A drink with... Jane Lopes & Jonathan Ross MS

Authors of How to Drink Australian (£40 Murdoch Books), this Nashville-based married couple met while working as sommeliers in New York. After spending four years in Australia from 2016, they returned to the US and wrote their regional guide while setting up and running Legend, which imports wines they discovered during their time in Australia. ‘We were both working as somms in Michelin-starred restaurants in New York when Jane was offered a job at Attica in Melbourne. Once there, we were dumbfounded to realise that there is very little understanding of Australian wine in the US and limited access to the most exciting wines.

‘Only around 10% of Australian producers export their wine to the US. So everything wine lovers here know and think about Australian wine is based on that 10%. And remember that many of the wines that are exported are made specifically with export markets in mind.

‘Even in wine education, Australia is poorly represented. For example, Italian and other Mediterranean grape varieties are massive in Australia right now, but this just doesn’t feature, probably partly because the country’s wine output hasn’t been matched in its scholarly offering.

Younger regions tend to be dealt with in a broader stroke, and we wanted to go deeper, to help create an audience.

‘Many in the US think Australian wine is all about bulk production and nothing else – big, warm, sunshine-in-a-glass wine – but it’s a misrepresentation. Only three of Australia’s 65 wine regions are tank farms. And there is an incredible climatic diversity, as you’d expect.

‘Australia benefits from dexterity, enabling it to respond quickly to climate change. Producers are re-evaluating, experimenting with new varieties. You could be picking Pecorino at 12% alcohol and Shiraz at 15% within a stone’s throw – you don’t see that anywhere else.

‘The most exciting styles now have to be the Italian and other Mediterranean varieties: Vermentino, Fiano, Aglianico, Nero d’Avola. Nerello Mascalese, too – the vines are in quarantine now.

Producers in drier, warmer regions are increasingly turning to these grapes to make the best wines they can, rather than planting Chardonnay and Shiraz.

‘That said, the Chardonnays can be fantastic. Yarra has precise, linear, flinty, Chablis-like styles; Giaconda and other Beechworth Chardonnays tend to be more Montrachet in style. At the A$50 level, Adelaide Hills Chardonnay knocks Burgundy out of the park. Australian show judging has accelerated its quality It’s a grape that showcases winemaking and the competitions have encouraged winemakers to be more precise.

‘Australia’s best sites have yet to be discovered. The huge distances involved are a factor, as is lack of infrastructure, but also just the relative youth of the industry. The best is yet to come…’

See decanter.com for the full interview with Jane Lopes and Jonathan Ross MS