No doubt about it at all- there was more genuinely good, terrific and truly spectacular red wine made from the 1998 vintage than any other in Australian history. Virtually irrespective of region or variety, most makers should have every reason to rate their 1998 offerings as amongst their best ever, if not the best. At the time the season’s 954,700 tonnes was handsomely a national record, up by 8% on the previous high in 1996, a year from which 1998’s reds can be fairly and favourably compared. Most importantly, a then record 147,300 tonnes were shiraz, which cropped a remarkable 50,000 tonnes above the previous year. Sure there will be a large proportion of young vine wine, but from 1998 there will certainly be more red than ever before. The only real fly in the ointment was Western Australia, where rain in the middle of vintage made life more difficult in certain vineyards, especially in Pemberton-Manjimup and the Great Southern. Otherwise, given the favourably warm and dry conditions experienced from Adelaide to Pokolbin, if the winemakers got things wrong, it virtually had to be their own fault. From a wine writer’s perspective the 1998 vintage was a genuine bonus, coming as it did on top of the very questionable offerings from a much patchier season in 1997. This came home to me while researching the year 2001 edition of The OnWine Australian Wine Annual ($24.95 RRP incl. GST), which requires me to taste several thousand of them. Such is the difference in quality between the seasons that had I a child born in late 1997 I’d be tempted to fudge the date of birth! In a year which has seen a vintage fall well below expectations in yield and quality, a potentially damaging scare concerning illegal winemaking additives and the introduction of the insensibly named Wine Equalisation Tax, Australian wine is experiencing a series of growing pains as it strives to become a more substantial player in the world wine market. These are the views of Jeremy Oliver, one of Australia’s most widely read and independent wine critics, as expressed in the newly-released 2001 edition of The OnWine Australian Wine Annual, his best-selling guide to Australian wine. Oliver argues that instead of treating Australian wine as a milk-cow, the Federal Government might be better off by helping it reach its full potential as an export earner, a tourism attraction and a rural employer. But there’s good news for Australian wine drinkers says Oliver who, having tasted several thousand of them, is well placed to deliver the message that the 1998 Australian red wines are light years ahead of most from 1997. ‘Since all the rankings in The OnWine Australian Wine Annual are my own and not those of their makers, the task of tasting them all gets larger every year’, he says. ‘But it’s been no hardship at all getting to know the offerings from 1998.’ The launch of the 2001 edition coincides with the naming of Cullen’s Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 1998 as the OnWine ‘Wine of the Year’. This exceptional Margaret River red narrowly edged out five other first-class finalists in Ashton Hills Reserve Pinot Noir 1997, Delatite VS Riesling 1999, Penfolds Eden Valley Reserve Riesling 1999, Petaluma Coonawarra 1992 and Tim Adams’ The Aberfeldy 1998. The 2001 edition is the fourth printing of The OnWine Australian Wine Annual, a vintage-by-vintage guide to the country’s best and most important wines. Retailing for a GST-inclusive $24.95, it features more wines and more wineries than ever before and makes the ideal gift for anyone interested in Australian wine, from the beginner to the serious wine enthusiast. The OnWine Australian Wine Annual is packed with information, including: Details of nearly 280 Australian wineries and 1,150 different wines, providing the most comprehensive review of current and past releases of Australia’s most important wines, from the most prestigious to the best-selling. The 2001 edition features nearly 50 more wines from an additional 15 wineries. A comprehensive vintage report for 2000, an easy-to-follow ‘How to use this book’ section, tips concerning wine investment, a commentary on trends in Australian wine, a national listing of commercial wine cellaring facilities, and educational material concerning wine tasting and seasonal variation.
