Over 1000 Australian red wines reviewed and rated
The Big Red Wine Book 2008 by Campbell Mattinson
Robyn Lewis
The Big Red Wine Book by Campbell Mattinson [©Hardie Grant Books]
The Big Red Wine Book (fire-engine red, but not so big you can't take it to the bottleshop or cellar door) is Australia's first book devoted solely to (mainly) Australian red wines. Campbell Mattinson loves his reds, and over six or more years of tasting for his website, he has accumulated reviews of over 1000 red wines of many varieties and prices, now brought together and updated in print.
Shiraz is Australia's most popular red wine, so it is fitting that the first half of the Big Red Wine Book - 100 pages of it - is devoted to this grape, also known in a softer, more European (or American) guise as Syrah. From good quaffers to the pinnacle of Grange, Campbell has this variety reasonably well covered (although I look for Witchmount, the recent winner of Syrah du Monde - the best shiraz of the world award - in vain). Reading the brands and makers is like leafing through a who's who of Australian winemaking: Andrew Thomas, Baileys, Balnaves, Rick Burge, Gary Farr, Ben Glaetzer, weaving though the alphabet via Mt Langi Ghiran to Wirra Wirra, Wynns and Yalumba - plenty of old favourites woven amongst relative newcomers, and from almost all Australian wine regions, proving yet again how versatile, tolerant and indeed generous this grape variety is.
Also included are Shiraz/Viognier blends, which Campbell argues can now be treated in their own right, although averaging at 2-3% Viognier, I remain to be convinced (although not of the perfumed, apricotty Viognier's ability to lift Shiraz to new heights). Sparkling Shiraz also meets his fancy - as he says of some, ten years ago he woud have laughed, but now these wines can stand on thier own two feet, and not just with a Christmas turkey. Enjoy these bargains before the rest of the world cottons on...
A feature of his reviews is his judicious use of symbols: a bull's eye for his personal winners and a big R for this year's award winning wines. Campbell used the American 100 point rating and tempers it with personal views, for example: '84-86. Reasonable drinking. For a night at home or casual quaffing. Price has to be good to tempt me to buy.' Drinking windows provide a 'calculated guesstimate' of the best years to drink the wines; he also rates value for money. Another useful feature for those considering investing in wines is an 'auction rating', which gives an indication of the likelihood of a wine performing well at a future auction (or even if wines ever get to auction). You'll have to buy the book....
I was slightly less impressed with his 25 odd pages on Pinot Noir, although I have to confess that this is my favourite and currently most frequently tasted red wine. I must have missed something in the first half of the Big Red Wine Book but I found myself reading about New Zealand Pinots, yet scouring the pages for some outstanding cool climate Tasmanian examples, including the recent Qantas Trophy winner Clemens Hill Reserve 2005, from the Pinot Noir heaven of the Coal River Valley. (I thought this was about Australian reds??) However Bay of Fires and Stefano Lubbiana are there, even if the ethereal Freycinet is not.... The Mornington Peninsula seems somewhat underrepresented too, where there are some new(ish) Pinot Noir producers really hitting their straps.
But back to Terra Australis in the 50 odd pages of the Cabernet + blends section, where Campbell spotlights the South Australian regions of Coonawarra, Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale, and Margaret River in the west. Perhaps when Campbell passes on, like the kings of old he will have his remains divided among each of these regions as homage, such appears his devotion. The odd limb might be interred in Victoria, too, although barely a cabernet-stained toenail in NSW, and somewhat sadly to a former banana-bender, not one hair for the over 200 wineries and vineyards of Queensland, here or anywhere in the BRWB. (Queensland wines were elevated beyond joke status about the same time as sparking Shiraz).
The last 30 pages devoted to 'minor' red varieties is perhaps the most interesting, in that is it perhaps here that you will make discoveries, leap around the pitfalls, and have a bit of fun. It Merlot became passe when the movie Sideways see-sawed Pinot Noir to new heights, you'll find some better examples here (including a few more Kiwis), plus Grenache, Mouvedre, Malbec, Nebbiolo, Barbera, Tempranillo, Sangiovese, even Dolcetto and more.
Does a book like this require a Glossary? If you need to look up the terms in it (aromatic, austere, body, bottle-aged through to tannins, thin and varietal), you probably won't understand much of the rest, and you'd be better off with Rob Geddes' A Good Nose and Great Legs. As a Glossary it's basic at best. But if you already know your wines and want to assess or expand your red wine collection, then this book is a useful addition to your cellar library - or car glove-box.
The Big Red Wine Book by Campbell Mattinson is published by Hardie Grant, 2008. RRP A$22.95.
Subscribers to VisitVineyards.com and Winepros Archive can purchase The Big Red Wine Book at 12.5% discount via our book partners Seekbooks, who will post the books direct to you.
PS Leafing through the index to the BRWB, I am compelled to ask a question which might be taken up in the forum: how many names does a wine really need? When I started drinking wine, two or perhaps three seemed sufficient, but here I find quite a few with six, some with seven and - without reading the entire index - at least two with eight! (not including the vintage). The average seems to be around five. Whatever happened to simplicity in branding? Who can possibly remember a wine with eight names when they make it to the bottleshop or type it into Google? Basil Fawlty?
And we think French wine labels are impenetrable.....
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