It’s difficult, in wine, to become an overnight sensation. Vines take a long time to grow, and even longer to become a hundred years old. Styles take time to refine themselves as land, vines and people slowly come to an accord about what a wine from a certain grape or mixture from a certain site should taste like. Traditionally the market would tread warily around the offerings of a new brand, hesitantly picking at its best offerings like an anxious stork poking about for delicacies in a pool of unfamiliar fish. None of that happened for Torbreck or its owner/winemaker David Powell, a genuine overnight sensation in world wine. In 1992 he returned to Australia from a spell living in Scotland – inspirational wine country that it isn’t – and shortly thereafter worked with Robert O’Callaghan and Chris Ringland at Rockford. A year later he had found some old run-down Barossa vineyards that he had to prune back so hard he didn’t take a crop off them until 1994. In 1993 he bought what has since become the Torbreck winery’s 12 ha block. He made the first of his own wines in a shed there in 1994, which he sold to the UK. In 1995 he made the first Torbreck wine, the 1995 RunRig, choosing the name ‘Torbreck’ after a forest in Scotland where he had worked as a lumberjack. In 1996, unable to afford the fruit he wanted, he acted as a sharefarmer on some old vineyards, taking off small parcels as payment for managing the sites. In 1997 he was able to buy small amounts of quality fruit here and there. He left Rockford that year, and the rest, they say, is history. His main problem now is trying to figure out how he can afford to buy all the low-cropped old vine fruit he has been offered. That’s the advantage when you’re prepared to pay Grange prices for your top labels like RunRig. While the world’s most influential wine writer, Robert Parker jnr, has given me and countless others like me great cause for concern in recent years, it’s only fair to give him credit where it’s due. He put Torbreck on the map, and he was perfectly right to do so. Interestingly, Torbreck’s wines have little in common with countless others whose names he has also made, for they follow a very different recipe to the established blueprint for success against the Parker palate. With the exception of the RunRig, which is a finer, albeit still densely proportioned old vine Barossa shiraz, Torbreck’s wines are tighter, bonier and substantially more lean and briary than other Parker favourites like Veritas, Greenock Creek, Three Rivers, Wild Duck Creek and Clarendon Hills. The ‘entry level’ Torbreck is the Woodcutters Red, a supple, forward and juicy soft red with bright blueberry and redcurrant flavours. Next up is The Juveniles, a rustic, fine and bony 60:20:20 blend of grenache, mataro and shiraz designed to be enjoyed in its youth. Then comes The Steading, a wood-matured expression of a similar wine, and one that bears uncanny resemblance to some very fine offerings from the southern Rhone. The Descendant is a blend of 88% shiraz with 12% viognier from vines planted in 1994, in which the different varieties were fermented together. The Factor is a classic chocolatey Barossa style from old vine shiraz which Powell gives around 30% new oak. It’s made from fruit which lacks the requisite density for RunRig. The RunRig, a shiraz which also incorporates about 3% of the most aromatic viognier on the planet, is presently Torbreck’s flagship. The 1998 vintage is one of the Wines of the Issue in this OnWine Report. It fetches northwards of $400 per bottle in the US. David Powell is increasing the production of Torbreck’s wine, but not the amount made under his premium labels. So, as he gets more premier fruit directed his way he’s going to need to invent new top-end label. One such wine is on the drawing-board, and Powell is waiting to see if the 2001 vintage is up to commencing the new lineage which he wants to see on a par with RunRig. At this stage it’s 100% shiraz, but has been matured in Seguin-Moreau oak rather than Radoux. As yet more fruit comes his way, in a rush that doesn’t show any signs of slowing down, Powell will be able to select even harder for his top wines, eventually increasing the make and the quality of the Woodcutters brand. He stresses that he doesn’t view every label as its own profit centre, but is happy to allow some brands to subsidise others in Torbreck’s collection, as long as the entire business is going the right way. That’s why he uses the expensive proprietary bottles for the Woodcutters label, he argues. Fair point. The amazing thing about David Powell is that he’s not a qualified winemaker. He’s worked at a range of wineries in the Barossa, the US and Tuscany since 1981, and says he spent the first ten years of his winemaking experience learning how not to make wine with big companies. ‘I’d see how we lost quality in large-scale production, and then I was lucky to spend six years with Robert (O’Callaghan) and Chris (Ringland) at Rockford, without which I wouldn’t be where I am now. I guess Robert treated me the same way he had been treated as a junior at Seppeltsfield, for he’d spend time telling me about the old vineyards in the Barossa, the history of the region and what to do when running a small business. Chris was wonderful from a technical point of view. I’m eternally grateful to both of them.’ After the disappointingly low yields of the 2000 vintager, 2001 stretched Tobreck’s processing facilities. Around 350 tonnes were processed at the modestly expanded shed/winery, while another 150 tonnes were handled at a new and more modern facility at Lyndoch. Of this crush, 200 tonnes in total were contract-made for other producers. Powell is delighted with what he has in tank and barrel, and looks forward to the day when he can build a larger winery on the Torbreck site at which all the small-run high end wines will be made, while he will steadily improve the Lyndoch facility for the Woodcutters label and contract makes. While he’s presently flavour of the month in the US and Europe, there’s enough of the realist in Powell to be aware that the domestic Australian market is of vital importance to his future. With increased volumes of wine to sell around the corner, he’s spending money and effort in bringing the Torbreck brand out of the cult category and more into the mainstream market. This may be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve with his limited volumes of top-end brands, but from what I’ve seen and tasted, there’s going to be plenty of affordable Torbreck red wine around for Australians to enjoy.
