It’s a vigneron’s lot

Drought, tornadoes, smoke taint from bushfires... there’s no shortage of challenges with growing grapes in Australia.

Beautiful: the reviewed wines

Talk to a farmer about the weather and it’s too wet, too dry, too hot, too cold. But for a grape grower in Murrumbateman in the Canberra District, a two-word description would be useless. On January 3 this year a huge tornado took five to 10 minutes to devastate the vineyards in its path. The wind and golf-ball-sized hailstones felled an avenue of 100-year-old trees and stripped vines of limbs, leaves and berries.

Ken Helm of Helm Wines lost 80 per cent of his crop, and Sarah and John Collingwood of Four Winds Vineyard tell a similar story. The following day, Sarah was stoic, saying: “We’ll be in the vineyard, looking after the vines to make sure they’re all ready for the next season.”

Hail falling in strips metres-wide has long been part of Burgundy’s grape-growing paradigm, along with spring frosts. The value of the consequent crop losses dwarfs those of the Canberra District – $800-$2000 a bottle for red Burgundy, $32-$75 for Four Winds. But that was no consolation for winemakers who lost the entire red grape vintage across NSW to smoke taint and drought in 2020.

Smoke from those fires came south to Victoria’s Yarra Valley and settled in for days. Winemakers across the valley made microferments of up to five litres of red varieties if smoke taint was suspected. (The taint chemicals are in the grape skins; because 99 per cent of white wines are made by pressing the grapes before fermentation, the skins discarded, they aren’t affected.) The wines were then sent to laboratories for analysis. To the amazement of all involved, the first tests were clean, and word spread around the valley like wildfire as all reported the same outcome. Unsurprisingly, control burns close to vineyards each autumn give rise to intense discussions between vignerons and the Country Fire Authority.

2021 Gundog Estate Canberra District Riesling

Welcome winter rainfall became a problem, with disease pressure through to harvest; only the first 500l/tonne of free-run juice was taken, then fined and racked clean prior to a cool fermentation, with 4.1g/l residual sugar. The wine has a potent palate, partly built on the touch of sweetness balanced by crisp acidity. 12% alc, screwcap 93 points, drink to 2026, $45

2019 Eden Road Wines Canberra Syrah

Matured in French puncheons (20% new) for 16 months. Deep crimson-purple hue; classic cool- grown flavours: fragrant black cherry, blackberry and fruit spices. Medium-bodied but intense and perfectly balanced, the finish and aftertaste as fresh as a daisy. 14.5% alc, screwcap 97 points, drink to 2039, $50

2019 Mount Majura Vineyard Canberra District Tempranillo

Hand-picked, 5-day pre-ferment maceration; wild fermented in open vats; pressed to French oak (15% new). A remarkable tempranillo, with more colour, more complexity, and greater weight and length than any previously tasted. 232 dozen made (plus 102 magnums). 14.5% alc, screwcap 97 points, drink to 2038, $54