If ever there was a country able to cash in on the return to popularity of a certain wine region in southern France, that country is Australia. Funny that, but Australia is simply blessed with the things that make better Rhone Valley wines so unbelievably drinkable: old soils, old vines, warm sites and warm climates. Plus, of course, the classic red Rhone varieties of shiraz, grenache and mourvedre. Although it’s rare to find a wine made exclusively from mourvedre, whose blocky strength and rather uncompromising dark, earthy flavours suit it more towards blending, the Rhone produces plenty of wines that are largely, if not entirely, made from either shiraz or grenache. Shiraz is particularly spicy and occasionally peppery, with a range of fruit flavours that extend from black to dark red berries and plums. It develops earthy, leathery flavours with age and can be made into both firm and softer expressions of red wine. Grenache makes a simpler wine, with bright confection-like flavours of wild raspberries and blueberries, plus a characteristic musky, meaty aspect. It too can make a lighter, sweeter sort of red, or a dark, brooding wine that simply demands time to settle. Towards the southern extremity of the Rhone Valley, not far from Avignon, is made the wine whose name is known wherever wine is enjoyed, Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Although it’s actually a blend of thirteen different grape varieties, the most important are typically grenache, shiraz and mourvedre. Grant Burge’s 1996 Holy Trinity blend of shiraz, grenache and mourvedre is a charmingly rustic, generous and spicy blend of the same grapes, grown and made in the Barossa Valley. It’s by no means a facsimile of Chateauneuf-du-Pape and nor was it meant to be, but its ripeness and flavour provide much the same sort of satisfaction and suit much the same type of rich country fare. It’s soft and creamy to drink, is not overly cluttered with oak and finishes fine but firm. So next time you taste it, thank the Australians who grew it and made it, but the French for coming up with the idea.
