Australia’s first wine families

Jan 8 2010 by Helen Savage, The Journal

THE Australian wine industry has grown so rapidly over the last couple of decades that it’s easy to forget many of its leading producers have a long tradition of grape growing and wine making. It’s a tradition as proud and as long as that of many of Europe’s great wine houses.

Twelve such Australian winemaking families, who together boast 1,200 years of winemaking experience, have come together to promote their wines under the banner of ‘Australia’s First Families of Wine’.

One of the oldest is the Tyrrells of the Hunter Valley near Newcastle, New South Wales. The estate was founded in 1858 by Edward Tyrrell, the nephew of William Tyrrell, who went from Hampshire to be the first Bishop of Newcastle.

The Tyrrells are long-lived. Sixty-one year-old Bruce Tyrrell, the present boss, represents only the fourth generation of the highly successful family firm, though the fifth generation is already hands on in the business. Bruce’s father, Murray, was a legendary character, dubbed ‘The Mouth of the Hunter’, for his foghorn voice and forthright views. Bruce himself is no shrinking violet.

He is deeply proud of the blocks of old Shiraz planted in 1879 and 1892 and still in production, and although Tyrrells marketed the first Aussie Chardonnay back in 1971 (from vines grown from cuttings which they admit to have half-inched from rivals Penfolds), Bruce’s first love is another white wine variety, Semillon.

Hunter Valley Semillon is a dry white with a uniquely Australian taste.

The grapes are picked while still high in acidity and relatively low in sugar (very low by modern Australian standards), fermented very simply in stainless steel tanks, bottled without having even sniffed the inside of a barrel and then left alone. The crisp, intense, limey acidity ensures a long life in the bottle.

The Tyrrells refuse to release their flagship Vat 1 Semillon until it is five years old, but it will happily age, slowly developing greater complexity, for a generation or more. I tasted the 2002. It doesn’t taste like an eight-year-old wine, but is fresh, with zesty lemon and lime fruit and a long, lingering salty-mineral finish. At £23 (at Majestic) it’s not cheap, but it’s utterly original and worth it, and at just 10% alcohol, it’s a refreshing relief.

Bruce Tyrrell reckons that he owns five of the six best Semillon blocks in the Hunter Valley and would love to get his hands on the sixth, Lovedale Vineyard, which belongs to the McWilliams family.

Having tasted their wine that comes from it, I can see why. The McWilliams have been growing grapes in Australia since 1880 and planted Lovedale in 1946.

The 2005, with a very moderate 11.5% alcohol, is a gorgeous wine, more obviously fruity than Tyrrell’s Vat 1, with a buttery richness – not so much like lemon curd as lime curd (but bone dry). It costs £25 from www.everywine.co.uk