Surprising Australian wines storm American shores
Maybe your idea of Australian wine is Yellow Tail, the massively successful, superplonk with a jumping kangaroo on the label. Or maybe you picture an in-your-face monster shiraz so thick and fruity you could practically sip it from a spoon.
If you think those examples define Down Under wines, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Australia’s fine wine scene is one of the world’s most exciting, dynamic and diverse, with 65 regions growing more than 100 different varietals for nearly 3,000 wineries. A wave of young, avantgarde winemakers with hipster beards and daring ideas are experimenting with reds and whites all over the country and making killer wines.
So why don’t Americans all know this?
Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, people in the United States were clamouring for only two things from Australian vineyards — cheerful budget wine with critters on the label, and luxury shirazes, which mostly came from the Barossa Valley near Adelaide. Although high-quality vino from other grapes was being made at small boutique wineries in many regions, the American perception of Aussie wine didn’t include them. As a result, they were hard to find in the US.
Those shirazes owed much to historic brand Penfolds, which established Australia’s wine reputation with its famous shiraz blend Grange and a handful of other collectible cuvées. It long defined Australian wine as multi-region, multi-varietal blends.
Then, starting in 2008, came a taste rebellion against fruit-bomb reds and the financial crisis. At the same time, the Australian dollar surged to a 25-year high against the US dollar, and drought and bushfires decimated vineyards in Victoria.
Interest i n Australian fine wine crashed, and American importers and retailers cut their Aussie selections by 50%. Penfolds was caught up in turbulent mergers, and even sales of Yellowtail, after years of growth, flattened out, as inexpensive wines from such places as Argentina flooded the market.
Now, at last, people are again starting to recognise how good Aussie wines can be, at least after they taste them. Take Michael Engelmann, wine director at The Modern in New York. A stint at Sydney’s Rockpool Bar & Grill, he says, introduced him to “the great things happening Down Under” When he started at The Modern in 2014, he increased the number of Aussie wines from five to 100.
And a recent Wine Australia Export Report revealed sales of wines costing more than US$25 were up 17% in the US for the year ended June 2017.
To shop the Oz wine renaissance, here’s what you need to know.
Regions: Australia has a vast range of climates, from the warm Barossa Valley to multiple cool spots. The ocean-breezeswept Margaret River is great cabernet and sauvignon blanc territory; the Mornington Peninsula near Melbourne turns out elegant, silky pinot noirs and chardonnays, and the cold, isolated, southerly island of Tasmania is now a holy land for sparkling wine producers.
Australia’s soil has some of the planet’s most diverse geology, which means wines from the same grape can be wildly different depending on where the vines are grown.
Grapes: This is not a one-varietal country. Yes, shiraz is still Australia’s heart and soul, and lately we’ve seen some exciting variations on that theme: top winemakers such as Timo Mayer in the Yarra Valley have swapped the familiar bold, in-your-face format for savoury, northern Rhone-style versions they often label syrah.
But there’s much more: Fresh, delicious cabernet, sexy pinot, lean, Chablis-like chardonnay, and especially succulent grenache — Australia has those, too. Italian grapes such as montepulciano, dolcetto, sangiovese, and vermentino will also figure in Australia’s future.
Young guns: Even in the oldest, most established wine regions, new winemakers are stirring up revolutions. Typical is a buzzed-about Basket Range Collective in the Adelaide Hills. “We’re people who look like punks,” says James Erskine of Jauma winery, a former sommelier and musician. “We want to challenge [Australia’s] wine paradigms.”
To him, that means experimenting with trends now in vogue in the US and UK — natural winemaking, pet-nats, and skin-fermented whites.
The other part of the revolution is that now you can actually find these wines in America, the UK and Japan, thanks to passionate indie importers, mostly Aussie expats. Five years ago, when he founded Little Peacock Imports in New York, Gordon Little offered nine wines. Today he sells more than 100.
“These are the wines Aussies used to keep for themselves,” he says. “At the beginning, Americans were surprised they weren’t just shiraz and chardonnay. We have fianos, pet-nats, people want what’s new.”
Australia’s soil has some of the planet’s most diverse geology, which means wines from the same grape can be wildly different depending on where the vines are grown