THE wine industry is in a spin after an unknown cool-climate red wine from southern Tasmania last night bagged the holy grail of wine awards in Australia.
The fabled Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy for the best young Australian red wine at the Melbourne Wine Show was won by an 18-month old shiraz, the Mon Pere 2010, from tiny Hobart family winemakers Glaetzer-Dixon.
Winemaker and label owner, Nick Glaetzer, just 31, crushed just four tonnes of local grapes to make his champion shiraz.
The chairman of the Melbourne Wine Show judging panel, David Bignell, last night described the shock Jimmy Watson win as akin to a hand-grenade being thrown into the industry.
It is the first time a red wine from Tasmania — never regarded as prime shiraz territory — has won the top prize at the prestigious show, contested this year by 1249 other young red wine entries.
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“You couldn’t dream up a result like this,” Mr Bignell said.
“More than 90 per cent of the little red wine that does come out of Tasmania is pinot noir, so for a Tasmanian shiraz to get up and win the Jimmy Watson is just extraordinary.”
The win is a vindication for Mr Glaetzer, who just a month ago was also anointed Australia’s best young winemaker.
Mr Glaetzer has championed the potential of the more stylish, lighter and refined red wines from Tasmania since moving to the Apple Isle six years ago, deserting his family’s traditional winemaking base in the Barossa Valley of South Australia to pursue his cool-climate wine-making dream.
Wining Pom
October 27, 2011 at 11:53
Nice one Nick. Our place on the map is getting more pronounced.
There is a nice story about Jancis Robinson being invited to an Australian wine show in London and she declined. It was said then that there were Tasmanian wines there too so she changed her mind and was enthusiastic.
I wonder if we could get awards for fine pulp. People would flack here to sample some top pulp surely.
Bob Murfet
October 27, 2011 at 16:17
Congratulations Nick. Well done with your wine. Tasmania has a big future in wine and you will be a part of that. Go for it.
George Harris aka woodworker
October 28, 2011 at 01:53
Yum! I want some….
Actually, Wining Pom, (#1), we have quite a story with pulp, and paper. In the 1930’s it was decided to establish paper making in Tasmania, and newsprint using eucalypt, made possible by the expansion of hydro-electric power. Prior to that, newsprint was imported into Australia, notably from Germany. However, things were going pear-shaped in Germany in all things political, but there were some major paper making machines that were ordered from there, and delivered just before the outbreak of world war 2. Most people don’t realise how lucky that was.
Australia was able to print newspapers during and after the war because of the pulp and paper industry that had been established in Tasmania. It is a bit sad that the same mill has recently been converted to pine, at the cost of $50 million, under the ownership of Norske Skog. I understand the plant is struggling in global terms. Maybe they should have stuch with eucalypt, and resisted the pressure from the green groups. Eucalypt makes much stronger paper.
Back to wine. Wine grapes have been grown in Tasmania, including in New Town, since the 1850’s, and some Tasmanian wines from that time were sent to a major festival in England, where they won prizes and critical acclaim. We have also done well over the years with our beer. What more could you want? Superb wines, superb beers, supurb old-growth timbers, including three of the best boat building timbers on the planet as endemic species. Wait a minute, there is a bit of a problem with those. Virtually the entire area where those timbers grow is being claimed in a spurious manner as HCV forest. The groups claiming these as HCV forest were given the opportunity to discribe them thus in a process that did not ask that they use an internationally accepted criteria, in fact they were not even asked what criteria they did use! Currently a verification process is about to get underway, but they are even disputing the independent umpire’s ruling on re-scheduling before it even starts! The sad thing is that the full HCV claim will wipe out the possibility of ongoing supply of these Special Timbers, and anything less than a finding of full HCV status will enable them to scream to the world that we are harvesting our Special Timbers from HCV forest! And they will be doing that. How selfish can you get?
I don’t mind the occasional whining pom, but I am completely sick of the local grizzling greens and ENGO’s.
How I would like to down a glass of that award winning red, and forget about them for a while, at least until we are assaulted by their next grizzle online, on the airwaves and in the papers.
George Harris aka woodworker
October 28, 2011 at 09:35
Ooops! sorry about the couple of typo’s in #3, I was tired and didn’t proof-read, and all I had to swallow was some chateau d’cardboard…. would have preferred some of Nick’s.
Wining Pom
October 28, 2011 at 10:18
Woodworker, the smell of newly sawn wood is a good one. Doesn’t match up to a glass of fine red, but it’s good none the less. But, we won’t see much of it in the future and I believe that’s because of the woodchip industry.
It would have been hard to argue against logging if all it was used for was sawlogs, but you know as well as I do that many sawlogs were put through the chipper. And the waste that’s burnt off!!. In France there are piles of wood around the place that made me think that their stoves were a weird shape. One metre long bits of wood 100mm in diameter and less piled up one metre high and varied lengths. I discovered that it was for pulp. A truck comes round and measures the length of the pile, picks it up and away with it. I guess there must be an ID number on it somewhere and the owner gets a cheque. If that can be done on French wages, why not here? Anyway, my point is; woodchipping killed forestry. It’s such an easy target.
I wood like to see hemp used which makes even better paper and farmers could grow it not people from inner cities who want to avoid tax.
But let’s hope the wine (not whine) industry keeps getting stronger. I’ll drink to that.
George Harris aka woodworker
October 28, 2011 at 11:50
Hi WP (#5), I can’t agree with your views on woodchipping. There is nothing wrong with woodchipping if only the right material goes through the chipper. I get as upset as anyone when the wrong material goes through the chipper, but very little of that, if any, has happened in recent years. There is plenty of material that is just not viable or suitable to be sawn, and I have no problem with that being chipped, and as such it brings in a greater return than firewood, and it earns export income. Very little of the Special Timbers I am interested has ever gone through the chippers, no matter what some people would like to have you believe. Waste is another matter. There has been plenty of material that could have been managed better, but the industry is becoming so restricted now that I believe that will never happen again. I cannot tolerate any further restriction of the industry, and certainly not for that spurious nonsense about HCV forest that did not use any internationally accepted criteria.
I too will raise my glass to the wine industry getting stronger, as it probably now will. However it will mean even less privately owned land will be available for timber plantations, which shows what a nonsense it is to think we could or should transition out of public native forest.
peter whish-wilson
October 29, 2011 at 11:55
The big question is where did the grapes come from? The Tamar Valley perhaps? Only a few places shiraz is grown in Tassie from my understanding. I’d suggest the vinegrons who grew these beauties might think twice about selling their fruit next year-might be better making your own?? Good on Nick for being a pioneer. The grapes are Tamar grown, thats two big (global/national) trophies the valley has now taken out in the past month! Go Tassie !
Wining Pom
October 29, 2011 at 15:44
I think some were from the Coal River valley Peter.
Sue Neales
October 30, 2011 at 12:42
Re: Grape source (#7)Nick told me for the article (bit that got cut) that the shiraz grapes were from three vineyards, 2 in Coal Valley and one at Bushy Park (Derwent Valley) where shiraz vines were planted years ago before the pinot trend took over…
Justa Bloke
October 30, 2011 at 19:47
Pity about the millions of dollars invested in the cool climate wine industry in Tasmania, now that the climate is warming. Shiraz is certainly the future, but the days of the best pinot noirs and rieslings might soon be behind us.
And, George, no company spends $50 million on retooling their plant just because of a few loud-mouthed greenies. Norske Skog operate in the real world.
Anyway, congratulations to Nick Glaetzer. Hope the medal hasn’t boosted the price beyond what us pensioners can afford. Hope, too, that he goes on to more success. Well done, young fella.