There’s a flavour of the national capital throughout this issue of OnWine. A recent trip to witness the trade tasting for the National Wine Show at Canberra coincided with the announcement by BRL Hardy of their new venture in the region, the first by a major wine company. Furthermore, it enabled me to visit the exciting properties of Clonakilla, Brindabella Hills and Lark Hill, and to report to you the good news about their wines. This edition’s cover photograph is of the Brindabella Hills vineyard, as seen from Surveyor’s Hill. My trip to Canberra also prompted the article on wine shows, for I perceive a distinct reluctance on the part of the show system to keep in touch with the broadening of the Australian palate as it welcomes more sophisticated international styles. Perhaps it’s just an impossible wish, but one has to question the relevance of the show system to the consumer interested in the premium end of the Australian market. But I don’t for a moment doubt the immense value of wine shows in raising the bottom level of Australian wine far beyond that of any other wine producing country. Legendary Victorian winemaker Stuart Anderson, who has spent twelve years as a show judge, also presents some interesting ideas on this issue and voices his concerns over the future of individual, distinctive Australian wines in the face of mass-produced competition. Sangiovese is gradually emerging from the cradle as it takes its first stuttering steps towards being taken seriously as a red variety in the southern hemisphere, but already one maker is close to finding the mark. David Wollan reports back from Bulgaria, we examine how winemakers are looking at oak use in the 1990s and revisit the great Coonawarra cabernets of 1994. As 1997 draws to a close I look back at the year I finally backed my own folly and became a self-publisher of this newsheet and my yearly guide to Australian wine, The Australian Wine Annual. It’s been an endless solving of problems, some anticipated, some not, and as steep a learning curve as I have ever taken. As I write, there’s light emerging at the end of the tunnel and my bank manager is still talking to me. To those who have supported this newsheet and my book this year, my heartfelt thanks. May your Christmas be truly special. If this is your first issue of OnWine, I extend my welcome and my thanks. May 1998 be as steady, as predictable and as unsurprising for you as I hope it will be for me. Jeremy Oliver.
