briefs

TARRANGO BACK IN THE MIX

ONCE the biggest selling red wine by volume in the United Kingdom, Brown Brothers Tarrango is now lurking in the doldrums. The first Australian-born grape developed by the CSIRO is no longer sold domestically by the company that commercialised it, Brown Brothers, but that’s about to change. This summer tarrango will be re-introduced to the Australian wine market as a rose. “I’m very passionate about making sure that it keeps going,” says Brown Brothers winemaker Katherine Brown. “We were looking at trends and where this variety might work. Demand isn’t high for it at the moment but demand is for rose.” The 2018 Tarrango Rose will make its debut this summer, and is made in a Beaujolais-style with 15 per cent carbonic maceration to highlight the grape’s natural, bright cherry fruit characters. A cross of touriga and sultana, the grape was developed specifically for Australian conditions by the late Dr Alan Antcliff at the CSIRO in 1972. Tarrango is one of three CSIRO-developed grapes, including cienna and mystique, that Brown Brothers has developed, and for Katherine Brown it is important that they continue to thrive. “We have these new and interesting varieties but we have to make sure the longevity is there,” she adds. “We are growing them because they are potentially going to help us through climate change. These indigenous grape varieties ripen later without the need for more water to get through droughts and can deal with salinity.”

JUDGING THE JUDGES

WITH so many premium Australian wines under screwcap, is there a wine judge bias against wines under cork?

It’s a question Yalumba red winemaker Kevin Glastonbury has been concerned about, enough to launch his own small study into how wine judges at Australian wine shows view red wines under screwcap as opposed to cork in a judging lineup. With every Yalumba premium red wine sealed under cork, his interest is not merely academic.

“You go along in a line-up and you know that there is something different about a wine,” he says. “It’s not corked but there is a difference about it,” he says.

“We’ve actually gone through with a Coravin (wine preservation system) to a couple of wine shows this year and checked every bottle of the top end. “Wines under cork don’t have the freshness of some of the younger wines under screwcap.” He is concerned that young, juicy red wines often make it through to the final award and trophy judging ahead of wines under cork. “I reckon we spend $60-$70,000 a year to enter shows.” It’s a cost he believes his company may need to re-assess in the future.

GAMAY TAKES A LEAD ROLE

PROMINENT West Australian wine producer Howard Park is embracing a clutch of new grape varieties and some choices are sure to surprise. “We’ve planted pinot gris, gewurztraminer and grafted sauvignon blanc over to gamay,” says Jeff Burch, co-owner and CEO. Gamay? Yes, indeed, at Mt Barker in the Great Southern.

“No one else is planting gamay (there). Only me. I pick up around the world that gamay is going to be hot.”

Burch’s logic is well-founded. As premium red burgundy and general pinot noir prices sky-rocket, many consumers have moved on to gamay, the other red grape of Burgundy. “When people can’t afford pinot, what do they drink?” Burch asks. “They still want a soft approachable, soft-tannin red and maybe gamay can fit that spot. We’re not talking about a beaujolais nouveau, we’re talking about a gamay with some oak, like a serious drink. I think it’s got opportunities.” Howard Park’s first vintage is two years away but Australian drinkers will see a gamay under Burch’s wine label Marchand & Burch. Indeed, through his partnership with Burgundian winemaker Pascal Marchand he already has a Burgundy-grown gamay on the market. “We only have 70 cases this year for Australia but next year we are doing 400 cases. It will help me understand gamay a little bit more before ours comes on stream.”

This year also sees the launch of the new Howard Park “icon” wine, the A.S.W (“Alex Stephen Wee”). The wine pays homage to the family of co-owner Amy Burch who settled in Australia from Singapore in the 1960s. Sourced from Margaret River fruit, the 2016 release is a blend of cabernet sauvignon and shiraz featuring, in a major departure for the maker, “significant” use of American oak.

MAKING THE MOST OF REGIONAL DOMINANCE

THE Adelaide Hills is fast becoming the go-to wine region for super-premium quality wine grapes, something long-time Hills winemaker Nepenthe is capitalising on with the launch of its new Apex range. But what