DRINK NOW OR LATER.

A growing number of red wines are being released during their vintage year, and while the thirst for these bright young styles rises, some would argue they are missing the complexity that comes with time. Here, two winemakers consider the beauty of wine i

IFRANCO D’ANNA @ HODDLES CREEK ESTATE, YARRA VALLEY

F RED WINE is in balance, and the tannins and fruit are there, then it will be good no matter when you open it. I think it’s crap that red wine needs to be old to be good – you want to see the evolution of wine, which means savouring it at every stage. To think that a red wine is going to build complexity with time is correct – you will see that with ageing – but to me, it’s more important to see the fruit, site and region than to see some of these elements that are not vineyard-derived, such as the secondary and tertiary characters that come with age.

I also think we sometimes overcomplicate wine. We have to realise it’s a drink and enjoy it in that way. When I get home on a Friday night after a long day, I want a young red. I don’t want a wine I have to pull apart. That’s where earlydrinking styles like gamay or nouveau shiraz or pinot fit in. The younger generation is drinking these wines without overthinking them, and sometimes that’s what’s required. As a society, and especially among wine people, we can sometimes overanalyse what’s essentially the enjoyment of a beverage. One of my best wine memories was in Portugal drinking vinho verde, which is low-end wine that’s young and fresh with lots of acidity and spritz, but we had it with grilled sardines and it was a perfect experience. That’s why these young styles can be great, as you can just have a glass over a meal and not get too caught up in it.

Wine should be enjoyed over the journey, not from three years on or five years on or some rule like that. It’s not about opening a wine when it’s 20 years old and saying, ‘Wow, that’s still alive!’ It’s about understanding how that wine has developed over 20 years because you’ve enjoyed it at every stage along the way. I’ve always been big on enjoying wines young to see the evolution.

I’m not one to hold stuff in barrel to soften this or change that. During the growing season and harvest, the decisions you make will determine whether or not it’s a complete wine. I’m not going to hang onto wines and wait for those elements to come back into balance before releasing them later. As I’ve seen with some wines I’ve had from my old man’s cellar, if it’s out of balance to begin with, it won’t come back into balance.

SUE BELL @ BELLWETHER WINES, COONAWARRA

IT’S THE INITIAL structure and fruit quality that can hold wine for a long time. Age doesn’t kill fruit. That core fruit intensity remains, but you get all these layers of complexity beyond aromatics and fruitiness that grow in the wine over time. When you smell a wine that’s 10 years old, you can tell straight away it’s a wine with age, and that’s exciting. When you try one that’s 30 or 40 years old, that’s such a privilege. There aren’t many wines that can age for that long, and when they do, it’s extraordinary to see. I’ve had young wine drinkers come to my cellar door, and they have these fresh palates and ideas. The first time you show them something like an aged Coonawarra cabernet, you can see the expression of surprise on their faces because they’ve never experienced wine like that before. I’ve got four nephews who are all in their early 20s and I gave each of them a wine from their birth year when they turned 21. Being your standard teenage boys and drinking whatever they can lay their hands on, it’s been lovely to see them appreciate these aged wines as something that’s really quite special. You don’t need to be a connoisseur to recognise the difference, complexity and specialness of aged wine.

In reality, the number of people with cellars is not many. People don’t own homes as much anymore, and we also see the impact of climate change and improper wine storage. So enjoying aged red wines is a harder thing to do these days, but I really think it’s worth it. That’s perhaps where auction houses and wineries have a role to play, as they often do have the facilities for ageing, and if they’re selling old wines, they have to guarantee they can store them properly to ensure people can experience good examples of aged wine.

I have wines that I make to release early and that still have ageability, but I also have others that I deliberately hold back. Much like sparkling wine matures under cork before release, with a red wine like Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon, you have the growing season, the winemaking, and then the maturation in the bottle is the final part of making it the wine it becomes. It’s an accountant’s nightmare, but it’s a real privilege to make wine in this way. To know that in your career you’re only going to see the wines you’ve made reach their potential beyond your retirement, or that your children will drink them, is a humbling thought.