Full Time Winemaker, Part Time Iron Man.: Aussie Vintage Ports

Full Time Winemaker, Part Time Iron Man.: Aussie Vintage Ports: "Love em! Port is made from ripe grapes, partially fermented, before adding grape spirit (even a little brandy) to give a rich sweet wine ..."

Aussie Vintage Ports

Love em! Port is made from ripe grapes, partially fermented, before adding grape spirit (even a little brandy)  to give a rich sweet wine that’s a cross between a dry red and the  sweeter “fortified” wines.

 

The best VP’s need cellaring. 21 years is nothing for the best examples. Made from a single years grapes, they are aged in the bottle rather than in barrel, so they need to be drunk over 1-2 days rather than weeks. Pass the bottle to “Port”, don’t let it hit the table!

Gayfer’s  at Chiltern made what I consider the best Aussie VP style ever in the late 60’s through to 1980 from 100% Durif. Morris’s also used it as part of theirs. The huge colour, morello cherry fruit and great tannin, is at the heart of VP. Aussie Durif, at its best, is an awesome base.

Too many Aussie VP’s these days aren’t. They are sweeter, lighter styles with loads of Portugese varieties. They can be massive and huge in Portugal in a great year, but make Rubies and tawnies most times. Here with limited plantings, we get second rate fruit, attempting to replicate the best examples in the world . Good luck with that! I’ll just try and make the very best of what I’ve experienced.

Full Time Winemaker, Part Time Iron Man.: Confessions of a Durif Tragic

Full Time Winemaker, Part Time Iron Man.: Confessions of a Durif Tragic: "Let's start by saying I'm the worst sort of Durif maker - a convert! Just like the reformed smoker, there's nothing I enjoy more than discus..."

Confessions of a Durif Tragic

Let's start by saying I'm the worst sort of Durif maker - a convert! Just like the reformed smoker, there's nothing I enjoy more than discussing the benefits of my conversion!

What is it that I didn't like, worked through, and ultimately loved about Durif? Easy, its unique tannin structure!

Durif is a pig to grow viticulturally. It's thin skinned, tight bunched, prone to overcropping, prone to second cropping, relatively late, and prone to botrytis. It also has a horrible hard mean tannin structure that doesn't soften till it's well beyond normal maturity.

On the plus side, it has amazing black purple colour, glorious soft tannins when physiologically mature (brown seeds) excellent crushed violet floral tones and a magnificent depth of flavour which doesn't need a great deal of oak. It gets enough tannin from its own seeds to stabilise that awesome colour.

Basically red wine colour comes from the seeds. Usually more seeds, more colour as a general rule of thumb. Durif can have up to 5 seeds per berry. Awesome stuff!

Its grown in California as Petite Sirah (little Shiraz) though there may be nothing too little about the wines (or berries for that matter.) Bunches can be really big, which is another issue when you have bunches touching...another problem spot for bunch rot.

Some of the biggest most colored reds we've had came from big berry size which seems to challenge the deep colored, little berry theory (Surface Area /Volume ratio is higher for a small berry)

What I didn't like about Durif was that in some years it had a hard tough nasty tannin...almost a bit coppery, almost in a metallic fashion. It makes sense now, no-one could ripen it fully, harvested less ripe to avoid split and rain, and made a hard thin wine dominated by minty menthol green herbaceous characters.

As there's not a huge amount of Durif out there, these styles still pop up in the wine show ring from time to time. Perhaps for the uneducated judges these herbaceous styles even look attractive. What can I say, I don't like them.

The other style that can be made is a very soft, sweet, somewhat brown porty style made at a higher pH. This too can have an instant ready to drink appeal to some. Judges included!

What I really enjoy is the black phase fruit characters that this variety has in abundance. Dark morello cherries, satsuma plum, dark fine chocolate, huge mouthfeel and soft tannins. Trouble is to get those you have to go beyond what is considered normally ripe, 15 Beaume fruit is just the start of these characters..so you're really looking at wines of 15.5 % alc to be any good...more like 16!

Given that Durif constitutes 40% of what we do at Warrabilla, would we recommend it?

Absolutely, but only in a dry hot climate. Cropping levels we keep down to about 2t/acre but I have seen great Durif at 4-5 t/acre in a warmer region. Exposure is important so think about trellis design. We use a single wire vertically shoot positioned trellis (VSP). Durif loves it . Irrigation has to be pretty carefully controlled or you'll blow the berry size (and potentially get a heap of split!)

Durif has masses of potential in Australia, it's just that until we get some consensus about what is a good style for Durif, we have an absolute plethora of Durif wines all different, all with someone extolling their virtues, and half of them absolute crap!

***Andrew Sutherland Smith is a fifth generation winemaker who established Warrabilla Wines in Rutherglen in 1991. He also grows and makes Marsanne and Zinfandel.

The Big Wine Myth

Every now and again, Legends develop to suit those trying to market various red wine styles. Always happens. The marketing story develops to suit what they’ve got to sell.

No drama. So long as it’s a) accurate and b) not slanging off at the other  styles.

Recently we’ve  heard the “We all used to all make big reds but lately we’re trying to make wines with more elegance and finesse” myth.

Great statement..but untrue on many levels.

What makes big reds? It’s not just alcohol. Hopefully they have the weight, tannin, oak, flavour and mouthfeel to retain balance. When overcropped or light/medium weight wines have higher alcohols they tend to give the dreaded dragon breath where you blow flames across the room.

Are they big? Nope..Just unbalanced.

Red wines can be balanced at 12.5 % alcohol and balanced at 17.5..its the balance that’s important.

So lets define big red wines as having plenty of everything: colour, fruit, tannin, oak,alcohol and mouthfeel..ie big BALANCED wines.

Now theres no question alcohols have  peaked for the moment across the nation. Check out the AWRI export analysis data. For whites as well as reds.

Now is that a feature of colder wetter years, disease issues, import restrictions in some of our key markets , or a style decision of the winemakers?

I’m not sure.

Did we all make big reds?

Errr no. Some regions don’t tend to make them, whether due to climate, or viticulural practices..(yield, clones, trellis).

Perhaps we could check out the historical data on the labels. Seen many 15.5% or 16% in the past? Me neither.

Now that could be people telling whoppers about alc content , or they couldn’t /wouldn’t do it in the past.

Many reasons for that…unreliable yeast giving stuck ferments, refrigeration issues, potential for Vinegar production,etc.

Nobody sets out to make a 16% alcohol red without thinking of all of these.

Without refrigeration higher sugars and higher fermentation temperaures gave rise to the awful jammy characters ( a cooked blackberry jam character which is the true meaning of the term). 100 years ago they added block ice to ferments to cool them, and therefore dropped the alcohols as well.

What about more recently? Check out the alcs from the 70’s /80’s and 90’s. No really high ones there. Especially not from those making the wild claims about making them in the past. You all made em? Wow!! Name me some wines buddy! When?

Not to say they were never made. I remember the early Taltarnis. Some recent Barossa styles. Some McLaren Vales. Saying we all made em? Please. They were the great exception rather than the rule.

Often those selling this story are those who have always made light/medium weight wines due to soil and site. Some vineyards can make the heavy gear, others light and breezy.

 Some days I feel like Beaujolais styles. Other days something more substantial..

Bottom line is “elegance” is a synonym for thin.

It’s the spin term we use on the back label. Nobody says their Shiraz is green and thin when trying to sell their wine. They say, it’s elegant and herbaceous.

Of course there are wines that are good and medium/light weight. Some of the great wines of Europe are just that.

Are our bigger red styles inferior? Errr..no, just different. You want to tell your customers that they have been wrong in enjoying big stuff? I wouldn’t go telling my customers what they want. Especially with some dodgy claims about European or “world” styles. They’re smarter than that. Tell them they should be drinking European styles, and they just might…from Europe!

Lets face it, to make big reds requires low yielding, later harvest, (with more risks of losses due to weather and fermentation issues). They’re hard work. But the end result can be worth it. Mouthfeel, richness and structure can be the rewards. And they age brilliantly. The natural preservatives in red wine are tannin, acidity and alcohol. Exactly what we’re talking about in fuller styles..

In the leap to talk about making lower alcohol reds I’ve heard from winemakers who brag about making lower alcohol reds each year. “I even made a 12.5% Cabernet this  year!!!”..

So did I mate!

I tossed it out!