Houghton White Burgundy 1989 and 1983 1989 Wholesale Price $64.00 1983 Wholesale Price $114.00 (approx.) For the last few years Houghton have illustrated two things in extremely convincing fashion. Firstly, we drink our wine too young. Secondly, our cheaper, commercially-priced wines do improve with time. How do they prove it? By holding back saleable quantities of the ubiquitous Houghton White Burgundy for re-release as a six year-old wine alongside the release of the current vintage. This year it has been the turn of the 1983 wine, which accompanies the 1989 White Burgundy, itself a landmark wine for Houghton. The 1983’s show record is something of a give-away. It collected two bronze medals in 1983 and in 1984. According to the back label its next success was in 1988, when it won silver at Perth and a gold medal at Sydney, where local judges could well be forgiven for mistaking it for a fine bottle-aged Hunter semillon. Houghtons have known for years that their White Burgundy improves with age. Swan Valley fruit just needs time to develop, that’s all. Former head of the Victorian branch of Rhine Castle Wines, Peter Walker, was the first to let me in on the secret, and it’s advice I’ll continue to follow. The 1983 wine is a perfect place to start. Its attractive golden colour and medium depth look it every inch a mature wine. The nose is surprisingly complex, with developed creamy, honeyed flavours and ripe melon-like fruit. The palate is rich, toasty and honeyed, with mouthfilling flavour and depth. It’s soft, rich and dry, very much alive and well. It’s better than just an honest bottle-aged white. The not-so-ugly duckling has truly become a swan, if you’ll forgive that attrocious pun. What of the newcomer, the 1989 White Burgundy. Will it go the same way? Houghtons would suggest it might do better still, for they’ve made some changes to the basic White Burgundy formula. On the cosmetic side, there is yet another re-vamped label (I would just love to be Mike Von Berg’s printer and designer) and a new proprietary bottle, sporting the moulded Houghton logo of two rather rampant looking swans. It’s good to see this native version of the species getting some coverage again. The labels of All Saints, Houghtons and Goonawarra, not to mention Swan Lager, must rate this particular aquatic avarian as one of Australian drinkers’ seven favourite sights. On the important side, the wine itself, the 1989 vintage sees the introduction into the blend of some barrel-fermented chardonnay and verdelho. The verdelho contributes unmistakably to the attractive greenish, almost floral perfume on the nose, while the chardonnay lends characteristic depth, ripeness and soft, creamy oak. straw-green cooour, perfumed, ripe nose with light creamyoka characters, gooseberry-liie fruit with greenish note palatesoft, gpod depth in middle, warm, round and soft, good oak, depth and grip, clean soft acidity, should develop well, good persistence Distribution is via IH Baker.
