Freycinet Tasmania’s most important vineyard?

So much has been expected from Tasmanian wine for so many years that ‘mainlanders’ like me sometimes view the Next Big Thing from our southernmost state with a healthy degree of scepticism. No more, I might add, than for the next new super-label from the Yarra or the Mornington Peninsula, but there’s little doubt in my mind that Tasmania’s bite has yet to match its bark.

Since my first exposure to Freycinet’s red wine, I have harboured no doubt whatsoever that this vineyard has what it takes to make its stamp. Of all things, the wine was a blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot, a blend I have come to consider with great suspicion from all but the warmest and best-managed Tasmanian sites. But the wine was a sumptuous, superbly structured red of richness and integrity. It could have come from Coonawarra.
Anyone who visits Freycinet could not be impressed with its particular site and mesoclimate. Like a Greek theatre, its vineyards describe a basin-like valley, focusing its vines towards the north and east where they perfectly capture early morning sunlight and warmth. It’s a site straight from the viticultural textbook, with the moderating influence of Great Oyster Bay nearby and to the east and a cover of shale-like stones which aid heat retention into the night. The soils are old podsols and decaying granite over a friable clay base.

Geoff Bull lords over his vineyard domain with justifiable pride. He has recently doubled the size of the main vineyard to nine hectares and has planted just under one hectare of sparkling base varieties ‘over the back’ on a cooler and less exposed site. Although around half the vines are still coming into full yield, the main vineyard presently stands at 4 hectares of chardonnay, 2.5 of pinot noir, 1.2 of riesling, 0.65 of cabernet sauvignon, 0.35 of merlot and 0.3 of Muller-Thurgau. The Bulls blend their merlot with cabernet sauvignon, while the riesling is partnered by the Muller-Thurgau to fashion a zesty, slightly sweet and aromatic white largely sold via the cellar door. Most of the vines fully bearing today were planted in 1980 and 1985.

Its his conviction that the Tasmanian climate can develop fruit characters significantly different to the rest of Australia that drives Geoff Bull’s approach to viticulture and directs the winemaking techniques deployed by Freycinet’s winemaking duo of daughter Lindy Bull and Claude Radenti. To capitalise on the vineyard’s unique point of difference in the sheer intensity and expression of its ripe fruit, the vines are cultivated on a split trellis to maximise sunlight and exposure. Everything imaginable is done to steer clear of green, under-ripe flavours, while still cropping at a perfectly respectable 12 tonnes per hectare.

Although its pinot noir has attracted more of the headlines, Freycinet’s principal wine is its Chardonnay, a refined, silky-smooth and essentially fruit driven wine which typically finishes with taught, mineral acids. The fruit is given every chance to shine through with 50 whole bunch pressing and a relatively cool in-barrel fermentation. A year’s lees contact contributes texture without threatening the fruit’s freshness, while a springtime malolactic fermentation contributes bacony complexity and ameliorates the tartness of the natural acids. The 1995 vintage 18.5, drink 2003-2007 is a typically sophisticated wine which can still be found in the retail and restaurant trade.

Although a small quantity of Freycinet’s pinot noir is open fermented with pigeage and some is fermented in oak, the bulk of the wine is crushed, destemmed and pumped with some whole bunches into a rotofermenter for a hot ferment. After settling the new wine is matured for just less than twelve months in a mixture of small French oak casks, 25 of which are new. Unconvinced by most unfiltered pinot noirs, Geoff Bull is adamant that his pinot noir should be filtered. ‘I’ve seen so many unfiltered wines that don’t have any flavour or texture. They might look okay for a short time, but most are then affected by bacterial changes’, he says.

Freycinet’s Pinot Noir is usually a vibrant, brambly wine whose piercing cherry/plum fruit flavours are accompanied by an increasing degree of spiciness and earthy notes as its vineyard matures. They develop the forest floor, gamey complexity expected of premium pinot noirs, but never at the expense of Geoff Bull’s principal target of pure, pristine fruit. The 1995 wine 18.5, drink 2000-2003 will do precisely that and will certainly reward time in the cellar.

Affected by a season so deficient in sunlight that hardly any plant could ripen at all, Freycinet’s 1996 Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are shortly to be released. Their scarcity will make them difficult to find other than through the cellar door. 1997 looks to have made sumptuous, concentrated wines whose drought-affected yields will again sadly leave many enthusiasts of Freycinet wines empty-handed.

My tip? Look for the 1995 Chardonnay while you can. Please login to post comment