First it was the intense lime-juice and tropical fruit of its riesling which captured our attention. Then, once the wines were old enough, we were captivated by the strength, texture and longevity of its cabernet sauvignon. But it is with shiraz, considered by many to be the grape least likely to succeed in WA, that the Lower Great Southern Region looks most likely to prosper. A most irregular and diverse of vignobles, it occupies a trapezium-like shape of about 15,000 square kilometres roughly bordered by the coastal towns of Denmark and Albany and the inland townships of Mount Barker and Frankland. Its climates alter from the maritime to the continental, while its topography includes the rolling, rustic farmlands of Mount Barker, the world’s oldest mountains in the Porongorup ranges and the blackboy scrub of Frankland. As you move from north to south, from inland to coastal, the maritime influence lengthens the growing season by reducing temperature changes from day to night and from season to season. Given its diversity of climate and landform, it’s no surprise that shiraz, that most responsive of red grapes to changes in growing conditions, reacts differently and most distinctively in its various sub-regions. Most surprising is that while clear and discrete variations in style do occur, Lower Great Southern Shiraz has its own identifiable stamp. Generally supple and fleshy, with sweet, ripe, heavily-spiced fruits and occasional black pepper, they are undoubtedly amongst the most Rhone-like in Australia. And mercifully, there’s hardly a new American barrel in the region. Mount Barker’s shiraz is perhaps the most instantly appealing. Characterised by its intense red berry fruits, pepperiness and ripe, fleshy texture, it offers immediate complexity and flavour, even in young wine. Its tannin tends to be fine-grained and its longevity medium to long term. The only Porongorups shiraz in the tasting was the Jingalla, whose greenish leafy notes are reflective of its cooler climate origins, while its fine underlying tannins and attractive length of sweet, restrained fruit stamp it as a wine to be taken seriously. The northern shirazes from Frankland River are undeniably different from the rest, despite their clear flavour connections with those made further south. The two wines from Frankland Estate and Alkoomi are tighter, leaner and stronger, suggestive of warmer ripening conditions. Heavily spiced, they both displayed stony, earthy aromas strongly suggestive of the southern Rhone Valley, contrasting with the northern Rhone suggestions of some of the Mount Barker shirazes. The spicy fragrance I have described as ‘wild fennel’ was a unique facet shared by each Frankland shiraz. If you like them too, get in early. Production, as they say, is minuscule.
