Ozstralian Wine Bashing

There is a new Olympic sport and the US team from the Robert Parker Bulletin Whine Board looks like it will be a certainty for the gold medal but there is significant late charge from Tom Cannavan’s British Whine Board.

The objectives of the sport are to slag off Australian wine as being too high in alcohol and not being age-worthy.

The rules of the sport are extremely simple.

1. Rampant generalizations are well regarded.

2. Bigotry, ignorance, and especially lack of experience in the category are worth extra points.

3. Comment based on emotion rather than fact is highly regarded and worth bonus points.

4. Being unable to back up previous statements made is par for the course.

5. Competitors have a god-given right to dictate what peoples taste in wine should represent.

6. Only wine from the “olde worlde” can be “serious” or “quality.”

Wine styles come and wine styles go, that is a fact of life. They evolve and change and in many cases, the changes are for the better. In the 1980’s the style of much of the wines from Australia was a little green and under-ripe. As the 80’s progressed, the style evolved and the wines became riper.

During the 90’s a few things happened that would change the Australian wine industry for all time. Firstly, the dynamics of the ownership of the players changed and a few mega corporate entities emerged. Whilst the UK market was solid, a huge export push into new markets also took place, especially the US.

This drive into the US was one of the most defining moments in the history of our wine industry. First and foremost, it could be extremely profitable. For large players, like Rosemount it offered the ability to increase production dramatically. When the merger with Southcorp took place, much of it was predicated on the Rosemount success and the need to get Penfold and other Southcorp labels into the US market. Much of this also applied to BRL Hardy.

At the low-cost end of the scale, due to the exchange rate and lower cost of production in Australia, our wines were seen as very good value in the US and the reputation quickly grew. It is important to note at this point, the majority of wine sold is at the lower price points and the top end represents a very small percentage of the market.

The low end of the pricing scale is still very successful and in the scope of this article, that category is representative of the weekend sports person, but this article is more about the elite sports people, in this case represented by the top end wines.

If there was money to be made at the low cost end, there was a huge opportunity for boutique producers to do well at the top end by exporting to the US. As a generality, the US has a sweet palate and that is why some of the Champagne houses have a special Cuve for the US. To some extent, a number of Australian wine producers have been doing the same thing by tailoring wines for the US market, in many cases these wines are virtually not sold at home; the Marquis Phillips brand being the most noticeable.

Many of these export wines are high in sweetness, either from residual sugar and/or from alcohol and that is the way they have been intentionally designed. Why are they made that way? The answer is simple, people love them, and they are in high demand.

By exactly the same token, many of the lower cost Australian wines sold today are very different to those sold five or ten years ago. They are softer, more approachable, and less tannic. Why? Because they sell and consumers like them! That does not mean that either of these two examples of wine are “great wines” but it does mean they are great commercial successes because the producers are giving the market products they enjoy.

It also does not mean that you or I have to like them but then I don’t like every brand of baked beans either. These wines have a legitimate place in the market but that is not what this article is about, it is about the growing sport of many US and UK wine-lovers who have decided they have a god-given right to trash mainstream quality Australian wines because, in their opinion they do not age and/or are high in alcohol.

Here is one example written by jtan from a different thread on Parkers Forum.

Over these years, I have laid down more than a few bottles (usually premium to super-premium wines). Recently, having had the itch to see how these wines are doing I opened a few of these and to my shock many of them have changed drastically in character. More than a few are now unbalanced, overly sour and do not resemble anything like their prior selves. This seems to be especially so of large wineries and I am forming a theory about some of these wines.

a) Many large wineries harvest at overly high yields and I suspect grapes which are overly bloated with water
b) The ample sunshine has created wines with high alcohol content and tannins which can hide these flaws in the early years by giving the impression of thick, unctuous jam with a good lashing of tannin...and here is where we are fooled to think that a few years would solve it.
C) As years go by, the tannins bind and start dropping off. The wine ironically gets unbalanced as you now reveal the overly diluted core.

When questions about examples, the only one the author of this post was able to provide was the Wynns 1993 John Riddoch which, for the record is 13.5% alcohol and from a very poor vintage.

Yes, the wines have become riper and more alcoholic but let’s examine some of the reasons why. There have been many changes to both viticulture and winemaking practices. Many of the vines are now irrigated where they were previously dry-grown. Changes in viticulture have also allowed grapes to ripen more evenly than was previously possible. There have been changes to the yeasts being use which also result in more efficient use of the sugars in the grapes.

It is interesting to note, that jtan thought that irrigation was a problem, according to another poster on the UK board, “A recent syndicated Jancis article I read locally hinted that perhaps the never-ending quest for lower yields was perhaps contorting the phenolic-ripeness/sugar-ripeness timing.” So one person is saying irrigation, and inferring high cropping levels with “a diluted core” is the problem and the other is saying low cropping levels are to blame, almost complete opposite opinions as to the cause of the problem.

Can wine be too high in alcohol? Of course they can but high alcohol itself is not necessarily a problem. I have it on authority from people far more knowledgeable on the subject than I, that some of the greatest Bordeaux wines ever produced touched 14.5% alcohol so high alcohol wines can and do age well. However some of them are not designed to age well and are best drunk when young. Reid Bosward of Kaesler Wines recommends that his icon, The Old Bastard Shiraz should be drunk in the first five years of its life.

Only a fool would think all high alcohol wines will age well just as only a fool would think that all expensive wines will age well and part of the problem is “bad advice” from experts. For example, I have frequently seen recommended drinking windows on Australian wines by Parker and have been stunned at the predictions of longevity. If people are buying wine based on those paid-for recommendations, then naturally they will be disappointed but that does not mean that it is logical to lump all Australian wine into one category.

Here is another example from the Parker Forum thread.

“I have gradually come to a conclusion regarding Aussie Shiraz. Way too often I have found the wines too heavy, lacking elegance and with aeration they evolve into something like a salty and sweet tomato soup spiced with tar. I have still had some faith that this would not be the case with "the great ones". Yesterday I opened Grange 94 and Armagh 96. The wines were OK from start, but after two hours in the decanter they had degenerated completely. The same unbearable blockbuster taste as with the others. I want to drink wine and not motor oil!”

Or this one.

“It is amazing that RP still seems to like the Aussies. He is giving heaps of high scores for the most recent vintages.”

Obviously it’s not all right for Parker (or anyone else for that matter) to like Australian wine. Notice, the author feels all Australian wine is the same, from Tasmania to Margaret River.

Another one, this time from the UK Forum.

“… But in all cases more alcohol than I would have wished for. Liver can more than cope with the alcohol as there was no after effects – but still at the overall detriment to the complexity and enjoyment factor of these wines.”

For the record, all the wines listed were between 13.5% and 14.5% and included Penfold 1998 Bin 28, 1998 Bin 128, and d'Arenberg 2001 Footbolt. How can the alcohol of the Bin 128 which is at 13.5% be to the detriment of the complexity? Possibly the wine is not complex, but that does not mean the 13.5% alcohol should be blamed does it?

Another comment from the same thread.

“Speaking of D'Arenberg, I have tried the 96, 97 and 98 vintages of The Dead Arm. I have to say that they left me unmoved - loads of power but little in the way of structure or finesse. I wasn't convinced that leaving them longer would provide any better integration.”

Maybe not much finesse, but these wines are still babies and need time to show their best. It is also possible they were not designed with finesse in mind. And saying they have little in the way of structure is beyond my comprehension.

And yet another comment from the same thread.

“…. Does this therefore mean that many parts of California, Australia (Barossa Valley floor, McLaren Vale) and South Africa and some areas of Spain and Italy are inappropriate for quality wine production, or that viticultural and vinification practices need to better balance physiological ripeness and alcohol levels.”

The critical word here is “quality.” The above question was posed in response to another comment but obviously, in some people’s minds, you can not grow quality wines in places like the Barossa or McLaren Vale because the wine is too alcoholic.

And finally, the last quote.

“I'd like to drink more wine without getting sloshed!”

I might add, that this came from an Australian person who I know and shall remain nameless, Graeme. And if you saw the way he drinks you would understand this, but joking aside, let’s put this comment into perspective.

Assuming 13% is acceptable, if you drink three glasses of wine over three hours you will have drunk "39 units" and the chances are an average male will have a blood alcohol level of close about .02 (based on the average male being able to absorb one standard drink per hour.)

If you drink three glasses of wine that is 14.5% over the same three hour period you will have consumed "43.5 units" which would give you a blood alcohol level of about .035, so the total increased alcohol consumed is about the equivalent of an extra third of a glass of wine.

In Australia, you would still be less than .05 blood alcohol level, legally sober and able to drive.

When my mate Brian proof read this he said “What serious wino only drinks three glasses in three hours? Six might be a better example” so to keep Brian happy, I have provided an example for “serious winos.”

If you drink a whole bottle over fours hours then no matter what, you should not be driving. At 14.5% you will have consumed 8.6 standard drinks and your blood alcohol level would be around 0.115, about twice the legal limit. If the wine was 13% you will have consumed 7.7 standard drinks. The difference of less than one standard drink, but more importantly your blood alcohol level will still be about 0.093 which means you are still in no condition to drive.

So in theory, it 14.5% you blood alcohol will return to zero after a total elapsed time (after starting to drink) of 8 hours and 36 minutes hours and the 13% alcohol bottle will take you about 7 hours and 42 minutes. Is that such a huge difference after all?

There is a lot of emotion with regard to high alcohol wine but unfortunately that emotion often gets in the way of the facts. People are entitled to enjoy what ever wine styles they want to and no one has a right to say that what is the right style and what is the wrong style.

Will things change and will Australian wine become less alcoholic? In all honesty I don’t know the answer to that question but wine styles are not static and evolve and mature with time.  We have a huge variety of wine styles available to us in Australia today and they are definitely not all the same. Something those involved in the Oz wine bashing Olympics may not realise.

Copyright © Ric Einstein 2004