Brown Brothers’ grape expectations for modern wines

Like to try a tipple of trebbiano? Or perhaps a sip of sangiovese, a mouthful of montepulciano?

Cate Looney with a rose at Brown Brothers winery in Milawa, Victoria. Picture: David Geraghty

Like to try a tipple of trebbiano? Or perhaps a sip of sangiovese, a mouthful of montepulciano, a dash of durif or a nip of nebbiolo?

If so, as a wine drinker, you are not alone.

More Australians than ever are prepared to try exotic styles of wine grown from odd-sounding varieties of grapes, far removed from the traditional Aussie favourites of chardonnay, shiraz, cabernet sauvignon and merlot.

While these four main grape varieties still account for two-thirds of the 1.79 million tonnes of grapes crushed to make wine this year, a growing proportion of the $1.1 billion wine grape crop is now defined as alternative, emerging or new varieties.

Figures from Wine Australia show that 11 per cent, or 197,000 tonnes, of grapes grown in Australia’s vineyards in 2018 are now classed as “other” or lesser-known grape types.

The 122 varieties in this expanding category include traditionally popular niche grapes such as riesling, muscat and grenache, as well as Italian newcomers such as arneis, vermentinio, prosecco and fiano.

The booming popularity of alternative grapes among vignerons — and the wines made from them by curious drinkers — comes as no surprise to Cate Looney, senior winemaker at Brown Brothers Milawa winery in Victoria’s Ovens valley.

Brown Brothers was one of the first major wineries to seriously invest in alternative grapes, back in the 1960s, including some bred especially for growing in Australian conditions by CSIRO scientists. More than one-third of its vineyards are now planted to 24 non-mainstream grape varieties such as cienna, tarrango, albarino and gamay.

“It’s in our DNA. The Brown family have been growing grapes here at Milawa since 1889 and were experimenting with lesser-known varieties such as gracciano and modeuse even back in the 1920s,” says Ms Looney, swilling a rose made from a blend of new CSIRO trial varieties in the winery’s special experimental or “kindergarten” winery.

“From a winemaker’s point of view it’s great to be able to experiment and try to make different and new wines.

“Strategically it makes sense because young consumers are looking for the next big thing, and now we have the climate change imperative that means we are looking for grape varieties that use less water and are more heat and drought tolerant.”

But Ms Looney says being a pioneer is never easy, although it can be great fun.

When vines are imported from Portugal, Spain, Italy or even ­Morocco to trial at Milawa, they take four years to grow before they produce fruit and, even then, the resulting wines often don’t turn out as expected or hoped.

Brown Brothers has high hopes for montepulciano (a dry red) because it grows well in a drier environment and Ms Looney predicts a bright future for CSIRO-bred varieties mystique and cienna.

“Many (alternative varieties) never see the inside of a bottle; we find we either haven’t grown them in the location or vineyard so the grapes don’t express the same way as they did in their home country, or the plants simply die because they are susceptible to disease, cold or heat,” Ms Looney says.

“We’ve trialled dozens but only a few make it. It’s about planning for the future but there is also no point planting (a new grape variety) if no one will drink the wine we make from it.”

Prosecco is the most popular of the new grape varieties. Australia grew 7000 tonnes this year compared to just 2500 tonnes three years ago.

In Victoria, where most prosecco grapes are grown in the cooler King Valley not far from Milawa, production has ballooned from zero in 2004 to $93 million this year. It is expected to triple again in five years’ time.