Australian Wine Vintages 2011 – Robert Geddes MW
The 'Gold Book' returns, packed with nuggets
Robyn Lewis
Rob Geddes MW, author of Australian Wine Vintages
The latest edition of the Gold Book – as it is affectionately known – is with us again, celebrating its 28th birthday and looking as classy as ever.
Like racehorses, many wine books seem to have their birthdays from early August to September, no doubt prompted by the imminence of Fathers’ Day (hmm, what about all that wine purchased by women?). 2011 starts early for wine drinkers.
This year the Gold Book continues to develop its ‘oziwi’ (the o is silent) direction commenced by incoming author Robert Geddes MW in the 2010 edition, by including more New Zealand fine wines now available on the Australian market.
The ranks of Australian fine wine producers have also increased, presumably at the expense of some lesser producers, as it’s only 10 pages longer and still very portable. What Geddes calls ‘formula made wines where the whole range possesses the same high alcohol regardless of variety’ have also gone.
The 2011 edition includes detailed tasting notes for 2000 wines, with advice on vintage quality, when to drink each wine, indicative retail prices, % alcohol (an increasingly important choice factor), regional wine styles and a continuation of Geddes’ introduction to recommended places to eat and stay in wine regions. There’s even an after-dinner drinks section with tasting notes for Australian spirits, liqueurs and fortified wines.
In his introduction Geddes exhorts readers to not only read the book and buy/drink the wines, but to visit the wine regions, meet the makers and sample the local food – surely a man after our own hearts! His hope is that ‘Australian Wine Vintages helps create a link to encourage wine travel and a sense of adventure about Australian wine’, and three cheers to that.
Geddes says he tries to avoid the ‘sports’ mentality of being the first to find new wines, rather seeking to recognise consistent high achievers. This edition also introduces readers to new and interesting wines from reliable vineyards including Kangaroo Island in South Australia (Bay of Shoals, False Cape), and increased representation of medium-bodied moderate alcohol wines.
Whilst Geddes is not a fan of high alcohol wines, he recognises that many people are, and so includes ‘balanced examples as long as they are fresh and avoid dead fruit.’ The central theme is he says the taste of the wine, from good to great, transient to age-worthy, cheap to expensive.
Although his main focus is on ‘wines with personality that can mature’ Geddes aims to include a full range of wines ‘to cover nearly every conceivable drinking situation’ (pun intended?). With so many on the market, I wonder how he narrows it down…
Continuing from last year’s transition, Australian Wine Vintages 2011 rates wines on the 100 point (US) scale. Once again Geddes equates the Australian wine show system’s gold medal status (18.5 or above on the 20-point scale) to 92 points or over (his conversion table is on page 7). This means that the ‘old’ score of 19 (wines described by wine show judges as ‘outstanding’) is equivalent to his ‘new’ 94, and if his table is extended by just one step, 20/20 would thus equate to 96.
Presumably the increasing numbers of wines being awarded 96+ points by Halliday, Stelzer et al are now somewhere off the show scale at 21+, unless like the Richter scale it’s become logarithmic at the top end. Campbell’s Merchant Prince Muscat, the first Australian wine to be awarded 100 points by Decanter magazine, must be truly seismic, although the Gold Book gives it 96 points (the same as Halliday). As it’s in the rear section on After Dinner Drinks, no star rating is awarded.
We could debate this for some time, and plenty have, but what appears useful about Australian Wine Vintages 2011 is that it reduces the numbers to stars; these are averaged over wines from anywhere between 2 and 6 vintages. There seems to be a lot of variability, though; there are 5-red star wines (the second highest level) with average scores of 88 up to 92.5 (more than the difference between a show silver and gold medal), sometimes on the same page (for example 344/5). Geddes points out that the stars are however not awarded to the winery, but to the wine. Yes, I’m a bit confused, too.
However stars are visual, memorable and easy to use in the bottleshop or fine wine store (or online) when perusing a vast selection of wines of a wide range of prices.
As befits its name, many readers are interested in the Gold Book for the gold stars. So, let’s cut to the chase. This year there are 120 of them, conveniently listed up front on pages 16-19 instead of tucked away in the back like last year, an increase on last year’s 94 (which was a huge step up from former author Robin Bradley’s 16 in 2008).
Some of the newcomers to five gold star status are elevations from five red stars, some are new inclusions from New Zealand, some – including some big names like Leeuwin Estate, St Hallett and Yarra Yering – were not in the 2010 edition, one or two have dropped away (and one, Sandalford Estate Reserve Shiraz, is in the list twice, hence the discrepancy with Geddes’ total of 121).
Congratulations for achieving five-gold stars to the growers and makers of: Bloodwood Orange Riesling, Clonakilla Ballinderry Cabernet Merlot Franc and Shiraz Viognier, Coriole Lloyd Reserve Shiraz, Craggy Range Le Sol Syrah Gimblett Gravels, Dalwhinnie The Pinnacle Shiraz, d’Arenberg 28 Road Mouvèdre, De Bortoli Reserve Yarra Valley Chardonnay, Grey Sands Pinot Gris, Home Hill Pinot Noir, House of Arras Traditional Method Sparkling (the last three from Tasmania), Howard Park Abercrombie Cabernet Sauvignon, Leeuwin Estate Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, Penfolds Block 42 Cabernet Sauvignon, Pewsey Vale Contours Museum Release Riesling, Poole’s Rock Hunter Valley Semillon, Salitage Pemberton Chardonnay, St Hallett Old Block Shiraz, Tahbilk Marsanne 1927 Vines, Torbreck The Factor and Runrig, Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay, Warramate Yarra Valley Shiraz, and Yarra Yering Pinot Noir and Dry Red No 1. Not before time in some cases.
The tasting notes themselves are brief but insightful, but are perhaps more of use to a wine drinker of novice to intermediate experience, as importantly they pertain to the wine overall and not to one specific vintage, unlike Halliday’s. (The latter’s 2011 Australian Wine Companion is however around twice the thickness of the Gold Book).
Certainly, if you head online or into the bottle shop or fine wine store with a copy of the Gold Book at hand, you won’t go far wrong, although you may find that quite a few wines you encounter are not included.
Geddes has put some more work into the section on Dining and Accommodation in wine regions this year, although to me the sections are still rather confusing in their layout (not alphabetically within each State, that I can see) and indeed one State merges into the next without so much as a divide (although there are map icons which assist somewhat). One second you’re in South Burnett, the next in Adelaide Hills.
As always there have been the inevitable restaurant closures and notable omissions, but entire books and websites exist to cover restaurants in particular; the Gold Book provides a taste of what’s on offer in each region, and is a guide for further exploration, when the desire to visit a region overtakes you.
Each wine region covered in this section has a very useful and indeed necessary summary of its best wine styles and vintages; again, very useful for the novice to intermediate wine knowledge person.
Like a good wine, the Gold Book continues to improve over time, and in the 2011 edition of Australian Wine Vintages, incoming author Robert Geddes with his highly experienced Master of Wine palate proves that he has ably taken over the reins of his predecessor Robin Bradley, and that the future of this guide is in good hands. Happy buying, drinking and cellaring!
Australian Wine Vintages 2011 by Rob Geddes is published by Nepenthe Publications (Sydney; 2010) RRP A$34.99). Subscribers of VisitVineyards.com and Winepros Archive can purchase Australian Wine Vintages 2011 at 12.5% discount via our book partners Seekbooks (postage extra).
SPECIAL OFFER: VisitVineyards.com Members and subscribers purchasing this book through Rob Geddes' website will have their copy personally signed by the author. Click here for details »
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