Stefano Lubiana
Perhaps the small Tasmanian wine brand of Stefano Lubiana known in some parts for the wrong reasons, but Steve Lubiana is the first to agree that although he mightn’t have enjoyed it at the time, all publicity is good publicity. When the giant French Champagne house of Veuve Clicquot threatened to send in the legal equivalent of the Foreign Legion to the Lubianas’ quiet backwater of Granton, on the banks of the Derwent River north of Hobart, Lubiana felt he had little choice but to comply with their demand that he change the colour of his sparkling wine label. The colour he was using was, according to Veuve Clicquot, just that little bit close to their so-called ‘Clicquot Yellow’, so, Lubiana backed off. Future sparkling labels will, he says, include a splash or two more ‘Lubiana mango’.
Storm in a teacup? Of course, but thousands of wine enthusiasts the world over have now heard of this emergent Tasmanian vineyard and its wine. One half expects a deluge of Clicquot look-alikes also hopeful that the French will do a similar publicity job for them as well.
None of which really does justice to what Steve and Monique Lubiana are really trying to achieve. With a 7.7 ha vineyard sliding down to the expansive Derwent estuary, they’re creating one of the new Tasmanian brands with the potential to go all the way.
Steve Lubiana isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. He’s using vertical shoot positioning to grow his fruit, about a third of which he drops off each year to keep yields down to a respectably low 7-8 tonnes per hectare for his premier wines. ‘I don’t try to bend a wine too much. I prefer to work with what comes from the vineyard, rather than trying to make something not inherently there. This approach gives a wine personality and individuality, and those who like them really do’, he says.
He crushed 134 tonnes in 2001, much of which finds its way into his early-drinking, but generously flavoured ‘Primavera’ range, which mirrors his estate varietal wines made from riesling, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and pinot noir. And of course there’s the fizz – a chewy, almost meaty ‘house style’ Non Vintage wine based around pinot noir, and a finer, tighter and more austere Vintage wine that reflects its chardonnay predominance. First releases of merlot and pinot grigio are imminent.
Lubiana cut his winemaking teeth at his family’s winery in the South Australian Riverlands before settling on his present vineyard site on a 170 hectare property in the late 1980s and first planted in the spring of 1990. While still quite vigorous, the soils are low in nutrients and hold water poorly. With its extremes moderated by the adjacent body of water, the vineyard’s climate is a maritime one, encouraging the ripening of small berries with intense flavours and high natural acids.
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Occasionally made with some botrytis influence, Lubiana’s Riesling is highly accentuated and penetrative in flavour, yet typically reserved and fine, with lingering mineral acidity. Disliking either the vegetative or the tropical extremes of the grape variety, Lubiana harvests his Sauvignon Blanc in two batches, early and late, to achieve a pleasing balance of varietal qualities with a savoury finish. He also chose not to fine away all the phenolics in his first Pinot Grigio, from the 2001 vintage, because doing so would have ‘taken the soul from the wine’ and in his view diminished its ability to handle food.
The best Stefano Lubiana wines have come to date from the Burgundian varieties, especially chardonnay. Again, Lubiana’s approach is simple and traditional, typified by whole bunch pressing, barrel ferment with full solids and the maceration of his Chardonnay on lees in oak. Best yet is the 2000 wine, a richly endowed and complex chardonnay whose parts might be assertive, but finely balanced. Cautious not to over-oak either wine, the Pinot Noir receives oak previously used for the Chardonnay. Made in up to six different batches from a multi-clonal vineyard, each of which are treated differently, the Pinot emphasises Lubiana’s view that the variety is best expressed in a wine of roundness and softness, without over-extraction. Again, it’s assertive and concentrated, but with tightness and balance.
Steve Lubiana has done his dash in big wineries and enjoys being small and ‘intimate’ with his wines. The fact that he already doesn’t have enough to sell to potential customers suggest that time might be running out for you to get intimate with them as well.
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