Australia: Chardonnay shines

Excellent examples of Australian Chardonnay are silencing former critics. But the UK market is proving difficult to convince.

The trials and tribulations of Australia’s recent fortunes in the UK wine market have been thoroughly picked over. Criticism gained momentum that the country’s brands had lost their soul to price mechanics, failed to engage a maturing wine consumer, were slow to tackle oversupply problems or lacked direction from Wine Australia.

While some of these issues undoubtedly linger, by the time these gloomy headlines hit the UK, many in Australia felt that their winemaking story had long moved on. It was just that the message and, in many cases, the wines, had failed to reach UK shores. Let’s not forget either, as Mark Wilson, UK general manager for De Bortoli, points out: “If you look at where Australia is, it’s still at the top of the pile.”

Now, however, the UK press appears to be overcoming its penchant for bad news to document a pendulum swinging very much in the right direction. What’s more, it’s Australia’s regular protagonist that is leading the charge: Chardonnay.
Can the grape whose prolific planting and malleability at the hands of winemakers did so much for Australia’s rise and subsequent fall now lead the country’s rehabilitation in the eyes of the UK consumer?

“I definitely think Chardonnay is the one variety we’re now starting to feel really proud of,” confirms Stephen Webber, winemaker at De Bortoli. He tracks the real shift back to 2005, since when, he argues, there’s been an “absolute revolution” in the way Chardonnay is managed.

For some producers, the shift began even earlier. Michael Kerrigan, winemaker and director of Hay Shed Hill in Margaret River, recalls: “I realised well over a decade ago that I needed to pick earlier, not only for lower wine alcohol, but also for more mineral, citrus flavour spectrums rather than the traditional tropical characters. The other benefit of this earlier harvest was higher levels of natural acidity.”

Other producers corroborate this move, although Howard Park’s senior winemaker Janice McDonald, clarifies: “This is not to say that acidification is not happening, or that it is a bad practice, but perhaps the level of acidification desired in wine is now being achieved by a combination of earlier picking, minimal acidification and using a combination of acids.”

Oak management

More of an issue for the reputation of Australian Chardonnay, and one which coloured many consumers’ idea of what to expect from this variety, was that of oak management.

The backlash against fat, woody styles led to an opposite extreme of unoaked examples, which many are now equally glad to see dying out.

McDonald offers her view of the current stage in Australia’s relationship with one of its most important flagships: “There is a developing resistance to the exceedingly lean and searingly acidic Chardonnay of a few years back, which was the extreme reaction to the older style of big oak, big fruit and big alcohol. Hopefully the pendulum of Australian Chardonnay is gently swaying around the middle ground.”

Of course, that middle ground still leaves plenty of room for manoeuvre and debate, although Mike Symons, senior winemaker at Stonier, offers a general picture of how winemakers have “fine-tuned their idea of balance”.

Pointing to the larger barrels and lower levels of new oak, both of which have now been employed at Stonier, as typical examples of today’s approach, he adds: “Winemakers are paying more attention to the amount of malolactic fermentation. Rather than employing automatic 100% malolactic fermentation, they are looking more at how much is really necessary to achieve the right acid and richness balance.”

Meanwhile, Kerrigan is keen to stress that, when managed well, this modern generation of Australian Chardonnays can successfully carry a deceptive amount of oak. Arguing that “you cannot over oak a wine, you can only under fruit it”, he reports: “As I have made the wines with tighter structure, I have used more new oak; it is just that it is less noticeable.”

As for Australia’s most recent vintage, the cooler conditions experienced by many regions during 2011 (although McDonald paints a rather different picture for Western Australia, describing the vintage as being “on the warm side of perfect”) are pinpointed by winemaking consultant Justin Knock MW as “ideal for exponents of the light, refreshing styles”.

Offering his own assessment of the evolutionary prospects for Australian Chardonnay, he predicts: “My guess is that there will be some reaction against the extremities of restraint in the next two to three years but overall the balance is in a pretty wonderful place at the moment and the diversity of styles available is emulating what’s available in Burgundy from north to south.”

One recurring observation about today’s breed of Australian Chardonnay is the detection of a struck-match character often described by its fans as “good reduction”. The country’s affinity for bottling under screwcap may offer one explanation for this trend, but it seems that many producers are actively pursuing this style in other ways.

Certainly Louisa Rose, head of winemaking at Yalumba, feels “There is a conscious trend for some makers of Chardonnay wines – and other varieties as well – to have more of this character in their wines.” As for how it is being achieved, Knock admits: “I’m not sure exactly how to harness it perfectly,” but believes, “one can definitely point to a combination of early-picked, hand-harvested fruit, and gentle whole-bunch pressing to produce juice abundantly protected by fluffy grape solids – the light interior pulp as opposed to the more phenolic, sun-rich characters of the skin.”

Although accepting reduction has a broad spectrum and attracts highly subjective reactions, Rose is broadly in favour of the characteristic, arguing: “It can make for wines that are indeed more complex and interesting, and also better food matches than some of the more traditional styles.”

The Chardonnay movement

Of course, making all these generalisations about a country the size of Australia can be futile – not to mention frustrating – for producers. Nevertheless, those with access to a helicopter view distinguish the shift occurring with Chardonnay from other key varieties in the country’s palette.

Following regular recent visits to various corners of Australia, Tim Wildman MW believes: “The whole modern Chardonnay phenomenon has coalesced into a recognisable movement, probably within the last five years. It’s much more like New Zealand: everyone in a region is doing the same thing and that has an international impact.” By contrast, he points to current developments with Shiraz, saying “the movement is so diverse, the market will take longer to catch up”.

Similarly impressed with the changes he has seen is Jason Busby, director of Bancroft Wines. “Gone are the days of orange Chardonnays and one-dimensional wines,” he confirms. After a recent trip which took in a number of regions, Busby sums up: “I am now seeing many more smaller wineries taken seriously in the market as they have better vineyard management and winemaking techniques and have come a long way from the heady cooperative days of the 1980’s.”

Above all, Wildman marks out the forward momentum coming from Australia right now as being driven by cooler climate regions. “Yarra is pulling away as the leader of the pack,” he comments, picking out names such as Giant Steps, De Bortoli and the Oakridge 864, a wine he notes is now “being described as the white Grange of Australia”.

However, Wildman also picks out Mornington Peninsula for particular praise, highlighting the sweeping victory of Yabby Lake’s 2010 Chardonnay at last year’s Royal Melbourne Wine Show, where it took home three major trophies. “People are talking about that as being the watershed moment for Australian Chardonnay,” remarks Wildman. “The movement is still very much within the trade, but a result like that can be a game changer on a domestic level.”

British reserve

For all the plaudits and profile building achieved by Australian Chardonnay on its home turf, however, the top examples are still struggling to find their way through to the UK. “The only wines you guys see are the ones grown in the river [area] because they’re the only ones you can afford,” challenges Webber as he bemoans the UK’s reluctance to look to Australia for higher quality wines.

Likewise, Jeff Burch, CEO of Howard Park, notes the historical situation whereby: “The heavily oaked styles were generally cheaper warm climate produced wine, which in Australia is commonly thought of as entry-level wine and produced mainly for export.”

Emphasising that, “There is such a big distinction between cool climate and warm climate wine styles and price points,” he observes, “Australia has a wonderful range of high quality, interesting Chardonnays, most of which is not exported as the pricing is too high for many export markets.”

It’s not simply a question of blaming the UK trade for its lack of interest, however. Kerrigan points out that many of the producers making these top wines have limited resources to make their voices heard above the industry giants. “What happens in Australia may take a decade to be noticed in the UK,” he predicts, “particularly as the shift in style was led by the smaller independent winemakers with either no or minimal presence in the UK, rather than the large conglomerate wine companies which so dominate the Australian offer in the UK.“

Nevertheless, Wilson does see outdated attitudes within the UK trade as a major barrier to the message Australia’s producers are trying to get across. “The biggest problem has been the trade; we’re not even getting these wines to the consumer,” he complains. “The problem has been that Australia has always done very well in the supermarkets, which is a turn-off for independents.”

In an effort to make De Bortoli’s top wines more accessible to the UK market, Wilson reports: “We have to have an almost artificially subsidised approach with our premium wines. If we sold them at the same price as in Melbourne, no one would touch them.”

Of course, few other producers making these vanguard wines have the financial clout or inclination to persevere for long in an unreceptive market, especially as demand grows closer to home.

Having played such a enthusiastic role in supporting Australian wines this far, it would be a shame for the UK to miss out as they really hit their stride.