The Auswine Forum

To complement Hacker's thread about wines you don't get - lets discuss an opposite of sorts - what wineries do you really rate that just don't get any accolades?

For me the biggie is Islander Estate, the Jacques Lurton operation on Kangaroo island. Year in year out great wines of balance across the range, but they never seem to have caught the public eye.

There are others - but what are yours?

cheers

Andrew

I’m not up with Aussie wines nor trends so sorry to be boring .

Elderton.

Being out the country, I’m not sure if Sons of Eden is heralded or not. But I’ve enjoyed Freya and Remus each time I’ve had them.

I started making an overlong list, so let's trim that back to me loving hunting down interesting & off the beaten track stuff in Italy, plus wines that are tight, lean, etc. yet still have character, interest and complexity (and ideally also shine in the cellar)

I didn't mention Italy nor especially Piedmont as there are so many unheralded wines at the moment. The upswing is dramatic. Few make it to Australia ( though this is changing quickly with some great importers emerging )

Stuck to Australia which I'm sure wasn't the intent of the thread.

The post is intended as an open question intended to seed interesting, positive discussion.

I'm a bit like Ian these days, I prefer to fossick around and find interesting stuff rather than try to scale the heights of the worlds great standard bearers.

Other than an enduring love of all things JJ Prum of course

I think it is pretty difficult to come across wineries that are completely unheralded. Unless you've turned up to one without knowing anything about them, or you've picked a bottle up off the shelf completely at random, then you've heard about them from somewhere.
Having said that, I think there are a bunch that are underrated in comparison to their peers, while not necessarily being unknown.

Crawford River - I feel that they get dismissed a bit by the general populace because they aren't in the Clare or Eden valleys
Both Juniper and Lenton Brae fly a bit under the radar compared to their peers in Margaret River.
I feel like Bests is a bit overshadowed by Seppelt and Mount Langi Ghiran for no good reason.
Willow Creek on the Mornington Peninsula has been putting out high quality wines for a long time now and has never really got the same recognition as many of the other Peninsula wineries.
Balnaves in Coonawarra. A lot of people seem to just care about Wynns when it comes to Coonawarra.
Sentio and Traviarti in Beechworth (and to a lesser extent Domenica) mainly because they newer.
Scion in Rutherglen. I think a lot of people either dismiss the region as being too hot to make good table wines, or have a rusted on notion of what Rutherglen wines are.

Again, none of those are unheralded. I think that perhaps Willow Creek comes the closest, given their profile compared to how long they have been around.

Ashbrook Estate in Margaret River. Unheralded for nearly 45 years

paulf wrote: Balnaves in Coonawarra. A lot of people seem to just care about Wynns when it comes to Coonawarra.

I am a Wynns fan, but I am also a big rap for Balnaves, and for that matter, Majella

Waiters Friend wrote:Ashbrook Estate in Margaret River. Unheralded for nearly 45 years

Agreed! Their 2016 chardonnay is excellent. Also St Huberts in the Yarra. Their Cabernet is undervalued and most enjoyable.

Principia on the Mornington Peninsula

Passing Clouds, Jasper Hill, Mitchelton, Seppelts, Bests, Crawford River
Lindemans

Probably a few others
Cheers Craig

phillisc wrote:Seppelts

Probably a few others

Cheers Craig

I still have a few bottles of the 1996 Dorrien Vineyard Cabernet and the 1996 Great Western Vineyard Shiraz, and have really enjoyed the ones that I have had already. As I understand it, neither has been produced since the late 1990s. Is that correct? Are their current releases worth seeking out?

Marius Wines
Wines by KT
Oliver's Taranga Vineyards
Mount Horrocks
Hentley Farm
Poonawatta Estate
Tscharke
Hahndorf Hill
Crabtree
Spinifex
Jeanneret
Ulithorne
Tim McNeil
Gatt
Laughing Jack
Izway
Samuel's Gorge
Wilson Vineyard
Yangarra Estate (kinda well known?)

mjs wrote:

paulf wrote: Balnaves in Coonawarra. A lot of people seem to just care about Wynns when it comes to Coonawarra.

I am a Wynns fan, but I am also a big rap for Balnaves, and for that matter, Majella

Over the last few years I tried to "get" Coonawarra wines so I bought a lot of old Riddochs and Balnaves Tally and visited the region for the first time. I am a fan of old style and aged Coonawarra cabernet now and appreciate Balnaves which I felt was a little less classical.

Majella I totally don't get. Pleasant enough wines though totally indistinct varietally and regionally. I may have consumed their cabernet and shiraz too young as buying them on the secondary market sees a small premium due wider popularity. I did drink a bit of older Malleea and felt it heavily casketed in oak- though reading WF reviews it seems to be on one vintage and off the other so perhaps I was unlucky?

Bytown Rick wrote:

phillisc wrote:Seppelts

Probably a few others

Cheers Craig

I still have a few bottles of the 1996 Dorrien Vineyard Cabernet and the 1996 Great Western Vineyard Shiraz, and have really enjoyed the ones that I have had already. As I understand it, neither has been produced since the late 1990s. Is that correct? Are their current releases worth seeking out?

Bytown Rick, yes believe 96 was the end of the road for Dorrien, and 97 was the last GW Shiraz, although there was a 98 Reserve edition. 1998 the label changed over to St Peters with fruit coming from this vineyard, but also suspect the previous grapes used from other vineyards made it into this wine.

I know not GW, but also winced when Drumborg Cabernet was stopped in the late 80s i think?
Cheers Craig

I'll echo the Juniper and Bests comments. Oddly Bests feel more high profile, but I suspect that's just the regard I hold them in, and assume they are as widely known/respected by others

phillisc wrote:

Bytown Rick wrote:

phillisc wrote:Seppelts

Probably a few others

Cheers Craig

I still have a few bottles of the 1996 Dorrien Vineyard Cabernet and the 1996 Great Western Vineyard Shiraz, and have really enjoyed the ones that I have had already. As I understand it, neither has been produced since the late 1990s. Is that correct? Are their current releases worth seeking out?

Bytown Rick, yes believe 96 was the end of the road for Dorrien, and 97 was the last GW Shiraz, although there was a 98 Reserve edition. 1998 the label changed over to St Peters with fruit coming from this vineyard, but also suspect the previous grapes used from other vineyards made it into this wine.

I know not GW, but also winced when Drumborg Cabernet was stopped in the late 80s i think?
Cheers Craig

There was a 91 drumborg. Had a 89 the other day. Very thin on opening but after some air developed into a magnificent wine. Plenty of blackcurrant.

So not far off then...stopped about 30 years ago. Remember buying a case of 84s and 86s (I think)... stunning, but was early in my drinking trajectory and finished them decades ago.
Cheers Craig

JamieBahrain wrote:I didn't mention Italy nor especially Piedmont as there are so many unheralded wines at the moment. The upswing is dramatic. Few make it to Australia ( though this is changing quickly with some great importers emerging )

Stuck to Australia which I'm sure wasn't the intent of the thread.

I’ll stick my neck out for two I love who are over here:
> Giovanni Rosso
> Cascina Fontana

The latter in particular is a smaller, family operation, without a huge range, but their wines are lovely, particularly if you give them a few years.

As for Aussie names; the one that springs to mind is Eden Road. Their basic bottlings are fine, but at the more premium end of the spectrum they really excel - think their cooler climate style Syrahs are really world class.

Keith Tulloch Wines

Ok, one Italian one from me, that delivers really enjoyable sangiovese wines, with Avi Riserva recommended as a start point (plus a decent Cabernet Sauvignon - Montepirolo of similar good value), but that's not really the point.

San Patrignano

Wine is but one part of their work, with artisanal products such as cheese, bread, cured meats, cakes etc. rounding out their work. That's not the point either.

Their core activity is taking in people with addiction problems (mostly drug addiction) and providing a rehabilitation and retraining programme. Current capacity is for 1200 people (from their website). I recall watching a video a while back, where one of their cheesemakers spoke about how being able to specialise and focus on their cheesemaking skills had been exactly what he needed. He recognised his mindset was obsessive and needed real stimulus. Where in the past drugs had been his way of coping, now he was enthused to be throwing himself into learning his craft. You could see the passion there, the same passion we see in some winemakers. A passion that keeps them trying to improve every day, week or year. All funded by donations FWIW, as they always wanted to avoid having state influence (and I daresay they wanted to avoid becoming politicised).

What are the wines like? Closer to vino nobile than Brunello for sure. Having a flying winemaker (Riccardo Cottarella) did make me fear that they'd be oaky/glossy and otherwise tricked up. I'm sure he has added his influence, but thankfully it's not heavy handed. The oak is subtle (e.g. Avi is 18 months in 30 hl Slavonian botti), the alc% seems to hover around 14%. Both the Avi and Montepirolo seem to take cellar age very well and both have done 10 years without any signs of struggling. €14 (Avi) and €13 (Montepirolo) from their online shop might sound bargain basement, but both (IMO) punch well above that weight, whilst not threatening to become 'prestige' (thankfully!). I'd buy them without the backstory, but I actively hunt the wines down because of it.

phillisc wrote: Lindemans

TWE has worked Lindemans, at least from Coonawarra, downwards into a position of now being unheralded. Totally undeserved as Brett Sharpe is doing some good things with the Trio wines

JamieBahrain wrote:

mjs wrote:

paulf wrote: Balnaves in Coonawarra. A lot of people seem to just care about Wynns when it comes to Coonawarra.

Majella I totally don't get. Pleasant enough wines though totally indistinct varietally and regionally. I may have consumed their cabernet and shiraz too young as buying them on the secondary market sees a small premium due wider popularity. I did drink a bit of older Malleea and felt it heavily casketed in oak- though reading WF reviews it seems to be on one vintage and off the other so perhaps I was unlucky?

Jamie,

I like the ten year drinking rule with most Coonawarra cabernets and particularly with Majella, doesn't mean that you can't drink them young, but they really benefit from a bit of age. Bruce Gregory makes a consistent style, but the wines tend towards the higher end of the T/A spectrum of any in Coonawarra, typically > 7g/l.

cheers, Malcolm

Domaine Chantal Remy

Young Florian producing fabulous wines (in between going to music festivals... I can only conclude his 2020 and 2021 releases will be better than ever with the Covid music festivals shut-down )

mjs wrote:

phillisc wrote: Lindemans

TWE has worked Lindemans, at least from Coonawarra, downwards into a position of now being unheralded. Totally undeserved as Brett Sharpe is doing some good things with the Trio wines

Interesting.

I must admit when they started using it as a brand for commodity wine from 'wherever in the world', I thought the brand would have a decade at most left before the last drop of credibility had finally been squeezed out of it. I had not envisaged someone trying to restore the reputation from within (and being allowed to do it).

I'll give them a taste if I ever see them (I used to like the Limestone Ridge, Pyrus, and St George)

Ian S wrote:

mjs wrote:

phillisc wrote: Lindemans

TWE has worked Lindemans, at least from Coonawarra, downwards into a position of now being unheralded. Totally undeserved as Brett Sharpe is doing some good things with the Trio wines

Interesting.

I must admit when they started using it as a brand for commodity wine from 'wherever in the world', I thought the brand would have a decade at most left before the last drop of credibility had finally been squeezed out of it. I had not envisaged someone trying to restore the reputation from within (and being allowed to do it).

I'll give them a taste if I ever see them (I used to like the Limestone Ridge, Pyrus, and St George)

Yes Ian, have always been a fan, think 82 St George (along with 82 JR of course) was one of my very first purchases...slightly too young and or ignorant to pick up the 80 JWT winner, but have tried it.
Lindies completely fu*ked in the whole Southcorp/Fosters thingy and not actually having a dedicated cellar door or winery, it shared digs with Rouge Homme, and any good grapes the vineyards had were pillaged by Pennies and others. Equally the whole shemozzle of Mildara didn't help its cause either. Wynns only survived because of a bit of history and some old vines, otherwise that probably would have been run into the ground too!

Anyway, Brett Sharpe has remained steadfast to the cause. I have the 02, 04, 08,10, 12, 14 and 16s of the Trio and will be keeping an eye on the secondary market. The six packs of 97 and 98s that I picked up a few months back are drinking superbly (came from a Melbourne restauranteur apparently, who purchased on release, obviously well stored, mid neck and bright colour, and flogged then off due to Covid).
I think the 18s will be really good, based on what I have tasted from Coonawarra so far, and will hunt out the bargains due to a continual bastardisation program from the marketing department. All of my recent purchases including auction buys have been well south of $40 a bottle...good buying at that price for what I would refer to as a premium Coonawarra product (1/3 price of Riddoch )

Have a great festive season and hopefully you are doing OK in the UK
Cheers Craig

Scotty vino wrote:Oliver's Taranga Vineyards
Hentley Farm

We started on a bit of a Grenache search and quite like Oliver's Taranga (the Corina Cab too) but we haven't had much. Whenever I go to join their wine club the Grenache is unavailable We discovered Hentley Farm's Grenache and thought it was neat until one of the guys from Rockford put me onto Cirillo Estate's The Vincent which I now load up on whenever they're on special.

Another good question!

You know I reckon its almost always going to be either moderately good wineries you relate to your emotional or nostalgic reasons or producers you "found" before they became famous.

I guess for me, Hugh Hamilton in McV (but I haven't even had one for years).. Pierre Gaillard in France, not exactly unknown but every white wine he makes is spot on for me ... Willows in the Barossa (lovely setting) ... oh I have one- Writer's Block Semillon. Not sure they even exist anymore. I took a dozen mixed of the 2006 and the 2011 years ago on the strength of a JH review (I know, I know - but when JH says a Hunter Sem is the best he has ever seen and it is an unknown producer selling direct online for about $20 ... you take the punt). I have only had I think one of each ... I expect maturity anytime in the 2040s...