Had a long, lavish lunch at Pireaus Blues late Sunday afternoon, the Greek food paired with the 1990 Grange and 1990 Hill of Grace for the four of us to consume (part of a bet, and BTW, not wasted on the magnificent grilled meats served to us).
We got talking about the greatest Aussie wines, much to the wives delight (
), and in particular, the wines of the 90's.
What a fascinating and utterly important decade that was for our industry- in those ten years we became a world player, not only in export volumes, but also in the premium wine market.
Whilst Grange and HOG flagged the potential of our industry to prospective overseas markets from as early as the mid-70's, it was the rise of the "cult" wineries in the 90's that firmly and finally established Oz as a producer of world-class premium wines.
In 1990, Greenock Creek, Three Rivers, Turkey Flat, Henry's Drive, Fox Creek, Wild Duck Creek, Torbreck, Giaconda, and a host of other now-famous boutique wines were either non-existant or in the early fledgling stage. We all knew of Cullens, Moss Wood, Peter Lehmann etc., but they were still pretty much of national interest only.
Boom,.....along came Parker and others, just at the right time. Not only were the boutiques really getting going, but many of the established wineries were adding a super-premium lable to their range. Yalumba developed their "reserve", Rosemount its "Balmoral", Peter Lehmann his "Stonewell", Penfolds its "Yattarna" and "RWT" lables, Petaluma its "Tiers", Wynns the "Michael", etc etc.
In the mid-90's, Wine Spectator named the 1990 Grange as its wine of the year, and we were off and running.......
The Oz wine industry is now famous for everything from its Yellow tail chardonnay to its Three Rivers shiraz, and can compete with any of the world's wine super-powers at any level of the market.
Oz wines now dominate international wine internet forums, they are all the rage on every web site from Robert Parker to Wine Spectator. Even the most stoic British wine writer (or wine snob, if you prefer their true description) has had to reluctantly acknowledge their success and in-roads into markets that were once the exclusive domain of their beloved French wines, from "Vin ordinaire" to Grand Cru Bordeaux. Oz wine, incredibly, is now freely available in stores and restaurants in Paris: the last bastion has been stormed.
Virtually all the great wines of the 90's have now been released, with the obvious exception of the 99 Grange (which I have seen), and it seems a good time to ponder the truly great wines that have were produced in Oz during those fabulous ten years, a difficult and contraversial task indeed.
Still, we gave it a good go on Sunday, and here is what we came up with:
1. 1996 Greenock Creek "Creek Block" shiraz
2. 1996 Penfold's Grange shiraz
3. 1990 Henschke "Hill of Grace" shiraz
4. 1994 Howard Park Cabernet Sauvignon
5. 1995 Leeuwin Estate "Art Series" chardonnay
6. 1990 Penfold's Bin 90A cabernet-shiraz
7. 1991 Three Rivers shiraz
8. 1995 Houghton "Show Reserve" shiraz
9. 1998 Petaluma "Coonawarra" cabernet
10. 1996 Giaconda chardonnay
Of course, many great wines missed out on our list. 1990/98 Grange are probably the two most obvious choices, but if I were to put in another, it would have been the 96 d'Arenberg Dead Arm. The 1990 and 91 Leonays are looking really smart too, and maybe in another decade, I will have wanted one of those in the list.
Would love to see your choices, maybe one day we can arrangge a dinner with the popular choices!
