By now most of you will have heard that Penfolds has embarked on a leave-no-stone-unturned project to create a soulmate for Grange. Chief red winemaker John Duval describes this wine as ‘a benchmark Australian white wine’, ‘… a white of international repute that will repay long term cellaring.’ Although some have suggested in jest that they should just buy Leeuwin Estate and save themselves a lot of trouble, Penfolds are as deadly serious about this as only Australia’s leading maker of red wines could possibly be. Chief white winemaker Ian McKenzie was standing around when former Southcorp chief executive Ross Wilson asked: ‘What’s stopping us from making Australia’s best white?’ So the project began; cost was not an issue. Oak, fruit or equipment – whatever McKenzie needed he could buy. ‘We’re not talking about it as a ‘white Grange’,’ says McKenzie. ‘It’s not even going to be called ‘Grange’. We are however trying to make a white wine of the prestige and stature of Grange.’ So all Ian McKenzie needs to do now is to decide on is the best mix of grapes, where they’re to come from and how to make them. It’s the most intriguing exercise of its kind in the world today. Unhampered by the constraints of any appellation control system, McKenzie has been given carte blanche to do anything he wants to. ‘The best white wines in the world are the best white burgundies’, he believes. ‘They’re all chardonnays. But who’s to say that with a bit of semillon they might not be improved? ‘Ultimately we’re more than likely looking at a multi-regional and possibly multi-varietal blend. We will probably finish up with a chardonnay or something like semillon with a high proportion of chardonnay. Penfolds have generally sourced their white grapes from warmer areas, but unlike the true Grange, this no-name white wine is destined to come from the cooler regions. ‘We’re not after traditionally Australian style wines. We’re looking for something with more finesse than that.’ Casting his net far and wide, McKenzie is combing the Adelaide Hills, the higher reaches of the McLaren Vale, the Eden Valley and Clare. Victoria is attracting much of his attention, especially the Yarra Valley, the Mornington Peninsula, the Strathbogies and Southcorp’s own property at Drumborg. McKenzie is also delighted with the chardonnay from the Southcorp vineyards in Tumbarumba (NSW) and says he will look very closely at some of the chardonnay from WA, especially from Pemberton. Several parcels of semillon have already caught Ian McKenzie’s eye, especially some from the Adelaide Hills. In the cellar McKenzie is experimenting with a swag of techniques from oxidative to protective handling, malolactic fermentation or non-malo, extended periods on lees, barrel fermentation and/or barrel maturation. He concedes that although he’s fiddling with some American oak, the wine will use predominantly French. One of the early top wines made in this project was labelled Bin 92A, now on sale exclusively to the patrons of Penfolds’ newly-opened Magill Estate Restaurant. Made entirely from Clare Valley fruit, it is a pungent, complex style suggestive of figs and butterscotch. Now developing toastiness with age, it is a fatter, riper and more viscous style than the cooler climate wines which now hold McKenzie’s attention. Nevertheless, it’s a far cry from the straightforward diet of blousy, oaky chardonnays that Penfolds now concede they fed us for far too long. Almost the mirror image of the 92A is an Adelaide Hills Chardonnay from 1995. Leesy and cheesy, it’s a fully-worked malolactic style with cool climate quince and nectarine chardonnay fruit and lemony/vanilla oak. Still quite viscous and round, it finishes with a crisp, clean cut of acid which should help it develop for around 8-12 years. Penfolds made another fine Adelaide Hills wine from 1995 from straight semillon. Given 40% malolactic fermentation, this wine displays pristine herby cool climate varietal qualities with a decent mouthful of melon on the palate. Very lightly toasty oak lends an appealing dusty vanilla note and the acids are again typical of the 1995 vintage in South Australia: quite pronounced and mineral-like. Again, a wine for 8-12 years. But the cream of the trial crop to date have been three wines of rare flavour and structure; two from 1994 and one from 1993, two from semillon and one from chardonnay. Each is regarded as a ‘trial reserve’ wine, perhaps in the same way in 1951 that Max Schubert fashioned a trial Grange. The 1993 ‘Trial Reserve’ Semillon is wonderfully complex and fragrant with floral and lemon notes, yet is as viscous and chewy as a finely balanced wood-matured semillon can be. Sweet tropical, melon and barrel ferment characters reveal a wine still in it infancy, but finely balanced acids and a complete absence of hard phenolics confirm this as a superbly balanced semillon of genuine longevity. The 1994 is a marginally better wine, but it is more fruit-driven at this stage, accenting the delightfully pungent and peppery nature of premium cool-climate semillon and backed with pristine melon fruit and a refined, lean structure, crisply knit with tight acids. One wine most clearly suggests the direction Penfolds are most likely to take: the 1994 ‘Trial Reserve’ Chardonnay – a style which just three years ago I would have thought Penfolds could never have made. It’s creamy, rich and succulent, with layers of interest and complexity. Not only could you drink it now; you could jump into it. But it’s also straight from the blueprint: it’s built to last. Ripe stonefruit and ruby grapefruit chardonnay is so tightly knit with fragrant, lightly charry and spicy French oak you can barely see the seams. So far, McKenzie’s hypothetical recipe for ‘white Grange’ goes something like this. Take 80% chardonnay (possibly from Victoria), blend with 15% semillon (probably from the Adelaide Hills or WA) and add 5% sauvignon blanc (from who knows where?), all from low-cropped vineyards at around 5 tonnes per hectare. Luckily for us, we don’t have to pay Grange prices to enjoy the benefits. Already Penfolds have released a couple of excellent barrel-fermented Adelaide Hills semillons from 1993 and 1994, while the 1995 edition is scheduled for release in the middle of the year, together with the 1995 Adelaide Hills Chardonnay. Like the space race, this no-name project has its spin-offs!
