Think you know Australia? Think again

When Australian wines first burst into our collective consciousness, it was all about big bold flavours, oak and alcohol. More recently, however, Australia has been quietly producing more nuanced and sophisticated wines – structured and poised, yet full flavoured, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from cooler areas, for example.

And there’s more to the story: it seems those “sunshine in a glass” wines that slapped you round the chops with their bright fruit and hefty alcohol were something of a blip in Australia’s wine history. 

The Aussies had long been making more elegant, food friendly wines and you can still find them now, if you know where to look. Here are a couple of clues to get you started.

Hunter Valley Semillon

If you drink these wines at under 5 years old you’ll wonder why you bothered – lightly alcoholic lime juice sums it up. But give them time and these crisp, naturally low alcohol wines will thrill with notes of lime marmalade, even toast – and over time they will only increase in complexity, while maintaining their fresh acidity. Sauvignon Blanc eat your heart out.

Tyrrell’s Vat 1 Semillon is the daddy – Majestic list 2002/3 for £25 in selected stores; several independent merchants stock a variety of vintages for around £25-30.

Marsanne from Victoria

Tahbilk is the specialist with this white variety that originates in France’s Rhône Valley and they preside over the largest vineyard holding of Marsanne in the world.

Château Tahbilk, as it was then, was the first Australian white wine that I tasted on my very first wine appreciation course back in the 1990s, and what a shock it was to someone whose experience of Aussie white had hitherto been limited to Lindeman’s Chardonnay. Taut, only slightly fruity, definitely herbal – this is another white that ages beautifully.

Tahbilk Marsanne 2012 is £9.95 from The Wine Society and while you’re at it you can pick up a bottle of the 2008 for £11.95 to get an idea of how the wine develops. A range of independent merchants also stock various vintages from around £10.50 to the £13 mark.

Through a glass, darkly...shattering wine preconceptions

As a wine writer, it’s part of my stock in trade to shatter other people’s misconceptions about wine.  These are the kind of bombshells I like to throw at you, you know the kind of thing:  sherry doesn’t have to be sweet and is perfectly safe for the under 65s to drink!  White wine is often better than red with cheese!  Riesling is a top quality grape variety and shouldn’t be ignored!  It really is OK to drink Beaujolais, a lot of it is very good!

You’re probably reeling from that lot for starters, so take a moment to compose yourselves while I press on.  Yes, it’s all very well when I’m the one dishing out the home truths – but what about when I’m faced with my own “No!...Really?” moments?

To wit, a mixed case of wines from Aldi arrived on my doorstep recently.  I’d never considered buying wine from them, thinking it unlikely that a discount supermarket would be investing much effort into its own-label wine range.  Well readers, I must say I was pleasantly surprised in some cases.  I also took the opportunity of a residents’ meeting to try them out on a group of unsuspecting neighbours – without at first revealing where the wines had come from.   Far be it from me to suggest that Surrey drinkers know not to look a vinous gift horse in the mouth, so to speak.  However, they seemed happy enough to drink them and were suitably surprised at the quality for the price.

I especially enjoyed these bottles from the selection:

The Exquisite Collection Côtes de Provence Rosé 2012 - £5.99

A pale pink blend of Grenache, Cinsault and Syrah that delivers gently fruity, rose-petal scented flavours and bags of refreshment.

The Exquisite Collection Rias Baixas Albariño 2011 - £5.99

Albariño is a classy white grape that makes crisp whites with an alluring blend of freshness combined with a hint of stone fruit – peach in this case.  It may not be the best Albariño on the market, but at this price, well-chilled and served with something fishy, you can’t go wrong.

The Exquisite Collection South Eastern Australia Shiraz 2012 - £5.99

I normally avoid wines labelled South Eastern Australia like the plague – this denomination is a catch-all that covers a geographical area roughly equivalent in size to western Europe.  Would you buy a wine that was “produce of various members of the European Community”?  Only to slosh into sangria or to mull, or to play a cruel trick on a wine snob, I imagine.  I hope I haven’t given you ideas there.  In any case this has a tasty mix of dark berry fruits, blackcurrant, bitter chocolate and something savoury, even slightly wild about it, thanks to the inclusion of Cabernet Sauvignon, Durif and a sprinkling of Petit Verdot in the blend.  At 14.5% alcohol it packs a punch, but would stand up admirably to smoky barbecue fare.

Crémant du Jura 2010 - £6.99

This 100% sparkling Chardonnay from the tiny Jura region in eastern France delivers sensational quality for this price.  I recently served this at a wine dinner and, very gratifyingly, it drew gasps of disbelief (and appreciation) when its identity (and price) was revealed.

I often puzzle over the worth of tasting notes for wines.  Is there really any point in trying to convey to other people how a wine tastes to me?  Who’s to say whether a wine smells of strawberry rather than raspberry or cherry – are such things not in the eye (or nose) of the beholder?  Nevertheless I soldier on, reassuring myself that I’ve been at this for a few years now and have honed my skills to such a degree that I am able to communicate something useful to distinguish one wine from another.

Yet again, however, my high falutin’ thoughts on my own worth were brought crashing down to earth by my son the other day.  I was tasting a rather classy Italian Sauvignon Blanc – Vie di Romans “Piere” Sauvignon Blanc 2009 to be precise, available from independent merchants, including Laithwaite’s, at around £26 a bottle.  My son asked to try the wine and of course I obliged.  After a second of reflection he said, “Mmm it’s really fruity, but not sweet and kind of tangy. I love this kind of wine – yum.”  Here he is again, this time describing the Portuguese red wine, Marco de Pegoes Terras do Sado 2010 (£7.99, or £6.49 if you buy two bottles from Majestic), “It smells soft, musky.  Mmm is tastes so nice it makes you want to have another sip.”   He’s ten years old. 

I should stress that I only ever let him have a sip of wine, before you think of grassing me up to social services, but he’s obviously been paying close attention to those sips over the course of his brief tasting life and I am now seriously considering letting him do all my tasting notes in future.

Awards! What are they good for? Absolutely nothing?

With apologies to Edwin Starr’s “War”.

Wine awards that is.  The summer of sport may have come to an end, but have no fear, for the wine awards season is now in full swing, with the winners awarded their own bronze, silver and gold medals in the major competitions.

But does it really make sense to judge wines and award them medals, just like Olympic athletes?  It’s not as if they’ve done something remarkable, like run really fast or thrown something a long way is it?

Awards are useful for a couple of things.  Firstly, pointing you towards a new wine that you haven’t tried before; and, conversely, confirming your already positive impression of a wine.  There’s nothing like having your own valued opinions confirmed by others for making you feel good.

And which competitions should you trust?  Some bottles are festooned with medals awarded in competitions that you have never heard of – do they really mean something? 

Australia, for example, has a well-established system of wine shows across their vast country.  Some well-performing wines can emerge from them looking like much-decorated army veterans, with rows of medals adorning the bottle.  In that country there is a strict training system for show judges, which is particularly hot on ensuring consistency of judging and on penalising any kind of wine fault.  So you can be sure that no wine that does well in Australia will be less than squeaky clean – whether your tastes coincide with Australian palates is less clear cut.

The Annual Wines of Argentina Awards, which have run since 2007, ensure they have a mixture of nationalities in their judging panel, which must surely make sense when export markets are so key for any major wine producing nation.  I am less keen on their policy of choosing one particular section of the wine business to judge each year – this time it was winemakers.  A more consistent and balanced set of results comes out of a mix, not just of nationalities, but background and experience.  Wine writers (ahem), educators, sommeliers, members of the wine trade – they all have something to bring to a judging panel.

Which brings me to the “big 3” of the UK wine awards jungle – the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA), the International Wine Challenge (IWC) and the International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC).  Each year, tens of thousands of wines are entered into these competitions and, around now, bottles with gold, silver and bronze medals proliferate on wine merchant and supermarket shelves.

I am a judge for both the IWC and IWSC, so can talk with confidence about the professional approach and rigour of these two.  Their judging procedures differ slightly – and DWWA differs again – but it’s interesting to see how, year in, year out, certain wines perform consistently well across the competitions.  This shows that, however the process might differ, the end results can be surprisingly similar – and quality will out.  And, let me stress, judges never get to know the identity of the bottles they are judging, beyond an indication of the wine’s origin and grape variety/ies.

To paraphrase E M Forster, two cheers for wine competitions.  They may not be perfect, but they are the best we’ve got.

Here’s a selection of wines I’ve tasted recently, or have long admired, and which have done well in competition this year.

Tilimuqui Fairtrade Torrontés 2011 – Argentina, £7.99 (but currently £5.99) a bottle from Waitrose

IWSC Silver – and Gold at the Wines of Argentina Awards

Sadly this 2011 vintage seems to be out of stock across most of Waitrose, though you might be lucky in your particular branch.  However, the 2012 is just as delightful – Fairtrade and organic, it is great value for money at full price and a steal at £5.99.  Torrontés flavours will not please everyone, with their tangerine peel and floral aromas, but give this a go if you’re feeling adventurous.

Amalaya White 2011 – Argentina, £7.65 a bottle from slurp.co.uk and other independents

DWWA International Trophy for dry aromatic wine under £10

I have to say I don’t like Decanter’s separation of wines into under £10 and over £10 for judging purposes:  a gold medal should be a gold medal, whatever the price.  The Decanter approach leads to a two-tier system where some golds are better than others.

That said, this is a cracking wine, made mostly from Argentina’s signature Torrontés grape, whose vibrant aromas are tamed with the addition of a little Riesling.  Dry, but intensely aromatic with hints of lychee, grapefruit and lime.  Drink on its own or with prawny things.

Plantagenet Great Southern Chardonnay 2010 – Australia, £16.05 from slurp.co.uk and other independents

IWC Gold, DWWA Silver

Plantagenet is a winery whose name crops up reliably across the major competitions.  This Chardonnay has great concentration of ripe but elegant fruit with nicely done oak to complement.  Also look out for their Riesling and Shiraz.

Cien y Pico “Doble Pasta” 2009 – Spain, £11.49 case rate at The Wine Reserve in Cobham

IWC Gold – also Trophy in the Sommelier Wine Awards

The best of old and new Spain in a bottle.  Full-on, ink-dark, brooding fruit from low-yielding ancient Garnacha vines, but clean and fresh too and bottled under screwcap.

Mount Horrocks Cordon Cut Riesling 2011 – Australia, £19.95 from slurp.co.uk and other independents

IWC and DWWA trophy

A year in which this wine didn’t score at least a gold medal in a major competition would be a shocker.  This Michael Phelps of a wine is an intense delight for the senses.  Lusciously sweet and piercingly bright Riesling from the Clare Valley, its flavours are concentrated by literally cutting through the vine’s canes in order to cut off the water supply as the grapes ripen.

Lustau East India Oloroso Sherry – Spain, £9.75 from Waitrose

IWSC Silver

The Lustau name is always a guarantee of quality when it comes to sherry.  Sweet, dark, sticky, figgy, nutty.  So unfashionable, yet so delicious and something to warm anyone’s cockles over the coming months. 

Australia - not just sunshine in a glass

Remember Monty Python and Perth Pink? “A pleasant, sugary wine that really opens the sluices at both ends.” How we used to laugh at Australian wines, thinking them fit only as the butt of jokes – certainly not something  to take along to a polite dinner party.

However, that period in Australia’s wine history was something of an aberration. In the early 20^th century, its wines were highly respected, especially its dry reds. Penfold’s Grange was already going strong by the 1950s and continues the tradition of fine Australian wine to the present day.

Of course back in the old days it was called Grange Hermitage, in homage to the great wines of Hermitage in France’s northern Rhône Valley. However flattering the intent, this kind of borrowing of wine regions or grape variety names are a no-no with the EU and so Australia has had to give up this and other epithets like Hunter Valley Riesling (not, in fact, Riesling but Semillon), White Burgundy (Semillon again, but riper), Claret (early picked Shiraz) and Red Burgundy (the ripest Shiraz with some Grenache thrown in).

When Brand Australia was born back in the 1980s, the need to set aside its beloved “Clarets” and “Burgundies” in order to export its wines legally to Europe was turned into a marketing opportunity – varietal labelling. Aussie Chardonnay and Shiraz tout court were born and a boom in Australian wine exports followed as consumers took like ducks to water to these easy to say, easy to enjoy wines.

However, cheap and cheerful, sunshine in a glass wines are just a sliver of the production and styles in a gargantuan wine producer such as Australia. In addition, other countries can copy simple, fruity, flavourful wines and the race to the bottom in terms of pricing and quality has now gone as far as it can. Australia has spent the last few years trying to re-establish itself as the home of quality, as well as quantity.

The good news for Australia is that the calibre of its wines in the £10-£30 price range has probably never been better. There are stunning Shirazes and Chardonnays, nuanced dry Rieslings and lip-smacking and ageworthy Semillons aplenty to discover for those customers looking to trade up and see what Australia is really made of.

Additionally, Pinot Noir, which, frankly was a let down until the last decade or so, has improved dramatically.

Here are some of the cream of the crop to seek out. Most of them are white, many from cooler climates and all are from somewhere much more specific than the catch-all South East Australia designation that abounds at lower price levels.

McWilliam’s Mount Pleasant Elizabeth Semillon 2005, Hunter Valley, New South Wales – usually £11.99, but down to £9.99 currently at Wine Rack

This has to be one of the best white wine bargains around. Semillon and the magic of the Hunter Valley have combined to make a bright, crisp wine which is just beginning to develop fascinating toasty, savoury, lime marmalade flavours. At seven years old, it has a long future ahead of it.

Pewsey Vale The Contours Riesling 2006, Eden Valley, South Australia - £13.70 from www.slurp.co.uk

Here I go again, banging on about dry Riesling. For those still reading, this has a lovely earthy nose combining blossom and stonefruit, leading onto a dry and delicate palate of lemon and lime fruit.

Ocean Eight Verve Chardonnay 2010, Morngington Peninsula, Victoria - £25.99 from The Secret Cellar (Oxted)

Forget overblown, over-oaked and overly-alcoholic Chardonnays past. There is oak here, but it’s subtle, giving a gunflint smokiness and texture to the wine, alongside the juicy fruit, kept fresh in this chilly site south of Melbourne. A very smart bottle – not cheap, but then neither is good white Burgundy.




Tahbilk Marsanne 2009, Nagambie Lakes, Victoria - £9.99 for the 2008 from Waitrose or £10.95 from slurp.co.uk

Tahbilk Marsanne is an Aussie wine classic. Marsanne is a grape more readily associated with the Southern Rhône in France, but Tahbilk's relatively cool-climate version is a southern hemisphere success with talc, pineapple and peach aromas, leading onto a dry palate with lively acidity and lasting texture. It is, and always has been, anything but a fruitbomb.

Stonier Pinot Noir 2010, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria - £12.95 for the 2009 from Waitrose, or £12.50 from slurp.co.uk

As well as top notch Chardonnay, the Mornington Peninsula is also cool enough to make just ripe enough Pinot Noir for it to retain its juicy, cherry and mulberry fruit. There is also an earthiness here and velvety texture – lots of wine for your money.

Greenstone Shiraz 2009, Heathcote, Victoria - £17.90 from slurp.co.uk

At last! Shiraz, the grape that is synonymous with Aussie wine. Heathcote as a region may not be so familiar, up in the hills north of Melbourne, this cool-ish area has ironstone-rich soils which apparently give a bloody flavour to the wines. There is no shortage of glossy new oak in this wine, but also plenty of room for the bay leaf tinged, dense black fruit. The finish is a satisfying combination of bitter chocolate and black pepper.

D'Arenberg Dead Arm Shiraz 2006, McLaren Vale, South Australia – not easy to find but The Wine Society has the 2008 for £25 and the 2007 for £27

Chester Osborn, the winemaker at d'Arenberg, is famous for headache-inducingly loud shirts and a hairdo that is a peroxide version of Rebekkah Brookes'. However questionable his personal style, his skills as a winemaker are never in doubt. This is an intense essence of Shiraz in the bright, Black Forest Gateau, McLaren Vale style. What is it like? Aromas of smoke, leaves, peppercorns and polish and flavours that are medicinal, like an Italian after-dinner amaro, alongside berries, twigs, chocolate and roast meat. It's almost a meal in itself and is, without doubt, a modern Australian classic.

2011 review: my best bits

If you're feverishly searching for last minute Christmas wine recommendations – and you really are cutting it fine – then please have a look at my previous two posts on this blog.

In the caring sharing spirit of Christmas, I offer here just one nugget that could save your bacon. If you seek the perfect wine match for Christmas pudding, then look no further than Moscatel de Valencia, a ridiculously under-priced dessert wine from Spain. Its luscious sweetness with an orange marmelade edge makes the pudding sing. Sainsburys' version is just £3.98 a bottle. If you're quick you might just make it...

This column is devoted to a review of the best bits of 2011. Here, in no particular order, are my personal highlights of the year:

• Tasting top class Aussie Rieslings courtesy of Jacob's Creek at “wine workshop and kitchen” 28-50 in London. The 2005 Steingarten Riesling was the highlight, but Jacob's Creek Riesling Reserve 2010 was pretty delicious too: fresh and lively (and limey), floral but dry – a great palate cleanser.
  
  
• A Bollinger Grande Année masterclass, with chef de cave Mathieu Kaufmann, where I learned that I have expensive tastes when it comes to Champagne. Bollinger Grande Année Rose 1996 was my favourite, if you're reading this, Santa. Completely beguiling, luxurious stuff which, sadly, I can't afford.
  
  
• Marcelo Retamel, Chilean winemaker (at the family-owned De Martino winery) and Iron Maiden fan, describing his return from the Dark Side of wine-making. Tasting the first vintage (another 1996) of his single vineyard Carmenère was a delicious reminder of how good wine can be when allowed to mature without the added glitz of selected yeasts, new oak and other winemaking frippery. Look out for the 2010 vintage of the Alto de Piedras Carmenère when it arrives at the Wine Society, which marks his return to the more natural style of winemaking that characterised that first vintage back in 1996. 
   
• I can't honestly remember what the exact bottle was, but drinking fizz in spring sunshine at our Royal Wedding street party felt both modern and traditional at the same time.
  
  
• Meeting Chester Osborn, legendary Australian winemaker at d'Arenberg and infamous wearer of loud shirts, and his collection of wine-themed fluffy toys at a wine “speed tasting”. His Money Spider Roussanne 2009 was one of my favourites at the whistle-stop tasting.
  
  
  
  
  
• Tasting Tio Pepe “en rama” at Bar Pepito in King's Cross (a must for sherry lovers) and then seeing how well it stood up to their excellent range of tapas. The summer weather may have been a let-down, but that day was a true taste of the Mediterranean. “En rama” is a special, full-flavoured, unfiltered bottling of Tio Pepe that sells out (mostly to those in the know in the wine trade) almost as soon as it hits these shores. The classic Tio Pepe, however, is widely available for around a tenner.
  
  
• Getting to grips with the new face of Portugal's Vinho Verde at a fascinating tasting this summer. I learned that Vinho Verde is not green and doesn't have to be redolent of soluble aspirin – and it can also be red! 
   
• Buying an exotic-looking liqueur in France over the summer, only to find it was none other than that British Christmas stalwart, sloe gin. Equally nice served cold in the summer, I can helpfully tell you.
  
  
• Spending three footsore days working at the London wine trade's annual fair in May – but my reward was to be responsible for encouraging visitors to taste a great selection of interesting, individual and delicious wines from Southwest France.
  
  
  
• The taste of Graham's Malvedos 1958 single quinta port – still looking and tasting good at 50!
  
  
• Tasting Zind-Humbrecht's Rangen de Thann Clos-Saint-Urbain Gewurztraminer 2009 at the first dedicated biodynamic wine tasting in London in November. Olivier Humbrecht (Master of Wine and PhD) has managed to create a perfect marriage of grape variety to terroir making for an unforgettable wine experience.
  
  
  
  
  
• Seeing how Hunter Valley Semillon ages (well, it turns out) courtesy of a vertical tasting of Neil McGuigan's Bin 9000 Semillons back to 1997.
  
  
  
  
  
• Drinking nothing but Champagne for 3 days (OK and some water) during my first study tour of the region.

Life could be worse! Wishing you a suitably merry time over the next couple of weeks. See you all in 2012.

Australia's royal family

The Aussies may not have a queen of their own (Dame Edna Everidge excepted), but they can claim to have some wine royalty in the form of the self-styled Australia's First Families of Wine.

Heather D had the pleasure of meeting quite a few of them as part of a “speed tasting” event recently. Each producer had just three minutes to talk about their winery and to conduct a tasting of one of their wines for a group of wine writers and bloggers. It wasn't relaxing for anyone involved, but certainly forced us to talk to many more winemakers than we normally would in one day, never mind in 45 minutes.

Ross Brown of Brown Brothers

Luckily, there then followed a much more leisurely lunch, courtesy of wine bar/restaurant Vinoteca at foodie hotspot of Smithfield market in the city of London – accompanied of course by more of the First Family's wines. As the saying goes, it's a dirty job...

Far too many of us wine drinkers think that Australia's wines are nothing more than over-oaked and over-here chardonnay and cab-shiraz produced by big brands with no real connection to a particular place. The mission of the First Families is to encourage us all to explore the wealth of wines made by family-owned wineries, who have a real connection to their region, giving their wines a sense of place. In short, they are not simply the wine equivalent of an alcoholic fruit jelly.

That's not to say that these are micro-wineries, lavishing attention on tiny quantities of hard to find wines that they make in their garage and then sell at astronomical prices. Many of the names involved are well known to UK drinkers and represent sizeable concerns whose wines are widely available in this country – the likes of Brown Brothers, Yalumba and d'Arenberg. So get thyselves to a wine merchant and seek out these blue-blooded Australians.

Standout wines from the tasting:

McWilliams Lovedale Semillon 2005, £25 from The Wine Society, Berry Brothers & Rudd

Semillon from the Hunter Valley can rightly be claimed as a unique Australian wine style. In its youth, dry semillon resembles nothing more than (lightly) alcoholic lime juice and you could be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss is about. Give it around five years in bottle, however, and delicious honey, toasty and lanolin aromas and flavours emerge – this one is like tropical marmalade on toast. Sauvignon blanc lovers looking to widen their drinking horizons could do far worse.

Tahbilk Viognier, 2009, £11.99 from slurp.co.uk

The Tahbilk winery, north of Melbourne in relatively cool-climate Victoria, has long been famed for its delicious marsanne. To show they are no one-trick pony, this great value viognier is a wonderfully characterful mouthful, balancing the natural weight of the grape with lovely hay-like freshness. Many viogniers can be too weighty, not to say obese, and offer little refreshment – this one is different. Great for summer lunches in the sun.

d'Arenberg Money Spider Roussanne 2009, £11.99 at Bibendum or www.everywine.co.uk

Chester Osborn, fourth generation of his family to make wines at their McLaren Vale winery, is no shrinking violet, famed for his loud shirts as well as his esoteric (but also cannily memorable) wine names. Their reds are an exuberant expression of McLaren Vale terroir, but I was captivated by this deceptively delicious wine. There is no oak (in fact none of these whites has seen any oak) but instead many layers of flavour, from greengage plum to herbs to wax crayons. Lots going on, but light on its feet.

Jim Barry The Lodge Hill Riesling 2008, £9.67 from slurp.co.uk, Hennings Wine Merchants (branches in Pulborough and Petworth)

Calling all sauvignon blanc drinkers – get your chops round some Australian riesling and you'll wonder why you got so excited about the two-dimensional charms of most Kiwi sauvignons. Riesling shares the lively acidity and fruity-floral combination of sauvignon – but most sauvignon needs to be drunk up within a year of the vintage (not a problem in our house I hear you cry) before it becomes more like cat's pee and tinned peas than gooseberry. Riesling, by contrast, becomes only more interesting as it ages – this is beautifully fresh for a three year old wine, with limey, mineral acidity. Mouthwatering stuff.

Yalumba The Scribbler Cabernet Shiraz 2008, £12.95 at www.slurp.co.uk, www.everywine.co.uk, Berry Brothers & Rudd

Generally I find Yalumba's red wines too much in the mould of the typical Aussie fruit bomb, which have so much ripe, sweet fruit and alcohol that I can't imagine what you could possibly eat with them. Blackcurrant jam on toast, perhaps, though that could make for a hardcore breakfast.

This wine, though, has much more than just fruit going on – there is a medicinal edge, going towards mintiness, and a leathery whiff about it. The tannins are soft and there is a welcome herbal lift. Definitely a three-dimensional wine.

Campbells Bobbie Burns Durif 2006, £10.26 from New London Wine

Campbells are famous for their glorious, sticky, “dates in liquid form” liqueur muscats – but they are best saved for the winter months. If you are toying with the idea of a venison casserole, or looking ahead to the game season, then this durif could be your man. Durif sounds French and it was indeed created by a Dr Durif in Montpellier by crossing syrah (shiraz) with the little-known peloursin grape. It's rare in France, but seems to thrive in the hotter climate of Australia, where it transforms into a kind of über-shiraz. Dark, brooding, herbal and medicinal, reminiscent of port, though not overtly fruity. Its savoury style would make a great match for something seriously meaty.

Trouble downunder?

Flood, fire and for some the worst of all - the brimstone of losing the Ashes to the Poms. It’s enough to test the spirits of even the hardiest outbackers of Oz. Australians are fiercely proud (in a laid back sort of way) of their country and their achievements and there is no doubt that their pioneering spirit will prevail against the recent catastrophes visited upon them. It’s a testament to their can-do attitude that Australia has embarked on a wide ranging media campaign extolling the many wonders of their land down under, making it clear that they are still ready to welcome the world’s tourists.

Wine has, of course, been a key ingredient in Australia’s winning ways since the 1980s, when their “sunshine in a glass” was a breath of fresh air (or should that be sip of cool wine) for UK wine drinkers. It’s hard now to conjure up the excitement that these new arrivals caused at the time: varietal labelling! No funny foreign-sounding and unpronounceable wine regions! Back labels, telling you something about the wine – in English! It must have felt like a little bit of wine heaven had fallen to earth.

However, where the successful lead, others follow and those first Australians were soon joined by a host of “me too” crowd-pleasing wines. Argentina, Chile, South Africa, even those upstart fellow Antipodeans with their “cat’s pee on a gooseberry bush” sauvignon blancs. In order to stay ahead, you’ve got to innovate and indeed many Australian winemakers in the intervening years have been working hard to produce individual, expressive wines that taste of where they come from. This has been great for drinkers who are prepared to pay a little more and who want to move on from the fruit bomb styles of those early hits.

Unfortunately, the UK wine market has been dominated by the pile ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap big brands – you know the ones we mean. The 3 for £10, the BOGOFs, the was £7.99 now £3.99 wines. They serve a purpose, but exciting and elegant they are not.

Australia now finds itself in the unenviable position of having to scrap with the other discounters at the bottom end of the wine mass market and losing share as a result. The double whammy is that we are also somewhat reluctant to spend more on Australian wines, because of the cheap and cheerful image that deep discounting promotes. Over ten quid for an Aussie shiraz? Shome mishtake surely?

If we would all be prepared to spend a little more on a bottle from downunder, oh the delights that await. And, yes, we’re always banging on about this – but it’s true. Fixed costs on a bottle of wine (duty, VAT, shipping etc) mean that there are literally pennies left to spend on the actual wine itself if we pay around £4 in the supermarket. Up the bottle price to £8 or £10 and the winemaker has more like pounds to spend on putting something decent in the bottle. You know it makes sense.

Regionality is a big buzz word in Australia right now. In a country the size of Europe, so it should be. A chardonnay grown in the Margaret River in Western Australia is not going to taste the same as one grown hundreds of miles away in the Adelaide Hills.

Here are some of our favourite Aussies du jour that show just a hint of what this subcontinent of wine can do:

Jacob’s Creek Reserve Riesling 2010 - £9.99 at Tesco.com and Tesco Wine Club

Jacob’s Creek we hear you screech! Yeah but, no but. Yes, it’s Jacob’s Creek, but it’s part of their new regional reserves range (and try saying that after a glass of Riesling). The fruit for this wine hails from the Eden Valley zone of the Barossa region – a noted hotspot for cool-climate loving Riesling. And don’t worry that it might be sweet – this is bone dry, with hints of lime blossom and citrus acidity that make it a great friend to fish.

Jacob’s Creek Reserve Shiraz 2007 - £9.99 at Tesco.com and Tesco Wine Club

Oh well, in for a penny… This shiraz is from the warmer part of the Barossa, responsible for the most distinctly Australian tasting shirazes, which develop a whiff of saddle leather as they age – which is a good thing, honest. Let this youngster seduce you with its aromas of fruitcake and plum, hint of chocolate and soft, ripe tannins – definitely a red meat wine.

Shaw & Smith Sauvignon Blanc 2009 - £11.99, Taurus Wines (Bramley)

Not a gooseberry bush (or indeed a cat) in sight, this sauvignon from the Adelaide Hills near, well, Adelaide, is full of understated herbaceous and floral appeal. A class act.

Cullen Sauvignon/Semillon 2009 - £19.99, the Guildford Wine Company (Shalford)

Margaret River in Western Australia makes fantastic red Bordeaux blends as well as world class chardonnay. But we’ve chosen this distinctively Australian blend of sauvignon blanc and semillon, made by Vanya Cullen from her biodynamically farmed vineyards. The zip and pungency of the sauvignon is given added weight and depth and a certain limey punch by the semillon. This delicious and lively wine is perfect for spring.

We’re not often in the position of feeling sympathy for the Aussies – so go on, raise a glass of one of these delicious wines and show your solidarity. Howzat!