Australian Awards at the 2012 Decanter World Wine Awards & International Wine Challenge 2012

As is usual at this time of year, emails have flooded in from wineries that have succeeded at either or both of the competitions.  Hardys gave a full list of their awards, including silver and bronze medals, but most of the other releases only covered trophies and golds.  Through sheer force of numbers, Hardys had a long list of medals; one exception to that was Hardys subsidiary Bay of Fires Wines, which won three gold, one silver and one bronze medal at the Decanter World Wine Awards, and (counter intuitively) one silver, one bronze and three ‘Commendeds’ at the International Wine Challenge.  Normally the latter is more generous with its medals than Decanter.  Nonetheless, it was a 100% success rate, which is very impressive, the golds going to the 2010 Bay of Fires Pinot Noir, 2011 Bay of Fires Riesling and 2011 Bay of Fires Sauvignon Blanc.

Moorooduc Estate won the Trophy for Best Australian Pinot Noir over £10 in the Decanter Awards with its 2009 Robinson Vineyard.  Interestingly, it is a wine sold predominantly in the UK, with a small release at cellar door, where it sells for $35 a bottle.

McGuigan Wines won gold at the Decanter Awards for its ‘07 Shortlist Riesling.  It is available at McGuigan’s cellar door in the Barossa Valley and selected independent retailers for $28.99.

Nepenthe won its second trophy in four years for the Best Australian Sauvignon Blanc over £10 in the Decanter competition; in this occasion succeeding with the 2011 vintage.  This is a poke in the eye for those who have been running around writing off the 2011 vintage in south eastern Australia; it has in fact produced some quite beautiful white wines from virtually all varieties.  Only 25 trophies are awarded at the Decanter Awards, selected from more than 12,000 wines entered.  Nepenthe also won a gold from Decanter for its 2010 Shiraz, and both these wines are available through selected independent wine stores for $19.99 each.

Rosily Vineyard won a gold medal at the International Wine Challenge, securing the only gold medal presented to a winery from the Margaret River region, for its 2010 Chardonnay.  It is currently available with an RRP of $23. 

De Bortoli re-engineering its future

It’s not often a good news story like this comes across my desk.  I have always had the highest regard for the ethics, business principles and wines made by De Bortoli’s Riverina winery (exceptional value for money) and in the Yarra Valley (great quality).  Having got that off my chest, the press release announcing a $4.8 million grant from the Federal Government needs no re-engineering.

‘De Bortoli Wines would like to acknowledge the financial support received from the Australian Federal Government’s Clean Technology Food and Foundries Investment Program delivered by AusIndustry.

The grant, worth $4.8 million, supports an investment of $11 million by the De Bortoli family in a project called “Re-engineering Our Future for a Carbon Economy”.

The ultimate goal under the De Bortoli family philosophy is to be a zero waste wine company. Operations Manager, Rob Glastonbury explains the shift in the company’s focus saying, “Where previously we have focused on sustainability on the farm and in the vineyard this project places greater emphasis on our production and warehousing sites in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria and includes upgrades to refrigeration, winemaking systems, packaging lines, electrical and lighting systems.”

Mr Glastonbury outlines the benefits the grant will bring in reducing the company’s carbon footprint, “Receiving the grant allows the company to implement a broad range of initiatives, some of which we’ve been planning for the past five years. It’s about using non-renewable power more effectively, lowering power use across our sites and wherever possible, offsetting power from both the grid and gas through the use of solar power.”

De Bortoli Wines has made a serious commitment to the environment, going well beyond mandatory requirements to develop a comprehensive environment and sustainability plan and to adopt a wide range of innovative programs and practices. Managing Director, Darren De Bortoli, summarises the importance of sustainability saying “Our future lies in the stewardship of our properties and through the management of our precious resources.”

Giaconda – Australia’s Best Chardonnay

I have already written about this release (2010) from Giaconda; Rick Kinzbrunner believes it is the best chardonnay he has ever made, and, with the possible exception of the 1996, I for my part agree with that. It’s scarcer than hen’s teeth, but if you are quick you may be able to get some through Grande Millesime Fine Wines (http://www.grandmillesime.com.au/productslist.php/type/new/p_cat/Mjg3)

Barossa Valley Shiraz and alcohol levels

I pulled some interesting statistics out of the Wine Companion database covering all Barossa Shirazs tasted for the 2012 and 2013 Wine Companions.  In all, there were 62 shirazs with an alcohol level of 14% or less that rated 90 points or above. This compared with 352 shirazs rated 90 points or above with alcohol levels in excess of 14%.  The one consolation is that the overwhelming majority of those were in fact at 14.5%.

Endorsement of products – Antipodes

I have never endorsed (for reward, direct or indirect) a wine or winemaker; I have endorsed Riedel glassware, on the basis that I had been using limited amounts of Riedel glassware since 1969, beautiful, long-stemmed, small bowl sweet wine glasses, and Coopers Ale, its green label my perennial favourite beer. For the last endorsement (‘the winemaker’s beer’) Ian McKenzie and I were to receive a dozen bottles of Coopers each year, but it wasn’t too long before the deal mysteriously disappeared. Now there is Antipodes, a product that I have always thought the ultimate sparkling water to be served at any meal where wine is on the table. It has that magic balance between still water and fully sparkling, yet retains the prickle on the tongue for as long as you challenge it to do so. (It is also available without gas.) It does strike me as truly strange that we should import mineral water, sparkling or still, all the way from Italy and France (amongst other countries). Transport across the ditch is a very different thing to transport from Europe. And then there is Evian, which runs a distant second to Sydney tap water.

Wine Intelligence Business Awards

Wine Intelligence is the foremost market research business in the world, operating in 20 countries.  With its senior management split between the UK and Australia, it is able to cover the three major spheres fitting within its global business: first, Europe (including, of course, the UK); the Americas, North and South; and Australasia, in this context embracing China and Greater Asia, Australia and (as an outlier that is geographically a one-off) South Africa.

Its recent analyses of the Asian markets have been especially interesting, picking up trends the moment they emerge – thus a growing awareness and interest in white wines, and sweet red wines, in China.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the founding of Wine Intelligence, it has instituted business awards to be presented around the world over this year.  Su Birch, CEO of Wines of South Africa, was the first recipient; more recently awards were given to wine journalist Tim Atkin, MW, and Chester Osborn of d’Arenberg.

In typical form Chester Osborn joked in his acceptance speech ‘I can’t believe I have won this award...I have never worked a day in my life, I am still making mudpies – there’s the same ingredients water, soil, sun makes grapes as well – so I think it is fantastic that I’ve won an award for still being a big kid.’

Tim Atkin’s award marked his ‘willingess to challenge conventional wisdom whilst remaining the consummate wine professional’ admired by the world-over.  He responded by saying, ‘I have been lucky to win a lot of awards in my life, but this one means the most to me because it is from people who are my peers and colleagues.’

He also continued a theme that he has been hammering for some time now in the fortnightly UK trade magazine, Off Licence News, by saying ‘...it saddens me slightly that we have lost a bit of excitement [about wine] in this country. We have still got some great wine professionals, and I hope some reasonably good wine journalists – let’s put the UK back in the centre of the wine world, not in the margins.’ 

The Finest Wines of Burgundy – Bill Nanson (University of California Press)

Yet another book on Burgundy has reached the Australian shelves, distributed by Inbooks with an RRP of $49.95.  It contains 320 pages of full colour photography and text, and has an entirely new take.  The author, Bill Nanson, is a chemist by profession, and has no connection to the wine trade, but has made frequent visits to Burgundy over the past 15 years and regularly works the vintage there.  On thing that particularly impressed me (apart from Hugh Johnson’s foreword) was his vintage chart from 1990 to 2010, in which he refused to ascribe any rating to the vintages 1994-2004 inclusive because of (and I quote) ‘the pervasive influence of oxidised bottles renders this period a complete lottery. Spend only what you can afford to lose.’