Multi region blends

[darby]

Are we getting too anal about terroir?

Last week the Fed square wine show held its annual awards event. Grampians Estate won the best wine of the year, best red wine etc for its Black Sunday Friends Reserve Shiraz 2006. Its little brother (non reserve) was also a finalist (silver or gold category) Huon Hooke in The Age's Good Weekender also gave it a big wrap.

As a noted non-fan of shiraz I thought the wine was pretty good myself.

The wines were made with wine and grapes donated by wineries in various regions after GE's vineyard was wiped out in the bushfires of that year.

While it is important to maintain varietal and regional wines I reckon we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that blends can also be wonderful driinks as well.

[Daryl Douglas]

Australian wines have a long history of multi-region, fairly often as multi-variety blends as well. Perhaps the best multi/multi I've tried is Murdock The Merger 2005, 60% Coonawarra cab with 40% Barossa shiraz.

One of the most notable (though I've never tried it) is that 1998 vintage of a Victorian winery that lost it's fruit that year to, I think, bushfire and made a shiraz 98 that many consider to be one of it's best, from fruit donated by other wineries from diverse regions. I'm sure someone here knows the winery but I'm buggered if I can remember the name just now. Anyway, a similar scenario to that of the GE "Friends".

daz

[Mahmoud Ali]

Wasn't it Gary Farr's winery? And it was due to bushfires and it was in 1998.

Cheers...........Mahmoud

[Daryl Douglas]

Wasn't it Gary Farr's winery? And it was due to bushfires and it was in 1998.

Cheers...........Mahmoud

Yeah, it was Farr Snr's winery, Bannockburn! The vineyard damage was caused by hail. Thanks to you and James Halliday I finally found, remembered the name. In fact in his TN (96pts) of the GE Friends, Halliday says, "In the genre of Bannockburn Shiraz 1998....". Six cool climate Victorian wineries supplied the fruit, mostly from the Grampians and the Pyrenees apparently.

Only ever tried the 2001 Bannockburn, thought it was over-rated, didn't enjoy it much (some thought it a bit too bretty) but from what I recall of discussions about it, the 01 may have had some bottle variation - certainly there were some polarised opinions. Mind you, Halliday gave it a very complimentary TN and 95pts.

Cheers

daz

[Daryl Douglas]

As a noted non-fan of shiraz I thought the wine was pretty good myself.

I've a couple of bottles of The Story Westgate Shiraz 06 but haven't tried it yet. It's said to be a medium bodied shiraz from the Grampians with some class and compexity so you may enjoy it. It's cheaper stablemate I've had a few bottles of, [The Story Grampians Shiraz 06 - it's generally referred to as "The Orphan" after the name of the 05] is an excellent wine, especially so for $20.

Cheers

daz

[Wizz]

Wasn't it Gary Farr's winery? And it was due to bushfires and it was in 1998.

Cheers...........Mahmoud

Yeah, it was Farr Snr's winery, Bannockburn! The vineyard damage was caused by hail. Thanks to you and James Halliday I finally found, remembered the name. In fact in his TN (96pts) of the GE Friends, Halliday says, "In the genre of Bannockburn Shiraz 1998....". Six cool climate Victorian wineries supplied the fruit, mostly from the Grampians and the Pyrenees apparently.

Only ever tried the 2001 Bannockburn, thought it was over-rated, didn't enjoy it much (some thought it a bit too bretty) but from what I recall of discussions about it, the 01 may have had some bottle variation - certainly there were some polarised opinions. Mind you, Halliday gave it a very complimentary TN and 95pts.

Cheers

daz

The grapes came from further afield than that and from many more wineries - I've sighted a list at some stage, there were about 20 wineries, and some came from SA, including Rockford.

It was a very good wine, and a good example of not needing to rely on single site terroir to produce a high quality drink.

AB

[Old Salt]

Adding to WIZZ's post;
According to the back label, of the 37 wineries offering assistance, grapes from the following were used in the 98 Shiraz: -
BRL Hardy, Cape Mentelle, Charlie Melton, Dalwhinnie, Henschke, Jasper Hill, Katnook, Mt Langi Ghiran, Paxton, Pikes, Rockford, St Hallets, Taltarni and Yalumba.
Could this be the 'most regional blend ever'??

Still have eight bottles left but last two were disappointing. Too bretty for my liking - did not dissipate over three days. Will open another tonight to satisfy my curiosity. Bottles tried much earlier did show evidence of brett but not as severe - or has my tolerance to brett changes over the years? Possible, I suppose.

Ray D.

[Shiraz Boy]

I must admit when I first got interested in wine I was not so bothered about multi-regional blends (for example, Penfolds wines), but as my palate has developed I have become more annal, and will only buy single region wines. I like to taste where the wine has come from. Even better are single vineyard wines, which extend the French concept of "terrior" one step further.

This is not to say that there is something necessarily bad about multi-regional blends from a taste point of view. It is just that they blur the regional characteristics of a wine.

On the marketing side, multi-regional blends perpetuate the French view that Australia only produces industrial wines, which is rubbish given the many single region and single vineyard wines produced in Australia.

[Wizz]

Adding to WIZZ's post;
According to the back label, of the 37 wineries offering assistance, grapes from the following were used in the 98 Shiraz: -
BRL Hardy, Cape Mentelle, Charlie Melton, Dalwhinnie, Henschke, Jasper Hill, Katnook, Mt Langi Ghiran, Paxton, Pikes, Rockford, St Hallets, Taltarni and Yalumba.
Could this be the 'most regional blend ever'??

Still have eight bottles left but last two were disappointing. Too bretty for my liking - did not dissipate over three days. Will open another tonight to satisfy my curiosity. Bottles tried much earlier did show evidence of brett but not as severe - or has my tolerance to brett changes over the years? Possible, I suppose.

Ray D.

I had m last one in November last year, and it was starting to tire.

by the way - is Ray D = Ray Deusing from Brisbane?

[Daryl Douglas]

Wizz, my post was not clear enough. The sources of fruit from cool climate regions including mostly the Grampians and the Pyrenees was a lift from Halliday's TN of the Grampians Estate Friends.

I do recall that the Bannockburn 98 was made from fruit contributed from a much more diverse number of regions including some in SA, perhaps even WA.

Cheers

daz

[Sharkey]

I had a bottle of this last year and still have the empty botle in the cellar. It has to be one of the best back labels ever .

The wineries that contributed to the shiraz are in bold.