Robert Parker, whose pronouncements on wine through The Wine Advocate pack more punch than any other on Planet Earth, recently tasted more than 200 Australian wines priced under $US15, claiming afterwards that most were ‘undrinkable’. ‘Many of the least expensive Australian wines taste akin to industrial swill that has been excessively acidified, infused with too much oak, and bottled and shipped with reckless regard to the dangers of excessive heat’, he postulates. Given it is certainly true that some of our cheaper wines fail to conceal the necessity of added acid as cunningly as they might do, and given an unquestionable trend amongst our winemakers to rather stretch the envelope concerning the ‘infusion’ of oak character, I still cannot imagine that Mr Parker sampled the best 200 in that price bracket. After all, his affection for some of our woodiest, portiest reds suggest he’s clearly not averse to the concept of oak in Australian wine.
