Explaining the wide diversity of climates in Australia's viticultural areas
Introductory session: Presented by Dr Tony Jordan
Edward Ragg
Dr Tony Jordan [©Redfish Bluefish Creative]
Tony Jordan opened the Tutorial with a review of the big picture that is Australia’s tapestry of climates, carefully distinguishing between ‘cold’, ‘cool’, ‘warm’ and ‘hot’ zones.
Jordan explained how winemaking in the cradle of South-Eastern Australia would not be possible were it not for the cooling currents of the Great Southern Ocean. Even with rising global temperatures, however, Jordan noted that viticulture at higher elevations in Victoria and, of course, in the genuinely cool Tasmania should be sustainable. But no one should be surprised to see uprooting and retreat from hot inland areas supported by irrigation, for example Riverina (New South Wales) or Riverland (South Australia), the sources of most of Australia’s bulk wine. Re-planting at the very least will have to occur, ideally to less water-intensive, earlier ripening grape varietals (e.g. tempranillo) and experimentation by the likes of Brown Bros. combining with cutting-edge research from the AWRI (Australian Wine Research Institute) will provide growers/producers with vital information as vineyards are replanted and management of water is more effectively controlled.
As Jordan quipped, however, we should be wary of producers who claim they are making ‘cool climate’ or so-called ‘cooler climate’ wines in what are still often warm to hotter parts of Australia. Of course, the push to convince consumers that ‘cooler climate’ somehow equates with ‘higher quality’ has a lot to do with trying to persuade international wine drinkers that Australia does not just equal ‘sunshine in a bottle’. Longer growing seasons in which grapes can achieve phenolic ripeness and physiological maturity – i.e. without accumulating sugars too quickly, dropping acids significantly and having sufficient ‘hang-time’ to develop flavour precursors – are, of course, preferable for many table wines. But much depends on the kind of wine you want to produce in the first place and Australians should not be apologising for the exemplary and often great wines that emanate from its warmer to hot regions.
The Landmark Tutorial, it transpired, was precisely an investigation of the stunning diversity of styles Australian wine offers from cool-climate Tasmanian and Victorian sparklers to the abundantly rich and necessarily hot climate liqueur muscats of Rutherglen.
Moreover, if ‘Eurosnobs’ – as Andrew Caillard playfully calls them – are willing to appreciate table wines from the Douro (i.e. not merely port), then why shouldn’t the greatest wines of Australia’s equally warm to hot regions get due notice? (Note: acidification is allowed in both countries, if monitored by zone in the EU).
Tony Jordan’s overview of Australia’s diverse viticultural sites reminded everyone in attendance that it would be rash to judge contemporary Australia by the ‘sunshine in a bottle’ motif; even although Australians would, hand on heart, admit that that image has dominated both production and Australia’s international reputation, at least in mature markets.
Jordan’s session certainly provided a suitable context for appreciating the line-up of classic wines emphasizing Australia’s undeniable ‘regionality’ which Michael Hill Smith then introduced in the first tasting seminar.
This article was originally published on Enobytes.com
This is the second instalment of a 14-part series in which Edward Ragg provides an in-depth Inreview of last year’s Landmark Tutorial, a showcase of Australia’s finest wines. Co-founder, with Fongyee Walker, of Dragon Phoenix Wine Consulting based in Beijing, Ragg has also produced detailed tasting notes on all 185 of the wines tasted in the Landmark seminars on Adegga.
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