Coonawarra

Not even the disastrous 1983 vintage could tarnish my opinion of Coonawarra. I spent it under the employ of Lindemans at Rouge Homme, working the appropriately named ‘graveyard’ shift from eleven pm to around four the following afternoon, operating the drainers, basket presses and continuous press. All of which required stamina, patience and a willingness to scrub down huge machinery, none of which came naturally to me at least.

While it was hardly the most exciting, rusticised or romantic way to experience the thrill of vintage in Australia’s most prestigious red wine area, I kept my enthusiasm simmering along, if hardly bubbling at fever pitch, with the thought that sooner or later I would get my hands on the revered St George Cabernet Sauvignon. Back in 1983 it was widely considered one of the country’s most sought-after wines.

But the weather had other things in mind. Remember the season? Devastating drought, followed by the Ash Wednesday bushfires south of Penola, which until a late wind change might even have wiped Coonawarra off the map. But it was an angry Old Testament God who, to prove he had plenty more up his sleeve for the beleaguered citizens of what the locals might have once believed was actually His Own Country, then sent rain, and plenty of it.

Red and white alike, the grapes were so rotten they denied the rights of the mechanical harvesters sent out to collect them by falling off the vines about twenty yards ahead of the machinery. The paltry crop of St George that arrived from its swampy vineyard was so rotten, brown and brackish that before I had the opportunity to apply to it my newly-honed skills at the press, it was quickly crushed, fined and despatched to Karadoc for manufacture into Ben Ean or something else like it.

I have not been invited back to Rouge Homme since.

The same God who created Coonawarra was clearly a billiards player. Locals talk of ‘hills’ and ‘rises’, but unless you’re equipped with surveying equipment or a laser beam, don’t expect to notice them. Wise, of course, not to offer this view to the area’s sensitive occupants, for it tends to prejudice their attitude when pouring wines at the cellar door.

So when visiting Coonawarra, don’t arrive with the idea that its physical beauty and charm will sweep you away. Unless, of course, you have a military background and still get turned on by the parade ground-like impression left by row after endless row of perfectly straight, regular vines, standing either easy or to attention depending on the time of year.

Irrespective of its lack of physical beauty, few Australian wine regions can polarise opinion in quite the way that Coonawarra always seems to do. Few would argue against Coonawarra’s potential to be the best of all Australian red wine regions, yet opinion is evenly divided within the wine industry as to whether or not it’s living up to its potential through its almost total adoption of mechanical vineyard management techniques. Local viticultural guru, Mildara Blass’ Vic Patrick, is a champion of the mechanical cause.

We’ve all heard about the merits of the red soils traditionally associated with the region, yet most of its recent growth has occurred on other soil types of significantly inferior quality. Furthermore, there’s no other Australian wine region of anything near its significance which has yet to be given a formal and legally binding boundary. The seemingly endless debate concerning the precise outline of Coonawarra remains one of the most divisive of all issues in Australian wine.

If Coonawarra made ordinary wine, nobody would really give a toss about any of the above. But the point is that in most seasons a significant proportion of Australia’s best cabernet sauvignon, merlot and shiraz is grown and made in this region, despite what many outspokenly believe to be the area’s ‘bargain basement’ approach to viticulture, in which people have been largely replaced by machines. Either way, Coonawarra has experienced a remarkable run throughout the 1990s, the only glitches being a partial haemmorhage over a dampish 1995 season and a slight hiccup in the cooler vintage of 1992. Each of 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1997 and 1998 has produced exceptional wines and it’s possible to argue that 1990, 1991 and 1994 were truly great. And 1998 might yet follow in their footsteps.

Well, what’s so special about Coonawarra red? No other Australian region can ripen cabernet sauvignon and merlot to create such a spectrum of bright, vibrant and mouthfilling flavours in wines of such fineness and elegance. While lesser seasons are reflected in a less ripe and lightly herbal/capsicum note, signature Coonawarra cabernet flavours are blackcurrants, mulberries and red cherries. Which actually means that with well-made Coonawarra red you get all the intensity and ripeness without the thick coating of heavy tannins and grip commonly associated with Australian cabernet.

It’s not just climate alone that makes Coonawarra special, as clearly evidenced by the difficulties growers experience while attempting to fully ripen fruit on the black clays to the immediate west of the main, but irregular strip of red soil. It’s a relatively cool region, but significantly warmer than Bordeaux and substantially warmer than Burgundy. Throughout the growing season the days are typically quite warm, while temperatures at night are genuinely low. Few seasons pass by without several periods of very high temperatures.

Coonawarra’s celebrated well-drained and friable shallow red soils typically produce its best fruit, with concentration, palate weight and complexity in finished wine that bordering soil types usually fail to match.

Since it doesn’t receive the continuous heat of the warmer regions, Coonawarra reds are not naturally heavy and extractive, although winemakers will occasionally manipulate them into thicker, more assertive wines like Wynns John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon. All of which adds up to rather a high score on the drinkability scale, one of main reasons why there’s so little mature Coonawarra red lying around.

Another great thing about Coonawarra red is its longevity. Scarce though they may be, well-kept bottles of great Wynns and Woodleys Coonawarra reds dating back to the early 1950s can still look quite amazing, especially the 1955 Michael Hermitage of Wynns, a label that made a celebrated comeback with the 1990 vintage.

Classic modern cellaring cabernets include Petaluma’s Coonawarra, the Parker Terra Rossa First Growth, the Highbank Coonawarra, Rosemount Estate’s Show and Hollick’s Ravenswood labels, Orlando’s St Hugo and Jacaranda Ridge labels and those of Katnook Estate, Bowen Estate, Wynns Coonawarra Estate, Lindemans St George and Penley Estate. Only time will tell how more recent vintages of Wynns John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon, whose concentration and extract are anything but typical of the region, will develop in the bottle. It will be interesting to watch whether or not Sue Hodder maintains the style established by John Wade but taken to extreme by Peter Douglas.

Although makers like Doug Bowen are steadily raising its profile, Coonawarra’s shiraz isn’t presently rated as highly as that of McLaren Vale or the Barossa Valley, but in my view that’s just a temporary thing. There’s no denying that it lacks the sheer power, presence and concentration of the shiraz of these areas, but the market is undeniably smack in the middle of one of those cycles when beauty is considered in direct proportion to bust size, in a strictly oenological sense. Finer, more restrained, but brimful of spicy, earthy, sweet cherry, plum and prune-like flavours, Coonawarra shiraz is fine-grained and usually enjoyable immediately upon release, ‘though don’t be fooled into thinking it doesn’t cellar.

Excellent Coonawarra shirazes are made by Bowen Estate, Majella, Leconfield, Zema Estate, while the 1997 Brands Laira represents a welcome change in form by this respected maker. Redman’s, Penley Estate’s, Hollick’s Wilgha and Riddoch’s Katnook Estate’s second label shirazes are supple, spicy earlier-drinking wines, while the Wynns’ white label is justifiably snaffled up by those habitually looking for a bargain.

Drinkers fond of the traditional Australian mixed marriage between cabernet sauvignon and shiraz might enjoy the uncompromising flavour and richness of Majella’s The Malleea blend and the forthcoming release from Brands with a 1996 Eric’s Blend in which malbec also plays a major part, recalling the traditional blends of Brands Laira and Mildara. Of course no introduction is needed for the classic Lindemans shiraz-cabernet blend of Limestone Ridge, whose recent form has been first-rate.

A minor variety it may be in a statistical sense, but merlot is set to change the map in Coonawarra. Rosemount Estate paved the way with several outstanding wines in the 1980s, after which Katnook Estate and Petaluma took up the baton. Recent releases from Hunter Valley-based Pepper Tree and Leconfield have added fuel to the idea that Coonawarra might yet prove to be Australia’s leading region for what is in many major world markets the most fashionable of all red wine varieties. No other Australian region has come as close to defining an Australian style for this grape.

There are of course white vines in Coonawarra, far too many in my opinion, although they’re gradually being replaced with red varieties. Although some are superbly crafted, like Katnook Estate’s, Coonawarra chardonnay lacks the statement, fineness and length of regions like the Adelaide Hills, Margaret River and the Yarra Valley. Its riesling, while being a little tardy to develop its limey, floral qualities, lacks the punch of Clare Valley fruit or the steeliness of Eden Valley riesling. Sauvignon blanc is perhaps the area’s best white bet, but with the amount of Marlborough sauvignon blanc now arriving from New Zealand, the competition is applying the blowtorch. Sure, the black clays west of the red strip grow good chardonnay and pinot noir for sparkling bases, but I can’t see a single reason for a white vine to grow today on the area’s best terra rosa.

Perhaps it’s their close proximity to one another that sets Coonawarra’s winemakers and vignerons apart from those of other Australian regions. With its European-like patchwork quilt of vineyard ownership and hardly a fence in sight, it’s little wonder they all know exactly what’s going on in everyone else’s backyard. While some may argue they see too much of each other and should get away more, it’s difficult to find any other group of winemakers who wear their region’s name so proudly.

Along with the sheer quality and distinctive regional stamp of its red wine, that’s what you’ll remember from your visit to Coonawarra.


A Coonawarra sampler

Balnaves of Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon

Plush, polished and so refined, a long, tight-knit and superbly balanced example of Coonawarra’s elegance and cellaring potential.

Bowen Estate Shiraz

One of the region’s most popular and more affordable wines, simply laden with ripe, spicy fruit and deep, dark varietal flavours and carefully integrated oak.

Brand’s Laira Shiraz

Typical Coonawarra fineness, with sweet, supple fruit, brightness and clarity, tightly woven around a lightly tannic backbone. Usually drinking well by release.

Highbank Coonawarra

Superbly crafted wine made by Trevor Mast from wonderfully concentrated, vibrant and exotically flavoured fruit organically grown by viticulturist Dennis Vice. Pure undiscovered treasure.

Hollick Ravenswood Cabernet Sauvignon

Hollick’s premier label, this intense, ripe and concentrated wine displays sweet cassis and mulberry fruit and fine-grained new oak influences.

Katnook Estate Cabernet Sauvignon

Consistently a high-class performer, Katnook’s cabernet is now fulfilling every bit of its undoubted potential with wines of true class, luxuriant refinement and longevity.

Leconfield Merlot

Thickly laden with brambly ripe fruit, fine-grained oak and tobaccoey complexity, this wine could well become one of the region’s true star turns.

Lindemans Limestone Ridge Shiraz Cabernet

Recent years have seen a return to top form for Lindemans’ classic single vineyard shiraz-cabernet blend. Deeply dark and concentrated, its dense, ripe fruit is carefully married to chocolatey and smoky oak. A must for the Coonawarra cellar.

Majella Shiraz

Plump, ripe and honest as they come, this generous wine almost overwhelms with the opulence of its fruit and the thickness of its punchy oak. Big, balanced and beautiful.

Mildara Cabernet Sauvignon

The most under-rated wine in this extensive stable of otherwise interesting, but hardly diverting Coonawarra labels, with a proven track record in the cellar.

Orlando St Hugo Cabernet Sauvignon

Given the significant amount made of this wine, its reliably pristine berry qualities, excellent integration of fruit, oak and tannin, plus well-established longevity stamp it as one of Coonawarra’s most accessible benchmark wines.

Parker Coonawarra Estate Terra Rossa First Growth

The aristocratic 1996 vintage of this excellent single vineyard wine confirms its status as one of Coonawarra’s finest contemporary labels. Typically concentrated and firmly structured, its plush ripe fruit rests easily with a substantial tannic backbone.

Penley Estate Cabernet Sauvignon

Sumptuous, sweet cabernet sauvignon whose smoky, cedary oak can look assertive while young, but which tends to settle superbly into a velvet-smooth regional classic.

Petaluma Coonawarra

Since 1988 Brian Croser’s superbly structured signature red has set the pace in Coonawarra for its elegance and longevity. It’s a wine that really demands at least a decade in the bottle.

Redman Cabernet Merlot

The premier red wine from one of Coonawarra’s more popular makers is a finer, more elegant wine whose alluring aroma of violets and cassis precedes a supple, fine-grained palate whose tight, bony tannins will ensure surprising longevity.

Rosemount Estate Show Cabernet Sauvignon

This sumptuous, long-term wine often shows Coonawarra at its best. Its deep aroma of wild blackberries, violets and chocolate/coffee oak precedes a supple and superbly balanced palate of underlying strength.

Rouge Homme Richardson’s Red Block

Coonawarra for those who can’t wait. This lively, harmonious wine offers bright, attractive sweet berry fruit in a restrained, earlier-maturing style.

Rymill Merlot Cabernet

An all-too-rare blend and one of the best earlier-drinking wines of the region. I’ve long been taken by its pristine dark briary fruit and soft, fleshy palate and suggest you give it a chance to do the same to you.

Wynns Coonawarra Estate Michael Shiraz

This rich, thickly structured and unusually dense expression of Coonawarra shiraz is made to emphasise the region’s ability to deliver fully-ripened fruit flavours. Atypical of the region, but astonishingly good in the cellar.

Zema Estate Shiraz

As honest and reliable a Coonawarra red as you will ever find, with ripe red cherry and plum fruit and earthy, mineral qualities. Drinks well early, but offers an ability to develop leathery complexity in the bottle. Please login to post comment