Producer profile: Wynns
The winery that put Coonawarra on the map for wine drinkers in the 1950s has grown to become one of Australia’s best-known names. Huon Hooke explores its history
Huon Hooke explores the history of this famous Australian estate that put Coonawarra on the wine map
WYNNS COONAWARRA ESTATE is the undisputed grandaddy of Coonawarra. The winery is the oldest and longest-continuing producer of wine here, it owns the cream of the region’s vineyards and its fame is second to none. so is the quality of its wines, which under senior winemaker sue Hodder, has never been better. No wonder Wynns is one of the jewels in the crown of its owner, Treasury Wine Estates, topped only by Penfolds.
yet Wynns hasn’t been content to rest on its laurels: with viticulturist Allen Jenkins in charge, the estate has invested major cost and effort into improving its 500ha of vineyards, which include the lion’s share of the revered terra rossa soil over limestone, which is largely responsible for the success of Coonawarra wines. Jenkins and team used aerial infrared photography to soil-map the vineyards, and each season they perform thousands of bud dissections in an effort to better understand their vines. They have re-trellised, replanted or reinvigorated many of the old vineyards, which had been allowed to run down.
All of these changes have improved the wines, and allowed Hodder and winemaker sarah Pidgeon to harvest ripe grapes earlier and produce wines with lower alcohols: 13% is now normal, where not so long ago the same wines were 14%. At the same time, the use of oak has been moderated with the result that the wines – which are mostly Cabernet sauvignon, shiraz and blends – not only avoid overt oakiness, but are more elegant and refreshing. Hodder admits she no longer feels any pressure to make ‘big’ wines, as she did when she began at Wynns in the early 1990s. Today’s wines will age just as well as in the past, but are also delicious to drink young.
The first-ever pure Cabernet sauvignon, the 1954 vintage, was still drinking well at 63 years of age. A retrospective tasting in 2017 to mark 60 vintages of Black Label attested to their longevity – virtually every wine was still enjoyable. The Black Label Cabernet is the standard-bearer for Wynns and available in all major supermarkets in Australia. While the recommended price is A$45 (£25), it’s readily buyable at A$24.95 (£14.13). Why? Because it’s made in large volume – though the numbers are never divulged. It’s a classic case of price driven down by unfashionability, due to a perception of unlimited supply. The Cabernet drinker is the winner.
Hard-earned success
In her 25 years at Wynns, Hodder has brought positive changes. she phased in a pure French oak regime for the Cabernet while gradually eliminating American oak. In the cellar, a variety of fermenters are used and barrels are sourced from different coopers, but there’s
been a trend towards larger formats, with puncheons and hogsheads as well as barriques.
‘One thing I’ve learned is to have confidence in making medium-bodied wines, which are what the region naturally produces,’ says Hodder. ‘Earlier picking is part of that, and consequently less acid addition, but also viticultural changes have meant the vines are in better balance and are taking up less potassium, which means we have lower pHs.’
Indeed, the biggest improvements have been in the vineyard, where Jenkins has been pivotal. He says that Wynns has replanted 25% of its vineyards in the past 10 years. When he arrived in 2002, many trellises were falling down and needed renewing. Much vineyard was renovated to remove the hedge-like mass of wood that had accumulated during the era of mechanical and minimal pruning. Vineyards were mapped to identify areas of low and high vigour, as this has ramifications for unevenness in both yield and ripeness.
‘It’s also meant rejuvenating old vines and establishing new cordons, putting the correct varieties on the appropriate sites, with Cabernet on the best Cabernet soils, and also using the best clones and matching them with the appropriate rootstocks,’ says Jenkins. He has replanted with material from selected vines on Wynns’ own vineyards, as well as new French clones and heritage Australian clones such as the Reynell selection and the Houghton clone.
With a view to getting pruning levels right (which has direct implications for crop level the following season), between 5,000 and 10,000 bud dissections are done annually before the pruners are sent in; this has been ongoing for nearly 20 years. Bud dissection helps in predicting the expected crop level, so pruners can prune in a more precise manner.
Harvesting the best-possible fruit at the ideal moment of ripeness is probably the area where the biggest strides have been made – and also where there is greatest potential for further improvement.
Visionary founders
It’s all a far cry from 1951 when David Wynn went against the wishes of his father Samuel, a Jewish refugee from Poland who made good as a Melbourne restaurateur and wine merchant, and bought the winery – then named Chateau Comaum – and surrounding vineyards and pasture land for £22,000.
The Chateau Comaum winery had been founded in 1897 by John Riddoch. The Scotsman arrived in Coonawarra (then known as Penola) from the goldfields in 1861 and farmed sheep. Wool being highly profitable back then, he made a lot of money. Believing his land was also suited to growing fruit and vines, he established the Coonawarra Fruit Colony in 1890. In 1891 he had around 400ha of his land surveyed and divided into blocks, which he leased to other farmers, planting his first vines the same year. Interestingly, they were Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, with some Malbec and Pinot Noir. Riddoch’s first vintage was in 1895.
The project was so successful that in 1898 he employed the region’s first trained winemaker, Ewen McBain, who was an early graduate of Roseworthy Agricultural College. But Riddoch died in 1901 and the Federation of Australia in 1900, which united the self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South
‘One thing I’ve learned is to have confidence in making medium-bodied wines, which are what the region naturally produces’ Sue Hodder
Australia and Western Australia, saw the removal of trade barriers, which meant Coonawarra could no longer compete commercially. From 1918 to the mid-1940s all of the estate’s grapes went to brandy distillation and the property fell into disrepair until it was renovated by the Wynns.
Famous label
David had sniffed the wind and realised table wine was going to be a big thing in Australia, where people were drinking mostly beer and sweet local ‘Sherry’ and ‘Port’ at the time. He was a renaissance man, interested in the arts, so he commissioned an artist, Richard Beck, to make a woodcut of the triple-gabled winery frontage, which is still the centrepiece of the label. David also made history by putting a map on the back label, which showed drinkers where the still-unknown Coonawarra was. He kicked off an advertising campaign to promote Wynns Coonawarra Estate wines, always emphasising quality, and the pleasure and sophistication of a glass of wine with a meal.
It is ironic that today Wynns Coonawarra Estate Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon is one of Australia’s greatest wines, as well as one of the most heavily discounted. However, followers of fashion ignore it at their peril. The fact that it’s also one of Australia’s best value for money wines should not be a turn-off. There is never an off vintage these days (even the 2011, from a notoriously wet summer, is excellent), and in the great vintages – such as 1982, 1990, 1991, 1996, 2006, 2012 and the current release 2015 – it is outstanding value for money, even at the full retail price.
With the improvements in viticulture and
winemaking, coupled with the superior screwcap closure introduced with the 2006 vintage, the wine is more consistently good than ever. The latest quality acquisition at Wynns is an optical grape sorter, which Hodder says is one of only three in Australia.
One luxury of tasting 60 vintages of the same wine is to chart the industry’s fashions. The low-alcohol and sometimes herbaceous wines of the late 1970s and early 1980s (although on this occasion the 1980 was the only wine from this period clearly showing the malaise), contrast with the riper, juicier, higher-alcohol wines of the 1990s and early noughties. Meanwhile the large-vat-matured (no small oak) wines of the 1950s and 1960s contrast with the more oaky (barrique- and hogshead-aged) wines of the 1990s. Then the wines of the Hodder era sensibly revert back to more subtle, better-balanced oak.
The quality across the 60 years was quite outstanding, and since 2006 the wines have, if anything, been even more consistent.