In its original language it’s supposed to mean ‘little by little’or ‘gradually’. Many would consider this an accurate estimation of its unhurried improvement into a wine worthy of the hype it generated. But with the 1997 vintage Penfolds Yattarna, the most heavily promoted white wine in Australian history, does begin to deliver on its promises. In November 1994 I thought I had a serious journalistic scoop on my hands when I broke the story of the so-called ‘White Grange’ in Melbourne’s The Age newspaper. Penfolds, it appeared, has commenced in 1993 to undertake a series of white wine trials on an unprecedented scale to develop a white stablemate for Grange. It didn’t have a name, they didn’t know what grape or grapes it was to be made from or where those grapes would be grown. Back then Southcorp’s chief white winemaker Ian McKenzie was in charge. He was hypothesising about a wine from cooler regions, waxing lyrical about the virtues of trial semillons from the Adelaide Hills and the Strathbogie Ranges, chardonnay from Pemberton and Tumbarumba, and even sauvignon blanc from Macedon. Penfolds were systematically combing through vineyards in the Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale, Eden and Clare Valleys. By 1994 McKenzie had over thirty trial wines at his fingertips. His hypothetical recipe for the mystery white was at that time 80% chardonnay (possibly from Victoria), with 15% semillon (probably from WA) and 5% sauvignon blanc from who knows where. Meantime, a straight varietal chardonnay, given the name of Reserve Bin 94A, collected trophy after trophy on the show circuit with its classy combination of richness, length and elegance. Out of the forty or so white wines made the following year two particular chardonnays stood out. These were the wines that convinced Penfolds that their premier white should be a straight varietal wine and a chardonnay at that. One of the pair was 100% from the Adelaide Hills. The other was a roughly 50:50 blend of Adelaide Hills fruit with McLaren Vale, the McLaren Vale fruit coming from one of the higher and cooler sites bordering the Adelaide Hills. So which would be the wine first released as the partner to Grange? I tasted the two wines in January 1998, well before the launch, and walked away with the impression that while the straight Adelaide Hills wine showed more restraint, it looked a little overworked and cluttered. Released to the market last year as Reserve Bin 95A, the wine had developed richness and texture, perhaps at the expense of complexity and interest. It’s not going to get much better than it is today and I don’t think it meets the standard set by the Yattarnas of later vintages. The first Yattarna was indeed the regional blend, but while it showed length and structure in early 1998, it’s dropped its guard fairly quickly. I’ve seen it several times in masked tastings in the company of classic Australian chardonnays of the ilk of Bannockburn, Leeuwin Estate and Giaconda and each time it’s looked clumsy, oaky and poorly integrated. None of that prevented the Yattarna 1995 from being traded like a dot com stock before the crash. Its auction price shot up to around $150 and beyond, while I’ve even heard of trades around $300 about a month after its release. Now who was it born every minute? From the first time I saw it, again early in 1998, the Yattarna 1996 looked a cut above. It may have appeared a little blocky in its youth, but its class was apparent. Not yet a great Australian chardonnay, but a fine effort, tightly knit and balanced, it was the first 100% Adelaide Hills Yattarna. It has matured into a creamy, long and seamless wine, a real maker’s effort, whose only drawback is a lack of real focus and personality. It’s also set to mature for a longer time than the inaugural 1995 vintage. I’ve no doubt whatsoever that the 1997 wine will ultimately be regarded as the first top Yattarna. It’s a cut above its predecessors in its presentation of fresh, vibrant, vital fruit and in its classy delivery of intense, concentrated flavour, deft integration of spicy matchstick oak and lingering flinty, minerally finish. It’s a relatively long-term wine with a huge future and sets the water mark for future editions of the ‘white Grange’. Here’s the first edition worthy of the cliche. Of course hindsight turns us all into rocket scientists, but wasn’t it just a little too ambitious for Penfolds to have released as the first ‘white Grange’ a wine made just three vintages after being virtually unable to make a decent white at all? Since there were apparently 144 trial wines made in its development, Penfolds allocated Bin Number 144 to Yattarna. Personally I feel that many of these wines had little relevance to the ultimate first release, irrespective of how much they may have helped Penfolds’ wine making and marketing teams figure out what Yattarna was going to be. Indications are that although the company is keeping an open mind, it will remain an Adelaide Hills chardonnay for the short term at least. Reputations for quality wine are earned, not made overnight. Just ask the people behind the wines I rate as Australia’s best makers of chardonnay, like Gary Farr (Bannockburn), Bob Cartwright (Leeuwin Estate), Rick Kinzbrunner (Giaconda), Brian Croser (Petaluma) and Mike Peterkin (Pierro). It’s taken more than twenty years for Brian Croser to refine the issues of fruit sourcing and winemaking that make Petaluma Chardonnay the benchmark it is today, while Leeuwin Estate hasn’t skipped a beat since its first release in 1980. It must be frustrating for winemakers to release a wine then to watch idly by as short-term profiteers collect as much as they can by whatever available means, before flogging it off on the secondary market after a few months under the queen-size. Acutely aware of the value of their product, Yattarna’s marketeers have set a retail price around $140 per bottle, a figure they offer as a ‘guide’, knowing that some onsellers will want more, some less. At least you shouldn’t see the 1997 Yattarna on auction lists for a year or two and that can’t be a bad thing. So where from here for Australia’s highest-profiled white? Although I haven’t tasted the wine, I’ve heard from several whose palates I respect that the 1998 wine is a step up again from the 1997. That being the case, reality looks like it might actually be closing in on the hype. Australian wine needs a seriously top-notch chardonnay from one of its major companies. It’s good for business. It’s good for profile. It will also ensure that the smaller makers, who have for years taken considerable risks to push out the quality envelope even further, will make even better hamburgers. Penfolds Yattarna Chardonnay 1997 ($140 retail, approx.) 18.9 The first Yattarna I have tasted that I really want to drink again. This is a first-rate chardonnay whose bright citrus and lemon fruit integrates seamlessly with creamy leesy, butterscotch malolactic flavours and newish matchstick French oak spiced with cloves and cinnamon. Its brightness and clarity are truly exceptional as are the length and persistence of its minerally finish and flinty acids. Drink 2005-2009.
