Wine: Rick Kinzbrunner’s Giaconda

Self-effacing Rick Kinzbrunner is continuing to ask as many questions as he did when he established Giaconda in 1985.

Self-effacing Rick Kinzbrunner, one of the demigods of Australian winemaking, is continuing to ask as many questions as he did when he established Giaconda in 1985. Indeed, the questions began 15 years earlier, when he set off on a 10-year odyssey around the world having graduated in mechanical engineering.

He moved to California to study oenology at UC Davis, working at three leading Californian wineries and doing a vintage at Chateau Petrus. On his return to Australia in 1980 he had a stint as assistant winemaker with Brown Brothers and purchased his Beechworth property in 1982, planting chardonnay and the Bordeaux varieties he had worked with in California and France.

Unknowingly he followed Phillip Jones at Bass Phillip, both removing cabernet and co, replacing them with the varieties that have since made them justly famous. Kinzbrunner’s unorthodox (at the time) fermentation techniques with chardonnay resulted in the 1996 Giaconda, a giant of extraordinary complexity, still awesome today. He has used an organic vineyard regimen (and some biodynamic trials), but they’re under evaluation. In 2008, he employed his engineering knowledge to blast an underground wine cellar out of solid granite. He now uses gravity flow in a winery with an unchanging year-round temperature.

Satisfied? No, he’s still asking questions, now about closures. He recently staged a three-dimensional vertical (vintage), horizontal (variety) and closure (screwcap/cork) tasting involving chardonnays, pinot noirs and shirazs from 2004 to 2010. He has bottled experimental parcels under both closures to watch their development, and opened the door to a select few tasters in February. There’s no debate about chardonnay: it’s screwcap, as is pinot noir. With shiraz, it’s a choice between high quality natural cork and screwcap. For the time being it’s cork.

2015 GIACONDA ESTATE VINEYARD CHARDONNAY

Fermented in French oak (30% new), 100% mlf, matured for 22 months, not filtered. Pale, bright straw-green; the bouquet is very complex, yet subtle due to husky/creamy nuances. The power of the palate is unique to Giaconda, for it is on you before you realise it, the acidity bright and fresh notwithstanding the mlf.

13.5% alc, screwcap 98 points, drink to 2027, $129

2015 GIACONDA NANTUA LES DEUX CHARDONNAY

Complexity is the hallmark of Kinzbrunner’s chardonnays; the bouquet has some reduction/struck match easily accommodated by the stone fruit, grilled cashew and creamy flavours, balanced by citrus-tinged acidity. A second-string chardonnay of striking quality.

13.8% alc, screwcap 97 points, drink to 2025, $48

2014 GIACONDA ESTATE VINEYARD SHIRAZ

This challenges Giaconda’s Chardonnay for top ranking in the stable; it has an utterly seductive mouthfeel with two strands of flavour welded together: the first black cherry and blackberry, the second peppery/savoury/spicy notes. It is at the ultimate peak of elegance.

13.8% alc, cork 98 points, drink to 2039, $79