Style and Substance Wine Australia Magazine August 2009
The first dedicated varietal masterclass of the whole Landmark Australia program fell to Jeffrey Grosset. The charge was to set a context, weave a narrative, and encourage some conclusions about the past, present and future of Australia’s unique style of Riesling. On hand were 120 minutes, 12 wines and some of the most astute and enquiring commentators from around the world as an audience.
Jeffrey was unfazed by the challenge, and neatly outlined three key points to get across: firstly, the quality of wine being produced here; secondly, the predominating style of Australian dry Riesling, how successful this continues to be, and why; and finally, the impact on the variety of where it is grown, both between and within the regions in this country.
The 12 wines covered five regions from the Clare Valley to Tasmania, spanned 35 years in terms of age range, and showed dramatically different expressions of the variety, as well as the more subtle – but significant – variations that occur within regions. With the aid of climate data and, not least, his considerable experience, Jeffrey guided the group through issues that covered the closure debate, ageability, dominant varietal characters and descriptors, apparent anomalies (such as premium Riesling growing next to Shiraz!), and more philosophical questions such as whether vineyard location is more or less important than in Europe, and whether such terms as “New World” and “terroir” are relevant and applicable in Australia.
Ultimately the tasting, the presentation and the wines were all designed to pose one over-riding question: “Does Australia now rate as a great Riesling producer?”. The 12 wines presented gave one unified and individually conclusive answer, as did the audience: yes.
The recent inaugural Landmark Australia Tutorial comprised of more than 200 of Australia’s finest wines, presented by the country’s leading winemakers and commentators, and accompanied by an original series of seminars devised uniquely for the event. See http://www.landmark-wineaustralia.com
The participants, twelve international opinion leaders in the field of wine, were required to apply in writing and were selected from over 130 formal applications. Here’s what two of them said after attending the Riesling tutorial with Jeffrey Grosset
Jamie Goode (UK) go to
http://www.wineanorak.com/blog/2009/06/incredible-second-day-at-landmark.html
Tyler Colman (USA) go to
http://www.drvino.com/2009/06/04/australian-riesling-age-grosset-steingarten-leo-buring
