Top shiraz sold out
Jane Faulkner
The entrance to Witchmount Estate at Rockbank in Victoria - wines of exceptional quality [©Witchmount Estate]
"Sold out" are words uttered more often around Witchmount Estate’s cellar door these days thanks to the success of its 2004 shiraz, which earlier this year took out the top gong at the international wine competition known as Syrah du Monde, held ironically in the Northern Rhone, the region that is the heart and soul of this variety and arguably produces the best examples.
But no mistaking the outcome: it was a wine from Rockbank that stole the French show, pitted against 384 other shirazes from 23 countries.
Rockbank – now where’s that again? Head out along the Western Freeway towards the satellite suburb of Caroline Springs and it is right next door, a seemingly large wind-swept, dry plane of rocky volcanic red earth. While it’s hard to imagine any vegetation doing well in this harsh environment, Witchmount Estate has been growing grapes here for more than a decade ever since Matt and Gaye Ramunno bought the property in 1991. Now their son and vigneron, Tony, is charged with running the winery.
On May 22, the Syrah du Monde organisers contacted Tony with the news that his ’04 wine had not only been awarded a gold medal but had taken out the trophy for the best shiraz in the competition. The announcement spread quicker than wildfire. The cellar door was inundated with people wanting to snaffle up some of this awarding-winning wine – astoundingly it sold for just $26 bottle – but within hours none was left.
And Tony was almost lost for words as he tried to explain the incredible success while then having to tell people, most of whom had never heard of Witchmount Estate until that day, “sorry the wine had sold out.”
“We used to have a stock problem (of wine not selling out),” quips winemaker Steve Goodwin, “now we have another kind of stock problem, none at all! Since the award, all the 2005 shiraz has sold out and there’s a waiting list for the ’06 (due for release at the end of October).”
At the time, there was a lot of hype regarding the award but a point of clarification. As a result of the competition’s name, Syrah du Monde, roughly meaning syrah (shiraz) of the world, the gist of the competition became lost in translation. People erroneously believed Witchmount Estate’s winning wine was therefore, literally, the best shiraz in the world. It’s not. And those at the winery agree.
“We’re embarrassed about the misinterpretation,” says Adrian Marchioro, winery manager, assistant winemaker and the guy responsible for submitting the wine into the competition. “We were the best wine of the show that’s all; there’s no chance we were the best shiraz in the world. But since it’s the shiraz of the world challenge people believed the ultimatum, it was publicised as the best shiraz in the press and it was beyond our control to stop it.”
While the adage ‘you have to be in it to win it’ rings true, many top producers are simply not there in the line-up because they have not entered their wines. Of course this is not to delimit Witchmount Estate’s win: the point is, an Australian wine won.
“That’s exactly right,” says Goodwin, “and that’s why there was this furore domestically, and there’s also a hint of the cultural cringe so it’s nice when we beat the All Blacks at rugby, the poms in cricket and now the frogs in their own wine competition.”
Goodwin also explains the competition’s criteria includes looking for wines that have distinct shiraz varietal characters, not just pepper and spice, but soft, mellow tannins, “which is why people love shiraz and why it’s so easy to drink.”
The ’04 has actually won a raft of awards and with more bottle age, came more gold medals, seven to date. This year was the first time Marchioro entered Witchmount Estate onto the international competition circuit. Apart from the Syrah du Monde competition, it also took out gold medals at the Japan Wine Challenge and the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, which was actually held in Bordeaux.
So does winning medals at shows help more with marketing the wines than anything else?
“Certainly but we’re not just sending wine indiscriminately and we’re not making wines to win shows,” says Marchioro. “Initially we sent this wine overseas to create an interest and to help with our export. Both Tony and Steve were apprehensive; the idea of winning was never in our wildest dreams. The first (international) gold medal was the Concours and we walked around grinning for ages. Besides, it’s good to have third-party endorsement.”
Winning gold medals and international awards was no doubt the last thing on Matt Ramunno’s mind when he first starting planting grapes on the property bought initially as a hobby farm that’s now abundant with fruit and olive trees. There are 15 hectares under vine of cabernet sauvignon, pinot gris, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, barbera and tempranillo. And another two hectares of shiraz will be planted later this year to complement the other shiraz blocks.
This Rockbank site remains relatively disease free due to the warm and dry climate, and focused viticultural practices. For Goodwin, 2004 vintage produced a shiraz full of ripe intense berry flavours and firm tannins. On its release, he thought the wine was somewhat oak dominant but as Goodwin wants to make wines suitable for aging, the oak has now softened and soaked up all those fruit notes along the way.
Accolades aside, “the wine was made fairly simply,” says Goodwin. “The most important wine making decision is when you pick and we got that absolutely spot-on.” Once the wine went through malolactic fermentation in stainless steel tanks, it was put into new American oak barrels with about 20% going into old French oak, all up for about 14 months.
Despite a waiting list for the ’06 shiraz, if you get a bottle, it’ll only set you back about $32. Witchmount Estate wines are extremely well-priced, however the success of the Syrah du Monde competition now means all their wines are selling out. Oh, by the way, Goodwin always preferred the 2004 cabernet sauvignon to the shiraz. Yep, you guessed it, that’s gone too.
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- Geelong and Bellarine Peninsula (VIC)
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