Historic centre is still coming up roses
Aug 8 2008 by Helen Savage, The Journal
NOT a lot of people know that the Barossa Valley, the historic centre of Australia’s wine industry, was born of a spelling mistake.
It was originally the Barrosa Valley, the ‘hill of roses’, named after a battle (won by the British) in the Peninsular War, but was copied wrongly onto an early map and thus became Barossa.
The settlers who brought the first vines to the broad valley in the 1840s, now an hour’s drive north of Adelaide, were English gentry. But George Angas, a rich Scottish businessman, wanted to make South Australia a haven (as well as a business opportunity) for Protestant dissenters from the Old Country. He put the word around, and attracted not fellow Scots, but boatloads of pious Germans.
A few of them came from wine producing areas and brought vine cuttings with them to remind them of home. To this day, the German influence is strong in the Barossa, not only in the place names, but also in those of some of the leading wine companies. The climate of the Barossa is hot, getting hotter, and not generally suitable for Riesling (now grown more successfully in the neighbouring, cooler Eden Valley) and other vines brought by the 19th Century German immigrants. Hearty red wines are order of the day, and although many Barossa vines were grubbed up in the second half of the 20th century because they were regarded as uneconomical or because they were full of varieties then out of favour, those that did survive are now more often greatly prized.
Old, gnarled and often un-irrigated, they are some of the world’s oldest vines still in production. Yields are tiny, but their concentrated juice is intensely flavoursome. They include Shiraz vines far older than anything to be found in France, Shiraz’s (Syrah’s) homeland, and wonderful old Grenache and Mataro (Mourvedre).
Unlike almost all the French vines, they grow un-grafted on their own roots. And even though the number of vines has dwindled in the Barossa, the presence of a number of major wineries, including the headquarters of many of Australia’s leading producers, has ensured the valley’s continuing dominant role in the industry.
Wines made in the Barossa include the indisputably great Penfold’s Grange Hermitage, crafted at their huge winery just outside the town of Nurioopta (surely another spelling mistake). The 1979 is one of the finest red wines I’ve ever had the pleasure to drink. Penfold’s, as their name indicates, does not have German roots – it was the great achievement of an English doctor who settled with his young family in Adelaide in 1844. (By some odd quirk of history Penfold turned out to be by no means the only medic to play a considerable part in the development of the Australian wine industry).
Despite its fame and the size of its wineries, the Barossa is now only the eighth-largest vineyard region of Australia. Two thirds of the grapes grown there are black, of such quality that they have attracted some of the finest younger generation of wine makers, including Tash Mooney, whose Fox Gordon wines, first made in 2001, are exceptionally fine. I am very impressed, in particular, by her ‘By George’ blend of Cabernet Sauvignon from the Barossa with a little Tempranillo grown in the cooler environs of the Adelaide Hills. The 2005 is hugely deep coloured, and while intensely fruity it also has great complexity and even elegance. It’s my wine of the week.
Another leading producer, Grant Burge, is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the founding of his winemaking business based on considerable vineyard holdings in the Barossa. Burges have grown grapes in the valley for 150 years. So successful has he been that it now ranks in the top 10 privately owned wine companies in Australia. The winery itself is at the improbably-named Moorooroo on the banks of Jacob’s Creek (another real place and not just the name of a rival wine brand). It turns out an impressive range of mainly red wines, including textbook Barossa Shiraz.
Grant Burge is particularly thrilled that the 2008 harvest, completed a few months ago, has been a huge success. Climate change has dealt Australia’s grape growers a challenging hand over the last few years, with excessive heat, drought and even untimely frosts in 2007 (resulting in a very small crop), but in Grant’s own words: “I believe that the overall quality of fruit we have taken in has been sensational.”
Given that Aussie wine makers don’t tend to waste words unnecessarily, this is high praise indeed.
Barossa or Barrosa, its wine has once again come up roses.
Magnificent mouthfuls
I’M fascinated and often amazed by some of the flavours that people claim to detect in wine. Tash Mooney thinks that her Fox Gordon 2006 ‘Eight Uncles’ Shiraz from the Barossa Valley, "has lashings of mulberry and sarsaparilla."
I tried the previous vintage (£14.99 at Oddbins) and thought it quite chocolaty with lots of ripe black fruit – a magnificent mouthful.
Several of Grant Burge’s wines are stocked by Oddbins, including a 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot, with lots of ripe blackcurranty fruit and a real bargain at £5.99. Other Oddbins Barossa favourites include Peter Lehmann Grenache 2005 (£6.99) – soft, spicy and with raspberry fruit dusted with pepper – and Peter Lehmann Riesling 2006, a big pungent dry white with lemony fruit and a reek of petrol fumes.
For more upmarket Barossa Shiraz in the Grant Burge range, including the splendid Miamba Shiraz 2006 (£10.99), which is packed with smoky black cherry fruit and licorice, try www.everywine.co.uk They also list a 2005 ‘Barossa Vines’ Shiraz (£7.99), which has lashings of spicy mulberry fruit and the ‘Benchmark’ Shiraz (just £6.49), which is soft, plummy and also quite spicy.
Wine of the week
Fox Gordon, ‘By George’, Cabernet Sauvignon/ Tempranillo, 2005, Oddbins, £9.99
Upper-class Aussie red with an intense smell and sweetly ripe flavour of blackcurrant and ripe plum. Complex, lingering and powerful, it would be great with game or any good red meat.
