What you need to know about premium Australian Shiraz

The very first Australian wine you drank would have been a Shiraz, the full-bodied red wine with medium acidity that wraps your palate like a plush, cosy blanket. Shiraz is Australia’s flagship grape: It is the most widely planted variety in the country, with around 40, 000 hectares under vine. While the grape can be found in almost every Australian wine region, the Barossa in South Australia remains its spiritual home — more than 7,800 hectares are devoted to Shiraz.

Australian Shiraz is available in a wide range of prices, from your S$10 supermarket bargain to your S$1,000 superstar bottling. The latter includes labels like Penfolds Grange and Henschke, names that are synonymous with premium Shirazes. They are also Australia’s most collectable wines; old and rare vintages can command high prices at auctions.

A refrain I hear whenever I mention a premium Aussie Shiraz is, "For such a price, I can get a Bordeaux First Growth". There is an entrenched (and outdated) idea that New World wines should always be cheaper than their Old World counterparts. The lack of a quality hierarchy classification for Aussie wines also means the buyer — unless he is well-versed in Australian wine — won’t easily understand why a wine costs 10 times more than another.

Unlike in France and Italy, where an appellation classification categorises wines under different quality tiers, Australia did not adopt such a format, choosing instead to link grape origin with winemaking zones, regions and subregions in a system known as Geographic Indication (GI). This is a simpler way of understanding the country’s wine regionality as it takes the guesswork out of place and grape variety (information that sometimes befuddles new wine drinkers when they read a French wine label). But, as mentioned earlier, it does little to tell a beginner what makes the wine more expensive.

OLD VINES AND AGEING POTENTIAL

What makes a bona fide premium Australian Shiraz? There are multiple criteria involving geology (soil), viticulture (vine heritage), manpower (hand-picking versus machine-harvesting), and the classic law of supply and demand. But we will keep to a few key requirements. First, look for the age of its vines.

The Barossa has some of the oldest Shiraz vines, with some plots dating back to 1843. These old vines, which were not devastated by phylloxera (a grapevine pest) and still hold on to their original rootstocks, are known to produce low-yielding crops with rich, intense flavours.

What would be the minimum age of an old vine in the Australian winemaking context? The answer seems to be 35 years (a figure that invites a sneer from Old World winemakers). In 2007, the historic Yalumba winery created its own classification of old vines in Barossa, which eventually came to be adopted by the region in 2009. Named the Barossa Old Vine Charter, the framework classifies old vines into four categories by age: Barossa Old Vine, a vine that is 35 years old and above; Barossa Survivor Vine, 70 years and above; Barossa Centenarian Vine, 100 years and above; and Barossa Ancestor Vine, 125 years and beyond.

Henschke’s Hill of Grace Shiraz is made from grapes from Centenarian and Ancestor vines. Barossa’s Chris Ringland winery also works with vines that are more than a hundred years old.

“If a wine comes from a single parcel of low-yielding old vines and its total production amounts to only a single or even a couple of barrels, you would that expect that wine to command a higher price than another of comparative stature with a production volume of thousands of cases,” said Matthew Lamb, general manager of wine concierge service Clink Clink and group beverage manager of The Lo & Behold Group.

Don’t just rely on what the wine label says. If you have a chance to sample a top Shiraz before you splurge, all the better. (Tip: Check in with your favourite sommelier; he may have a prized bottle open for a few sips.)

A top Australian Shiraz should display a mastery of winemaking fundamentals, said Indra Kumar, a sommelier who runs online wine retailer Wine Scout. Look out for complex flavours of primary fruit, which indicate the grapes were physiologically ripe and harvested from exceptional vineyards like those from Henschke, he said. Secondary flavours will tell you something about winemaking techniques “such as the use of old and new oak, or cement tank with oak-ageing”.

“The wine must also be able to age for at least 15 years or more, so that its tertiary flavours can develop and provide the drinker with additional flavours [not found in young wines],” added Kumar. A wine with ageing potential has medium to high acidity, medium-plus alcohol, intense fruit flavours, and medium-plus tannins; as the wine ages, the intense flavours develop slowly into tertiary flavours while the tannins and acidity become softer, he explained.

Clink Clink’s Lamb noted that the majority of the world’s great red wines are rarely at their zenith in their youth, with Australian Shiraz being no exception. “Having been very fortunate to taste some truly old examples of world-class Australian Shiraz, [I think] its ageing potential and longevity is something not to be dismissed, with great bottles easily capable of more than 50 years,” he said.

Personal taste is important, too. “How do you actually like your wine?” he said. “While many believe that old is gold, the characteristics taken on through tertiary development and bottle ageing may not appeal to all.”

Lamb added that you can’t discount the role marketing plays in premium Australian Shiraz. He cites the example of the Penfolds Grange, a multi-regional blend, which runs counter to the idea that single vineyard wines are better. “[The Grange] demonstrates the strength in which marketing can have when they tell a story of three-quarters of a century’s history attached [to the wine] and its iconic place in the history of Australian wine.”

CNA Luxury picks four top-end Australian Shiraz wines to add to your collection.

HENSCHKE, HILL OF GRACE 2018

The Henschke family has been making wine in the Barossa for more than 150 years and is currently in its sixth generation.

Believed to be the first single vineyard wine in Australia when it was made in 1958, the Hill of Grace has a mythic status. The wine is named after the eight-hectare vineyard in Eden Valley, a site known for its red clay-rich loam soil with excellent moisture retention, a characteristic that is useful for the dry-grown vines (vines that are not irrigated).

Grapes from Ancestor, Centenarian and Old vines make up the Hill of Grace. The 2018 vintage, which has been aged in 20 per cent new and 80 per cent seasoned oak hogsheads for 18 months, offers an opulent sip with intense notes of blackberry and plum, followed by secondary flavours of cinnamon, cloves, and chocolate. The mid-palate is plush, with velvety tannins accompanying the long finish.

S$1,466, from Monopole

PENFOLDS GRANGE 2020

Made from an evolving multi-regional blend of Shiraz grapes, the Penfolds Grange redefines what a top Australian Shiraz can be. Stephanie Dutton, senior winemaker of Penfolds, said they are always looking out for new parcels that may qualify for the Grange. “We have new vineyards of pedigree that we know are capable of reaching great heights, and we watch eagerly each year to see if they are classified to our flagship,” she said.

The 2020 vintage saw the best fruit come from McLaren Vale and Barossa, along with a small inclusion from Clare Valley. The exact blend is a secret, but Dutton said the Koonunga Hill vineyard in Barossa Valley was an important backbone.

The 2020 flaunts delicious notes of dark berries, coffee, cinnamon, and maraschino. There’s a slight textural feel of cocoa dust (a Grange trademark) along with tannins that are rather grippy. This is still a fledgeling Grange that will benefit from further cellaring.

S$1,000, from Cold Storage and fine wine retailers

TORBRECK, THE LAIRD 2018

Founded in 1994 by Dave Powell, Barossa-based Torbreck winery drew attention for its focus on old vines. Powell left the company in 2013, and a new winemaking team led by winemaker Ian Hongell took over in 2016.

The Laird is a single vineyard Shiraz from an old vineyard first planted in 1958 in the sub-region of Marananga. The plot produces concentrated Shiraz berries that contribute to the wine’s lushness and firm structure. Aged for 36 months in new French oak barriques coopered by Burgundian winemaker Dominique Laurent, the 2018 vintage is a Brothers Grimm fable in a glass — dark, brooding, and mysterious. Black tea and forest floor notes come to the fore after the wine has been left to breathe. Enjoy this with steak or barbecue roast pork.

S$1,119.50, from Culina

CHRIS RINGLAND, BAROSSA RANGES 2016

Chris Ringland winery is a Barossa star born from a winemaker’s gumption in 1994: A purchase of a small, old Shiraz vineyard that was first planted in 1910 led Chris Ringland to set up his eponymous label and carve his reputation as one of the region’s top small-batch winemakers.

As the winery’s flagship, the Barossa Ranges is a great introduction to Ringland’s winemaking excellence. The 2016 has been aged for up to 50 months in new French hogsheads. Expect a bouquet of chestnuts and dark fruit, followed by a layered sip of blackcurrants, liquorice, mocha, smoked meat, and chocolatey tannins. Only 1,800 bottles are available.

S$850, from Wine & Whisky