Past Articles

The Three Scribes

There are a multitude of wine publications available in all sorts of various guises and forms as well as many excellent wine writers. Two of the best known are James Halliday and Jeremy Oliver who probably need no introduction. A fairly new up-and-coming scribe who is starting to catch the imagination of readers and respect of many in the business is Campbell Mattinson. Both Halliday and Oliver have recently released their latest books and Mattinson in his own way has also recently unleashed something new and exciting.

The Three Scribes will be examined and dissected for your reading pleasure.

James Halliday started his professional life as a legal eagle but quickly turned to drink – wine that is. Not being content with being a partner in a successful professional practice (and I am not talking about prostitution) he decided that life was not complete without being a partner in a winery too. Although he has an exceptional palate, he obviously didn’t have good taste in wine as his first venture into winery ownership was in the Hunter Valley where he co-founded Brokenwood.

Not being satisfied in being a part owner in a winery, James decided he wanted his own plonk manufacturing business. His taste must have improved, but not much because his next choice of location was the Yarra Valley where he started Coldstream Hills in 1985 and which he sold to Southcorp in 1996.

Obviously, he must be an insomniac as he has written over fifty books, is Chairman of Judges for a number of shows and, in his spare time, tastes through thousands of wines a year as well as writing for the Australian. James’s latest book the 2005 Wine Companion has a “silver medal” on the front cover with “5000 Wines Tasted.” There is gold medal on it too; it states “377 New Winery Entries.” It looks like writing about new wineries is more difficult than tasting the wine.

The latest book is “a radical restructure: instead of providing ratings for just over 50% of the wines tasted, James rated 95% of the wines tasted by significantly shortening the length of each tasting note.” It is now designed to be about recent released wine and the best vintages have also been dropped. There are tasting notes for 3,113 wines. What a monumental effort and there is a huge amount of other useful information available.

James uses a number of scores in the book. The first is the rating for each winery which ranges from 2.5 stars to 5 stars. Each winery listing also details address, contact details, winemaker, opening hours, product range and a short, succinct, summary. This information is very valuable for those wishing to visit the winery or wanting to make contact. It also provides an encapsulated view of the winery is can be most useful in many situations.

For the wines tasted, a 100 point rating system is employed.

87 - 89 Points are recommended with above average quality; fault free, and with clear varietal definition.

90 - 93 Points are highly recommended wines of great quality, style and character worthy of a place in any cellar.

94 – 100 Points are outstanding wines of the highest quality, usually with a distinguished pedigree.

There is also a suggested drinking date (a single year) and price listed for the wines tasted. According to the introduction, “rather than give a span of drinking years, I have simply provided a (conservative) ‘best by’ date. Modern winemaking is such that, even if a wine has 10 or 20 years’ future during which it will gain much complexity, it can be enjoyed at any time over the intervening months and years.”

Readers can make up their own minds about this point and it may be accurate in many cases, but for many wines that are designed to be cellared the use of a single ‘best by’ year is a retrograde step. Mind you, drinking windows in many publications are some of the most contentious causes of disagreements by wine lovers so this move may just avoid the issue completely but does not do much to assist the reader. But then, a drinking window of 2004-2014 for a wine that is released in 2004 is not a great deal of use either in a lot of cases.

The book also has a vintage chart for all regions; unfortunately, it only covers 2000 to 2003 inclusive. Talk about being complete, it even covers my home area of the Southern Highlands of NSW which over 2002 and 2003 received the lowest average scores of any area in the country for both reds and c-throughs (which reinforces my thoughts on the marginal nature of this area for wine, but that’s another story.)

There is also a few useful lists, they include of the best value wines, the best wineries of the regions and the best of each variety.

The Companion contains a huge amount of information in this book; clearly, it has two main thrusts of focus. The first is to provide a concise but complete factual picture of just about every winery in the country. The second is to provide a limited tasting note on as many wines currently released wines as possible. Given that no one hard copy publication can contain it all, what it does provide, it provides thoroughly.

In his favour, Halliday is an easy writer to follow and that is one of the reasons he has such a large audience and is so well respected. We all have different tastes and like particular styles and it is relatively easy to align ones palate to Halliday’s. The list of his highest pointed reds are interesting and in themselves tell a lot about his tastes, for example:-

Shiraz

97 Points - 2000 Maurice O’Shea

96 Points - 2002 Bannockburn, 2001 Bests Thomson, 1999 Hill of Grace, 2000 Houghton Frankland, 2002 Journeys End Beginning, 2002 Kalleske, 1999 Saltram No1, 2002 The Descendant,

Shiraz Blends and other varieties

96 Points – 2002 Yering Station Reserve Shiraz Viognier, 2001 Yering Station Reserve Shiraz Viognier

95 Points – 2000 Annie’s Lane Copper Trail SGM, 2002 Chalice Bridge Shiraz Cabernet, 2002 Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier, 2002 Henschke Johanna’s Garden GSM

Cabernet Sauvignon

96 Points – 2001 The Tally, 1999 Houghton Gladstone, 2000 Jamieson Run Winemakers Reserve, 2001 Vasse Felix.

95 Points – 2001 Charles Melton, 2001 Majella, 2001 Punters Corner, 2002 Sandalford Margaret River

Cabernet Blends

96 Points – 2000 The Malleea

95 Points – 2000 Blackbutt, 2000 Wolf Blass Black Label, 1999 Yalumba Signature

If you love in-your-face big South Australian blockbusters, Halliday may not be your best bet to follow but if you have a more subtle palate appreciation, he could be your perfect choice.

This is an outstanding book when you consider that it sets out to do. But, and it’s a big but, it could be so much better. Prior to the establishment of the Winepros Web site, the Companion was available in two versions, the book or the book and the CD. The CD held all the previous tasting notes so a complete record of Halliday’s work was available and readers could compare tasting notes and scores on previous vintages. This was very handy for the serious wine lover.

With the advent of Winepros, the CD was no longer available but subscribers to the website could still get all that information. Unfortunately, Winepros turned into a financial disaster that cost the investors the majority of their money and the business was recently sold to a South Australian based wine producer/retailer. The problem is, the Winepros site has not received any new Halliday tasting notes for quite some time and the service is no longer worth the subscription cost. Even if you are a Winepros member, there is no continuity of information. You would have to look at the site and then one or even two books to follow the progress of a particular label.

From my perspective, the sooner the Wine Companion goes back to being available on CD or via subscription with the back tasting notes together with the entire current ones, the better. Is the 2005 Wine Companion worth the asking price? Absolutely,but only if you want information on wineries or current releases. It will also be out of date very quickly.

The second of the three scribes in probably the most controversial and many wine lovers seem to either love his work or hate it. Jeremy Oliver has certainly proved himself to open himself to criticism because of his comments and having the intestinal fortitude to change his mind publicly, more on that later.

Jeremy was born in Ballarat and was educated in both Australia and England (but we won’t hold that against him, as it was his parents fault.) After completing a Bachelor of Agricultural Science, he was crazy enough to want to get into wine so badly that he was prepared to live and work in Coonawarra. After a year of (Coonawarra) partial insanity, he went completely insane and decided to study winemaking as a post-graduate student in 1984. In that same year Jeremy published his first book making him the youngest-ever published wine author in the world. Jeremy is a pup compared to Halliday; he has now produced fourteen books, his most notable being the yearly release of “The Australian Wine Annual” which first hit the selves in 1997.

The 2005 edition has just hit the shelves and like Halliday, there are some major changes. One of the major criticisms this book has received in the past is that it only used to list the scores and didn’t include any tasting notes. That has been fixed with this edition. The complete tasting note for the latest release of every wine is there together with the score and drinking window. As much as I am against scores and the reliance people place on then, what is also very useful to my way of thinking is that each wine has a list of the scores and drinking windows for its predecessors. This provides a couple of advantages. This is especially usefully if the reader has tried a previous vintage of a particular wine and is thinking of buying the current vintage. As well as the detailed tasting note and score, the past vintages score helps place the current release in a relative framework. For example, Fox Creek Reserve Shiraz – lets assume I have tried the 1998 and 1991 and was considering purchasing the 2002. Here is the chart.

Vintage Points From To

2002 93 2010 2014+

2001 96 2013 2021

2000 88 2005 2008

1999 95 2007 2011+

1998 90 2003 2006+

1997 88 2002 2005+

1996 95 2008 2016

That chart, together with a tasting note that runs to about 80 words provides as complete a picture as I am going to get without tasting the wine myself and would be extremely handy in helping me to decide to buy the wine (or not, as the case may be.)

The second biggest change to this book is that Oliver has moved away from the 20 point Australian Show judging point system to his own 100 point system. His (abbreviated) scoring system is as follows:-

95+ Outstanding – Roughly equivalent to a gold medal 18.5 and above

90 - 94 Highly recommended, genuine class and character, silver medal.

87 - 89 Recommended, above average, without fault, solid bronze medal

84 – 86 Reasonably good, free of technical faults, uncomplicated, just above or below bronze medal status.

80 – 83 Everyday wines

75 – 79 Something went wrong.

The book also contains additional useful information. Instead of ranking a winery like Halliday, Oliver ranks each wine label out of five. Only sixteen are rated as the perfect 1’s. Each wine also has a “current price range” listed. There is also a very valid comment in relation to pricing which is headed “Why I don’t print meaningless wine prices” which goes onto state, “It is meaningless to print a current price for each vintage of every wine…. Retail prices vary so dramatically …. that there is no such thing as standard recommended retail price.”

The book also contains all the normal winery contact information but lacks the cellar door opening hours. There is also a 2004 vintage report. There is no doubt this book is smaller than the Halliday tome but in its own way, it is just as valuable and useful. Halliday’s strength is the completeness of the coverage of wineries and the sheer number of wines reviewed. Oliver does not cover as much but the wines that are covered have more complete tasting notes and more information available.

In this way, Halliday will have mass appeal but Oliver may be pitching to a more experienced palate. Oliver’s book, like Halliday’s is only the tip of the iceberg and whilst Oliver’s iceberg may be an ice cube in comparison, it does have another big advantage. Oliver has as excellent Internet site called Onwine. Subscription is a modest $44 a year (including GST) and gives readers the ability to look at many back tasting notes but more importantly, the ability to see the tasting notes on the latest releases as they happen. The problem with a book is that many of the wines featured were sold out long ago when the book hits the streets. The site also features articles and a whole lot more.

As mentioned previously, Oliver has a love him or hate him reputation. The “hate him” segment stems from three possible aspects. The first is that unlike many other writers, Oliver has the intestinal fortitude to change his mind publicly about wines and that can and does upset people who have purchased wine based on his previous assessment. I should know, it has happened to me with a six-pack of $100 a bottle wine.

Most wine writers review a wine once and that review stands for all time. Oliver, unlike most other professional wine scribes continually re-rates and updates his scores and sometimes notes. Wine is a moving target and as good as any reviewer may be, they can and do get it wrong. Just as importantly, if not more so, as good as a reviewer may be, some wines refuse to play ball and develop the way they are supposed to. I have frequently bought wine thinking it would develop into something special only to see it change into a sow’s ear as times goes on. No one can get it right 100% of the time and any reader who expects perfection from any critic needs a reality check and level setting expectation readjustment.

The second reason for the dislike may have come from the usefulness of his past Annuals and to some extent, that criticism is justified, but to some extent it is also partially due to the false expectation of the reader. Without the tasting notes, the scores were pretty meaningless for many readers but, and this is the important bit, if you had tasted a previous vintage or vintages of a particular wine, the points could be helpful in purchasing decisions. Since 1998, many of his tasting notes were available via his regular newsletters and this service predated the internet database which is now available. In the same category is Oliver’s drinking window predictions. I for one, used to be very critical of them but now I am finding more and more that many of them are remarkably similar to my own. I’m not sure which one of us has moved ground, but in most cases Oliver is now close to the mark with these predictions for my palate.

The third reason is that some people see Oliver having a reputation for being a controversial because of some scores and comments he has given to well known wines and wineries. One that comes immediately to mind was over Henschke 1998 Mt Edelstone which he rated at 16.6 and many readers were mortified. Oliver must have been ahead of his time with that one because there were howls of outrage. Yet, when many moons later I wrote an article titled “Is Henschke Living on its Reputation” I received a massive level of feedback, all but one person in agreement, and what I wrote was more critical than Oliver.

Finally, Oliver has a reputation of having an “elegant” palate but after reading countless tasting notes he has penned, I am not so sure that is entirely true. He may not like over-the-top blockbusters, but then neither does Halliday. If you have seen his positive comments and scores on the likes of the 01 Hanisch and 02 The Factor you will get a better understanding of his stylistic preferences for big wines.

The third of the three scribes in probably the least known, but one who is quickly gaining a solid reputation amongst serious wine lovers (and retailers) who just love using his notes. A short couple of years ago people would ask Campbell who? Never heard of him! As disclaimer to this part of the story, I should state that I count Campbell Mattinson as an acquaintance/friend that I am happy to break bread with and share a bottle whenever we get the chance to meet, which unfortunately is not often enough but as you will see by my comments, I can still be objective about him.

Campbell started life as a journo with a passion for plonk. As he matured and found the wine forums, his taste improved (although he still drinks far to much c-through) and he became your average axe murdering, wine forum addicted personality. Once the vinous bug well and truly had him by the short and curlies, Campbell decided to try to make a living by turning his profession into his hobby, or was that his hobby into his profession. What ever; it involved drinking lots of good wine, schmoozing with winemakers and writing about it.

In May 2002, he launched Wine Front Monthly. Originally, it was available in either hard copy via snail mail of in a PDF version via email. The vast majority of readers (unfortunately) opted for the PDF email version and the hard copy is no longer available, which to my way of thinking is a pity, as I do not find it easy reading a computer screen in bed. In theory, it would be easy to print off a copy but the black header on every page would ensure the user drained a cartridge of toner with every copy produced. First year subscription is $44 (including GST) and it includes the last three editions as well as the next eleven, annual renewals are $35.

The newsletter format combines tasting notes and stories about wineries and wine personalities. From time to time, there are guest appearances by other writers too. The latest coup involves roping in Max Allen to review some Frog stuff. Campbell uses a 100 point system, exactly whose I am not sure, possibly it is his own. He certainly seems to be a little more generous in his scores than Oliver and probably Halliday. Where Winefront Monthly differs from most other publications of this sort is in its approach. Obviously, Campbell is generations younger than Halliday and that generational change certainly shows in his writing. No way could Campbell be called “stuffy” or a “traditional” wine writer. His tasting notes present his youth and the vibrancy of his generation. Being a journalist by trade rather than a lawyer or a winemaker, he knows how to turn a phrase and how to use words to good effect. This in itself makes his writing different to many others. However, being a journalist is not enough to make a good wine writer. Witness the many small town broadsheets that have trained journalists who write supposed wine columns that are at best shallow and at worst rubbish, because the writer may know to string words together, but they know nothing about tasting wine. Campbell’s strength is his writing ability and it is this style that has captured the imagination of many serious wine lovers. His tasting ability has also improved out of sight over the years as he gains experience.

In the early days of Winefront Monthly, there were two shortcomings in the publication. Firstly, it was always running way behind with every edition late, sometimes by months. Secondly, the strength of his tasting notes sometimes left a bit to be desired and whilst they may have been effervescent in their descriptive nature, they did not tell the reader a whole lot about the wine. In fact, Campbell took umbrage to my comments in an article titled “Second Topic - Bad Tasting Notes” where I had a shot at a couple of his (and other writers) notes.

So why is Campbell being mentioned in such illustrious company (and no I am not being paid for saying nice things about him)? Frankly, up until recently, he would not have got a guernsey but the his last few editions have taken a quantum leap in both quality and quantity which shows what the guy is capable of producing. Is it coincidence the quantum leap has come at the same time as his move out of the big smoke to country Victoria? According to Campbell, it is no coincidence and is very much a factor.

As well as the tasting notes, Campbell’s articles are extremely readable. It doesn’t matter if it is a light hearted interview with a winemaker or an in-depth, technical explanation of Brett. The first few lines hook you in and keep you there to the very end of each article. For example “That’s it, the worms are out, the can’s been shot to pieces. I’ve got the taste of something strange in my mouth and I grab the nearest winemaker and stick his nose in the glass and say, Hey. Tell me. I Need to Know. Now. What is that Smell? “What do you think it is?” he asks. And bizarrely. Maddeningly. He smiles. “Do you want the honest answer?” I say. “Hit me with it.” He says……”

Or how about this introduction to a story? “The dogs roved by night. They poured over the creaking hills of Sunbury, driving at sheep and slaughtering by the dozen. One night they got a sniff of a flock and chased it through the grass-splashed blackness, hoaring and gnawing and mincing at their heals, barking at the bleating, herding, terrifying, driving the sheep as a group. The night turned blacker,…..”

What does that have to do with wine you may well ask? A lot actually, if you read the July 2004 story in Winefront Monthly on Craiglee the pertinence of those words show they form the foundation stone of the history of the winery. What an imaginative way to start an article!

His internet site at this stage is very basic and does not offer his subscribers much useful support. Hopefully, in time he will put up a searchable, secure database with all his tasting notes so that subscribers can look up wines more easily.

The reason Campbell is mentioned here is because he may not be the best wine writer, the most experienced, or even have the best palate but he is certainly the most readable wine writer around today. That is the main reason his subscribers love his work. The wineries like his approach because although he is independent and has no industry tie-ups (same with Oliver) he generally has “nice” things to say about wine. Even when comments are critical, in most cases they are phrased in such a way that it would be difficult for the winery to take offence. The retailers love quoting him because of his high scores and catchy phrasing. Campbell also likes many of the bigger, in your face, style reds, more than many other writers do, and these are reflected in his scores. This alone makes his tasting notes sought after by many in the business of selling wine. The more he is quoted by retailers and wineries, the more his subscriber base will grow so it is within his interests to keep them happy.

In summary, all three writers have a huge amount to offer their readers, each reader will quickly work out whose palate, and writing style suits them best.

Halliday is the most read in Australia today and people tend to hang of his every word but is he the best? Many of his followers will think so, especially those who are not all that serious about wine or who are a bit more casual about wine than us fanatics.

Oliver does not hold the mass appeal of Halliday and appeals to a segment of wine drinkers that are probably a little more serious than many of Halliday’s readers. His tasting notes are thorough and professional. From a personal perspective, I can understand his palate better than most other writers. I also like the ability to see his past ratings easily (as well as tasting notes in some instances) and the fact his tasting notes are immediately available on line and you don’t need to wait for a book to be published to read them.

Mattinson has a terrific, fresh, writing style and readers cannot help enjoy reading the articles. He appeals to the younger generation of wine lovers who are pretty serious about drinking good wine. If the depth of his writing stays at the level of his last two issues, he is destined to become well known and he will deserve his place next to the other two in this article. If not, then frankly he is unlikely to survive as a wine writer in his current incarnation and that loss would be a shame. Lets hope he does not go from a rising star to a shooting star.