I expect I’m not the only Australian wine writer to have been besieged by piles of public relations propaganda from certain Margaret River winegrowers about their new vineyards. Most prolific has been Evans & Tate, which is clearly seeking to convince the wine media that its new plantings on former farmland at Jindong, to the north-east of the main vineyard plantings in Margaret River will produce wine worthy of the ‘appellation’ of Margaret River. Evans & Tate has a major stake in this view, since in 1994 it began to develop its 110 ha Lionel’s Vineyard in the new subregion. It will complete a $3 million, 3,000 tonne winery in time for the 1999 vintage to service the production from the total of around 140 ha of Jindong fruit and the other 60 ha of Margaret River vineyard either owned by or contracted to it. The other major maker with most to gain is Vasse Felix, which will ultimately have 140ha under vine in the new ‘subregion’. The Jindong vineyards are located on flat, low-lying terrain and experience a rather warmer ripening macroclimate than the majority of the existing Margaret River plantings, which tend to hug the coast on a narrow strip between Yalingup and Witchcliffe. Jindong is around 15 km to the north-east of these plantings and was former farming land. ‘We may yet find that most of the vineyards aren’t in the best areas; that the lure of the surf and a coastal lifestyle have been too strong’, says Franklin Tate from Evans & Tate. Well, maybe. Winemaker Brian Fletcher says the vineyard’s warmer climate and sheltered site should help the company get fuller flavours from riper fruit. Personally, I can’t think of too many under-ripened Margaret River wines. Daily maximum temperatures at Lionel’s Vineyard are typically two to three degrees higher than the company’s older vineyards at Redbrook near Willyabrup and also at Devil’s Lair, while overnight minimum temperatures are often a degree or two lower. Fletcher says he gets ‘fruit with the same flavour profile, but with the advantage of avoiding the sometimes freaky weather Margaret River can experience in late summer. The extra warmth during the day will give us greater ripeness and the cooler nights should help with accumulation of colour.’ Evans & Tate’s Two Vineyards Chardonnay has been made from fruit grown on the Lionel’s Vineyard. The 1998 vintage has won a trophy at the Perth Show, but I do not rate back vintages of this wine this highly. I find the wine to be an attractive, fruity and early-maturing style suited to a price just under or around $20. It’s no secret that a number of established Margaret River vineyards have publicly been concerned at the likely quality of the Jindong fruit and what it might do to their area’s reputation. One senior winemaker in the region refers to it as the ‘delta’ country which, like the Entre-deux-Mers in Bordeaux, will make lesser wine than the established quality belt on the free-draining quality soils where most of the prestige vineyards are found. I take with a grain of salt any claim made by Evans & Tate or anyone else that the Jindong area might, as Franklin Tate suggests, still prove to be better in some fashion than the established premium vineyards. As Brian Fletcher agrees, the country is poorer than the premium belt, but at the end of the day the point concerning Jindong is this: If Evans & Tate fails to make wine at a fair ratio of quality to value for money, they will fail. Nobody else will. ‘It’s up to us to prove ourselves’, says Brian Fletcher. ‘At the moment the main problem we have is that every company seems to want our grapes. But at the end of the day, the only ones who will lose if we are wrong are ourselves.’ Too true. So let’s all wait and see.
