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Food and Drink

The Aussies are coming
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If the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival is on your to-do list next month, you’d best pick up the phone or get online today. Tickets have never sold so fast to the country’s best wine festival and with Australia as its theme region/country and riesling as its featured grape, the 2007 show will be sold out long before it opens in late March.

The last time Australia was in the spotlight was 1999 and what was thought to be a considerable contingent of 27 wineries attended the show using the marketing slogan “cutting edge, New World-style wines.” Down Under producers were touting a complete turnabout in modern-day Australian winemaking.

Plenty has changed since then, beginning with Australia’s dominance of the import market. Nationally, Oz producers own 14 per cent of the table wine (9-litre case) market, equal to Italy and just behind France at 17 per cent. Here in B.C., the share is a staggering 30 per cent, topping all imported wine sales and grossing some $136 million.

Given consumers are so enthralled with Australia’s wine, festival organizers have invited over 50 Australian producers to the show, making it the largest single collection of wineries to ever attend the Playhouse bash.

While most consumers will be focused on the rich and various shiraz from all over Down Under, I would suggest the emergence of other varieties, including grenache, viognier, riesling and what’s lately known in Oz as the SSBs   — sémillon sauvignon blanc — and SBSs — sauvignon blanc sémillon. They make up the new story of Australia.

And if there is an unwritten story behind this year’s show it could be the screw cap. Australia is practically a cork-free zone and to see most every wine under screw cap is to realize the commitment made by Australia producers to serve taint-free wine.

So what is it about Oz wine that makes it the go-to choice for so many consumers? The quick answer points to its easy-drinking style. It’s chock full of ripe, fruit flavours and soft tannins and, to put it bluntly, it’s simply fun to drink.

Unencumbered by history, traditional techniques and legislation, Australia's winemakers experiment freely. Their insistence on employing several methods to make the same wine stems from a firm belief that by doing so they will create endless options.

The options begin in the vineyards that stretch from coast to coast. In a country scaled much like Canada, you can imagine the myriad soil types and micro-climates that are available. While this in itself is not unusual, the routine transfer of grapes and or grape must (crushed but unfermented juice) across the countryside is something of an Australian specialty. In fact, winemakers think nothing of shipping shiraz from McLaren Vale just south of Adelaide to the Upper Hunter Valley well north of Sydney — right across New South Wales, or a distance of more than 1,500 km — in search of the perfect blend.

Moving juice around the country has always been advantageous to those companies involved in big brand wines, but the future of Australian wine will be in smaller, regional and sub-regional labels and in producing a variety of wine.

If shiraz no longer ignites your engine, there is a plan afoot Down Under to introduce you to 79 other grape varieties. Those big state appellations, such as Southeastern Australia, Western Australia, New South Wales and more, have been carved into 56 officially sanctioned Geographic Indications, with many more to come.

The next step is a much specialized Australia. Sites in Adelaide Hills, Great Southern, Heathcote, Clare, Tasmania, Wrattonbully, and Mornington Peninsula will become as familiar to North Americans as Barossa and Coonawarra.

In preparation for this year’s festival, entitled Australia a World of Difference, here’s a look at some of the more interesting wines that make up the Down Under selection in B.C. that you can taste inside the International Tasting Room or pick up on a walkabout at local B.C. Liquor Stores.

 

The Goundrey Homestead Chardonnay Unwooded ($15) comes from south Western Australia. I love the cool minerality and tight, nervous palate that shows just enough fruit to balance it all out. Not your typical fruit bomb, and it’s killer value.

The Yalumba Viognier Eden Valley ($27) is great place to start. Viognier is specialty of Yalumba where hard work and a lot of investment have yielded some impressive bottles. The fruit here is fabulous, highlighted by apricot, ginger, orange rind, honey and buttery vanilla flavours. You can sip this solo or serve it with most spicy Asian dishes.

Equally impressive is the d’Arenberg Shiraz The Footbolt ($24) out of McLaren Vale, just south of Adelaide. Footbolt is still made from vines planted more than a century ago. The style is soft, round and dry with savoury, black cherry, mineral, peppery flavours. A big warm blockbuster.

One of the best value reds in the market is the De Bortoli Petite Sirah dB Selection ($12) . The folks at De Bortoli specialize in making soft, round sweet flavoured reds with vanilla/leather/blueberry fruit flavours. A versatile medium-weight red for the barbecue.

The Kaesler Stonehorse Series GSM (Grenache Shiraz Mourvèdre) ($26) is one of the hottest Barossa values in the market. Ripe, round, soft and supple with milk chocolate pudding and black raspberry, licorice, plum flavours; this is hedonistic wine for current drinking.

Yet another Barossa pick is the bargain-priced and easy-sipping Peter Lehmann Clancy’s Legendary Red ($20) . The blend is equal parts shiraz and cabernet with 15 per cent merlot to smooth out the edges.

Western Australia is home to Palandri Estate Shiraz ($23) from the famed Margaret River. The style here is cooler with more spice, smoky meat flavours and plenty of black fruit. Barbecued lamb chops would be a perfect foil to this intense smooth-textured red.

We couldn’t finish without mentioning Yellow Tail Shiraz 2005 ($13). The incredible success story of this Casella family brand has captured the imaginations of consumers around the world. It remains the definitive, sweet, easy-drinking, introductory-style red wine for beginners. See you at the show.

 

Anthony Gismondi is a globetrotting wine writer who makes his home in West Vancouver, British Columbia. For more of his thoughts on wine log onto www.gismondionwine.com