DECANTER (UK) April 2010
‘ ONE OF THOSE SPECIAL YEARS’
…and if Australia’s Riesling king Jeffrey Grosset said that about the 2009 vintage in Clare and Eden Valleys, you better believe it, says Tyson Stelzer.
When the Clare and Eden Valleys were hit by a record heatwave in early 2009 – 12 days over 35°C – some commentators were quick to write off the entire Riesling vintage before the grapes even started ripening. How is it then, that some vintners made wines to rival the greatest of the decade while others got theirs so wrong?...
Winemakers faced the dilemma of harvesting grapes with ripe flavours but lower sugars and higher acidities than usual. Should they harvest on intuition, when the flavours were right, or by the book, on acid and sugar measurements? This was the decision that would make or break the vintage. Those who followed the recipe spoilt the broth.
Jeffrey Grosset describes his decision to pick his Springvale vineyard in the Clare Valley three or four days early as ‘a bit controversial’. He explains that ‘ if we were picking on analysis we would have picked later, but the flavours were right’. These fruit flavours tend to come early in the cool conditions of the very best years, and ‘2009 was one of those special years’. He names 1985 as the closest comparison: ‘a cool year that has aged well’…
Grosset advocates that 2009 was not a year where a winemaker would want to work by analysis or recent history. With no rain threatening the end of harvest, makers could pick as late as they wished. This proved to be a mixed blessing, with some waiting for sugar levels to rise to usual levels, thereby making wines lacking in tenacity, displaying overripe tropical fruit flavours…
The best 2009 Clare and Eden Valley Rieslings are classic keepers. Discerning buyers will be rewarded with some of the most compelling wines of the decade – and some of the best value
Summary from Guy Woodward's Blog (Decanter's (UK)editor):
Guy Woodward on the Road
http://www.decanter.com/specials/290712.html
In the Clare Valley Wednesday 28 October 2009mary of Guy
...Jeffrey Grosset, my first port of call, is operating at a somewhat different end of the market (to Blue Nun). The creator of the renowned Polish Hill is in no small way responsible for the region's stellar reputation with the grape, but even he's not impervious to market conditions. He told me how he had been summoned to the UK by his agent David Gleave of importer Liberty Wines, which has a strong Australian list. Such is Gleave's concern at the challenges faced in selling premium Australian wine, he wants as many winemakers as possible to get out and about in the trade next year.
Grosset is a compelling character. We drove around come of his sites, looking at the difference between Polish Hill and Watervale. He asked me what I wanted to talk about. I told him regionality, the Australian dilemma, the world market, Riesling around the world, etc. Too much detail about soil types and clones would be wasted on me, I said, and were more appropriate for Andrew Jefford, the Decanter columnist who is spending a year out here studying terroir.
Half an hour later, he finished his first stream of consciousness on geology, vine age and topography. I must admit that I have been known to glaze over on such topics. Not here. Grosset's commitment to his craft is mindblowing, and it is easy to see why he is held in such awe by his Clare counterparts...
Max Allen Weekend Australian Magazine June 27-29 2009
‘Imagine you were asked to select a Dream Team of Australian wines – a dozen bottles of modern classics to show some international wine-lovers the best that this country can produce. Which wines would you choose?
The wines that would have represented the latter half of the 20th century are mostly multi-regional blends – Penfolds Grange, Eileen Hardy Shiraz, Wolf Blass Black Label, St Hallet Old Block. I wouldn’t have any of these in my 21st-century Classic Selection. Sure, they’re all impressive examples of the winemaker’s craft. But I’d rather field a collection of single-region, single-vineyard wines that taste more of where they’re from than how they’ve been made.
It’s this taste of terroir - the unique combination of country, climate and culture – that makes wine truly fascinating.
I would kick off with Jeff Grosset’s pair of single vineyard rieslings, Polish Hill and Springvale, each fabulously unlike the other thanks to the land the vines are anchored in. …’
