Teach me about Australian Wine

Neel · Post by **Neel** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 11:35 pm

I have just joined this forum and have scanned through it. So much information!

But I would like a short introduction to Australian wine. Whatever you think is relevant.

Perhaps start off with what what you think Australia's icon wines are.

PS: Am from South Africa (and hopefully a Aussie soon!)

Jay60A · Post by **Jay60A** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 1:13 am

Neel - welcome!!

Just too big a question ... best place to start imo is the Langton's Classification ...

http://www.langtons.com.au/Wine/ClassificationView.aspx

I know everyone here would substitute many of the wines with their favourites but it's a pretty good start imo. Newer wines are not included yet as there must be a ten year history. So that excludes some like Penfolds RWT and most of the cult wines.

Langton's also have another section on cult wines and emerging wines (which have a big overlap).

Jay

Neel · Post by **Neel** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 3:09 am

Thanks Jay

Will have a look. The name "Penfolds" certainly appears a lot on this forum...........

Red Bigot · Post by **Red Bigot** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 10:24 am

Neel wrote:Thanks Jay

Will have a look. The name "Penfolds" certainly appears a lot on this forum...........

These days it's mostly about drinking older vintages and mutterings about the high price of new vintages, especially compared to their overseas market prices.

After buying their wines for over 40 years, Penfolds may have finally priced themselves at a point that I find better value elsewhere on all their wines. The 2005 Bin 389 and 2004 St Henri have probably been the last Penfolds reds I ever buy in any quantity.

For an introduction to Austrlian wine regions, get hold of a copy of James Halliday's Wine Atlas of Australia.

If you want some history, try to get your hands on the old Complete Book of Australian Wine by the late Len Evans.

Wayno · Post by **Wayno** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 12:17 pm

Red Bigot wrote:The 2005 Bin 389 and 2004 St Henri have probably been the last Penfolds reds I ever buy in any quantity.

Until the stunning 2010 vintage perhaps..?

Red Bigot · Post by **Red Bigot** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 1:33 pm

Wayno wrote:
Red Bigot wrote:The 2005 Bin 389 and 2004 St Henri have probably been the last Penfolds reds I ever buy in any quantity.

Until the stunning 2010 vintage perhaps..?

In SA, 2006 and 2008 look to be pretty good vintages, probably better than 2004 and 2005, it all depends on pricing and whether they produce the goods or not. There are so many other good and interesting wines out there that Bin 389 at $45 and St Henri at $70 plus have a lot of competition. Those are the only two I'm likely to ever buy again.

Neel · Post by **Neel** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 5:24 pm

Thanks Brian

Will try to get hold of those books

Daryl Douglas · Post by **Daryl Douglas** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 7:27 pm

Neel wrote:Thanks Brian

Will try to get hold of those books

I've had a copy of Evans' "Complete Book of Australian Wine" (completely revised 1990 edition) for years. There are pics of many familiar labels, some of which have been updated a bit, and quite a few that I've never heard of or have disappeared, possibly due to the vineyard/winery having been bought/absorbed/taken over.

Brian's right about the history side of it. Evans concisely provides some very interesting details about the establishment of every winery listed in the book.

For example, it's only in about the last year that I became aware of Forest Hill in the Great Southern WA region and after reading this thread I dusted off the book. After re-reading the Tahbilk history I found the par on Forest Hill. I didn't know anything about the Pearse family who were the first to plant vines in Great Southern (I knew from Halliday's companion that Forest Hill was the first vineyard but not who established it). Didn't know either that the Pearse' sold it to Holmes a Court interests before it passed to it's current ownership in 1997 (Halliday's info).

Incidentally, the entry level cab/merl and riesling from FH are very good vfm. Even the Block Series wines are good value. Howard Park/Madfish, though somewhat more well known, is also based in the same region.

Cheers

daz

Roscoe · Post by **Roscoe** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:51 am

Red Bigot wrote:
After buying their wines for over 40 years, Penfolds may have finally priced themselves at a point that I find better value elsewhere on all their wines.

Too true.

Craig(NZ) · Post by **Craig(NZ)** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:53 am

Just remember....

All Australian wines are over rated...except for those that arent

Roscoe · Post by **Roscoe** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 1:14 pm

All wines are under or over-rated, except if I agree with how they are rated. :wink:

Gavin Trott · Post by **Gavin Trott** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 3:43 pm

Craig(NZ) wrote:Just remember....

All Australian wines are over rated...except for those that arent

Ahh but

are all wine raters

over rated?

:?:

griff · Post by **griff** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 4:26 pm

Gavin Trott wrote:
Craig(NZ) wrote:Just remember....

All Australian wines are over rated...except for those that arent

Ahh but

are all wine raters

over rated?

Perhaps those that rate more than 100 :lol:

cheers

Carl

Craig(NZ) · Post by **Craig(NZ)** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 6:04 pm

Ahh but

are all wine raters

over rated?

oh god maybe we need a book rating wine raters out of 100 so we know not only what wine to like but who we should let tell us what we like as well!! :lol:

they say the most successful drug dealers are the ones that never touch the stuff themselves :lol:

Roscoe · Post by **Roscoe** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 8:25 am

Gavin Trott wrote:
Craig(NZ) wrote:Just remember....

All Australian wines are over rated...except for those that arent

Ahh but

are all wine raters

over rated?

Not if their ratings are in accord with mine- then they're under-rated.