Wine Australia Landmark Tasting: Sauvignon/Semillon, Marsanne, Roussanne & Viognier verticals

A temple to Marsanne: Tahbilk’s 19th century winery

Having presented Shiraz and Riesling tastings earlier in the year, the last of the Wine Australia London Landmark sessions which I presented was more eclectic.  It focused on niche varieties/blends which, with the exception of Tahbilk’s Marsanne, have only recently come to prominence or gained profile.

Even so, I had fun trying to pin down how and when these varieties or wine styles came into being in Australia. I’ve set out the fruits of my research below (please do let me know if you have corrective or additional information), followed by my notes on the wines.

The tasting provided an interesting insight into how some of the country’s pioneering examples of Roussanne and Viognier have developed in bottle.   In short pretty well, especially when you take into account vine age. Which bodes well the latest crop of newbies – Fiano, Vermentino et al.

Oaked Sauvignon Semillon blends

While Semillon has enjoyed a long, distinguished history in Australia (notably in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales), Sauvignon Blanc is another story.  According to James Halliday, it first appeared in Australian statistics in the mid-1970s, which coincides with when it was introduced into Margaret River.

In 1977, a grand total of 647t was crushed across Australia.  No doubt owing to the growth of cool climate viticulture, by 2012, with a crush totalling 86,711t, Sauvignon Blanc had become the number two white grape variety in Australia. It represented 11% of the white crush (and 6,927ha of vineyard).

The first oaked example was made by Cullen in 1979 by Mike Peterkin (founder of Pierro), who reckons it was in fact also the very first Semillon Sauvignon Blanc blend to be produced in Australia. The vines for this Perth Show trophy winner would have been planted in 1975 or 1976 and continue to produce terrific, ageworthy wines (click here for my notes of a vertical).

Peterkin took his inspiration from France, whose Bordeaux region similarly inspired the two benchmark examples of the genre which I showed – Suckfizzle Sauvignon Blanc Semillon (2001, 2005, 2008) from Margaret River (£24.83 at The Drink Shop) and The Lane The Gathering (2005, 2007, 2010) from Adelaide Hills (£20.95 at Corney & Barrow).

While both producers pursue what Suckfizzle’s Stuart Pym describes as “a fairly extravagant expression of a Bordeaux blend,” it was interesting to contrast this single vineyard pair.  They split the room, but there was broad support for this niche (oaked) style.

For me, The Lane’s intense, pristine fruit character reflect cooler Adelaide Hills’ longer growing season (and a much shorter time in oak – six months for only 70% of the blend versus 18 months for 100% of the Suckfizzle blend).

On the other hand, the Suckfizzle has the sweet (ripe methoxypyrazene) herbaceous rasp typical of southern Margaret River.  Especially this wine, which comes from a particularly low, exposed site in southernmost Augusta.  An attractive characteristic which is complimented by the smoky oak/citrus oil notes I associate with fine white Bordeaux (Pym worked vintage at Domaine Chevalier, Bordeaux in 1995).

The Lane The Gathering

Unfortunately, both bottles of the 2010 vintage (72% Sauvignon Blanc, 28% Semillon, 13% abv) were out of condition.  The 2007 (72% Sauvignon Blanc, 28% Semillon, 14% abv) from a hot, drought-affected vintage was impressively fresh, with a lively, vibrant undertow of lime, some (lemon) grassiness still, as well as complexing toasty oak and mealy, leesy notes.  Very good.  Though quite lemon-grassy on the nose, the 2005 (60% Sauvignon Blanc, 40% Semillon, 13.5% abv) showed attractive development on the palate, with hints of dried honey, marrowfat peas, ripe waxy lemon and creamy white asparagus.  Lovely weight and texture with balancing acidity.  We only missed the King Goerge whiting fillet and lemon butter sauce!

Suckfizzle

I’ve tasted older vintages of this wine on two winery visits and know just how well it ages.  The 2008 (53% Sauvignon Blanc, 47% Semillon, 12.5% abv) was still youthfully vigorous, really toasty/smoky with sweet hashish and talc lift to its vibrant, tight, lemony fruit and good mineral acid drive.

Showing rounder Semillon character with no loss of energy, the 2005 (53% Sauvignon Blanc,47% Semillon, 13%) was consistent in its sweet talc and lemony (albeit here waxier/riper) and dusty mineral character.  Basil top notes brought additional lift and piquancy.  Very good.

The only wine sealed under cork, the 2001 (55% Sauvignon Blanc, 45% Semillon, 13%) was significantly deeper in colour and starting to soften/tire, which meant its white asparagus and raw porcini notes were a little out-gunned by the spicy oak.  Would have been interesting to compare this with a bottle under screwcap.

Marsanne

Marsanne was introduced into Australia by the so-called “father of Australian wine,”  James Busby, in 1832.  He is said to have brought cuttings of Marsanne and Roussanne from the hill of Hermitage in the Northern Rhône.

According to James Halliday, Marsanne is known to have been grown in Victoria since the 1860s.  He says it was almost certainly brought to the Yarra Valley by the Swiss retinue of Charles Latrobe’s wife, Latrobe being the first governor of Victoria.

It was grown at Yeringberg and Chateau Yering, also St Huberts (founded 1862).  In the late 1860s, it was St Huberts vineyards (which by 1876 had 10 acres of Marsanne) that supplied Tahbilk with the “white hermitage” cuttings a.k.a. Marsanne.

Tahbilk’s original vines were destroyed by phylloxera in the 1890s/early 1900s. Fourth generation owner/winemaker Alister Purbrick told me his grandfather, Eric, replanted it in 1927 and released a varietal table wine version in the 1930.  Although his phylloxera-resistant grafted rootlings came from a Victorian state owned nursery, in a nice twist of fate, it’s believed that the nursery’s Marsanne originally came from Tahbilk.  So it would appear, says Purbrick “that we have the same clone as was originally planted at Tahbilk in the 1860s!”  The 1927 vines (which produce a stunning top cuvee in outstanding vintages) are some of the oldest in the world.  According to Purbrick, “even Michel Chapoutier, who imports Tahbilk’s wines, hasn’t managed to find older Marsanne!”

The vineyard, now 38.4 ha, has been augmented by subsequent plantings in 1980, 1987, 1995 and 1997, giving an average vine age of 25-30 years.  It represents a substantial proportion of Australia’s measly 192ha, and is thought to be the largest single planting of the variety in the world.

With such a fantastic blood line – both of vine and producer – it’s perhaps unsurprising that Tahbilk’s modestly priced unoaked, atypically bright and fruity Marsanne is consistently good and ages consistently well.  Purbrick told me “Marsanne grape quality does not vary much from year to year and we find that a lovely wine can be made regardless of the coolness or heat in a particular year.” He attributes its success to the vineyard’s light friable sandy loam soils.

Tahbilk vintages

Sure enough the 2010, 2006 and 2002 all showed very well, the 2010 (a hot year, with 2105 heat degree days, 12.5% abv) had a pretty, lifted honeysuckle nose and peachy fruit, with terpenic, nutty close to the stone nuances.  The more citrus-driven and persistent 2006 (a moderate year, with 1803 Degree Days, 13% abv) was delightfully fresh with trademark stone fruits and honeysuckle lift.  From the coolest year since 1965, at 1455 Degree Days, 12.5%) the yellow gold 2002 vintage showed attractive kerosene lift and surprising freshness on a mineral tufa (raw white porcini) palate.

If you fancy conducting a vertical yourself, Jeroboams are selling Tahblik Marsanne 2008 (£9.95), 2009 (£12.20) and 2010 (£12.20).  The peachy 2010 is also on deal at Wine Direct at £10.95. The Good Wine Shop have the 2007 for £16.50. And click here for my notes on an earlier vertical tasting.

Roussanne

Like Marsanne, the Busby collection’s 1832 cuttings of Roussanne from the hill of Hermitage supposedly introduced the Northern Rhône variety into Australia.

Thereafter, until the 1980s, its history in Australia is somewhat murky – perhaps because it’s the more frail of the two grapes?

David Dunstan’s (very good) recent book A Vision for Wine – A History of the Viticultural Society of Victoria – refers to a society tasting in 1906 at which Victorian wines were tested against their European counterparts.  The Australian generic categories included White Hermitage, “suggesting [says Dunstan] they were in fact made from the Marsanne or Roussanne varieties [p30] or both (although Trebbiano later came to be known wrongly as White Hermitage in central and northern Victoria).”  

Yeringberg, established by the Swiss Baron Frederic Guillame de Pury, one of the pioneering wineries in Victoria in the 1860s, was one of its foremost producers of White Hermitage.  A newspaper clipping which I found online suggests that the genre was well received at the Bordeaux Exhibition of 1882.  It reports “[I]t is believed that the jurors are favourably impressed with the excellence of the Australian exhibits.” The medal tally included a silver medal for Mr George de Pury of Yeringberg, Lilydale for a White hermitage 1879.

With 200 acres of vines, including 10 acres of Marsanne, it’s quite possible that St Huberts had Roussanne too.  However, if they had it, it seems to have disappeared with them.  Both leading Yarra estates ceased growing grapes in the 1920s.  Or perhaps it re-surfaced in the Hunter Valley? Tyrrells has about 4% (50 vines) old Roussanne mixed up with its Semillon at the Short Flat vineyard, which was planted in 1923.

As for Roussanne’s modern era, it was re-introduced into Australia in 1982 by The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) – the federal government agency for scientific research in Australia, who have a large vine nursery.

The Yarra Valley Victoria perhaps naturally seems to have got the ball rolling once more. It was replanted by (a revived) Yeringberg again, who still make an excellent White Hermitage style.  St Huberts (also revived) are known for their single varietal Roussanne from a 1.3ha block which was planted in 1987 in the Coldstream sub-region of the Yarra Valley.

In South Australia, though Yalumba have just released their first Roussanne – a 2012 vintage – their first attempt was in the 1980’s.  The imported vine material was found to contain a virus and had to be destroyed. It was not until the late 2000’s that they had vines ready to go into the ground.

By then, d’Arenberg had got the ball rolling with cuttings from St Hubert and Yeringberg.  Winemaker Chester Osborn told me he was motivated both by d’Arenberg’s success with red Rhône”varieties, also the Vale’s MJT (mean January temperature) of about 20.7 degrees centigrade, which is equivalent to halfway between Chateauneuf du Pape and the Northern Rhone.  He planted McLaren Vale’s first white Rhône varieties in 1995 (Viognier) and 1997 (Marsanne and Roussanne).

Dubbed the “The Great White Hopes,” Osborn explained “we (d’Arenberg and its growers) had nearly 200 acres planted before 2000 and no one had made a wine from them to see if they worked.”  But even so, by 2010 (the last figures I can find), there isn’t much Roussanne – just 89ha in the whole of Australia (and it didn’t feature in the statistics until 2005)!

D’Arenberg The Money Spider Roussanne

The Money Spider Roussanne (£12.50 at Wine Direct) comes from a vineyard planted in 1997 about 7km from the Gulf of St Vincent, in what will be called “McLaren Sand Hills.”

The geology is 2.4 million year old, with sand on sandstone, with clay mixed in with the friable pebbly sandstone.  Osborn observes “this geology seems extremely well matched to Roussanne” and contrasts it with two vineyards on another, younger geology of grey cracking clay “which, no matter how hard we try, we never has the same minerality of the sandstone geology.”

Although Osborn has experimented with oak which, he says, makes a bigger wine, “the minerality and purity of nuttiness is slightly hidden.”  All releases have been unoaked.

We tasted the 2011 (mild, high yielding year – 30.86t off 9 acres, 13.3%), which had good varietal typicity (in my limited experience!).  By which I mean, a floral nose, with a touch of green tomato/apricot to its cool stony fruit.  I’m not sure if a touch of honey reflects the fact that this wine (from a high acid year) has more residual – 6.8g/l versus 0.7g/l for the 2004 and 0.9g/l for the 2001.  The deep yellow 2004 vintage (warm, highest yielding year – 45.38t off 9 acres, 14.5%), showed good tertiary development to its ripe citrus and orange blossom palate with its slightly oily palate and nutty finish.  Interesting, with more staying power than I’d expected, unlike the 2003 vintage (warmish, wettish lowest yielding year – 27.82t off 9 acres, 13.9%), which was past its best.

Viognier

Viognier guru, Yalumba’s Louisa Rose

Though perhaps the best known of the white Rhône triumvirate, it would appear that Busby didn’t bring cuttings of Viognier back from the Rhone.

The first planting material appears to have come to Australia from a selection from the research station at Montpellier in France. Known as the 1968 Montpellier clone, it was the only clone available until 1995, and is still the most widely planted clone in Australia (which as at 2012, had 1,194ha of Viognier, up from 260.2ha in 2001).

The 1968 Montpellier clone has a number of viruses, particularly Leaf Roll Type 1. The horticultural division of CSIRO have it in their massive nursery at Merbein in Victoria, as do The Nuriootpa Research Centre’s nursery in the Barossa, South Australia, who supplied cuttings to Yalumba – Australia’s most prolific producer of the variety.

The earliest known plantings (said to be a “gum boot clone”) appear to have been by ex-CSIRO man, the late Dr Bailey Carrodus, who inter-planted a small number of Viognier vines with Shiraz at Yarra Yering in 1969 (according to current Chief Winemaker Sarah Crowe, the first plantings that year).  New plantings followed in 1990 (and Yarra Yering make a varietal Viognier).  Also in Victoria, (Heathcote) Heathcote Winery experimented with a few vines in 1978. They also make a varietal Viognier as does Baillieu Myer of Elgee Park, who planted 400 trial Viognier vines at his Mornington Peninsula vineyard in 1979.

But the major impetus for Viognier came when Yalumba acquired Montpellier 1968 clone Viognier cuttings from Nuriootpa Research Centre’s three vines in 1979, which it cultivated and planted out in 1980.  The 1.2 hectares of Viognier at the Angaston site behind the winery (which in fact belongs to long-term contract growers the Vaughan brothers) was Australia’s first commercial planting of Viognier.

To date, the Montpellier 1968 clone remains the only clone which has gone into those vintages of Yalumba’s flagship Virgilius which have been released thus far, although other clones have become available.  These include a heat-treated “cleaned up” version of the Montpellier 1968 clone, which produced the HT Koorlong (HTK) clone in the 1980s (planted by Clonakilla in 1986) and the 1995 ENTAV registered clone 642, which was brought into Victoria.

Following visits to Condrieu, Cote Rotie and California (Jade Mountain and Tablas Creek) in the late 90s, Yalumba have made additional clonal selections from those vines that they think best exhibit the range of Viognier’s flavour, aroma and texture. Late 2005 saw the propagation of the first slow growing plantings of Yalumba’s Viognier clonal selections from Condrieu at their Vine Nursery on the Barossa Valley floor. They have since been planted out into small vineyards in the Eden Valley.

To date Yalumba have planted 13 different clones, which represents the most clonally diverse planting of Viognier in Australia. It’s early days for these slow growing new clones, but Chief Winemaker Louisa Rose has already spotted significant differences, especially in the French clones which are being slowly bled into vintages yet to be released. Watch this space!

Yalumba The Virgilius Viognier

I had a heads up on The Virgilius’ ageworthiness when I tasted the 2003 vintage at the 24^th Yalumba Museum Tasting in Adelaide in September (reported here).  Positively awash with candied pineapple, it might have been a little simple in expression but it was a terrific riposte to the naysayers who doubt Viognier cellars well, including one writer whom I recall floridly suggested that aged Viognier was “a necrophiliac’s fantasy.”

For the vintages shown – 2010, 2008 and 2005 – the winemaking involved whole-bunch pressing direct to barrel, juice handling with passive oxidation, fermentation with natural yeasts, no malo, no acidification and lees ageing for around 10 months with batonnage).  Apart from vintage conditions, there’s little difference between the wines other than that, since 2005 when 4% new oak was used (all barriques), larger format 500l puncheons have been introduced and all the oak is seasoned (used).

The 2010 (a very even vintage, no heat spikes; 13.5%) was delightfully complex with orange blossom, muskier Turkish delight hints and an energetic edge of pastis/fennel to its citrus and white peach palate.  A very balanced, lingering and intense yet subtle wine.  In 2008, a drier, hotter year, The Virgilius is richer and weightier, with plump, ripe apricots, musk and creamy, savoury leesy notes.  A juicy finish keeps its flowing.  But in 2005 (a warm, highly regarded vintage; 13.5%), despite the honeysuckle and orange blossom notes, it seemed that the wine had run out of steam a tad. Past its best. Majestic stock the 2007/2008 for £25.