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Spring bulbs are on the rise at the moment.
That’s a sure sign it won’t be long before vineyard soils begin warming and sap starts flowing through our dormant vines. Never mind the fires, drought and virus that have plagued the Australian wine industry. Hope springs eternal. New growth is on the way.
Growth and change were key themes of this week’s online launch of the 2021 edition of the Halliday Wine Companion (Hardie Grant, $39.95). The new book’s six major award winners and sixteen varietal winners comprised a healthy mix of well-established labels and industry newcomers.
Author James Halliday AM announced Henschke as his 2021 Winery of the Year. The South Australian family has winemaking roots dating back to 1868. Meanwhile, the book’s Best Grenache and Blends moniker went to a six-year-old Barossa Valley operation called Brothers at War.
Tasmanian vineyards were responsible for producing Australia’s Best Sparkling (2005 House of Arras EJ Carr Late Disgorged) and Best Other White Varieties and Blends (2019 Stargazer Tupelo).
Close examination of the career paths of their winemakers – Ed Carr and Samantha Connew – reveals a surprising number of twists and turns along their respective journeys into wine.
Fizzicist…House of Arras winemaker, Ed Carr. Image courtesy DL Photography.
South Australian-based Carr is widely regarded as the country’s pre-eminent sparkling winemaker. The public face of Accolade Wines’ House of Arras Tasmanian wine portfolio, Carr has been top of the pops in all but one of the last 10 editions of the Halliday Wine Companion. Indeed, the Arras label appears no fewer than 40 times among the author’s Best of the Best Sparkling selections over that period.
A qualified microbiologist and chemist, Carr began his working life in 1977 as a lab technician at the Adelaide milk-processing facility of SA Farmers’ Co-Op Union Ltd. A year or so later, he moved to a better paid position at the now-defunct Glenloth winery of Seaview Wines.
Carr acquired his impressive kitbag of winemaking skills ‘on the job’.
“I started a Wine Science Degree at Charles Sturt University but never actually got around to finishing it,” admits the self-effacing ‘fizzicist.’
In late 2018, Carr was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships in London. He remains the only winemaker outside Champagne to have been honoured with the esteemed international award.
Like Carr, Connew’s journey has been a circuitous one. Born in New Zealand, she devoted four years of study to a double degree in Arts and Law before switching to a postgraduate Diploma of Viticulture and Oenology at Canterbury’s Lincoln University.
The talented Stargazer has never made wine in New Zealand. She experienced her first vintage in 1997 in the US wine state of Oregon. The following year, Connew ‘crossed the ditch’ to work brief stints in Margaret River and the Hunter Valley before settling into a decade-long senior winemaker position at Wirra Wirra in McLaren Vale.
Among her many career achievements, Connew was named 2007 International Red Winemaker of the Year at the prestigious International Wine Challenge in London.
Stargazer… Tasmania’s Samantha Connew. Image courtesy James Broadway Photography.
In 2010, as Winemaker/Manager at Tower Estate in the Hunter Valley, Connew found herself smitten by the quality of Pinot Noir her employers had begun buying from Tasmanian vineyards. Upon discovering the added joys of the island’s aromatic white varieties – Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer – Connew moved permanently to the Coal River Valley in 2016.
“I’m really passionate about producing great Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Riesling,” Connew muses.
“Tasmania is the only place in Australia that can do really well with all three varieties. It’s the perfect home for me.
Being out in the vineyard all year round gives me a deep connection to each season. That makes the connection to my wines so much more real and intimate.”
Connew’s clever making and blending of Pinot Gris (52%), Riesling (32%) and Gewürztraminer (11%) resulted in her 2019 Stargazer Tupelo receiving a score of 97/100 from Australia’s best-known wine critic.
Passion and respect for the special qualities of Tasmanian Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier is what keeps Carr in the sparkling wine game. This year marks the 25th anniversary of his ground-breaking forays into creating bottle-fermented Tasmanian sparkling wine.
That’s another story of growth and change. It’s reflected in the 99-point House of Arras EJ Carr Late Disgorged that earned Halliday’s Best Sparkling gong. The Chardonnay (69%) and Pinot Noir (31%) blend was crafted from the 2005 vintage and spent 13 years on its yeast lees before release.
“There are many elements that go into producing top-quality Tasmanian sparkling, but until only fairly recently, extended ageing had been the missing link,” Carr explains.
“We released our first Arras in 1999. That was from the 1995 vintage, so it had barely four years on lees. That was considered a long time back then. We’ve now grown in confidence when thinking of the longevity of these wines. Vine age and quality of our vineyards is important, but so too is time for the magic to happen in the bottle.”
Winning wines… House of Arras wines. Image courtesy Accolade Wines.
#supportlocal
Tasmania might not be out of the COVID-19 tunnel just yet, but the state government’s tourism marketing agency believes there’s light ahead for those in our tourism and hospitality sectors.
According to Dr Allison Anderson, Tourism Tasmania’s Manager for Research & Insights, recent research indicates 68 percent of Tasmanians are planning a holiday or overnight trip in the state during the next 12 months.
However, concerns over health and safety provide significant stumbling blocks for new and emerging businesses.
“People are more inclined to return to places they’ve been before or to travel to places that are familiar to them,” Dr Anderson notes.
“For many people, now is not the time for exploring new horizons.”
With that in mind, Tasmania’s cool climate wine producers are likely to continue to derive considerable benefit from the one-stop-shop Wine Tasmania established back in May. Its August campaign allows another 12 different labels to be explored from the relative safety of a clean wine glass. Many are from small, low-profile producers.
The rollcall is: Apogee Tasmania, Bellebonne Wines, Brinktop Vineyard, Cape Bernier, Clemens Hill, Craigow Vineyard, Henskens Rankin Wines, Meadowbank Wines, Merriworth Wines, Milton Vineyard, Moores Hill Estate and Sailor Seeks Horse.
Choices include four Mixed 6 packs and a Mixed 12. The latter comprises one wine from each maker, with the total selection including whites, reds and sparkling wines. All sale proceeds go directly to participating producers.
Order before Sunday 23 August. Wines will be dispatched via Australia Post during the week beginning Monday 31 August.
Cool climate views. Image courtesy Merriworth Wines.
Hobart’s Mark Smith wrote his first weekly wine column back in 1994. Now more than 1700 features and 25 years later, he continues to chart the successes of Tasmania’s small scale, cool climate wine industry with regular contributions to some of Australia’s leading industry publications.
PICK OF THE CROP
Mark gives you his honest opinions about the best wines available right now from Tasmania’s wine makers.
2017 Cape Bernier Chardonnay $42
Andrew and Jenny Sinclair’s Cape Bernier site at Bream Creek overlooks Marion Bay on Tasmania’s southeast coast. How fitting it is such a dazzling location should provide a home to a dazzling three-year-old Chardonnay. This is a lovely smooth drink, now realising much of the promise of its youth. Fruit and oak meet seamlessly on a nuanced palate of fig, honeycomb, white peach and smoky bacon. Subtle vanillin notes highlight the handiwork of winemaker Alain Rousseau and the fruit intensity of the vineyard. Table ready. www.capebernier.com.au
2019 Pooley Cooinda Vale Chardonnay $65
Cooinda Vale is the spiritual home of Pooley Wines, having been planted by Denis and Margaret Pooley back in 1985. The site is 20km north of the family’s Butcher’s Hill property and for around a decade was a source block for Penfolds Yattarna. The pedigree shows in this complex, brooding, barrel-fermented white that is distinctly redolent of northern Europe. Jam melon and grapefruit characters are somewhat masked by matchstick/sulphide notes on opening. The wine springs to life with a bit of air and really powers across the palate. A keeper. www.pooleywines.com.au
2019 Pipers Tasmania Pinot Noir $29
It’s often said the first duty of good Pinot Noir is to be elegant and refined, and this release certainly passes muster. The wine is part of a new range recently inserted into the Kreglinger wine hierarchy above Ninth Island. As such, it offers excellent value for money. Engaging raspberry and black cherry aromas herald a pristine palate of fresh berry fruits that provides plenty of drinking pleasure. A little kitchen spice is thrown in for good measure, while basket pressing adds a touch of grip in place of oak. Nice work. www.kreglingerwineestates.com
2013 Domaine A Pinot Noir $90
Domaine A winemaker Peter Althaus may have been born Swiss, but his penchant for the classic wines of Europe endowed him with a passion for Bordeaux reds. It’s no surprise his Pinots invariably display plenty of colour, extract and tannin. This seven-year-old is no exception. It is incredibly deep and concentrated. That brings into question likely cellar life. If you like your Pinots big and inky, this is drinking beautifully, albeit in the typical black cherry and eucalypt fashion that defines the Campania site. Better if left a decade. www.domaine-a.com.au
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