WOLF BLASS ASSOCIATION

The Wolf Blass brand has been one of the wine pillars of Premier Wine & Spirits, Inc., a huge importer-distributor under tycoon and retail magnate Lucio Co’s group of companies. In 2000, I worked for Premier Wine after my stint with E & J Gallo Winery of California. Premier Wine was then owned by American businessman Ed McDonnell, Sr. Wolf Blass was actually the first wine brand I assisted in acquiring exclusive distributorship of for Premier Wine.

The brand is still thriving under the same distributor after 15 years — showing the great partnership between these two giant companies.

Wolf Blass wines are exported to over 50 countries around the world, and exports constitute a dominant 70% of the brand’s entire wine production.

THE ORIGINAL COLOR-CODED LABELS

Even before Yellow Tail, the no. 1 exported Australian wine brand, started using its now famous color-coded varietal labels, Wolf Blass had already been applying the color labels since way back when. According to visiting Wolf Blass chief winemaker Chris Hatcher, Wolf Blass himself (the founder) pushed for the color-coded labels to distinguish one wine from another. I remembered during my stay at Premier Wine, the entry level Wolf Blass wine was already the Red Label. During my time, the Red Label was just the Aussie popularized Shiraz-Cabernet Sauvignon blend. The other colored labels would correspond to other very specific wines: Yellow Label Cabernet Sauvignon, Blue Label Merlot, Green and Brown Label Shiraz, up to the highest, the Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon- Shiraz blend.

But this all changed in 2002. Mr. Hatcher explained that the winery decided to go after color-coded wine ranges, instead of individual color-coded wines. The color-coded range will be a whole range of wines sold at parity price. For example, the Wolf Blass Red Label range at present carries 12 different wines, ranging from the original Shiraz-Cabernet Sauvignon blend, to other blends like Semillon- Sauvignon Blanc, to single varietals like Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, all the way to even a sparkling wine and an Australian Tawny (Port) — all these wines sold at same price. The color labels were also reduced to six categories: red, yellow, gold, grey, black and platinum — in order of lowest to highest price point.

But as Chris revealed, the Brown Label Shiraz, which was merged with the Grey Label during the color-range rationalization, made a comeback starting with vintage 2012. Chris believed that color-coded ranges give Wolf Blass consumers access to a whole range of wines based on their budget, whether it be for everyday drinking, like the Red Label, or more luxurious splurging like for Grey, Black, or Platinum Labels. Chris personally drinks more of the Gold Label, the range that features specific wine regions (called GI or Geographic Indication). The Gold Label includes Chardonnay from Adelaide Hills, Riesling from Eden Valley, and Cabernet Sauvignon from Coonawarra among others. Wolf Blass Winery sources its varietal juices from the best GIs in South Australia.

THE EAGLE SYMBOL

I love the eagle... (probably I am partial being an Atenean). But the symbol of the eaglehawk — a large Australian eagle also known as the wedge-tailed eagle — has been an amazing fixture on the Wolf Blass labels since the start. Doing some research, I found out that the inspiration behind this bird symbol came from the three-hectare vineyard owned by Mr. Blass in Bilyara Road, Barossa. The word “Bilyara,” as Mr. Blass discovered, is actually the aboriginal name for the eaglehawk. It helped too that Mr. Blass’s native country of Germany uses an eagle as its national symbol.

The symbol had undergone a bit of a facelift lately, with the old stationary wing-raised eagle image now transformed into an eagle in flight mode. To me, the eagle connotes strength and masculinity in the wines, and these are great wine associations, especially for Asian drinkers.

WOLF BLASS WINE DINNER

The visit of Mr. Hatcher — the legendary winemaker and Wolf Blass chief winemaker — culminated with the Wolf Blass Wine Dinner held last week at the Glasshouse in the New World Makati Hotel. While Wolf Blass sells tons of Eaglehawk and Bilyara — the two much cheaper wine ranges, Chris believed that in terms of the Wolf Blass quality story, the color-coded labels, starting with the Red Label, best represent the winery.

At the wine dinner, only the Yellow, Gold, Grey, and the Black Labels were served with the food. A rare sighting of an older Black Label Cabernet SauvignonShiraz 2005 was the highlight wine of the evening. Chris mentioned that current vintage of Wolf Blass Black Label is already a 2012 vintage. The Black Label was also the first of many Wolf Blass wines to bring awards and honor to the winery. The Wolf Blass Black Label won three consecutive Jimmy Watson Trophies from 1974 to 1976 and won it again in 1999 for a record 4th time — the most by any wine label. The Jimmy Watson Trophy is Australia’s most recognized wine industry award since 1962. Previous winners included iconic wines like Penfolds Grange and Peter Lehmann Stonewell.

This Wolf Blass Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon- Shiraz 2005 was a full-bodied wine, with lots of flavors — from plum, ripe berries, and cedar to mocha —, the tannins were chewy and luscious, and the finish was deliciously lengthy. What an amazing wine to cap a lovely dinner!

My other favorite wines from the evening were the Gold Label Riesling 2014 from Eden Valley — delicately aromatic, fresh, dry with crisp acid at the end — and the Grey Label Shiraz 2010 from Mclaren Vale — a surprisingly very quaffable Shiraz with excellent acidsweetness balance, black cherries, licorice, and peppercorn flavors.

I would like to thank the Australian Ambassador to the Philippines, Madam Amanda Gorely, and the office of the Australian Trade Commission for the invitation last week to this beautifully hosted Wolf Blass Wine Dinner.

The color-coded ranges give Wolf Blass consumers access to a whole range of wines based on their budget.

*****

Erratum: in an earlier column entitled “Barolo Wines Shine Anew in Nebbiolo Prima,” I was giving high praises to a winery called Boroli, which I inadvertently spelled as Baroli. Both the Boroli Carequio and Villero Barolos from 2012 vintage were in my top 17 favorites out of a total of 164 Barolo labels from the same vintage tasted blindly.

The author has been a member of the Federation Internationale des Journalists et Ecrivains du Vin et des Spiritueux or FIJEV since 2010. For comments, inquiries, wine event coverage, and other wine-related concerns, e-mail the author at protegeinc@yahoo.com. He is also on Twitter at www.twitter.com/sherwinlao.