It doesn’t fall to many winemakers to lead in the way that Brian Croser does. Such has been his impact over the last three decades that it is almost impossible to discuss winemaking trends and influences in this country without mentioning Croser somewhere. Admire him or abhore him, for he does manage to divide opinions about himself in the strongest possible way, winemakers just can’t ignore him. Ever since he helped to establish the winemaking course at Wagga Wagga he has been massively influential over his peers. From the release of the very first Petaluma wine, a sweet riesling from Mitchelton fruit of all things, no Australian label has been more closely watched and scrutinised by the winemaking community. Or followed. Croser’s ‘dry spatlese’ expression of dry Petaluma riesling, evident from his very first vintage in 1979 (a wine that does retain some residual sugar) has paved the way for the modern riper, fruitier and more alcoholic style that we naturally associate with the grape variety today. If Croser has been more erratic with his cabernet-based Coonawarra blend of red varieties, he has been no less emulated by other makers, often not only mimicking Croser’s style but closely following the techniques that Croser has at various times used and extolled. A recent tasting of all the Petaluma Rieslings and Coonawarras showed that the dominant influence over the expression of the rieslings was that of the season itself, while the red blend more closely reflected Croser’s changing philosophy towards how these grape varieties should be vinified and preserved. As such, there is no more precise expression of the evolution of Australian cabernet over the last two decades than a complete tasting of Brian Croser’s Petaluma red blends. From 1979 until 1988 the Petaluma Coonawarra was entirely sourced from the Evans Vineyard which was bought from the Evans Wine Company in 1978. Its 10ha were evenly divided between cabernet sauvignon and shiraz, which virtually dictated the composition of the first Coonawarra – the stunning 1979 vintage which comprised 60% shiraz, the last time shiraz has ever accounted for more than 12% of Petaluma’s blend. This remains a glorious wine, a leathery and cigarboxy Australian classic with suppleness and strength, built around a fine backbone of firm tannins. It’s odd, and still inexplicable to Len Evans, who has been intimately involved in the Petaluma blend since its inception, that Croser took an instant dislike to the role shiraz played in this wine, irrespective of its indisputable quality. From 1980 to 1985 inclusive, the Coonawarra went through a bad patch. Croser used 12% shiraz in 1980 and 1982, didn’t release a wine in 1983 (understandably, given the wretched season in Coonawarra) and began introducing merlot to the wine in 1984 (50%) and 1985 (30%). Ultimately, though, these wines failed because foremost in Croser’s mind was the search for elegance and fineness which culminated in the use of totally protective techniques in the winery and cool temperature fermentations designed to maximise flavour retention. Furthermore, the 1984 and 1985 wines were made with what Croser today describes as a ‘radical’ no sulphur regime which affected the merlot components of the wines adversely. As a group these vintages lack weight and integrity and are handicapped by weedy greenish flavours, but so were so many Australian cabernet blends made around this time, especially from Coonawarra. This was the height of the cool-climate fad in Australia and winemakers were caught in a Quixote-like quest for ethereal elegance which even resulted in much the same characters occurring in cabernets from the Barossa Valley! Croser was one of the first to move away, especially amongst makers of Coonawarra red. 1986 was a major turning point, producing a powerful and assertive Coonawarra blend which offered in ripe minty red berry and cherry fruit what it might have lacked in sophistication. Nevertheless, a massive improvement on previous releases, with plenty of life today. It’s relatively tough and leathery, with obvious herbaceous flavours, but the 1987 does maintain Croser’s push towards a more powerful and substantial wine. 1988 was the first real success since 1979, a fine, firm claret of such fruit strength in its youth that Croser gave it two separate years in 100% brand new French oak. It retains its youthful intensity of ripe red fruit and should continue to develop. Petaluma was one of several wineries not to release a premier Coonawarra red from 1989. The decade of the 1990s has taken Petaluma’s Coonawarra label from a situation of unresolved potential to consistent excellence, culminating to this point in the incomparable 1998 vintage. It’s as if each separate wine of the decade has contributed something to the growing and making of the majestic 1998 wine in which virtually all imaginable desirable components of Coonawarra cabernet come together. It’s deeply flavoured, powerful and concentrated, but the 1990 wine has a tannic structure that is comparatively bony and hard. The 1991 wine is a more elegant and supple, but falls short of the strength Croser is after. The 1992 vintage, the first wine to rival the 1979, marries the better aspects of both 1990 and 1991. Like so many South Australian cabernets from 1993, the Coonawarra is minty, greenish and lightly reductive, an aberration you can blame on the season. 1994 is a strong and seamless wine which harks of the 1992, while 1995’s Coonawarra is more leathery, tighter and leaner, with very astringent and bony tannins. Returning to true form in 1996 with a restrained, very elegant and long-term wine, Croser produced the rabbit from the hat in 1997, with a wine from an exceptionally low crop and from a largely discarded Coonawarra vintage that has since acquired the poise and finesse of a top Margaux. Then the 1998, whose substance and structure, purity and brightness of flavour, harmony and integrity are going to take an awful lot of beating. Throughout this progression you can experience a roughly linear improvement in the focus and intensity of Petaluma’s fruit. Unlike the overwhelming majority of Coonawarra vineyards, both of the properties which since 1990 have jointly contributed to the Coonawarra are hand-pruned, crop moderated and hand-harvested. Their small, well-exposed crops ripen earlier than most of their neighbours’, developing clean, pure fruit qualities as they do. There’s little doubt in my mind that in 1998 and 1997 especially, the intensity and clarity of their flavour and the ripeness and fineness of their tannins are pushing out the limits of Coonawarra vicinity fruit further than other vineyards. Since 1990 the Coonawarra wine has included increasingly large proportions of cabernet sauvignon and merlot from the Sharefarmers Vineyard. After twenty years Croser has refined the structure and strength he achieved in his very first vintage and is now delivering the ‘briary and spicy’ cabernet flavours he has long sought for in the Coonawarra. He is today strongly critical of the ‘super ripe fruit flavours’ he finds ‘as part of the Australian stereotype’, sharing my concerns over the longevity and ultimate drinkability of these wines. Although his techniques in the winery have clearly been subject to constant refinement and occasionally radical change, he stresses that Petaluma Coonawarras have never been made with additions of tannin, oak additives, charry barrel fermentations or even filtration. His personal favourites are the wines of 1992 and 1998. Looking at Australian red wine at large over the 1990s this tasting has its parallels elsewhere, for it’s my firm belief that as long as their makers have not been seduced by the American-driven trend to turn fine red wine into dry vintage port, that Australia’s best red vineyards are presently making their best reds ever. It took a lot of guts to stage this tasting which, to my mind was a real ‘warts and all’ exercise, but Croser, as I am sure he knew he would, has emerged a winner. For this, and for making several wines I would love to have made myself, he deserves every credit.
