If you liked Shaw & Smith, which is cooler climate from the Adelaide Hills, try Clonakilla - O’Riada is their mid-tier wine, Shiraz Viognier the top cuvee. Very crunchy and cool climate.
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Would second the recommendation on the Clonakilla O’Riada. The other one worth trying is the 2019 Adelina Shiraz. Both seem to be available at K&L
The high octane Australian exports during peak Parkerization negatively impacted my perception of Australian wines. I don’t claim that is fair, but even if these sorts of wines were a minority, they seemed to dominate the market.
I’d say one challenge for Aussie wines is price and exclusivity. Buyers of California cult wines are largely self-selected, and the wines are low production and rare. I doubt that more than a handful of Aussie wines are highly allocated at present, and so they compete more as pricey commodities than Veblen goods.
At the non-stratospheric but still significant price level, my personal views of Napa and Australia are probably quite similar: you don’t know what you’ll get, but there’s a significant risk you’ll get an over-the-top wine. So I simply don’t participate in those segments of the wine world very often.
If you avoid most of South Australia, you’ll probably get something balanced.
That’s a bit too generic. Like saying avoid Spain. And then miss on Wendouree, Grosset, Ashton Hills?
In very broad terms, avoid Barossa Valley & McLaren Vale, but Adelaide Hills & Clare Valley are fine. Coonawarra somewhere in the middle.
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Heard great things about Clonakilla’s Riesling. But impossible to find here.
Having a broad based plate I bought many Australian wines in the past, particularly starting with the hyped 1998 vintage. I slowly fell away for a variety of reasons but never thought that there were no Australian red wines worth seeking out. (I have consistently been a fan of Australian Riesling, Marsanne, and Semillon and a few other whites.)
These days the majority of my purchases are below $25 per bottle. And hopefully to deepen in this regard. When looking at retail shelves one thing which immediately stays my hand with Australian wines are “cute” labels or proprietary names. I have never quite understood why this is so widespread in Australia, even to some extent among prestige producers. This element can pretty much reduce potential choices dramatically.
For example, Wine Library is about twenty minutes from my home and I stop in there with decent regularity. Based on their website (Great Wines that are Red - page 1 | Wine Library) they have 21 listings under $30 (including a couple of sparklers or dessert wine listed under “red”).
2017 “Dubstyle” Shiraz from McLaren Vale for $30, not taking a flier.
2017 Shinas “The Guilty” Shiraz from Victoria for $17, “looks” spoofy, not taking a flier.
2017 Domaine Tournon “Mathilda” Shiraz from Victoria for $11. Could be tempted by turned off by Chapoutier name frankly.
2018 See Saw Shiraz from Orange for $18. Were it not for the cheesy name could be tempted. A “normal” name would make it an easier buy. To me and my biases.
2019 Ben Haines Shiraz from Yarra Valley for $22. Generally like Yarra fruit. Never heard of the producer. But $22 is pushing my personal limit for Aussie experimentation. Still, could buy.
2018 Seppeltsfield Shiraz from Barossa for $23. Well known producer, to me not known to be goopy per se. It’s Barossa which turns me off, perhaps unfairly.
2017 Taltarni Shiraz from Victoria for $16. Decent brand recognition to me. Victoria is okay. You can read the quotes if you want but if there was a shelf talker what would turn me off is “matured for 16 months in French oak.” For $16? Likely way too much makeup for my palate.
2017 Leeuwin Shiraz “Siblings” from Margaret River for $19. Enjoy the producer’s white wines. Okay with Margaret River. This is as likely a buy as any just mentioned. But even the winery blurb notes spices and notes of chocolate and coffee. Which for me often translates into another bottle of Beaujolais or Loire Cab Franc in my basket.
No sense mentioning every item but hopefully the above makes a general point. I see same caliber of wines at Bottle King (which actually stocks some nice wines, generally speaking). Gary’s in Wayne not much different (https://garyswine.com/shop/?category=Wine&country=Australia&price_range=%2415+to+%2430&subtype=Red). Maybe more eclectic selection at Astor in NYC but not much under $25 (Astor Wines & Spirits - Wines Search).
So, curious what an Australian resident or native would think of the selection at some of the better known, larger stores in the NYC metro area. Allowing for “old world” palate preferences. I am willing to gamble a little bit but fruit and oak and a generally too “smooth” texture isn’t my jam [sic].
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Always on the lookout for Taltarni. Also Coriole Sparta Shiraz can surprise.
I totally agree, but there is a huge amount of pedestrian wine from SA. I stand by my comment as I think you will have a much better hit rate from the rest of Australia, especially Margaret River, Yarra Valley and nearby regions.
I’d say the wines you quoted are the exceptions not the rule. Most Adelaide Hills isn’t as good as it should be, given its cool climate credentials. I don’t like most wines from Clare. I think there is a different attitude in SA. It’s generally a hot region and more industrial than the rest of Australia and NZ.
James, I am not sure what you have based these broad brush stroke assertions on, but I can assure you that those views are out dated. I am not sure where you are based but I suspect your access to our wines is seen through the lens of a few importers.
I’d agree with a lot of what’s been posted, but my $0.02:
- my first exposure to high end Australian wine was generally over the top gloppy stuff. I certainly like new world wine, and when I first started drinking wine I liked some of what I had but even then found a lot of wine over the top.
-I’d suspect that a lot of the good mid-priced and premium Australian wines are tough to find in the states, where most of this board lives. Look at the US wines that dominate board discussion. They are mostly very limited production, mailing list only or otherwise highly allocated, and very hard to source outside the states. Would assume similar for great Aussie juice.
-I’ll flag John Duval Entity Shiraz as a wine I really liked recently. Was definitely new world, but very well balanced and at $35 worth buying by the case. That said, to my second point it is awfully hard to find in the US.
Grange (but needs decades), Hill of Grace or Torbreck Laird are not big, overdone or jammy and definitely worth seeking out - but very expensive (the bests rarely aren’t).
A lot of other wines available here in Europe, however, is like many Napa wines: always yummy, seducing, sexy and slutty but after one or the other glass you have enough of it (with the occasional weightless, wonderful dream wine in between two monsters).
But like in all regions of the world, Australian wineries focus more and more on fine, elegant, not too heavy or ripe wines (with climate change reversing some of the progress). So maybe more to hear from Australia in the future.
I’m pretty up to date. Let’s agree to disagree.
You can only drink what the importers want to import, which is of course limited by what the wineries want to sell to. The current spat with China may well result in opportunities for other export markets to grain a share of some of the better wines. Read a lot of names in this thread, but none are what I would call cutting edge and modern. Sami-Odi and Standish are 2 new names in the red wine scene (but they are not that new), but as I mentioned in another thread on the subject of Aus, I’d be looking at Tasmania as the top quality production area of the future. Lots of great producers though in all sorts of areas, but it’s really hard to look past the Rutherglen Stickies, Semillons from the Barossa and Hunter, Clare Riesling and of course Shiraz from the Barossa as the nations current vinous treasures.
I love Aussie. Penfolds higher tier stuff (RWT, Grange, etc), Torbreck, Two Hands, Greenock, d’Arenberg, Glaetzer / Amon-ra. All delicious and FUN to drink stuff. I’ve even have had a few aussie Zinfandels that have been interesting. I also love Aussie Riesling- moreso than I do Kiwi Blanc.
Im pretty sure with comments like that, you’re not up to date, lets agree on that
Many Australian folks have said here that there were always more balanced wines from Oz, but they weren’t the ones imported to the US.
The huge scores Big Jay Miller gave the ooze-monsters in the Wine Advocate in the early and mid-2000s drove the market for a few years. But many US consumers bought on the basis of scores alone and found they weren’t that crazy about the wines. Then the financial crisis hit, sharply reducing the purchase of all high-end wines. People in the trade here in the US have said that the demand for Aussie wines never recovered. I remember someone telling me in the early 2010s that you simply could not sell a $75 Australian wine anymore.
I’ve become a big fan of the Margaret River chardonnays. Vasse Felix, Cullen, Leeuwin. I’m sure there are many more. I added the Perth area to the Master Travel Destination List for some time in the 2020 decade as a jumping off point for all of Aussie/NZ over the course of a few months. Would be nice to miss Jan-Mar in the NY area and substitute “Down Under”…
Quite a few cellars which newbies began to build at the time are currently stuffed with these forlorn has-beens.
I see John Duval Entity a few different places (wine.com, Total Wine and just recently on Wine Access). Will give it a try, thanks!