Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/488317
62 / the tasting panel / april 2015 Less Is More Says Mark Davidson, Wine Australia's Global Education Manager, who moderated all of the Australian trade seminars at the Vancouver Wine Festival: "Australia's wine regions may be far flung—a distance further apart than Spain and Greece, if you superimpose a map of Australia over Europe—but we're really not that big. Australian vineyards total about 148,000 hectares; that's less than the Languedoc-Roussillon, and maybe about the size of Bordeaux." Fact is, Australia's yearly output (12 million hectoliters of wine) is as puny as a girly-man compared to France, Italy and Spain, which respectively produce over 46, 44 and 37 million hectoliters each year, according to the International Organisation of Vine & Wine's 2014 figures. Even the U.S. (22 million hectoliters) and Argentina (15 million) produce more wine than Australia. Australia's wine production is actually closer to that of the 10 to 11 million hectoliters now produced by China (believe it or not), South Africa and Chile. Wine Australia underlined the contemporary significance of their wines by showing many of the crisp, clean, light, pure and decidedly acid driven white wines that, ironically, have always played a key part in their 200-year old winegrowing tradition. Is the world—and particularly, the latest generation of smart, fussy American sommeliers—finally ready to appreciate the joys of defiantly tart and pungent Eden or Clare Valley Riesling, razor- sharp yet honeyed Hunter Valley Semillon, or deep and densely textured Goulburn Valley Marsanne? These iconic white wines—with their legendary penchant for maturing into even more magnificent wines after 10 to 20 years in the bottle—have always been like no others. Says Davidson, "These are our niche offerings that separate us from a global perspective. The concept of Cabernet and Shiraz blended together is another category that you can say Australia 'owns.' Then there are geological miracles like Coonawarra's Terra Rossa [a thin layer of rusted red clay resting on classic white limestone], which qualifies as another one of Australia's unique gifts to the wine world." The proof, as they say, is in the pud- ding—or the literal banquet of sensa- tions that Slade's North American team put together to hammer their point home. More distinctive definitions of regional character as well as more natural (i.e., less manipulated, more sustainable) approaches to winemaking and viticulture also seemed to play a part in the body of work presented to show how Australia's finest now go far beyond classic names like Grange Hermitage or Hill of Grace in both style and proliferation. Above all, contends Davidson, "there is an air of brightness, a freshness of more lifted fruit, in many of today's Australian wines, whether made in lighter, unoaked styles or bigger, brawny styles. The reality is that Australia's culinary advances have also made an impact; brighter, fresher wines make more sense in a quickly evolving food culture. Everyone's palates are more refined, plus there are the inevitable generational changes— younger winemakers more in tune with the times." All the more reason to take another look at what Australia has to offer. Some highlights, out of over 100 wines tasted over the course of three days in Vancouver: INTRO-VINOUS Matt Herde of the Tahbilk Group, and Neil McGuigan of McGuigan Wines on the "Decades Apart" seminar panel.