Australian vintage report: 2012

Last Friday, I reported on the DO RE (give it to ME) barometer of the 2012 vintage, Jeffrey Grosset’s hot off the press Springvale Watervale and Polish Hill Rieslings from the Clare Valley, South Australia (click here for my report). Fabulous wines which, referencing the Polish Hill, Grosset reckons “may well rival the 2002 and 1982 as the greatest ever.”

So how was it for everyone else?

According to The Winemakers Federation of Australia, which released its 2012 Vintage Report on 6 July, the total national crush is estimated at 1.66 million tonnes (compared with 1.6 million in 2011) and, “with reports of above average quality from across the country, expectations are for a standout vintage.” You can read the entire report here.

Pending other wines hitting the shelves, I canvassed some grassroots views on the 2012 crop. Here goes:

Tasmania (Joe Holyman, Stoney Rise Wine Company)

“2012 was potentially outstanding. Early on some areas received late frosts which had some effect on total volumes, but this was followed by some mild weather during flowering. After Christmas the weather was warm, without extremes with Hobart having its longest run on record of days over 17 C.

Whilst overall yields were down up to 30% the quality of especially the sparkling base wines as well as Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are outstanding with some makers saying the wines are potentially better than the 2005 vintage.”

Click here to read my report of my February visit with Holyman.

The Barossa, Eden Valley & Coonawarra (Louisa Rose, Yalumba)

Photo credit: Tim Winter

For Rose “it’s always a good sign of the vintage when, at the end, winemakers are still smiling and talking to each other!” Describing the vintage as “perfect” with “not a weak link,” she says the only worry was logistics. “When it started quickly, we worried we wouldn’t be able to fit everything in the winery at the time that it was ripening but, towards  the end of February, it cooled down.”

And the biggest key to quality? She says, “that it was never really hot” – evenings were cool, it was really balmy in early autumn while still dry, all of which added up to “really good colours and really good varietal expression” for Barossa Cabernets and Shiraz. 

In Eden Valley, “whites were fragrant with lovely natural acidities.”  In Coonawarra and Wrattonbully, though there was one rain event mid- season, she says “the vines were quite capable of sucking it up and kept going – they didn’t split or anything and the wines of Coonawarra in particular were just phenomenal.” 

Click here for my wine-searcher.com wide-ranging interview with the ever incisive Rose.

McLaren Vale (Elena Brooks Chief Winemaker Dandelion Vineyards)

Saying “[T]he old adage in McLaren Vale is that a great year always gets an inch of rain in December and an inch in January and sunshine does the rest,” Brooks says “2012 was definitely old school…my equal favourite in McLaren Vale in 11 vintages.”

Listing the key elements to “the near perfect ripening season,” she refers to “a refreshingly mild and dry spring with plenty of winter soil moisture now dried up beautifully” – “[E]xtremely good canopies with very good exposure and with small to medium crops was the norm. One old school refreshing inch of rain mid vintage kept the dust down and a little break but it was like an welcome intermission in a great show.”

Margaret River (Ryan Walsh, McHenry Hohnen & Virginia Willcock, Vasse Felix)

Concluding “it would be nice to have some slower sugar build ups and longer tannin development,” for Walsh in southern Margaret River “it started cold and wet in the spring right through till late December, then finished on a heat wave in January with particularly warm nights.” 

Still, he says “the standard varietals are looking great. Yields were up 20% in the whites thanks to some late December rain during berry set; reds were on average slightly lower [yields].”

First pick was on the 7th of February, “record early for me,” which probably explains why “Chardonnay (stand out for the year) looks exciting plenty of fruit and lovely natural acidity.” Of McHenry Hohnen’s three single site Chardonnays, Walsh reckons Rocky Road the better site of the three and, on the aptly named Burnside block, says bush fires have resulted in some smoke characters starting to show in wines where there was undervine burning. In consequence, the volume of Burnside Chardonnay bottled will be down a little.

As for Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc, on younger vines and on poorer sites, Walsh reports that grapes suffered from acids falling away quickly, “but thankfully much of our Sauvignon is on older unirrigated roots.”

Turning to the reds, the last pick was 13th of April and Walsh rates the Cabernets as “very solid,” as are Malbec and Petit Verdot, with “lighter aromatics and colour; a little more elegant perhaps.” For Shiraz and Rhone varieties, he reckons they “perhaps needed more sunlight in December to get colour fixed and flavour determined, but they’re not looking too bad….It will always be a little tricky further south as the southern ocean has greater influence than the Indian on sunshine hours.”

Further north in Wilyabrup, Vasse Felix Chief Winemaker (and Gourmet Traveller Winemaker of the Year) Virginia Willcock was excited by the “beautiful rain and canopies” gifted by a wet spring. She reckons given Margaret River’s beautiful dry summers (there’s been no rain during vintage over last 6 years), quality is more “affected by spring, which gives us different tweaks in acid levels and flavours.”

Agreeing with Walsh that a really warm spell in January meant “things jumped into a fairly quick ripening phase” she adds “because we had such beautiful healthy canopies and a dry summer, the fruit held beautifully. Whites were quite early, but we still managed to capture all the flavours and acidity was good.” She also agrees that, while Chardonnays are looking good – “really lovely and elegant” – Semillon Sauvignon Blancs are the weakest link – less aromatic and “a little more toned down,” though she is not unduly troubled given Vasse Felix’s preference for a savoury style with a bit of oak and solids.

As for the reds, because it started to cool down after the whites were harvested, she’s very happy with the quality of the Bordeaux varieties-  “beautiful tannins, soft and powdery…aromatic and fragrant…another beautiful vintage.” 

Click here for my wine-searcher.com interview with Willcock who claims “the next 10 years of Margaret River Cabernet is going to blow the world’s mind.”