Reputations in wine are a funny thing. For a start, it’s very, very hard to get a good one. With such a competitive market, so many new wines entering it and so few genuine opportunities to put a wine in front of someone’s nose, it’s a genuine wonder that people ever expect to get a reputation for quality in the first place. Let alone the fact that most wineries, numerically at least, simply do not deserve one.
So how about a reputation that changes? For example, a winery that could not make white wine to save its life (such as Penfolds) that is now doing very well thank you as a maker of a wide array of white wines (such as Penfolds). Or a region once considered to be the logical home of Australian pinot noir (like the Yarra Valley) is perhaps now making more wine of serious quality from shiraz (like the Yarra Valley). Even more interesting, a country that is a proven star with riesling (New Zealand, for instance) that reinvented itself almost exclusively on the back of sauvignon blanc (New Zealand, for another instance).
Wine fashion is a weird thing, yet it’s what wineries, regions and countries are trying to predict and then to react to before the fashion changes again. That’s one reason why reputations change. Wine fashion is unusual because it’s a product of both ends of the food chain – wine producers and consumers alike. Amongst winemakers, riesling, mourvèdre and nebbiolo are very de rigeur today, despite the fact that sales of these wines remain minute. On the other hand, the wine-drinking public simply cannot unscrew their bottles of Marlborough sauvignon blanc and Australian shiraz viognier quickly enough, despite the fact that the makers of these wines are most unlikely to be seen quaffing their own product in private.
Climate change and drought are both applying the blowtorch to the reputations of several producers and regions. Once virtually considered too cool for red wines, Tasmania is now growing consistently fine pinot noir, plus the occasional first-class cabernet. On the other hand, most Barossa makers are desperately trying to make their shiraz under 15% alcohol by volume, but are finding this task nigh impossible under the searing heat of most recent vintages. Yet 25 years ago, we were buying Barossa shiraz and cabernet that was under 13%, virtually every year. Today, the Yarra Valley now looks more suited to shiraz, much of northern Heathcote appears better equipped for durif, and even the Barossa and McLaren Vale are now perhaps seemingly more of a natural fit with tempranillo and sangiovese. With much of wine, change is the constant.
English wine, of all things, is steadily acquiring a reputation. History tells us that the Romans made wine over much of England, even into northern Wales, when temperatures were clearly high enough to allow them to do so. Well, today’s English climate is back to being almost identical to that of those times – so it’s little wonder that vineyards are springing up all over the Old Dart, in much the same sort of places that the Romans established in a previous time. The fact that just a few hundred years ago England was gripped by a mini ice-age seems almost incredulous.
Those who have invested heavily on the base of rave reviews of the 2009 Bordeaux red vintage might yet rue their purchases of these wines. A ripening season of rare heat – something we are becoming quite accustomed to hearing from France these days – has resulted in alcoholic strengths of these principally cabernet-based wines clocking in around 15-16%. The Australian and American experience with cabernets of this strength is not a happy one, to say the least. The palate structure of the cabernet family is even less equipped than shiraz to deal with this, especially as the wines mature.
Just as the Barossa, perhaps, is facing significant challenges to maintain its standards with shiraz in the face of climate change, so is Bordeaux, the world’s largest quality wine region. And it’s not alone in Europe. Northern Rhône reds weighing in over 15% are becoming less scarce on the ground every year. Mind you, I’d hate to be the one to predict a fine future for Bordeaux’ vintage port!
Wine, subject to nature like the rest of us, gets no exemptions, however much we passionately would love it to. Wine is a reflection of where it’s grown and who makes it. The human factor in the quality and style of any given wine increases in direct disproportion to the quality of the site it comes from, ie the poorer the site, the more human input to make the wine as good as it can be. And as people come and go from wine companies, their vineyard sites and wineries, quality and reputations will continue to change.
The change in wine reputation is not so much a cyclical phenomenon as a large two-way highway. All the traffic is moving, for better or for worse, but there are enough lanes going each way for some to be heading much faster than others, in each direction.
To close, here’s a short list of Australian wines and brands that were once considered to be amongst the very finest of their kind and price point. I’ll leave it to you to decide what might have happened to them:
Arrowfield
Basedow
Ben Ean, Coolibah, Muroombah, etc etc.
Chateau Le Amon
Diamond Valley Vineyards
Dromana Estate
Edwards & Chaffey
Krondorf
Lindemans
Marienberg
Merricks Estate
Mildara Alexander’s Blend
Mitchelton Cab Mac
Quelltaler
Rosemount Estate Roxburgh Chardonnay
Rothbury Estate
Rouge Homme
St Huberts
The Robson Vineyard
Tisdall Mount Helen
