine styles at the right price,” Con-Greg says.
He’s not alone in cultivating such ideas. At Ricca Terra vineyard near Barmera, Ashley Ratcliff has veered away from common grapes to instead plant vermentino, fiano, nero d’avola and zibibbo among an exotic array of more than 30 varieties. The former Yalumba viticulturist’s preference for grapes that are heat-resistant, drought-tolerant, climate-appropriate and truly sustainable has resonated powerfully among winemakers, and he now has 35 customers purchasing around 1300 tonnes each vintage. There is much exotica to choose from, including rare Portuguese grapes tinta barroca and arinto, made by Barossa’s Dave Lehmann for Ashley’s own Ricca Terra wine brand.
Raising the region’s spirits
Everything old becomes new again, as the recent revival of distilleries in the Riverland proves. Bickford’s transformation of the former Renmano winery site at Renmark into the Twenty Third Street Distillery is a powerful statement about reacting to drinking fashions – and the allure that craft spirits have for tourists.
With its tasting area dominated by huge, refurbished South Australian-built copper pot stills from 1914, the distillery was reopened to revive the Black Bottle Brandy brand that Bickford’s acquired, but soon moved to also include production of a range of drinks, from rose vodka, gin and hybrid whiskey, to Galway Pipe Tawny and Vok liqueurs. “It’s an opportunity to add a spark. A bit of sex appeal,” says Bickford’s owner and managing director Angelo Kotses. “We’ve invested in this site because we believe it has enormous potential – a rebirthing of distilling, and dressing it all up in new packaging is winning the attention of a whole new audience in the Riverland.”
Angove Family Winemakers has also bolstered the tourism appeal of its St Agnes distillery at Renmark, refreshing the tasting room of its winery that has been operating since 1925. “We have something truly unique in our St Agnes XO Brandy – something of supreme quality from the Riverland to rival fine cognac,” says Richard Angove. “It deserves to have a fuss made over it.”