The trouble with giving points to wines is that it encourages people only to drink wines with plenty of them. That’s a big issue, for the simple reason that it’s often easier to appreciate the charms and pleasures of something that might be slightly flawed or imperfect ahead of the occasionally monotonous regularity of confronting perfection all the time. Like every other wine writer I could spend all of my drinking moments with classic or benchmark wines, but I’d frankly be bored witless. Apart from the fact that I’d rapidly lose contact with what people are drinking every day, I’d deny myself the fascination and pleasure of watching the progress of a vineyard as it matures, a winemaker coming to grips with his or her site, and the simple, truthful, honest reality that any good wine can be enjoyable to drink in its right circumstance and occasion. The English and French have a perfect term for honest, flavoursome wines made without pretension from makers and regions that perhaps might lack the gloss of the most illustrious estates or domaines of Bordeaux or Burgundy. ‘Country wines’ are often charming and delicious, and are often very reflective of their regions, varieties and makers. They don’t often get pointed very highly, but the real point is that it doesn’t matter at all. Last night I opened an Australian country wine, a Stanton & Killeen Cabernet Sauvignon 1992 from Rutherglen. It actually scored 17.8 (drink 2004-2012) when I last rated it – perhaps too high a score for this particular example – but the wine is certainly no show pony. Deeply flavoured with lightly herbal plum and blackcurrant fruit, it’s beginning to reveal some leathery, tarry and meaty complexity above its undercurrent of earthy, almost muddy regional character. It’s powerful but not blocky, and despite its eleven years of age has much, much more than another decade ahead. In fact, its balance, drinkability and character make it a far better wine than many of the so-called ‘cult’ wines fetching such high prices today, very few of which would last even half this distance.
