Book Review: James Halliday 2008 Wine Companion (15 Aug)

The most eagerly awaited annual Australian wine publication hit the shelves of book retailers on 1 August. The Halliday Wine Companion outsells all other Australian wines books and is expected to sell in excess of 27,000 copies. The Companion has changed and evolved since it was first produced in 1986, and this article will briefly examine the evolution, then in detail examine the current edition and finally, look at its future direction.

The first four editions were A4 size; a bit over 300 pages there was loads of free space making it attractive and easy to read.

When the Companion was first published, there were 596 wineries in Australia. The wine business was already moving quickly; a scant three years previously, there had only been 344 wineries. In a tiny time frame, the number of wineries had almost doubled, so when the first Companion was released, there was a crying need for the latest information.

In 1991 the Companion was condensed into a pocket guide, which I clearly remember keeping in the glove box of my car, (along with the Bradley Gold book, which I soon realised was based on the winemakers whimsy and fantasy.) The free space soon went by the wayside, and in 1992, the wineries of New Zealand were added and they remained part of the content for 11 years.

It didn’t take long for the Companion to become the “bible” for Australian wine lovers. In the early days, although there was information on each of the wineries listed, the emphasis was on the tasting notes.  

It continued to grow and evolve, just as the wine industry itself grew. In the late 1990’s (around 1998 from memory) the next major change took place with the Companion. As well as the book, it was possible to purchase an “Interactive” edition of the Companion. It came with the usual book, but it also had a CD Rom (which was worth far more than its weight in platinum). The CD contained a database of Halliday’s tasting notes, as well as tasting notes on many older, notable wines. The first interactive edition I purchased cost a whopping $19.95 and boasted that it contained “almost 4,000 tasting notes.”

The CD also allowed the user to maintain a wine organiser (cellar database), allowing for the electronic inclusion of Halliday’s tasting notes, as well as the users own, personalised information. I never used the database, but the CD was an extremely valuable tool. I was bitterly disappointed when, with the advent of the Winepros website, the Interactive edition ceased.

The 1999 edition bragged that it contained details on almost 1,100 wineries and tasting notes on “over 1,000 Australian and New Zealand wines.” It certainly had grown since 1986!

Fast forward to today. The 2008 edition contains tasting notes on 5,836 wines and details on 1,740 wineries. Last years edition contained details on 2176 wineries, but there is only so much information that can be crammed into 768 pages, so the non-rated wineries that did not send samples have been dropped. If all wineries had been included, there would have been 2,395 of them and the book would have had to be increased to over 1,000 pages, which was not an option.

When I have seen previous editions, I was critical of two things. Firstly, some of the information contained in the book about the individual wineries was either out of date or incorrect. It is gratifying to note that wineries that do not respond to the request for updated information, and were unrated, were deleted. The second criticism was to me, the book looked as though it was trying to be all things to all people. The deletion of the non-rated wineries has improved the situation and is starting to provide a tighter focus.

There is a down side to the elimination of these wineries. The book can no longer claim to contain a list of all Australian wineries, but from a personal perspective, I think it is preferable to restrict the publication to wineries where the wines have actually been reviewed. If all the reader requires are the contact details for all the obscure wineries in Australia, there is another publication that covers that quite adequately. (The “Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Directory” is updated annually and is available from Winetitles.)

According to the introduction, a further radical deletion has taken place. All wines that were rated 86 points or less have not been included in the Companion; over 1900 of them! The upshot of these deletions is that in future years, the Companion will be looking to concentrate on the better quality wines from the best wineries.

On many occasions I have stated it is as important to know what wines to avoid as it is to know what wines to purchase. Unfortunately when readers look at the companion, they have no idea if a particular wine has not been included because it was not good enough to make the grade, and therefore should be avoided, or if the wine was not submitted for review. (At this point in time, this is still an issue, more on this later.)

A major change has been made to this edition; it has been printed in two colours, so what does this change mean to the reader? In the past, if a winery submitted a few good wines their winery could have been awarded a five star rating. The only problem was that it was possible for a winery to “get lucky” with a five star rating and many wineries used it to promote the quality of their wine. In some ways, the winery ratings were open to marketing abuse and the top rating did not mean as much as it could/should have meant. The two colour printing now allows a ‘super five star category.’ Wineries that have achieved a five star rating for the past three years will have their five star rating printed in red; 6.5% of wineries qualify for that rating, with a further 14.9% achieving a black five star rating. (Sounds like the five star winery rating was running out of runway, much like the 100 point system is doing, but that’s another story.)

Wines that are of “special interest” will also have their tasting notes printed in red. It could be classed as “special interest” because of quality reasons, being top-value, because it was made from an unusual variety, or has been made in an unusual way. 

As per usual, the book uses the 100 point system. One of the criticisms that have been made by many people is that Halliday (and others) score to easily and that too many wines have high scores. Halliday reviewed and rated about 7,200 wines for this edition. In the “Best of the best by variety” section, I counted 245 that had been rated 95 or higher. In reality, there are probably well over 300 that qualify, as the 95 point wines in the Shiraz and Chardonnay sections were not listed; there was not enough space to list them all. That means about 5% of wines tasted were rated at 95 or above. If you throw in the 94 point wines, because all wines between 94-100 points achieve the top rating of “5 Glasses (or Outstanding),” the number of top category wines is probably in the vicinity of 10%.

At the other end of the spectrum, approximately 26% of wines were rated 86 points or less, which is equal to “Fair, Everyday, or Faulty”, depending on how far down the points list you go.

Readers can make up their own minds how generously (or not), the wines are scored by Halliday. However, no matter what you feel about ‘point inflation’ one thing about Halliday’s palate; it is remarkably consistent. In many ways, that is the greatest benefit to consumers. If Halliday rates the 2003 XYZ Shiraz 91 points and Joe Average consumer loved it, and then Halliday rated the 2004 vintage of the same wine as 92 points, if Joe knows this information, he knows that the 2004 will be a safe buy, and the chances are he should like the wine. If Joe compares the two tasting notes, all the better!

A new award has been instituted in this edition; “Winery of the year.” It went to Balnaves and whilst there will always be a huge amount of debate about an award like this, over the last few years Balnaves has become my favourite Coonawarra winery.

That award is followed by “Ten of the best new wineries” and “Ten dark horses”. The “Best wineries of the regions” are listed next, with the new red five star wineries featuring prominently. There will always be debate about the number of stars each winery should be given, and whilst over 21% of them are rated five stars which seems high, that number is based on the 1,740 included wineries. If it was based on the 2,395 figure, assuming very few of them would have rated five stars, the percentage of five star wineries would have been 15.5%. To me, that figure still seems high, and I would prefer to see it as less than 10%, but Halliday has his methods and his reasons for doing it this way.

The next major list is the “Best of the best by variety” which covers twelve pages. It will be a very popular section of the book, as will the following two pages which list “Special value wines.”

The book then moves into the technical stuff; geographical indicators, vintage charts, and grape variety plantings. My only criticism is that the vintage chart section only covers from 2003 to 2006 inclusive. Sure, that covers the vintages for the vast majority of the wines reviewed, but it would have been more beneficial of it went back another two years. And then it’s onto the 688 pages of winery information and tasting notes. At the back of the book is an index of wineries by region, which is particularly helpful when planning visits to an area.

The task of compiling this book is a massive undertaking, not just for James, but for his entire staff. On page 49 of the book it says that (the 7,200+) wines were tasted at the rate of between 150 and 170 wines a day. Assuming 8 hours of tasting time (after breaks have been taken out which actually means it’s a much longer working day,) at the rate of 170 wines, it means 2.8 minutes is given to assess each wine and draft the tasting note. In case that was not enough work the book states, “the Riedel glasses returned to the washing racks, washed, rinsed and dried (my task each day)”. I hope an electric dishwasher is used, or James would not have got much sleep for six weeks.

Halliday has a reputation for having a phenomenal palate as well as being a prodigious taster, but having to get through so many wines means that it is physically impossible to spend any length of time with each wine.

When I first started following Halliday’s tasting notes, and for many years afterwards, I was a real fan. However as time marched on, I found his tasting notes meant less and less to me because they seemed to become short; so short that I could no longer get a good enough handle on many of the wines reviewed. Given the amount of time devoted to each wine is less than three minutes, I guess that is not surprising. However, this is a personal opinion and I am in a minority in feeling this way.

Halliday covers a huge amount; more than any other Australian reviewer, so by definition it is quantity based, but if you want quality reviews, in my opinion there are other pros that produce less, but more meaningful work.

Naturally the masses don’t agree as they buy the book in droves, but then more than 50% of wine sold in Australia today comes out of a plastic bladder, so it’s horses for courses. If you want detailed, fine wine reviews, look to Oliver, Mattinson etc; but if you want broad brush, then Halliday is perfect.

Overall, the book is an exceptional piece of work, and in addressing the areas it covers, its usefulness to its target audience is beyond compare.

As far as the future is concerned, it will be interesting. Let's face it, James Halliday is no spring chicken and is the granddaddy of modern Australian wine writing, and he can't keep up the prolific output that is required for this publication forever. James has announced that as from next year, Ben Edwards will be taking over much of the tasting required to produce the companion. As far as Ben's qualifications go, Ben is President of the Australian Sommeliers Association in Victoria (and a Wine Show Judge), and whilst I don't know anything about him, James Halliday would not want to be associated with him unless he had a fine palate.

In the introduction of the book another minor, but from my perspective, critical announcement was made. I have long lamented the demise of the CD that was available with the Interactive Companion. The ability to look at scores and tasting notes of older vintages of wine was invaluable. Finally there is good news! In the not to distant future, a new website www.winecompanion.com.au will be launched. It will contain a humongous database of tasting notes. Readers will be able to see tasting notes on back vintages, compare scores year upon year, and know which wines were rated below 87 points. Bloody well done and long overdue! 

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