No wonder the U.S. wine buying public struggles to understand our wine regions. Taken from a recent Wine Spectator article by one of their senior columnists, Harvey Steiman when giving the lowdown on our wine :
Western Australia, on the other side of the continent, is better known for its whites because the reds too often taste strongly of herbs or vegetables.
Lower Hunter reds tend to turn gamy, no matter what grape is used.
Wines from Clare are also influenced by the coastal climate and have more of a tangy bite.
Old Harvey should get out more. He seems to have let time pass him by somewhat. There is something of a "lets rubbish Aussie wine" mentality at the moment over there,you only have to look at the Mark Squires board to get an overview. The one point that many over there seem not to appreciate is that much of the wine they are drinking is doctored to their tastes and not even for sale in this country. What they see as representative of Oz wine is quite skewed as a result. Add that to this blokes misguided ramblings and well,you get the drift.
I don't mind quite so much as I have become accustomed to the ignorance factor, and besides, it leaves more wines for us locals that is not heading overseas. However it must be terribly frustrating for wineries trying to export (unless of course you are in S.A. )
While I admit Harvey made some fairly odd generalisations about regions, he has nothing but good things to say about Australian red wines in the article that accompanied an email update I got from Wine Spectator today - "Australia's Reds Roll On". That said, a quick glance suggests he didn't recommend anything from Western Australia, the silly old duffer.
Paul Simpson's comment about generalizations and their danger is important. I can only recall starting out with wine, trying to make sense of California - as a resident (then) - its regions and micro-climates depending upon sea breezes etc. It took a lot of cork-popping to figure out what I liked. Then I had to factor in oak and malo... I read everything I could but got more out of the Spectator's Forums (before there were so many others that were better to read).
Lately I've been buying/trying lots of Southern Hemisphere wines after having had too many wonderful and compelling New Zealand sauvignon blancs and Australian shirazes to ignore the regions any longer.
And that is what brings me here, daily, to read; hopefully to learn, in order to buy better while continuing to "harass" my friendly wine merchants.
As a native Californian, one who owns a fine wine shop, and as someone who has actually visited many of the wine regions in Australia, I find the Aussie wines some of the best values in the marketplace.
So do most Americans; witness that we are still bringing in more and more of the Aussie juice, while many other imports are losing market share.
I didn't check out the Wine Speck article in question, but I would certainly disagree with those three statements.
ChrisH,
Your post drips with disdain, I know how you feel. Look, we ALL (out of Australia) have to learn a great deal about your country and it's wines. That's certainly why I'm here !
Have pity on the ignorant We do love your black Shiraz !
Cheers,
Mishy
Mishy - It's not the consumer's fault if the wine press report gross inaccuracies. I am not showing disdain for the consumer, rather the Harvey's of the wine world - they are supposed to be the educators.
I don't recall any of our Australian wine scribes reporting like that about overseas wines and I don't expect U.S scribes to report so inaccurately either - don't know whether it is laziness or what but it is pretty easy for Wine Spectator to tap into one of the OZ scribes if they can't be bothered doing their own research.
Chris,
It's more disturbing the #s of people who read and prescribe to WS's teachings.
Sorry, I didn't mean to misread your post, I assumed.
Serious people who spend serious money research well beyond the Spectator - if they even read it .
Greetings from Canada !
Cheers,
Mishy
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