No longer fashionable

[Ian S]

Stealing an idea from another forum...

Which producers (or regions or grapes) used to be wildly fashionable, but are barely spoken of now?

Especially interesting would be examples where they were talked about a lot here on this forum, but now are seen as passé or are becoming forgotten.

[phillisc]

Oh Ian, this will be good

First one that springs to mind is Lindemans...a truly great brand and wonderful wines from the hunter, Padthaway, Coonawarra and probably other places, that are now on death row..."you make me smile Dr Lindeman"...has been largely euthanised.

Riesling, has it ever been in vogue?

Mildara, Rouge Homme, same as Lindies.

Angle Vale north of Adelaide, used to be a great sub region in its own right and many a good wine maker cut their teeth there.

Fortifieds, need to come back

Anyway, there's a start
Cheers Craig

[Sean]

deleted

[felixp21]

Jimmy Watson Trophy.
believe it or not, it was HUGE 30 years ago. And I mean HUGE. Now pretty much irrelevant.

[saturn5519]

C,mon guys what about the good old Ben Ean Mosel and Liebfrauwine( Not sure on the exact spelling).
These wines were unbeatable at $1 a bottle.What more could you want.Only joking.

[Gavin Trott]

Riesling, has it ever been in vogue?

Anyway, there's a start
Cheers Craig

Its ALWAYS in vogue with me!

[tarija]

Barossa Valley
Heathcote
Chateauneuf du Pape

[sjw_11]

Shiraz Viognier.

Oh my yes, I recall a few years, maybe circa 2010-12 when every man and his dog was chucking Viognier into their Shiraz as if that alone made it a premium product! There were some absolute shockers out there.

Funnily enough I opened a Pierre Gaillard Côte-Rôtie 2020 last night with a whopping 10% Viognier that was absolutely fabulous, which proves it can be done, but perhaps best left to the experts!

[ticklenow1]

Penfolds Bin reds.
Rosemount Estate.
Australian wine in the UK and USA. (That’s why Treasury is buying up more US brand names to sell to Americans.)
Australian Pinot Noir. (Not sure it ever was.)
Fox Creek Reserve Shiraz.
Marquis wines.
Hunter Valley names like Brokenwood, Lakes Folly, Mount Pleasant.
Tahbilk Marsanne.
Mitchelton Print Shiraz.
Queensland wines. (Only joking.)
Wines that scored big points from James Halliday.
Wines that got criticised by Jeremy Oliver.
Hillcrest.
Bannockburn.
Anyone who made Brett affected wine.
Bass Phillip wines.
Chris Ringland wines.
Tasmanian wines, eg. Freycinet.
Jimmy Watson Trophy winners.
d’Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz.
Warrabilla. (I had to check the spelling.)
Te Mata Coleraine.
NZ Sauvignon Blanc.
Hawkes Bay Syrah.
NZ Pinot Noir (even though everyone is still probably drinking it instead of Australian PN).
Shiraz Viognier.
Wild Duck Creek.
Leasingham Classic Clare Shiraz.
Mount Etna wines.
Clean skins.

OK that was a quick 30 without even really trying.

Gee I couldn't disagree more with a few of them.

Lake's Folly sells out every vintage. Mount Pleasant has been on fire recently, some fantastic wines.
Bannockburn are making great wines consistently.
Tasmanian Chardonnay is also hitting it out of the park consistently.
Te Mata Coloraine has been extremely sought after for quite a while now.
Wild Duck Creek sell almost all of their wine on allocation, so doesn't see much retail.
There is some seriously good wines coming from Mount Etna.

But I wholeheartedly agree with quite a few others

Penfolds is overpriced (especially the reds)
Rosemount Estate has all but disappeared and what is available is inferior quality to what it once was. I drank a lot of Balmoral in the early 00's
Fox Creek Reserve Shiraz is the same as Rosemount. Drank plenty during the '00's. Had a '02 Magnum for my 50th that was stunning.
d'Arenberg are more about tourism now than wine quality, which is a real shame.
NZ Sav Blanc = vomit!
NZ Pinot Noir. I'm no Pinot drinker but tried plenty the last couple of times I've been over there and Aussie Pinot is heaps beeter.
Leasingham Classic Clare. As for Rosemount and d'Arenberg, a real shame.

But that is what makes the wine world so amazing. We all like/dislike something different.

So many wineries that I started my wine journey with are just shadows of their former selves. Lots have been bastardised by large corporates and some just disappeared.

Cheers,
Ian

[Ian S]

Jimmy Watson Trophy.
believe it or not, it was HUGE 30 years ago. And I mean HUGE. Now pretty much irrelevant.

I love the lateral thinking on this, and yes it's more of a 'mentioned in passing' thing now, rather than a guarantee of selling the whole production overnight.

As to why, whilst there have clearly been some absolutely worthy wines to win the award, the pre-requisite of (IIRC) max 2 year old did rather constrain what wines were presented, but also pushed it towards a 'instant appeal' style of wine. Perhaps too many dubious winners / wines that shone too brightly too soon as well? Do people trust the big shows more now? Or maybe the critic is king?

[Ian S]

C,mon guys what about the good old Ben Ean Mosel and Liebfrauwine( Not sure on the exact spelling).
These wines were unbeatable at $1 a bottle.What more could you want.Only joking.

and internationally the era of big brand sugar water gave us Black Tower, Mateus Rose, Blue Nun and others. Then there was Laski Riesling / Lutomer Riesling, Liebfraumilch and Screwcapped Lambrusco (which provided a massive hurdle for modern screwcaps to overcome).

[Ian S]

Warrabilla. (I had to check the spelling.)
Shiraz Viognier.
Mount Etna wines.

These 3 interested me especially, as I very much recall Andrew at Warrabilla being active here, and the wines being talked about a lot by others. Shiraz Viognier, especially in Canberra also was as hot as anything not all that long ago, but feels very much a very occasionally mentioned wine style now.

Mount Etna as well was massively trendy here as well, and although I was thinking "it's still mentioned", I reckon you're right, nowhere near to the same degree.

[Ian S]

Riesling, has it ever been in vogue?

Anyway, there's a start
Cheers Craig

Its ALWAYS in vogue with me!

Yep, I think interest hasn't abated here. Long term love, but seemingly never going to break into the mainstream, whether dry or sweet. Wine enthusiasts little secret bargain? I reckon so.

[Ian S]

Not so much here, but in the wider wine world, Maison Ilan (Ray Walker). From zero to hero, and then not stopping at zero on the way back, building a deeply negative reputation and falling foul of the French authorities.

[Ian S]

Plenty of prime examples here as well of brand managers and corporate execs f*cking over wineries with history, destroying the brand and its value in shockingly short spaces of time. Rosemount, Lindemans, Seaview but oh so many others. Indeed it feels amazing when a winery quietly survives and prospers under such management e.g. Wynns and even a winery like Baileys.

These feel less victims of fashion, and more victims of corporate ineptitude, rightly called out here over the years.

[JamieAdelaide]

Spending two weeks a month in the USA and I’ve been
pretty shocked at the demise of Aussie wine when we once darlings. That said, a colleague and I shared a bottle of Barossa Shiraz and he said it the best bottle of wine he’s ever tasted. He’s Lebanese so I said I’ll swap an old Ksara for a Basket Press ( I’ve heaps of Musar )

Sublime quality re-shines despite fashion. Although classes such as fortified and dessert seem to struggle. Had a magnum of d’Yquem this month and seriously thought it an unhealthy way to finish an evening.

[Sean]

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[Ian S]

Had a magnum of d’Yquem this month and seriously thought it an unhealthy way to finish an evening.

For one person, possibly. I dread to imagine the sugar rush. Better shared, as most wine is

[Ian S]

Hi Sean
Hunter valley even more frustrating over here in the UK, as it was so rarely seen. I've got some Tyrrells and some Lovedale, but that's it. It's a true classic, perhaps the relatively small volumes means it still goes a little under the radar. I also like Hunter Shiraz, and that's not much more available either. I did manage to snag some (2000 vintage?) Tower Estate HV Shiraz at auction a good few years ago, and also had a Graveyard from the same vintage.

Pyrenees (great western) a long time favourite region, possibly my favourite in Australia. Never gets massive coverage though, but maybe yes it would have been a little more in the past.

Sami-Odi definitely the hot new thing, reminding me of how Woodlands burst onto the scene in Marg River (after a sleepy period).

I remember Robert Parker for sure. In part loving how he led his loyal followers to wines I didn't like, bumping up those prices, but allowing others to hold station . Conversely I also remember the increasingly strident and combative personality, that combined with his faithful assistant Mark Squires drove his own wine forum (the busiest in the world) into oblivion, through a swathe of bans. Much loved auswine forumite TORB (Ric Einstein) wasn't just banned, but they went to the trouble of banning any mention of his name by others (such references were coded into **** or *** ********).

With Parker's decline and retirement, a good number of wines like Kays Brothers, Fox Creek, Marquis Phillips fell swiftly out of fashion, and we still see them doing the rounds at auctions here, not quite circling the drain, but the demand and price they sell for (if at all) plummeted.

I suppose Parker and The wine advocate should be included in this thread!

[Sean]

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[Ian S]

Hi Sean
I think many of us are past the grooving and shaking stage The joints can't take the strain.

Ironically, one of Parker's hooks was his supposed distancing from producers/distributors, dissing the English establishment for alleged 'cosy' relationships, and fwiw I think there was some truth in those accusations. As you say, it's a natural tendency unless a critic both fiercely avoids it, and is very open about declarations of interest, to remove the temptation. The latter years of TWA saw some embarrassing examples of obvious conflicts of interest, but maybe he was more diligent when he started.

Yes, it was a strange caricature of the Aussie wine scene that TWA/Parker promoted, and hence the US perception became horribly skewed. There was less buy-in to Parker in the UK, but those sad remnants revolving round the auction scene shows we weren't totally aloof. I was luckier having got exposure to Aussie wines via the double front: The Australian wine bureau was a tireless promoter, but alongside their efforts Oddbins retail chain was delivering a punk-like blow to the established wine scene and Aussie wines were always at the forefront of their offering. Glory days, and adding in the stunning value of the era, and it was a major reason I got into wine.

[Ian S]

...and just for you... a pinot gris tasting note from a radical but popular natural wine producer:
2018 Meinklang Pinot Gris Graupert - Austria, Burgenland (23/03/2020)
Rosé / orange coloured and somewhat hazy.

Pleasing grapey / grapefruit / oatmeal savoury nose

Grapefruit also coming through on the palate, though without the fierceness also associated with the fruit. Oatmeal comes through as well along with an unusual hint of hops on the finish. Somewhat sour-edged acidity is reasonably firm but not overpowering.

Overall, unusual for sure, likewise interesting. I'm not sure I'd buy again - it's perhaps too unusual.

Day 2 and also a little warmer. A notable pffft! as the cork removed, but not any noticeable fizz. The hoppiness really comes to the fore, wine or IPA, I'm finding the boundary blurred.