Sometimes it’s tough having a history. It’s easy to be thought of as old hat. People still get the feeling that old dogs don’t learn new tricks. The first vines at Best’s were planted in 1868, yet it wasn’t until 1992 that the Thomson family first made a ‘reserve’ quality shiraz, the Thomson Centenary Shiraz. Under the Thomson Family label this wine has been fashioned every year since 1994. I can state with absolute confidence that it is one of the very best wines made in Australia. Just prior to printing this issue of the OnWine Report I tasted every one of the Thomson Family wines, plus the 1992 Centenary wine which serves as the first of this series, plus the corresponding years of its stablemate, the steadfastly reliable Bin ‘O’ Shiraz, together with the 1993 vintage of Bin ‘0’, when no reserve shiraz was made. On finishing this tasting I couldn’t help the feeling that had these wines all been expensive northern Rhone labels from Guigal, then I would have been left with the renewed confidence in the sheer excellence of Guigal’s winemaking, and how precious a resource were his vineyards and his talents. Yet these were simply superlative wines from a relatively unheralded Victorian maker which has been around for substantially longer than most of us would be aware. The first thing that struck me was how completely and utterly drinkable they all were. Many modern reds, especially those with alcoholic strengths bordering on port and sherry, simply lack that essential factor or drinkability. The Thomson Family Shiraz is made exclusively from the first vines planted at the Best’s vineyard at Victoria’s famous wine village of Great Western in 1868. To date there has been absolutely no blending with wine from several other old shiraz vineyards owned by Best’s, although the man in charge of the company’s direction and winemaking, Viv Thomson, says the tempation is becoming harder to resist. Only 340-400 cases of this remarkable wine are made each year, from vines that are very likely to have come from the original James Busby collection, being some of the first shiraz to enter Australia. With such a special vineyard resource at his disposal, it’s little wonder that Thomson doesn’t want to over-intervene in the winemaking process. ‘If we have a philosophy it is to epitomise the grapes themselves’, he explains. ‘In other words, at the end of the process, the best we can do its to get the maximum out of our fruit. I have never been a style person; I have always maintained that grapes direct that.’ And in a moment of utterly charming country honesty: ‘In fact, we make these wines to suit ourselves. We really don’t care two hoots about you or the public or anyone else. We want these wines to be right for us.’ I wish more winemakers would be frank enough to say that! So what does Viv Thomson expect to experience from a classic Great Western shiraz? ‘The best of them have this cleanness; not the richness of Barossa, the power of the Pyrenees, but a little like a fuller-bodied Coonawarra shiraz, which is lighter and more delicate. They have consistency from year to year, drinkability, subtlety and a fineness of tannins. They have excellent natural acids – I’ve not had to adjust a Thomson Family Shiraz – and great longevity. I’ve never made a shiraz that wasn’t good for ten years.’ I unstintingly agree. What I really enjoy about the Thomson Family wines are their piercingly ripe, bright dark fruit flavours of cherries, plums and cassis, which simply fill the mouth with their intensity and finish long and clean, with the sort of sour-edged note seen in the best red wines from Tuscany and McLaren Vale. Beneath the fruit is the long, tight tannic backbone so familiar to drinkers of the Bin ‘0’ Shiraz, although the Family red has more concentration and depth of fruit than their stablemates. Rarely peppery but typically very spicy, they represent some of the purest expressions of shiraz made anywhere. While the Thomson Family Shiraz fits neatly amongst Australia’s elite modern shirazes, the Bin ‘0’ captures the charm, elegance and expression of the wines of a bygone era when oak was significantly less important than it is today. Although the Thomson Family red is given substantially more assertive oak than the Bin ‘0’, it’s never been over-oaked yet. ‘I believe you have to be drinking wine, not oak’, says Thomson. ‘It’s only recently that we have been able to afford new barrels, so I’ve been re-learning the habits of a lifetime. Although we bought a couple of barrels in the 1970s it wasn’t until the 1980s that I used new oak.’ Both of Best’s shirazes are given nearly two and a half years in oak, but the Bin ‘0’ only receives 25% of new wood, all of which is American. Around 50-60% of the Thomson Family Shiraz is matured in new cooperage, but typically only a small portion is American. The 1995 vintage was an exception, being aged in nearly all American wood. Aside from the 1868 plantings, there are currently around 12 acres of vines which Viv Thomson believes is able to produce fruit of sufficient quality for Best’s Bin ‘0’ Shiraz. These vines were largely planted in 1966 and 1970, although he is beginning to take fruit from more recent plantings in 1992 and 1994, the cuttings for which were taken from the 1868 vines. Best’s tend to make around 2,000 cases of Bin ‘0’ each year. Thomson is delighted that all three of his sons, Ben, Hamish and Marcus, are actively involved in the business and that it’s well set to survive into the next generation. Viv Thomson’s great contribution to their legacy is that as Best’s moves into the next century it will be at least as well known for the sheer excellence of its two shiraz wines as it is for the age and significance of its old shiraz vineyard.
