Meet the tasting team
EACH YEAR, JAMES HALLIDAY AND HIS TEAM OF REVIEWERS TASTE THOUSANDS OF WINES FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY. HERE, THEY SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCE OF COMPILING THE 2020 HALL I DAY WINE COMPANION.
Campbell Mattinson, wine writer
How would you sum up the tasting process? It’s a joy, privilege and grind in equal measure. You soak yourself in alcohol from morning until night for weeks and months on end, which is a physically terrible thing to do. By the end of the ‘tasting season’, which is conducted through the heat of summer, you feel wasted and exhausted. Of course, many glorious wines are spat out along the way, which helps make it worth it, and throughout you are painfully aware that every wine is a product of a great deal of hard work and investment – i.e. every bottle must be respected, and treated with care and application.
What are your tricks for getting through so many tastings and reviews?
Sodastream is your friend. Carbonated water, lots of it, all the time. And green olives. And long walks on the beach that is your life, in the early morning, as you steel yourself for the alcohol ahead.
What were some of your more exciting discoveries this year?
Rosé. Hooley dooley. It has soared from the fringes to the main arena; it’s an amazing ‘category’ in Australian wine now, full of surprises, delights, differences and deliciousness.
After tasting so many wines, how do you see the Australian wine industry right now? Demand from China has put a rocket under the Australian wine industry. It means that wineries can afford to make the investments required to make good and great wine. A buoyant wine community is a good community to drink from, and with.
Ned Goodwin, MW, wine writer
How would you sum up the tasting process? Mentally and physically gruelling, with the insights gleaned making it somehow worth the ride.
What are your tricks for getting through so many tastings and reviews?
Classical music, painkillers, exercise and humour!
What were some of your more exciting discoveries this year?
I was very impressed with Cannibal Creek wines’ understated effortlessness; Yarra Yering’s imperious structure, delicacy and oak regime; Michael Twelftree’s outstanding single-site equipe of grenache, and managing to tone down SA’s inherent sweet fruit with longer extraction than the Australian norm; Taras Ochota’s wines are his best yet – less reliant on gentle carbonic fruit with more tone and burl; and from a regional stalwart, the Balnaves range is elegant, detailed and very impressive. Otherwise, rosé is the most exciting category for me, with vast improvements across the wines. Pinot gris above $25, too, is reliant on its inherent phenolics for freshness, good flavour intensity and a je ne sais quoi neutrality that doesn’t get in the way of what’s on the plate.
After tasting so many wines, how do you see the Australian wine industry right now? While many wines are more exciting than ever – with groundbreaking styles, more wines embedded with strong regional DNA, and generally lighter, fresher and more drinkable expressions – I feel that those directing the industry are chasing volume at the expense of margin. With this, the quality of wines that define the Australian category from an external lens become larger-volume wines of less character when, in fact, there is so much more.
Steven Creber, former winemaker, wine buyer and retailer
How would you sum up the tasting process? Because I’m by nature a deliberating sort of taster, I do feel the time pressure, but I try to give every wine a ‘fair hearing’, so it’s a challenge to get through it quickly enough and still be satisfied with the standard of the reviews I produce.
What are your tricks for getting through so many tastings and reviews?
For me, tasting in this situation is about focus and concentration. It’s a completely different experience from a more typical tasting environment where there are usually other people and discussions involved. Unlike James, I taste first and make notes, then write the actual reviews later. My simple brain needs to separate the two functions!
What were some of your more exciting discoveries this year?
I was pleasantly surprised by the good scores (for me) I found myself giving to wines made from what I’d call ‘non-traditional’ varieties. There were some really attractive examples of nero d’Avola, montepulciano, fiano and vermentino, among others, and with site selection, vine age and experience all still on an upward curve, it bodes well. And simply beautiful riesling keeps flowing from Great Southern and the Canberra region, pushing Clare and Eden all the way.
After tasting so many wines, how do you see the Australian wine industry right now?
I continue to be struck by the consistency of quality our winemakers produce across the board. This year I saw no more than a couple of wines in the hundreds I tasted that I thought had a winemaking fault, and the majority of wines that scored at the lower end were generally still drinkable and usually inexpensive. The top end speaks for itself. My only complaint is about the many garrulous and badly written backlabels.
Jane Faulkner, wine writer
How would you sum up the tasting process? Given the time restraint, I’d say relentless and not for the faint-hearted, yet ultimately rewarding.
What are your tricks for getting through so many wine tastings and reviews?
There are times when a break is essential to clear the mind and palate. On days I don’t taste, there’s other work, such as removing all the detritus – it’s good to clear the deck, ready for the next instalment. I drink sparkling water, eat too many Mario Fongo grissini, and green olives. I also start and end the day with a shot of my homemade kefir. What were some of your more exciting discoveries this year?
Not so much discoveries, but the inclusion for the first time of Ricca Terra wines in the Riverland is great. Riesling continues to impress, especially from the Great Southern. I believe this is where the finest, purest examples hail.
After tasting so many wines, how do you see the Australian wine industry right now?
By and large, it remains healthy. The top wines are world class, and there have been in-roads with the likes of tempranillo – Mayford in the Alpine Valleys is consistently one of the finest. There’s incredible diversity and interest, from new varieties to skincontact whites: I love what Ravensworth is doing. Australians are lucky because we can drink exceptionally well. But, it has to be said, there’s also some dross, generally in the cheaper spectrum. I also lament outrageously heavy bottles, anathema to all things environmental. In contrast, there are producers who remain top of their craft because of attention to detail: Hurley Vineyard or Allies on the Mornington Peninsula; Bekkers in McLaren Vale; the dazzling fortifieds from Campbells; Wantirna Estate in the Yarra Valley; Woodlands in Margaret River, and more.
Dave Bicknell, winemaker
How would you sum up the tasting process? It’s surprisingly slow to complete the entire process. Just getting the wines onto the tasting bench can be an effort – dealing with packaging, winemaker notes and, often, a lack of any information at all. When tasting, I look at every wine twice – an initial note to start, then once I’ve completed a bracket, a second look to reaffirm what I’ve seen.
This also works as a preliminary edit for the final note, which I do when that session has finished. The most distressing part of the process is when, out of the blue, more wine boxes arrive when you think you’ve finished.
What are your tricks for getting through so many tastings and reviews?
Not biting off too many wines in any session is the best approach. Remain underwhelmed rather than overwhelmed. Cold refreshing beer at the end of the day is a carrot for continued application, and sparkling water to refresh in between. Keep it as short and as sharp as possible to prevent mental drift.
What were some of your more exciting discoveries this year?
A few producers really stood up. Across the board, they made uniformly good wines. What was really pleasing was the diversity of their origins – Barossa, Canberra, Coonawarra, Margaret, Mornington, to name a few. There are talented folk making delicious wines right across the country.
After tasting so many wines, how do you see the Australian wine industry right now? What is evident is how the mix of varieties, blends and techniques is changing. The goal is common – to make better wine. Underpinning this is the number of producers embracing responsible and sustainable farming practices as part of their core business – healthier vines producing higher-quality wines. The divide between natural and conventional wines is closing too.