Australian Wine Centre

Australia's Top 10 Wines of 2000
© by Gavin Trott
Hello and welcome to the first of my wine columns from downunder.

To start off, or more accurately to finish the year, I've decided to come up with the Top 10 Australian wines for 2000. I know that there are lists like this everywhere, but I will try to make this a little different for you. In reality it will be two lists, my list as a wine professional, and another list compiled completely from consumers.

This second list comes from every day wine consumers, albeit knowledgeable and interested ones. Many of these views and tasting notes come from my forum and other wine forums around the world, many from Australian wine lovers, but also those from the USA and beyond.

Where possible these wines will still be available, but of course there are no guarantees. Many of these will be available now or in the future in the US market, while many of the others will be available shipped directly from Australia. (gentle plug).

A word regarding my choices.

I have not tasted all wines released this year and so inevitably will have missed some of your favorites.

Also the wines chosen here are personal so I should state some biases upfront.

There were some good Pinots made here, but none good enough to make this list from my perspective.
I'm not a lover of too much sappy under cured American oak.
I'm also not a fan of huge alcohol in my wines, if I want 16+% alcohol I'll drink a port or better still, a Rutherglen Muscat.

Enough said, let's to the list.

The Top 10 (in no particular order, hence no numbers) Prices only approx. and in $Aud

Hardy Arras Pinot Noir Chardonnay 1995
One of Australia's new names, and one that shows how we've improved with this wine style. World class and an alternative to Champagne, although it must be said, priced similarly to many NV champagnes. $55

1999 Penfolds Eden Valley Reserve Riesling
No Penfolds reds, but a white, the times they are a changin'. I love Riesling, and this is the real deal. Great intensity and concentration yet with restraint and a certain elegance, the white version of the iron fist in the velvet glove. A beautiful wine with great length of lemons, limes, blossoms and a very ripe juicy mid palate. It finishes with the requisite mineral acidity and will age exceptionally well, if you can keep your hands off it now. $20

1999 Cullen Semillon Sauvignon Blanc
All class and style from this absolutely stylish Western Australian maker. This blend is a Western Australian specialty, and this wine shows why. Its all about balance with intensity, hints of French oak treatment, and great purity of flavour, delicious and zippy gooseberry, spice and citrus all mingle together on a terrifically long palate. Great wine. $35

1997 Leeuwin Estate Chardonnay
I'm not the world's greatest Chardonnay fan, but this could convert me. Just breathtaking intensity here, pure fruit flavors already showing the complexity this will develop over time. Mingled together are peach, fig, grilled nuts, gentle cream, butterscotch and much more, with some mineral notes and brilliantly handled French oak. A huge YUM, and will get better with age. Australia meets Burgundy! $70

1998 Charles Melton Nine Popes
This was the first of the new wave of Rhone style blends in Australia, and is still the best Shiraz, Grenache Mourvedre blend. This is all about ripe fruit, the Barossa valley, heaps of sunshine, and old vines. The combination provides great fruit that leads to minimal intervention and great wine. $35

1998 Coonawarra Cabernets, two of them

1998 Petaluma Cabernet
The best Petaluma yet, great fruit, great wine making, a wine of length, elegance and style, and one that will develop beautifully in the cellar. In 1998 they really got it right, all cassis, raspberries and plums dressed to kill in some cedary French oak. Tannins are ripe, soft and dusty, and this will evolve into a Coonawarra classic. If you cellar wine, find this one! $50

1998 Zema Estate Cabernet
What does 1998, the Coonawarra, and fantastic fruit and wine making provide, well, this wine! This is absolutely textbook stuff, richly ripe and already complex with mingled blackcurrant, berries, chocolate and spice with just a whisp of balanced oak. The palate is all class, deep, rich, fleshy and savoury with dry but ripe tannins. Great length, great potential and better than wines three times its price! $25

1998 Tintara Shiraz
This wine seems to have been overlooked by the Parker and Wine Spectator's of this world, and all the better for us. IMO this is the best McLaren Vale Shiraz from the vintage of 1998, a big statement I know, but the proof is in the bottle. From the impressive large format etched glass bottle, to the wine inside, this is impressive stuff. On the nose this is like essence of Shiraz, blackberries, plums, spice with some lovely spicy, charry oak. Good though that is, the palate is even better, ripe black fruits fill the mouth with flavour, and the oak is not obtrusive. Almost old fashioned in the best Australian style, this is a 10 year + cellaring option. $35

1997 Craiglee Shiraz
From a relatively little known Victorian maker this is stunning stuff. A huge intensity of black cherry and plum fruit powers through the nose and palate of this wine, with some spicy hints plus some liquorice showing the power and intensity of this wine. Tannins are ripe and firm, the wine has great length, and the oak is very subtle. Great wine making, cellar it for at least 5 years! $40

Chambers Rare Muscat NV
What's to say, walks in to the Top 10 every year in my book. Made by keeping the grapes on the vine in the hot North-East of Victoria in the Rutherglen Region until they shrivel and become full of fruit and sweetness, and then partly fermenting them and fortifying them with quality brandy spirit. These base wines are then aged in old oak barrels for many years before being blended together. The range of wines that can be blended goes back over 100 years, in other words small parts of this wine were made long before we were born or even thought of the, history in a bottle!

The amounts of this old material in each blend determines the price, with the less expensive blends having more young fresh wine, and the very old and rare blend containing almost exclusively wine from 50 or 60 years ago. This wine even contains a little of the 100-year-old material. So what do you get, a staggeringly rich and exotic blend of amazing complexity, orange peel, caramel, toffee, raisins, prunes and much, much more, so intense its almost too much. The quality is amazing, an unforgettable experience. The cost, well about as much as any number of new Californian Cabernets with no track record. I know where my money would go! $140

Notes and views above by Gavin Trott, below let's read what some consumer's thought.

Consumers Top 10, again, in no particular order All views and notes by the consumers themselves.

1998 Bannockburn Pinot Noir
Brick Red color of medium weight. The nose is pure Bannockburn Pinot. There is a wonderful mix of classic Pinot Noir with red berry a touch of spice, fresh turned earth in the burgundian manner that is typifies the classic Gary Farr wines. The palate continues the joy of the nice with fine tannins leading to a very long finish. A truly stunning wine and will age beautifully.

1998 Cullens Chardonnay Western Australia
Straw/Gold color, to me the word "classic" described the wine from the first smell right throw to the finish. A glorious balance of great Chardonnay fruit with carefully balanced oak. The price is in the $40's I'd put it up against any of the (so-called) premium Oz Chardonnays and other new world ones as well almost equal with

1999 Giaconda Chardonnay
The wine has a good straw color, not light, not dark. First impression on the nose is of oak. This is supported by tremendous depth all those other "Chardonnay" smells that you can never quite put your finger on. Is there hazelnut or cashew? The palate follows suit, with the only concession to "fruity" flavors a hint of nectarines. Very powerful but superbly balanced. The oak is dominant at this young stage. Great structure and a creamy texture that fills the whole mouth. Long finish. The wine certainly has all of length, breadth and depth.

1997 Greenock Creek 7 Acres Shiraz
(Sorry, no notes, but lots of votes)

Primo Estate "Joseph" Sparkling Red NV
I rank them with the criteria of whether I would pour a second glass of the stuff for myself. For most I can't, for the Joseph I need to be convinced that 'sharing' is a good thing, one, two or even three glasses is barely enough for me. Brick red color, very fine bead with a nice mousse. Great nose of dark berry with hints on fine port. Gorgeous mouthfeel. Great berry and aged red with chocolate complexity and an enormously long finish. I don't think this is generally available OS, which is a Good Thing; you'll just have to visit to try it.

1998 Tim Adams Aberfeldy Shiraz
When you drink a wine like this you don't need long tasting notes. The wine is made from a low yield, 1 1/2 tons per acre. The color is purple to black, with aromas of liquorice, chocolate, sweet mulberry and vanilla. There are silky soft seamless drying tannins, the wine totally fills the mouth with flavors and the sweet after taste lingers forever. It can best be described as a wine that has "got it all."

1998 Tintara Shiraz
A QPR killer. Nose shows vanilla, dark chocolate, plums, liquorice. Palate - very full and complex, excellent fruit weight, lots of acid, very fine tannins, buts lots of them too and the wine has great balance. Almost a sweet (fruit) and sour (acid) style. Just needs lots of time to come together. Will be "Outstanding" in a few years. Similar in style to 97, and not quite as big as 96. (Not imported into the USA, but along with Tintara Shiraz was on almost all consumer's lists this year)

1998 Petaluma Cabernet Sauvignon
Very dark red to purple, the quintessential style Coonawarra Cabernet, you can even smell the tannins are going to be fine grained in this wine. On the palate there is rich cassis, cedar from the French Oak, some mint flavors, the wine has great balance and a long finish. One of the best examples of this wine ever produced.

1998 Vasse Felix Hatesbury
Bright red bordering on purple, almost impenetrable hue and it turned out to be a "just glass stainer." This wine has a great complex nose. Powerful cedar aroma that screams quality silky tannins followed by sweet plums (or cherries,) liquorice and a lift of eucalyptus. This wine was interesting in that it showed an aroma curve. The structure is just perfect. Loads of oak that needs to integrate with great fruit weight and acid. It's silky on the front of the palate, the fruit is sweet and the finish has a slight tannic bite. It's big, but not in any way huge, extracted or overblown, in fact it's a wine that screams class and quality. It will be a very long-lived wine and is at least another six to eight years off its peak. In the same league as Jasper Hill, not cheap but fine wine indeed.

Bullers Rare Calliope Tokay
Forget involved tasting notes on for this wine, they wouldn't do it justice. There is a bit of brandy spirit on the nose, it was incredibly luscious with a rich full mouth feel. Great depth of flavour without being sickly sweet. No way I was going spitting this one! "The Ultimate" and I have since purchased some. Many others of this incomparable style mentioned including NV R L Buller & Son Rutherglen Rare Liqueur Tokay - Heavy, viscous and mouth-coating, caramelized and toasty with a decent finish. Stanton & Killeen Classic Rutherglen Muscat

Thanks to Murray, Ric Martin and many others from the Auswine board for their comments and tasting notes.

Hope you enjoyed the read and found it useful, feel free to E-mail me your views, comments, criticisms etc

Gavin Trott
gtrott@auswine.com.au

Australian Wine Forum
http://www.auswine.com.au/forum/index.html

Australian Wine Site http://www.auswine.com.au

US site http://www.the-wine-center.com

US Wine Forum http://www.the-wine-center.com/forum/index.html

Jan. 1, 2001