Back in the early 1980s Wirra Wirra’s Church Block was a fashionable, hip sort of a wine that inspired an entire generation of imitators. Today it’s seemingly been around forever and easily passes unnoticed by the in-crowd who don’t fancy there’s enough bang for their buck in a South Australian regional blend of cabernet sauvignon, shiraz and merlot. These days Wirra Wirra churns out so much it hardly comes from a single ‘block’ at all (I wonder if ever it really did), but its last three release culminating in the 1999 vintage are rattling good wines at least as good as any before them. A tall, laconic sort of a bloke, Ben Riggs has been Wirra Wirra’s winemaker since 1988. While he admits he gets more excitement from making the company’s flagship reds of RSW Shiraz and The Angelus Cabernet Sauvignon, he’s quick to point out that the Church Block is the wine by which he’s judged. Little wonder, since it’s about 40% of Wirra Wirra’s total make. As a wine, Church Block is unashamedly unlike the popular conception of a red whose spiritual home is the McLaren Vale, for it’s typically finer, lighter and tighter than most from this part of the world. Furthermore, while it doesn’t lack any richness or flavour in the fruit department, it’s distinctly and deliberately less oaky than many of the other hugely popular reds going around today. The Church Block’s big brothers make an interesting pair, since Riggs is also happy to fly in the face of contemporary winemaking attitudes and make them more restrained and approachable than high-profile wines of many of his neighbours. Ever since the inaugural 1989 RSW Shiraz (actually given another label), his sole intention has been to make a McLaren Vale shiraz with elegance, not too over-ripe and without excessive American oak. I enjoy the deeply spiced flavours of the rather sophisticated 1998 RSW, its freshness and intensity of concentrated, vibrant fruit and its seamless integration with creamy oak. Similarly, the 1998 The Angelus, a multi-regional cabernet sauvignon largely focused on McLaren Vale and Coonawarra, is deep, dark and generous, packed with blackberry and plum fruit and tightly knit with fine-grained French oak. There’s a hint of farmyard complexity which Riggs does his best to encourage to a modest degree, plus a fine, approachable cut of tannin which makes it as easy to drink now as it is to cellar with confidence.
