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Ray Jordan's 2010 Western Australian wine guide

The best of the west - and they're not all expensive

Robyn Lewis

Cullen Wines, Cowaramup [©Cullen Wines]

Over the last eight years Ray Jordan’s wa wine guide has evolved to become the leading companion to the wines of Western Australia, first appearing in 2002 as Wine: WA’s Best. I was impressed with the 2009 version, but the 2010 edition looks even better.

For those of you who don’t know of him, Ray Jordan is a wine author of nearly 30 years' standing, writing weekly for The West Australian and The West Australian Saturday Magazine, and contributing to Winestate magazine.  He also co-authored a book on Margaret River. 6 PR radio wine show host,  judge at the Swan Valley Wine Show, Barossa Wine Show, Perth Hills Wine Show, Geographe Wine Show and the Sheraton Wine Awards, Ray was also the winner of the WA Wine Press Club wine writing award and in 2006 was awarded the George Mulgrue Award for contribution to the WA wine industry. Whew. Apparently he's a great bloke as well.

The new edition titled 2010 wa wine guide is somewhat slimmer (264 pp instead of 384 pp) and lighter as well – both bonuses in my opinion – some of the space saving due to the addition of a wonderful pull-out wineries map, which used to be sold separately but is now included in the bargain price of A$19.95 (see separate map review, link below). However while no actual bottle count seems to be given, numbers seem to be slightly down on the 234 producers’ wines reviewed in 2008.

Perhaps no matter – it’s still a great wine guide and if the approximately 240 wineries and vineyards included have submitted slightly fewer wines in these straightened times, or Jordan has drawn the line at how many he can objectively assess in a mere five weeks of tasting, then fair enough. That’s what you pay for – his recommendations.

So, what does he say about the 2009 vintage? As for many wine producers around Australia, it was a ‘year of mixed emotions’. Western Australia was spared the tragic bushfires and much of the scorching heat that devastated some wine regions in Australia’s south-east, and Jordan reports that in 2009 WA produced one of its best vintages on record. This alone should set wine-lovers’ pulses racing.

‘Fruit quality in all areas was exceptional with good flavour and structure a result of good spring rains, a warm but not excessively hot summer and a prolonged Indian summer that took the fruit to optimal ripeness but without stress’. Sounds just about perfect – and a good sign for the 2010 vintage, which so far has similar conditions.

All WA wine regions reported a very good vintage for both reds and whites, and the 2009 ‘vintage in Margaret River will go down as one of the best ever with exceptional fruit produced right across the board’. From the aromatic varieties of sauvignon blanc and semillon through to the iconic cabernet sauvignon, everything seemed climatically perfect.

The 2010 wa wine guide gives a brief vintage report for the Swan Valley and the Perth Hills, Peel, Margaret River, Pemberton/Manjimup/Blackwood, The Great Southern and Geographe, and a list of the best major red and white varieties by region.

But emotions are mixed because the challenges facing the Australian wine industry – mainly the high Australian dollar and excess supply over demand, the latter exacerbated by the GFC – have not spared Western Australia, even though it is generally regarded as a premium wine producer across the board. Just as a rising tides lifts all boats, a falling one can drag down the best, too, and certainly has put pressure on prices and profitability. This is evidenced by the number of WA vineyards and wine brands/labels currently on the market, and some producers already ripping out their vines. A sad state of affairs indeed, but unfortunately part of the cyclical nature of all agriculture.

However Western Australia has a distinct advantage over the rest of Australia in one regard: it’s on the same timezone as much of Asia and just that much closer to its key centres. Jordan reports that ‘a number of producers have created some good openings in (Asia) and are well placed to build on them. In … Hong Kong there is a wine shop devoted solely to the wines of Margaret River while restaurants are starting to stock a sold range of WA wines. There is growing sophistication and acceptance of New World wines … with more young people starting to take an interest. … Most significant has been the abolition in Hong Kong of sales tax on wine’. They’ll certainly need copies of Ray Jordan’s 2010 wa wine guide this year.

To the wines. In Jordan’s words, the task of picking the best of the west was a tough one indeed. The short list alone was 800 wines long. ‘Never before has competition been so close and so intense.’ How to compare ‘brilliant’ with ‘outstanding’, ‘fabulous’, ‘world class’ and ‘exceptional’?! Thank goodness for the point system, as superlatives would quickly run as dry as the Nullarbor.

Wine of the Year is Cullen Diana Madeleine 2007, a blend of cabernet merlot which Jordan awarded 98/100, saying ‘the only reason I haven’t pointed higher is that I suspect there are a couple of even better wines in the pipeline.’ It’s certainly time to stock up the cellar with good quality wines, if you can afford them.

Cullen is of course one of the great wine names in Margaret River and indeed in Australia, initially for its red blends and more recently for its chardonnays. The vineyard is certified biodynamic. Its laid-back restaurant uses organic and biodynamic produce too, and has won major awards in its own right – no trip to Margaret River is compete without a visit. Runners-up Brookland Valley, Brown Hill Estate, Deep Woods Estate and Thompson Estate face some stiff competition indeed.

Houghton’s Jack Mann 2004 from the Great Southern region was awarded best cabernet sauvignon; Briarose Reserve 2007 – from vineyards in the cooler south of Margaret River – won the best merlot; and Sandalford Prendiville Reserve 2008 the best shiraz: ‘one of the finest Margaret River shiraz I have tasted’ according to Jordan.

A tempranillo from West Cape Howe took out the best alternative red variety, and the 2008 Salitage pinot noir from Pemberton cleaned up in that category against some further stiff competition. (Pinot noirs from the south of WA can certainly give those of the cooler regions of the eastern states a run for their money, and in my opinion the only reason they are not better known is their limited availability and exposure in the east – certainly not because of any deficiency in quality).

Rosés seem to be very popular drinking in WA and Moondah Brook took out this category with a rosé made from cabernet sauvignon. La Cache of Margaret River and Manjimup took out the sparking category (red and white) with its sparking shiraz 2006, one of the best sparkling reds Jordan has ever tasted from WA.

Western Australia is equally blessed with whites. Most wine drinkers know of their chardonnays and of course the Leeuwin Estate Art Series; the 2007 again took out the best chardonnay – indeed as Jordan says it may well be consistently Australia’s best and indeed our greatest white wine. WA is also making the semillon sauvignon blanc blend (SSB) its own, this year won by the Cape Mentelle Wallcliffe 2007, against more recent vintages from Pierro and Smithbrook and the 2007 Suckfizzle.

And on and on – semillon, verdelho, chenin blanc, riesling, viognier… will the bounty of the west ever cease? I certainly hope not. It’s not hard to see why Margaret River in particular has assumed the title of the Bordeaux of Australia, not only because of climatic similarities but because of the focus on exceptional quality, which extends to the other regions as well, and of course the similarities in leading varieties.

However 80% of wine sold in Australia is in the under A$20 a bottle category, and there is a perception that Western Australian wines are all expensive. Jordan has a polite one word answer to this: phooey. To prove it he lists the best of both best whites and reds under A$15 and $15-20 a bottle on pages 20-21, one of which is in the A$10 category (Wombat Lodge South Point 2007, a cabernet, shiraz and merlot blend from Margaret River).

The remainder of the book looks at each producer’s submitted wines in more detail by region, with a (nearly) comprehensive index at the back in case you aren’t sure where they are. I found the regional colour coding in the 2009 edition a bit easier to follow, but there’s nothing like a change to liven things up a bit, especially in book design, although I can’t say I take to the black stripe dividers quite as much. However these are small details and they do allow some pages to be split to show two producers in some instances, which helps keep the overall book size down.
 
The section on matching food to wine is expanded to include recipes from four of Perth’s top chefs with Jordan’s suggestions of wine matches, both of which in my opinion along with the page on cellaring advice would be better placed to the rear of the book. There are of course advertisements, essential to keep down the price, but largely quarantined from the text so there’s little confusion between Jordan’s copy and the advertorial (I’m still a bit unsure about the restaurant plugs).

Another new feature along with the excellent pull-out map is the inclusion of 30 discount vouchers to be used on wine purchases, some events and restaurants, plus a calendar of WA wine events. All handy additions to a car glove-box size volume (who apart from vintage buffs wears driving gloves any more? So put one of these in instead!)

Jordan concludes his introduction with the following plea to readers ‘go out and buy (these wines). You are supporting an industry that is committed and passionate about its product … going through some tough times’. They face what I describe as an almost perfect storm of adverse economic conditions in 2010, and with supermarkets hyping up home-brand wines and charging more for shelf space, it may get worse before it gets better.

Let’s not make these times even tougher; with Ray Jordan’s 2010 wa wine guide in hand and many products of this outstanding Western Australian vintage available now, there’s no excuse not to support the Australian wine industry and do yourself a treat, too. I’ll be heading to my wine retailer and online very, very soon to search out some of these gems myself.

Ray Jordan’s 2010 wa wine guide is published by West Australian Publishers (sc; 264 pp, Perth WA, 2009). RRP A$19.95. Available from WA booksellers, wine retail outlets and select cellar doors.

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