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An Awesome Aussie for $15
By perryd | December 14, 2007
Australian red wine is the antithesis of French Bordeaux. Instead of the quaint, stone-wall-enclosed vineyards of tens or hundreds of hectares, lovingly hand-tended by a garagiste we find, to be it blunt, wine farms.
Not that this is a bad thing. It’s similar to the model used in California, Argentina, Chile, and many, many other wine producing areas. The grapes are farmed, juiced, blended, adjusted, fermented, and adjusted some more to produce a consistent product year after year. It’s the consistency that makes these wines so attractive…you know that a Yellow Tail will taste the same, whether it’s from the 2002, 2003, 2005, or 2008 vintage. Exactly the same.
This means that once you find a wine that you like, you can grab a bottle or two without even thinking about it. The marketing departments play on this by making their bottle labels similar to popular brands. I’ve also read a paper or two pointing out that an animal on the label increases sales by 10 to 15 percent, which. Go figure.
When I’m looking for a simple, consistent Australian wine my first choice in Wynn’s Coonawarra. They produce several varietals and blends, including a straight Shiraz (Syrah to the francophones), and a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. Each sells in the $12 to $15 range. Wynn’s grapes come from a terroir know as terra rosa, a loose red soil that sits atop a bed of limestone. Cabernet Sauvignon does extremely well in this kind of soil. Shiraz also likes the soil, but suffers when the growing season is cooler than usual. The region also produces whites from Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and some Semillon, but really it’s the reds that shine.
Wynn’s wines tend to be very dark with just a hint of fruit but lack the tanning you’d normally find in a Cabernet Sauvignon. The addition of Shiraz to the Cab makes a very meaty, well-rounded wine, and the Merlot softens everything out a bit. For meals that need a wine that can stand on its own, the straight Shiraz is the obvious choice.
The Coonawarra wines don’t need much in the way of cellaring, at least not the standard wines. Wynn’s makes a few special cuvees each year that do hold up well, but for the most part these are buy-and-drink kinds of wines. Throw a case or half a case in the basement and you’ll always have something to serve with a stew or roast.
You can read more about Wynn’s wines here, or shop for them on WineZap here.
Topics: Wine |