Recessionary times demand recessionary drinking. Wine casks are back in town, cheaper wines are again growing in popularity and the $10 price barrier has now become just as important as it was in the mid ’80s. The wine industry’s response has been threefold. Some brands have simply dropped their prices in a bid to rekindle consumer interest. One assumes that once health is restored to the economy that these wines will again increase their prices to pre-recession levels. Next we have the phenomenon of the cleanskin, the anonymously presented bottle sporting neither capsule nor label. These allegedly brilliant wines, supposedly sold at a mere fraction of their real worth, only represent an advanced sign of the death-throes for many wine companies. How the same health authorities which demand infinite precision in the presentation and wording of wine labels actually allow some to be sold without any at all flatly confirms that any rumours concerning the discovery of commonsense in the environs of Canberra as nothing but the most preposterous hearsay. The third, and by far the most intelligent response given by sections of the wine industry to the country’s irregular economic pulse, is to give the drinkers what they want. Good, flavoursome, individual wine, cleanly and even stylishly presented, all for less than $10. A tall order? For some, an obvious yes. For others, a challenge at which to succeed. Some companies are releasing snappy, well-presented wines of genuine quality, quite able to stand on their own without feeling the remotest inadequacy. Here is a selection of the best, from wineries large and small, brands new and old. Water Wheel is a revitalised and recapitalised project near Bendigo, Victoria, owned and managed by Peter Cumming, himself a surveyor turned livewire winemaker. Peter’s philosophy is simple – to put the flavour on the palate, where most people enjoy it. None of his wines have disappointed. The Water Wheel Chardonnay 1991 is a rich, peachy chardonnay with tremendous mouthfeel and persistent flavour. Those concerned with such things may be interested to learn that neither pesticides nor fungicides were used in the vineyard. Water Wheel also makes a fruity, cherry-like Pinot Noir with aspects of the genuine varietal characters of this elusive grape, and an intense, berry-flavoured Cabernet Sauvignon suited to early drinking or a moderate spell in the cellar of up to five years. All these wines cost under $10 and provide a point of difference and interest to the similarly-priced standard blends of the larger firms. The current red vintages are 1991 and 1990 respectively. I am equally impressed with what Mitchelton puts into its Preece label, named after the legendary Victorian winemaker who helped locate Mitchelton and make its early wines. There is a Chardonnay 1991, a thick, rich and viscous wine of intense peach and quince-like fruit and toasty oak flavours. It doesn’t need cellaring to be ready. The Preece Cabernet Sauvignon 1990 is a typical Goulburn River red, with richness, fleshy softness and the earthy flavours expected of the region. Married with this are intense black berry cabernet fruit and fine vanillan oak. It’s also ready for openers, but would appreciate another six to ten years of bottle-age. I will never forget those early Stanley Leasingham Bin 56 Cabernet Malbec wines of the mid ’70s. They helped get me into the phenomenon of Australian red at a time when I was devoting far too much attention to third-rate German whites of varying sweetnesses. Bin 56 is no more, but the wine lives on under a new guise, Leasingham Domaine Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec. Judging by the way people light up whenever I inform them of this reality, Hardys, which owns Leasingham, could have made a better fist of telling us how they bastardised the original old label. Nevertheless, memories of the old wines, with their rich cabernet and honest, earthy malbec flavour and grip, are revived in the currently-available 1990 vintage of the Domaine whateveritis. Hardys inform me the wine sells for around $8, in which case it is the perfect solution for those seeking a well-made red able to be cellared for a decade without busting the household budget wide open. Very impressive and a damned fine drink. It is not often you could almost strangle a winemaker, but when former Leasingham winemaker, Chris Proud, first showed me his new-generation Domaine Chardonnay, which also costs a princely $8, I made it clear that it was indeed possible to insult a wine by selling it wine too cheaply. People might get the idea it’s no good. Never make that mistake. The 1991 Leasingham Domaine Chardonnay is another very good wine, full-on with tremendous flavour and complexity thanks to careful in-wood fermentation and maturation. Especially in these hard times you don’t expect to see a fabulously and innovatively presented wine whose taste delivers as much as its appearance promises for less than ten dollars. Trevor Mast of Mount Langi Ghiran, near Ararat in western Victoria, has just launched a new red simply labelled ‘Circa’ 1990. As much as its package is certain to be copied by many, the wine itself is something entirely different. You can be forgiven for expecting wines from this area to be tough and uncompromising when young, too firm to drink early and built to last. The curiously-named Circa captures the peppery, berry flavours of cool-climate Victorian shiraz into an approachable, soft and only modestly astringent earlier-maturing dry red of some interest and class. Given an ounce of luck it will become a cult wine within the year. It’s another $9.95 wine. My final entrant into this unashamedly Victorian-biassed contribution is a Yarra Valley pinot noir for under ten dollars. Yes, you are reading me correctly. Although it’s no La Tache – and anyone who expected it to be had better get real – the Lillydale Vineyards Yarra Pinot Noir shows genuine cherry-plum varietal flavours and is no pansy to boot. Its alcoholic strength adds to its not insignificant depth, while its suppleness and thoroughly decent astringency will appeal to those who like lighter whites but don’t enjoy cordial. Value for money at this price point, it’s hard to beat in Australian pinot.
