The more of it that you taste, it is difficult not to come to the conclusion that Margaret River chardonnay is something apart. Could any wine region outside France or California match the decade of wares made by Pierro, Leeuwin Estate, Moss Wood and Cullens throughout the 1980s and early ’90s? There is little doubt that the best Margaret River chardonnay has remarkable concentration and viscosity, with a fruit flavour profile more suggestive of grapefruit and tropical fruits than the peach/nectarine/ quince flavours frequently developed in the best of the cool climate regions in the eastern Australian states. You can trace the individuality of Western Australian chardonnay back to 1957. Tony Devitt, Manager, Horticulture Industries of the WA Department of Agriculture tells that his predecessor, Bill Jamieson, introduced the first chardonnay to WA in that year, establishing it at the ag. department’s station in the northern Swan Valley. The vine material came directly from the University of California’s Davis campus, today the source of the vast bulk of Australia’s vine clonal material, and underwent its quarantine period in WA. This happened well before most Australians had even heard of chardonnay and a decade before the modern interest in cool climate viticulture led to the establishment of the Margaret River and Mount Barker areas in WA, both first planted around 1967. There was little to no interest in Jamieson’s chardonnay until some was planted in Swan Valley in the early 1960s, says Devitt. Then Houghtons began to plant their newly-acquired Moondah Brook property at Gingin, north of the Swan, in the late 1970s. Until comparatively recently, most subsequent plantings of chardonnay in WA were sourced from Moondah Brook, so it’s of little surprise that west of the Nullarbor at least, that the type became known as the ‘Gingin’ clone. It has subsequently been re-identified as ‘Mendoza’, which traces originally from Argentina (one assumes from Burgundy at some stage prior to that) before being selected for the famous block at Davis. So what? The answer is that Mendoza is virtually specific to WA. Dr Richard Hamilton, a viticulturist and virologist based at the Lenswood Horticultural Centre in the Adelaide Hills, says that in the absence of accurate data, his gut feel is that of all the chardonnay planted in South Australia, our largest wine state by far, only 1-2% could possibly be Mendoza. Brenton Baker, one of the BRL Hardy viticultural team, says that its production was so ordinary that in the eastern states people avoided both it and its similarly low-yielding Davis compatriot, known as OF. There’s little doubt that Mendoza is a real Jeckyll and Hyde character. Despite its incredible flavours and textures, it’s a dreadful thing to grow. Very vulnerable to windy conditions at flowering, which can simply prevent many of the future berries from being successfully pollinated, Mendoza suffers from ‘hen and chicken’, which means that many of the berries never develop any size at all. Instead of the fully-developed and healthy berries that may have developed on the same bunch, they resemble small gunshot. The upside is that in all but the rarest of seasons, characterised by a virtual absence of wind during flowering, Mendoza is a terrible cropper, generally producing around 2 tonnes per acre, a yield held to be uneconomic unless you can price your wine well above $20 per bottle. I am quite convinced that Mendoza/Gingin’s poor yields have much to do with the quality of its wine. The best have a power and structure infrequently seen in the best eastern Australian chardonnays and this is not to suggest they might be clumsy or excessively aggressive. Some suggest that the incredible concentration of flavour found in its shot (underdeveloped) berries contributes to this, but the volume they represent in a crush is negligible. Certainly Mendoza’s overall smaller berry size does create a higher skin to juice ratio which must impact on flavour intensity. Its open bunch structure results in fewer botrytis rot problems in later ripening fruit seasons, although its yield is marginally reduced by a mild leaf roll virus it has historically carried. Mendoza’s low crop load undoubtedly helps it to ripen earlier than other clones. Peter Dawson is now the chief winemaker for BRL Hardy, but has spent much of his professional time in the west, where he was winemaker at Houghton. He says that Mendoza’s notorious poor setting acts as an inbuilt yield control mechanism which works positively by producing concentrated flavours. He also attributes the tropical flavours of WA chardonnays to this clone, but warns that if excessive, it can be negative or ‘non-chardonnay’. More recent releases of chardonnay clonal material from Davis, which extraordinarily enough can be traced back to single vines in its clonal block, have less romantic, numeric names like I10 V1, I10 V2, I10 V3, I 10 V5 (known for short as clones 1 to 5) and G9V7. These clones don’t have the hen and chicken problem, are higher-yielding and are now found virtually wherever chardonnay is planted in Australia. Peter Dawson prefers some of the new arrivals to Mendoza, even on the basis of taste trials. ‘Today it (Mendoza) is essentially not an economic proposition. Personally I feel there are better clones in WA. I wouldn’t select Mendoza in this day and age. 1 and 5 really stand out’, he says. Could the factors that make Margaret River chardonnay stand out have more to do with regional influences? The area is known for its ability to develop strong varietal flavours in most grapes through its consistent, sunny, maritime and very equitable climate. It doesn’t push the temperature extremes and has low temperature variability between summer and winter, plus low day/night variability during the growing season. Ian McCrae, a Mornington Peninsula-based viticultural consultant, suggests the major factor is a climatic one. ‘It’s easiest to see with pinot noir which, especially when it’s grown in more maritime areas whose peak temperatures are lower than in continental areas’, he says. Bill Crappsley, who recently moved as winemaker from Evans and Tate to Sandalford, is convinced that Mendoza makes a better wine than the recent clones, especially clone 5. ‘To start with everyone said it was all the same. But when we treated the clones in precisely the same way – the same barrel fermentation, the same oak, the same lees contact – without question Mendoza would inevitably make a better, fuller and more complex wine. Clone 5’s wine was more herbaceous; Mendoza’s more typically Burgundian’, he says. Gary Baldwin is a nationally-known winemaking consultant who has make chardonnay in WA regularly since 1988. He believes that any of the three new clones (1, 3 & 5) are able to produce strong citrus fruit character in Margaret River chardonnay, clone 1 especially. First planted in 1972, Mountadam boasts one of the first significant South Australian chardonnay vineyards. Not surprisingly, it began with the older clones of Mendoza and OF, although recent plantings have tended towards the I10 clones. Found in the high Eden Valley, South Australia, Mountadam is a windy, exposed site where Mendoza again crops poorly. Winemaker Adam Wynn says his young Mendoza wine is more tropical and redolent of tinned fruit salad, melon and mango/pineapple than the I10 V1, which he says shows more overt fruitiness. It’s only anecdotal, but if I were to nominate an eastern state wine closest in dimension and flavour to the classics of Pierro, Leeuwin and Cullens, Mountadam would top my list. Not unexpectedly, Mendoza can yield better in less windy, low-altitude continental areas with better weather, where because it sets normally, its performance becomes almost akin to other clones. The South Australian vine improvement programme involves comparing clonal performance in various sites across a range of yield and quality parameters. While at one of Petaluma’s Adelaide Hills vineyards as Sommerton it behaves with all its usual irregularities, it is virtually indistinguishable from the modern clones at an identical trial in Nuriootpa, in the hot climate of the Barossa Valley. According to Ian McCrae, the concentration of Margaret River chardonnay is from a number of factors, and clonal is the least of them. ‘The Margaret River is warmer than Mornington and the vines there often don’t go dormant properly. With its poorer soil, this influences vine metabolism and yields, which is seen in the wines’, he says. So which chardonnay should they plant in WA today? Even Bill Crappsley concedes that to plant Mendoza now is a real dilemma. Do you want a better looking bunch and a regular, sound yield, or a better wine at only two tonnes to the acre? Perhaps it’s best left to the accountants and marketers. For cheaper and mid-priced wines there’s no point in the inherent risk of the dicey Mendoza yield. For premium wines, viticulturists are recommending a mixture of clones for a mixture of flavours and improved complexity. Personally, although most of this argument is based on little hard fact and much gut instinct, if I were to plant premium chardonnay in the Margaret River, it would be largely of Mendoza/Gingin stock. News to hand is that the CSIRO, the Australian governement’s scientific research organisation, is working on the theory that most of the differences between the clones are not genetic, but due to unknown viral conditions. That, as they say, would surely put the cat amongst the chardonnay.
