Finally, it would appear, Tasmania is emerging from its lowly status as the greatest enigma in Australian wine. Promises made long ago are beginning to be kept, as wine from a steadily increasing number of vineyards justifies its place on the top shelf on the basis of quality and not scarcity alone. Today there are several rare but exciting pinot noirs, fine to feel but full in flavour. Unusually fragrant, reserved Germanic rieslings and steely gewurztraminers suggest that growers are looking to make wines reflective of their own terroirs, irrespective of what ‘mainlanders’ may think. Meanwhile, a brace of finely structured and complex sparkling pinot noirs and blends, whose racy acids and explosive fruit shine like a beacon through the flabby, coarse and predictable sameness of so many Australian sparkling wines, underlines what could potentially prove to be the ultimate destiny for our so-called Apple Isle. Even taking into account the ongoing work of Pipers Brook and several other companies determined to prove a case for cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay, I remain unconvinced that aside from a few special sites, Tasmania’s climate is simply too cool for these grapes to consistently make wine from ripe fruit. And the ripeness I mean is flavour, not sugar ripeness. A-Class Wine from Stoney Vineyard Typical of so many small Tasmanian vineyards whose wines are so scarce they rarely cross the Bass Strait, the twin Tasmanian labels of Domaine A and Stoney Vineyard have certainly been enigmatic to this writer. Despite its not insubstantial price tag, Domaine A is one of the Apple Isle’s most sought after and high profile labels, but one almost as vanishingly scarce as the Tasmanian Tiger. While my occasional ‘sightings’ over the last five years of the occasional Domaine A Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir were sufficiently tempting to justify a more detailed investigation, their tracks have been obscure and difficult to follow. Recently I was the guest of Peter Althaus of Domaine A and Stoney Vineyard and Andrew Wood of Divine Magazine at a vertical tasting of the Domaine A and Stoney Vineyard reds. Now, having tasted them all, I’m simply staggered by what it has taken me five years to find out! Domaine A is no longer an occasional shooting star, but is clearly a consistent top-class performer at a very high level, with both pinot noir and cabernet sauvignon. And there are not too many Australian vineyards I can say that about. A retired manager of a major international computing firm, Peter Althaus migrated to Tasmania’s Coal Creek Valley in 1989 with his wife Ruth to buy the Stoney Vineyard which George Park, a technical employee of the Hydro-Electric Corporation, had established in 1973. What Althaus bought was the classic experimental fruit-salad, with no less than fourteen varieties planted to a half-acre vineyard on the property’s 20 ha. Against all odds, it would appear, he has focused on Bordeaux varieties in Tasmania’s south, but reckons the risk is worth it. The Coal Valley climate is surprisingly mild and given the well-sheltered nature of his site, Althaus finds it actually ripens quite early. The vineyard’s overall heat summation range of 900-1300 degree days compares interestingly with the 1380 of Beaune, Bordeaux’s 1350 and Geisenheim’s 930. The dry summer climate actually demands irrigation in the ripening season, although Althaus doesn’t want to pamper his vines, taking an approach towards minimal additions, either chemical or organic. Aiming for 11 ha in production, mainly to Bordeaux varieties, Althaus added 2 ha of cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc in 1990, five ha of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and petit verdot in 1991 and 3 ha of pinot noir and cabernet sauvignon in 1992. His cabernet blend will account for 70% of production, pinot noir 20% and sauvignon blanc the remaining 10% of an anticipated total production of 6,000 cases. With his two-tier labelling structure of Domaine A and the lesser-priced Stoney Vineyard, Althaus not only has the flexibility to direct fruit from one price category to another dependent on quality, but the will to do it with integrity. Unconvinced it met his standards, Althaus declassified his entire red wine production in 1996 to the Stoney label. Many other makers could take note. Naturally, the system works both ways. Having crushed a record total of 79 tonnes from the 1998 vintage, Althaus was happy to allocate his entire production of seven tonnes of pinot noir to Domaine A, just as he did in 1997. In each of these seasons around a third of the cabernet blend made the cut to Domaine A. The Domaine A wines are clearly more concentrated, complete and altogether more expressive than those of the early-drinking Stoney Vineyard label. While their weight and depth are clearly influenced by significant vintage variation, they’re a sophisticated, long-living lot which only receive new oak, typically for up to 17 months. The oak influence evident in the older wines appears nothing but balanced in every case. Never approaching the extracted or the outsized, the Domaine A Cabernet Sauvignons present a fineness, tautness and elegance rare in Australian reds, plus the ability to develop startling complexity and depth of flavour with bottle-age. They are quite the opposite of what Robert Parker and The Wine Spectator find so impressive about Australian red wine, and only one, the 1994 vintage, is overtly Australian. Finely crafted, fragrant and alluring, the Domaine A Pinot Noirs fit between the blockbusting, yet brilliant brute of a wine from 1994 and the reserved, fine-grained 1995 vintage with its autumnal leafy notes, tightness and restraint. They’re beautifully flavoured, classically structured and very, very serious pinots indeed. That, of course, means they’re serious fun. You can contact Peter Althaus at Domaine A on (03) 6260 4390 or by fax on (03) 6260 4390.
