You’ve been the winemaker responsible for making Penfolds Grange for 15 years, and now you’re off the corporate leash. So what do you do next? If your name is John Duval, your answer will be to create your own high-end Barossa red wine brand, participate in a joint venture in Washington State, USA, with a collection of other international winemaking luminaries, as well as consulting to operations in Italy, Spain and Chile. In other words, you’re getting on with your life. ‘I’m having a great time’, says Duval. ‘I’ve used this line a few times before, but I can honestly say it’s taken me thirty years of winemaking to get my own name on a wine label.’ He’s also closely identified with the Sequel Syrah, a wine he fashions from Washington State fruit as part of the Long Shadows project. Last year Duval released the first wine under his own Australian label, the 2003 vintage of a Barossa blend comprising shiraz, grenache and mourv’dre known as ‘Plexus’. Having spent the last three decades in the Barossa, Duval is determined to focus on this region’s red wines, with a particular emphasis on shiraz. Unlike many of the present crop of high-priced Barossa shirazes being tailored principally for the US market, Duval is keen to deliver a marriage of flavour and structure with genuine elegance. That he succeeded so well with his first wine says much about what he learned during the first phase of his career. Duval believes that the key skills he acquired at Penfolds were related to assessing vineyard quality and fruit maturity, learning how to control tannins and blending different wine components together towards a particular style. It’s therefore not surprising, but indeed still quite unusual for a small producer that he’s now taking a big company-like blending approach towards his own small run wines. ‘I have my own vision and blueprint of style’, he says. ‘I know what I’d like to make, and I’m working towards that.’ To this end Duval has developed relationships with a number of small growers in the north and east of the Barossa Valley, whose fruit he makes separately before blending to achieve the wines with which he is happiest. This approach could hardly be different from the modern trend to focus on individual vineyard wines and their unique expressions of terroir. Personally, I’m fascinated by it, and look forward to watching his style evolve. Duval likens this approach to the development of Penfolds’ RWT, a Barossa-based shiraz made according to a style he personally directed. ‘I’m trying to find vineyards I want to work with, to get the styles I want to work with and then I’ll see how the business develops’, he says. To date this has meant the recent release of the second Plexus and the first Entity, a straight shiraz. Both wines are from the 2004 vintage, a cooler season that lent itself a little more towards Duval’s philosophy of wine style. ‘In 2004 it was easier to focus on elegance, because in 2003 we had to work harder to retain those qualities and not go over the top in our expression of fruit’, he says. Duval’s concept for the Plexus is to highlight a wide spectrum of red fruits, which he supports with subtle oak and fine tannins. The 2004 blend comprises 49% shiraz, 27% grenache and 24% mourv’dre, and received 15 months maturation in principally French oak, of which only 18% was first use. Duval has managed to find old bush vine vineyards for both grenache and mourv’dre to help provide the velvet tannins he’s seeking. The 2004 release delivers a spicy expression of cranberry, plum and redcurrant flavour, backed by suggestions of blueberries, blackberries and licorice. It’s velvet-smooth and juicy, with a typically jammy expression of Barossa flavour framed by fine, loose-knit tannins. It’s vibrant and generous, but retains an air of cultivation and restraint. It retails around $36 and can be cellared with confidence for about a decade. The debut release of Entity is an altogether different wine that represents some of the best drinking for $40 in Australia today. Sourced from old vineyards in the Stockwell, Light Pass, Ebenezer and Krondorf sub-regions in the Barossa’s north and east, it’s about ‘elegance, grace and purity of fruit, with fine tannins’ according to its maker. Aged for 17 months in mainly French oak, of which 47% was new, it’s an exemplary marriage of depth of fruit and finesse, and will easily cellar into its third decade. Deeply scented, alluring and spicy, it’s steeped in dark berry and plum aromas backed by cedar/walnut oak. Full to medium in weight, its long and supple expression of pristine, juicy small black and red berry flavour is supported by toasty vanilla oak and framed by finely honed, silky tannins. It’s beautifully focused and balanced. While he’s taking a ‘softly, softly’ approach towards expanding his range, Duval is tinkering with a possible reserve shiraz blend from 2005. At this time he’s not sure whether he’ll keep it separate or not, nor what price he might set for it. He is however determined to ‘stay at the small end of town’. He’s clearly enjoying his new professional life, and I suggest you see why for yourself.
