THE STANDISH WINE CO: A TIMELINE
1994-1997
Dan Standish studies chemical engineering at University of Adelaide
1998
Does his first harvest at Wakefield Wines, Clare Valley
1999
Founds The Standish Wine Co, producing The Standish Shiraz from his parents’ 1912-planted Vine Vale vineyard. Completes his first of seven vintages at Torbreck Wines and also works a vintage at Paradise Ridge in Sonoma, California
2000
Makes his first trip to the Rhône Valley
2001
Works a vintage at Bodegas Muga in Rioja, Spain
2005
Works his last vintage at Torbreck and, following parents’ vineyard sale, starts looking for other vineyard sources
2005-2006
Works on Ernie Singer’s Koshu Project in Yamanashi, Japan
2008
Makes El Standito Proyecto garage wine, in Yecla, southeast Spain
2012
Acquires winery and vineyard in Light Pass, Barossa Valley, South Australia
2018
The Standish Shiraz enters Langton’s Classification of Australian Wine VII (‘Excellent’ category)
The Standish Wine Co
The Standish Wine Co, Lamella,
Eden Valley, South Australia 2018 98 £74.50 The Vinorium
Classic Eden Valley fragrance: freshness, sinew and spice, wed to 2018’s compelling intensity and saturation of blackberry, strawberry and bramble fruit. Ethereal and lingering from tip to toe, showing peony, black pepper, dried mint and lavender lift, with smoky, espresso undertones. From the Mount Edelstone Vineyard planted in 1962. Drink 2020-2040 Alcohol 14.9%
The Standish Wine Co, Lamella,
Eden Valley, South Australia 2017 97 £64.95 The Vinorium
Anise, red liquorice, black cardamom and pepper, dried herb, truffle and mineral undertones – decant this in order to best appreciate these dramatic, dynamic aromas. In the mouth, the fresh raspberry, damson, blackberry, bramble and blueberry fruits are lightly kissed with mocha oak. Ripe but present, sinewy tannins build into a long, firm, spicy finish. Drink 2020-2040 Alc 14.9%
The Standish Wine Co, The Schubert Theorem, Barossa Valley, South Australia 2018 98
£71.50 The Vinorium
A masterful blend of six east-facing sections of the Schubert vineyard in Marananga, planted between 1994 and 1999. Intensely brooding black and blue berry fruit and black cherry, with malty, mocha oak and lingering seaweed and truffle undertones – exquisite savoury complexity. Fine graphite tannins and persistent acidity taper the finish.
Drink 2020-2038 Alc 14.9%
The Standish Wine Co, The Schubert Theorem, Barossa Valley, South Australia 2017 97
£64.95 The Vinorium
Shares the dark-fruited profile, savoury depth and tapering mineral tannins of the 2018, with lifted pink peppercorn, smoked meat, cocoa, cardamom and kelp nuances. The fresh black cherry, plum and blueberry fruit has a firm stony quality, balancing this vintage’s ripe, dried black olive notes.
Long textured finish of smoky espresso. Drink 2020-2037 Alc 14.9%
The Standish Wine Co, The Standish, Barossa Valley, South Australia 2018 97 £74.50 The Vinorium
The acid and tannin structure is assertive at first but knits together given time and air. Intense, sinewy and creamy raspberry, damson and blackberry fruit joins spice, mint, mocha and nuances of charcuterie and earth. From the Laycock Family Vineyard in Greenock planted in 2002 on ironstone gravels and schist over red clay and ironstone bedrock. Drink 2021-2040 Alc 14.9%
The Standish Wine Co, The Standish, Barossa Valley, South Australia 2017 96 £64.95 The Vinorium
Restrained on the nose with imposing backbone to the raspberry-dominated palate. Bitter chocolate and espresso oak tones and earthy, herbal whole-bunch accents give resonance to the spicy back-palate that’s a touch chewy on the finish. Grainy, textural tannins and fresh acidity underpin the tightly wound fruit. Could warrant a higher score with time. Drink 2021-2040 Alc 14.9%
The Standish Wine Co, The Relic, Barossa Valley, South Australia 2018 £71.50 The Vinorium
Shiraz co-fermented with 2% Viognier, 97
What degree of precision does it take to create a truly excellent wine? To judge from the amount of work that went into Rutini Single Vineyard Gualtallary Cabernet Franc 2017, a lot more than you might think.
When the goal is to produce a genuinely great wine, precision winemaking skills are a must. Regardless of the region or variety, in-depth knowledge of the vineyard where the grapes were planted is essential. This was true of the process that went into making Rutini Single Vineyard Cabernet Franc and its success is reflected in the Platinum Award it won at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2020, consolidating its place as one of the best wines in the world.
‘ We know that in the Uco Valley we’ve found an extraordinary place for Cabernet Franc’
Located in Gualtallary at an altitude of 1,200m above sea level in Tupungato, Uco Valley, Rutini’s state of the art winery was a pioneer of high altitude wine production in Mendoza. It currently boasts 400ha of vineyards at between 975m and 1,200m, all of which are monitored with advanced agricultural technology: a key part of the production process for the winery’s high-end wines.
Among the advances made by the winery’s research and development team is a complex system that identifies individual vines by their vegetation index (Normalised Difference Vegetation Index or NDVI) which began to be used in the vineyards following an unexpected discovery.
‘In 2016 the winery hosted the gala dinner for the Sommelier World Championships,’ recalls Mariano Di Paola, director of oenology at Rutini Wines. ‘In the footage from the drones used to film the event we noticed different strips of colour snaking through the vineyards. They seemed to follow the path of the old river beds. We were intrigued. What was going on? So we started to investigate.’
Using drone-mounted multispectral cameras and geo-referencing technology, the team mapped the vineyards: the strips were created by different soil patterns. Once the valuable information had been processed, it was downloaded onto the agricultural teams’ smartphones and they set about grouping the vines according to their vigour and ripening potential. They also carried out research into the composition and origin of the soils, gathering an extremely precise set of data.
‘We developed an extremely exact way of selecting the grapes to use in our top
wines. Today, the technology allows us to anticipate how each plant will react to the conditions of any given year,’ reports Gonzalo Fernández, another member of the oenology team at Rutini Wines.
Identified by different coloured bands, these groups are then developed in micro-batches to obtain all the different ingredients required for the purest, clearest expression of the vineyard possible, work that can be appreciated in every sip of the 2017 vintage of Rutini Single Vineyard Gualtallary Cabernet Franc.
Gualtallary has become one of the most prestigious winemaking regions in Argentina and Rutini Wines has a lot to do with that reputation. Pioneers in this area of the Uco Valley, their knowledge of the climatic advantages of the region and the make-up of its soils helped them to make the choice to accompany their iconic Malbec vines with Cabernet Franc.
Located in the foothills of the Andes, the region has a sunny climate but is cooler than other areas of Mendoza because of its altitude, which in the case of the Rutini Wines headquarters is 1,200m above sea level. The variations present in the nutrient-poor, stony, alluvial soils are ideal for growing fruit of exceptional quality.
The vines selected according to their NDVI for Rutini Single Vineyard Gualtallary Cabernet Franc 2017 were located in the winery`s own estate, so once harvested processing could begin in a matter of minutes. An optical sorter brought greater precision to the selection of grapes, which were then placed into the oak roll fermentors where yeasts native to the vineyard got to work turning fruit into wine.
Every step of the process is exhaustively monitored in order to ensure that the character of the terroir is preserved. For instance, ageing takes place in lightly toasted French oak barrels that don’t impart an aroma but rather facilitate micro-oxygenation during the elevage stage.
‘The 2017 harvest was of exceptional quality generally, but we found that the vines located in the middle of the rows had achieved the greatest concentration so they were the only ones used,’ reports Di Paola, who emphasises the key role played by technology in the vineyard. ‘We know that in the Uco Valley we’ve found an extraordinary place for Cabernet Franc and that we’re well on the way to creating absolutely unique wines.’
Rutini Single Vineyard Gualtallary Cabernet Franc 2017 (97pts, DWWA 2020) offers the typically mentholated and spicy flavours of the variety combined with a lively freshness, elegant, gentle tannins and a lengthy finish.
Picture a berry more similar to a blueberry than a grape: this is essentially a snapshot of the 2017 vintage in Bolgheri: one of the hottest, driest years on record in Tuscany. There was not much confidence in this vintage, to be honest, nor were there many expectations after the great 2015 and the extraordinary 2016. A particularly mild winter, with temperatures more than 3°C higher than the seasonal average and rains within the norm, prompted the vines to bud almost two weeks earlier than usual.
A sudden drop in temperature on 9 April caused frost in various parts of the region. Thanks to the mitigating effect of the sea, 5km from the closest vineyards, temperatures remained above zero along the coast, preventing damage to the young buds. Both sides of the Bolgherese road – the western portion known as sotto strada and the more esteemed, eastern portion called sopra strada – were just barely grazed by the frost.
Flowering occurred under excellent conditions, but hot, dry weather resumed in May, limiting vegetative development and bunch size. There was virtually no rain in July and August – the first precipitation arriving on 15-16 September, benefiting only the lateripening varieties still hanging on the vine, such as Cabernet Sauvignon.
The 25% loss in production across the territory was ultimately credited mainly to the dry vintage rather than the frost. ‘The individual grapes were very small,’ claims Piero and Lodovico Antinori’s nephew, Niccolò Marzichi Lenzi of Le Crocine. Stefano Granata from I Luoghi, one of the top boutique wineries in Bolgheri, notes that ‘we suffered from the hot winds of August, which changed the shape of the leaves, and were never able to recover’.
Axel Heinz (pictured far right), managing director of Ornellaia and Masseto recalls:
‘It was very quick. We harvested not by single plot, but following the age of the vineyards, beginning with the youngest, which began to suffer. In the end, it was an easy harvest because we needed only to pick everything as soon as possible, without worrying over selections.’
Despite these less than fond recollections, there are several factors to consider in favour of 2017. First of all, as the vines had reached a higher average age by 2017, they were able to withstand the heat better than in 2003, 2007 or 2012 – half of Bolgheri’s vineyards were planted between 2000 and 2009, which means they are now approaching maturity. Even older vines exist, of course: the first vintage of Sassicaia was 1968, the first Ornellaia 1985 (planted in 1981), and Guado al Tasso 1990.
Aldo Fiordelli is a widely published Italian journalist, wine writer and author. A certified sommelier since 2003, he has published four books about food, wine and art, and is currently studying for the Master of Wine qualification