Confounding, contradictory, and utterly compelling – meet the variety that has found an unlikely second home in Australia’s cooler hills. Inside: the full backstory, plus the top wines to emerge from our blind tasting panel.
Montepulciano is a real workhorse of a variety, capable of producing large quantities of deeply-coloured grapes with strong tannins and vibrant acidity even in warm and sunny conditions. That workhorse character has seen it widely planted across Italy, where it has become the country’s second most widely planted red grape variety, often used to add colour and structure to blended wines. That role as a blending agent has seen the variety dismissed within Italy itself, although single-varietal examples from Abruzzo have started to change that narrative. Australia’s own history with the variety is a relatively brief one, but it is already making an impression here, with consumers falling for the charms of ‘monte’ and winegrowers looking to it as a climate-apt variety capable of withstanding the demands of a warming world. With so much to love about this generous, hearty variety, we thought it was time to take a Deep Dive …
Cabernet franc is the other cabernet. Until recently, it was largely marginalised in blends, its presence banished to the back label – if it was mentioned at all. But it drives some of the great wines of the world, either in part or in total – and it can be rendered as a wine of immediate vibrancy and intoxicating fragrance, or settle into the satisfied purr of a wine of statuesque pedigree destined for a long life and sustained glory. Winemakers and consumers alike have started cottoning on to the merits of 100% cabernet franc wines, and an engaging variety of expressions – typically accessible, both in style and cost – is now appearing on restaurant wine lists. And while France and Italy currently have the lion’s share of the world’s plantings, Australia’s own examples can be as compelling as any other – just the kind of situation that calls for a Deep Dive …
Pinot noir’s roots in the Geelong region run deep, with the first vines going into the ground here in the 1840s. While a lot has changed since then – the region’s early boom was followed by Australian wine’s most dramatic and decisive bust –Geelong’s pinot noirs have nonetheless carved out a global reputation for excellence, with the most famous examples sought after by sommeliers the world over. With a small but dedicated band of winemakers and labels turning out fascinating wines – ranging from the earthy and muscular through to the perfumed and ethereal – and a wave of emerging talent on the scene, Geelong’s pinot noir scene feels poised on the verge of greatness. So why are these wines so rarely spotted on restaurant wine lists and retail shelves outside of Geelong itself? We took a Deep Dive to find out …
Geelong is best known within Australia for its industrial heritage, its deep love of the AFL, and proximity to the Surf Coast, while international visitors flock to it as the gateway to the Great Ocean Road. But the area around the city also has a rich history as one of Australia’s most promising cool-climate wine regions, with a coterie of small-scale wineries and labels turning out compelling chardonnays that range from the elegant and saline to the concentrated and powerful. With a new generation of makers stepping in to give the region’s internationally revered icons a run for their money, there’s never been a better time to discover Geelong’s chardonnays – in fact, it’s just the kind of situation that warrants a Deep Dive …
Pinot meunier is closely related to pinot noir – in fact, it’s a botanically complicated mutation of pinot noir – but it hasn’t yet received the same plaudits. It was once the most widely planted grape variety in Champagne, yet until relatively recently all of the garlands there went to the glamour couple of chardonnay and pinot noir. And that traditional use in Champagne explains why a surprising amount of the variety was planted in Australia for sparkling wine production. But meunier has more to offer than simply being a blending component. A small but dedicated band of producers craft delicious still red wines from this unheralded grape variety – and as climate change wreaks havoc with finicky pinot noir, pinot meunier’s advantages in the vineyard are becoming ever clearer. Is it pinot meunier’s time to shine? We took another Deep Dive into this fascinating variety to find out.
The Sicilian red wine variety nero d’avola first landed in Australia relatively recently, with the first vines being planted in 2001. In the two and a half decades since, it has grown from a curio planted by adventurous growers to a fixture in the minds of growers, makers, and drinkers alike, with the number of plantings and bottled expressions expanding exponentially. And not without reason – it thrives in the kind of hot conditions that can turn shiraz into raisins, uses about half the water of other grape varieties, and hangs on to its acidity well as it ripens. It also happens to make exceptionally approachable juicy, fresh, and fruit-forward wines – perfect for Australian drinking culture. The nero d’avola train shows no sign of slowing down any time soon – so we thought it was time to once again take a Deep Dive.
Tempranillo is unarguably Spain’s most recognisable variety, forming the bedrock of its most famous red wines. It’s also a variety that has seen recently seen explosive global growth, with more hectares of tempranillo vines planted since 2000 than any other variety, and by a big margin. In Australia, it has made a meaningful mark – and with plantings increasing and a host of new producers working with the variety, there’s a palpable sense that it’s poised to become our next mainstream red wine variety. But what does, or should, Australian tempranillo taste like? And is it as well suited to Australia’s climatic conditions as we’d like to think? Two years after our last Deep Dive on the topic, we thought it was an apt time to come to grips with how this Spanish icon is faring in Australian soil …
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