News

INTERVIEW: A Fine Wine Romance

10 January 2008 By db staff writer

Australian winemaker and founder of Petaluma, Brian Croser, is passionate about emphasising his country’s terroir-driven wines instead of focusing on its branded commodity wine. His new venture, Tapanappa, is part of this vision, writes Patrick Schmitt

Necessity, as is so often said, is the mother of invention: for Brian Croser, the hostile takeover of his precious Petaluma was the motivation for a new and unique project, Tapanappa. Similarly, for the Australian wine industry, water restrictions and subsequent grape shortages are proving a pressing impetus for a fresh approach to producing and marketing wine from Down Under. But what direction should the country take? Croser is absolutely clear, not only on how to establish his latest brand but also rescue his native nation’s wine industry. Do the techniques concur?
In short, yes. Both require a focus on regional specifics. Interestingly, however, Croser is not against the likes of alcohol removal or tannin addition – but only in what he refers to as “branded commodity wines”. He believes the Australian wine industry is, and should increasingly be, polarised with two prongs, one for what he calls “fine wine”, the other for an everyday standardised product. The problem, historically, has been an overreliance on the latter at the expense of the former.
“Australia needs now to develop a reputation other than for branded commodity wines,” says Croser. Why? “Commodity wine has held back Australia’s reputation for being able to produce fine wine, especially during its discounted phase of oversupply.”
Although many may have felt similarly for some time, it is only today, in times of need, that change is afoot. “Now Australia is short of material, through frost, drought, and water restrictions for its branded wine commodity portfolio it is going to have to develop another string to the bow, which will be fine wine.”

He describes the situation as “between a rock and a hard place”. The rock represents terroir-driven wines, the hard place discounted commodity wine. What frustrates Croser is the fact Australia “does have wonderful terroirs and it does have a history of fine wine and it’s not taking advantage of that”.
As noted, both the rock and hard place can co-exist. “Commodity and fine wine are two completely different things,” explains Croser. “One has standardised quality, it is the delivery of just a beverage on a day-to-day basis, the other is more sophisticated, terroir-driven, and an intellectual exercise with a story.”
Becoming more emotive, Croser continues, “Australia has been dominated by the commodity wine story and has to develop the fine wine story – it is not just necessary to develop a fine wine story for Australia, it is compulsory. The Australian wine industry will either fail or become focused on fine wine.”
He justifies this stark warning. “Because with climate change, with drought, with new water legislation, even if the drought does goes away, restrictions will mean commodity wine production will be more limited and with a higher cost and certainly won’t be able to supply the growth.

Focus on fine wine
“So, commodity wine brands are going to be serviced by other countries. Chile, South Africa, Argentina… as well as Australia – and maybe such Australian commodity wine brands will be blends from those countries?
“But for the Australian wine industry to continue to grow and prosper it will have to turn back to the coastal, cooler areas and the fine wine endeavour.”

Furthermore, Croser believes the expertise and financial foundation is already in place for a major push in this direction.
“All the investment by those major transnationals like Foster’s, Constellation, Pernod Ricard, as well as the 2,500 family run wine companies of Australia who have put all of their life savings into terroir-driven endeavours, means there’s a big engine waiting to be turned on in Australian fine wine and it has to happen; not it should happen, it has to happen.”
At this point it should be noted that fine wine for Croser isn’t simply Penfold’s Grange, or D’Arenburg’s Dead Arm, but products primarily in the £6-£9 range. “Now you may be asking, how can you do fine wine at that price? Well, it is different from branded commodity wine which is cross regionally blended and just a brand. It is the likes of Barossa Shiraz or Clare Riesling which can be produced in those price ranges and will have all the cues of fine wine – the regional varietal match and the terroir story of a region. And I see Australia making very strong technical and quality advances in the face of climate change that will enable it to adapt and produce fine wine economically and consistently, in the price range from £6 and upwards.”
As for emphasising terroir-driven wines in the brand Australia message, Croser is realistic about the approach needed. “The industry won’t promote all areas and neither should it, it will pick winners. The most important thing is to say to the UK public that terroir exists in Australia, it exists strongly and it has a history. Australia has a wonderful, unique climate, a range of geologies, and just demonstrating that fact and reinforcing with specific cases then gives credibility to, for example, Wrattonbully, because you’ve put the stamp of terroir on Australia.”

“But, if everybody believes there is no terroir in Australia, it is just irrigation-dependent grapes for making branded commodity wine then it’s a really big uphill battle for us. The industry has to put its shoulder to the task of convincing people there is another story.”

Waking up to the wine reality
And the large players are beginning to wake up to a regionally differentiated wine reality. “The transnationals were antithetic up until a year ago but with the drought and what’s happening to branded commodity wine supply, plus changes of management, and the simple recognition that the tactics adopted since ‘98 – when the big companies excited a grape surplus in order to drive expansion of branded commodity wine at lower price points – has made them no money, means that they now understand they have to restore some dignity and value to Australian wine brands.
“I see it as a window of opportunity because the surplus they created has dried up and they say they won’t make that mistake again, and it’s been an eight-year mistake.”
So what about the decision to source grapes globally for an Australian wine brand such as Lindemans? “There have been cries of outrage with people saying ‘how can you do this, it’s sacrilegious, these commodity wines wrap around Australia’, but market research shows that consumers who buy those wines don’t know where they come from and don’t really care. What they want is the safety, consistency, affordability and availability of the brand. The rational economic thing to do is to source that wine from the cheapest place as long as the quality is also of a high standard. It just makes sense to get on and do that. And clear the air – instead of pretending to be terroir-driven wines and muddying the water for true terroir-driven wines.”
And there are few new vinous projects as focused on site specifics as Croser’s Tapanappa – the direction of his latest fine wine brand is dictated by terroir. The venture “came into being after Petaluma was purchased by Lion Nathan”, explains Croser, “Neither I, Bollinger or any of the shareholders thought Lion Nathan would offer that sort of price”, but before the ink had dried on the Petaluma purchase, Croser had hatched a plan, with Bollinger’s approval and involvement (and later the Cazes family from Château Lynch Bages), which came to life as Tapanappa. This would use similar but “refined intentions” of the Petaluma model. Essentially it would “follow the terroir pathway – hence the name Tapanappa which means ‘stick to the path’ in local Aboriginal dialect”, explains Croser. “The first vineyard that we purchased was in Wrattonbully. This site had been planted in 1974 and I had an association with from about 1980 onwards.” It was called the Koppamurra Vineyard.

Croser bought the area in 2002 and immediately “pulled out the Riesling and Pinot Meunier which were completely unsuited,” but retained the Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Cabernet Franc and Merlot, which were “wonderful old vines” – the Cabernet Franc and Merlot were probably the first plantings in South Australia.

The vineyards
The Koppamurra vineyard has now been renamed Whalebone after the discovery of 37 million-year-old whalebones from a cave under the site, but it is not only this terroir Croser is promoting. “We are using Tapanappa as a brand to cover several sites,” he explains. “There’s the Wrattonbully Whalebone vineyard as well as the Tapanappa Tiers Chardonnay from the Piccadilly Valley. This was the vineyard I and Anne [Croser’s wife] established in 1978. It was the very first vineyard in Adelaide Hills, the best Chardonnay vineyard in the Piccadilly Valley and traditionally used by Petaluma and still is. They have been kind enough to share some grapes, which has cost us a lot of money, and a lot of cajoling.”

“The first release is 2005 and hopefully it is exquisite enough to develop Tapanappa as an iconic brand name – which will probably take another 10 years but we’ll stick to it…”
Then there’s Foggy Hill, from the Fleurieu Peninsula. “After the takeover I bought this farm which was more of an accident, it was next door to our beach property. When I bought it Anne said ‘you’re not going to plant grapes here are you?’ and then one day she saw me out in the paddock and I was digging a hole and picking around some rocks and she said ‘you are going to plant grapes aren’t you…’
“After a study, I found that our site was cooler than Piccadilly, and a beautiful soil type for Pinot Noir: well-drained ironstone gravels over sandstone with north facing slopes. The only downside is the wind – it is only 8 kilometres from the Great Southern Ocean.
“I planted 4 hectares of Pinot, all top clones from Dijon, on rootstocks – which nobody else in South Australia does because we don’t have phylloxera, but I did for performance reasons and insurance against phylloxera; I believe South Australia will get it.
“Raymond Bernard, a professor from Dijon University, came out just over three years ago, and said this is the ‘Chambertin of Australia’. The vines are now five years old and the first wine is in barrel and looking terrific.”
But does Croser have a passion for Pinot? “I haven’t caught the Pinot bug,” he assures. “I have always been interested in it and grown a lot of it, mainly for sparkling wine in Piccadilly, but it is more that this site is really, absolutely suited to Pinot, which has driven me into the Pinot business, although we’d already bought 50 acres in Oregon to do Pinot, and Riesling – and we haven’t yet planted Pinot.”

The Oregon project
Yes, Tapanappa also extends to the US, and the Oregon arm Croser attributes to two historical facts. Firstly, when it came to Riesling, “I didn’t want to go back to Clare, that’s Petaluma’s gig.” Yes, he’s making Piccadilly Chardonnay – but as Croser explains, “Tiers is different because it was pioneered by me and Anne – Petaluma fought against it initially – and because it was really our vineyard I feel right to a share of it. And secondly, back to the Oregon project, Croser has taken Tapanappa to the US because he started “Argyle in 1984 which has always made a very good Riesling. I pioneered it from an Australian point of view and I feel legitimate in reclaiming my bit of Oregon.”
His site here is called Tunkalilla, “Right next to Cristom winery, which, leaving Argyle aside, I think is the best Pinot in Oregon.”
Anything elsewhere? “You can’t be passionate about 10 terroirs, but can be about four,” Croser answers, adding, “because I’ve done that all my life.
“Maybe there will be more with Tapanappa because more people are involved – one of my children is getting involved and is married to one of the Bollinger family – so they may develop a passion for another terroir.”
Of course, Croser has some in mind if they do. “I would love to do something in the Grampians in Victoria, and the highland areas of the southern Rhône, but in the end we now have four terroirs to nurture, and present to the public and convince them that they are special and unique. You can’t do too much convincing with a large range – people will know we will be overstretched.”
However, with at least three of those four terroirs, Croser is once again proving a highly valuable ambassador for Australia’s potential to produce fine wine. It’s also likely we can expect to soon see Tapanappa added to the list of the world’s iconic wine brands.

Brian Croser: CV
Croser was born and educated in South Australia, graduating as Bachelor of Agricultural Science from the University of Adelaide in 1969. He pursued post graduate studies in oenology at the Davis campus of the University of California in 1972-1973.
He was chief winemaker at Thomas Hardy and Sons before establishing Charles Stuart University’s course in Wine Science and Viticulture in 1976. While at Riverina College he founded Petaluma and made the first Petaluma wine in 1976. He also founded Oenotec Pty Ltd which provided technical consultancy services to the wine industry.
In 1978 Brian and his family moved to the Piccadilly Valley in the Adelaide Hills. He established the winery business of Petaluma at Piccadilly and vineyards in the Adelaide Hills, Clare and Coonawarra, which supply the fruit for the Petaluma wines.
Petaluma became a publicly listed company in 1993 acquiring Tim Knappstein Wines in the Clare Valley, Mitchelton Wines in the Goulburn Valley, Victoria, Smithbrook Wines of Pemberton WA, and Stonier Wines of the Mornington Peninsular Victoria.
In 1986 Brian founded the Argyle Winery in Oregon, USA, which was acquired by Petaluma in 2000.
Brian was the executive chairman of Petaluma Ltd and the winemaker at Petaluma Piccadilly until Petaluma was taken over by Lion Nathan in October 2001. He remains consultant winemaker to Petaluma, responsible for the vintages up to 2005.
In

>2002 the Croser family joined with Bollinger family of Champagne, a former shareholder in Petaluma, and the Cazes family of Lynch Bages Bordeaux, to found a new wine company Tapanappa Wines Pty Ltd.

What is tapanappa?
At the core of Tapanappa is four different wines from four different sites:
1. Whalebone Cab/Shiraz, Cab Franc from Wrattonbully
2. Tiers Chardonnay from Piccadilly
3. Pinot Noir from Foggy Hill on Fleurie Peninsula
4. Riesling and eventually Pinot Noir from Tunakilla vineyards in Oregon’s Eola Hills.
“The whole reason for Tappanappa is to find a unique terroir and one suited to a very narrow range and often just one variety,” explains Croser. “In Wrattonbully, the pioneers got the varietal combination right through serendipity, apart from Riesling and Pinot Meunier. So, one, Whalebone, is an accidental purchase of varieties on the right terroir. Two, is Piccadilly, which we sought out for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and three is Oregon, which has a proven history for Pinot Noir, and less so for Riesling. Four is Foggy Hill, where we have a piece of land, and thought what’s the best varietal for it?
“So Tapanappa is a mixture of inheritance, accident and design.”

The Croser viticultural philosophy
Croser is clear about Australia’s approach to marketing its wines in the future, but what about its viticultural practices? “I think the biggest technical issue we’ve got as a global industry is the increase in alcohol levels,” he says, “and the forces of nature are pushing it up with global dimming and global warming. Global dimming is causing plants to become more efficient at higher CO2 levels, while we are effectively putting solar panels up in our vineyards with new canopy management, better plants, better nutrition and better management. This all adds up to more sugar production, and then in the winery, we’ve got these super efficient yeasts converting sugar to alcohol. We’ve got to be more clever about it. Canopy management is one thing, and as a global industry we’ve got to make sure the canopy to fruit ratio isn’t in the super luxury range. That means not providing an absolute guarantee of ripeness at the expense of over-ripeness most years. We’ve got to take the risk of under-ripeness in some years to the advantage of moderate sugars and alcohol in most years.”

As for alcohol removal, “that belongs to commodity branded wine production – and I’m happy for it to be there – as does the addition of colour and tannin. Here you are trying to produce something consistent, and people are not looking for terroir taste, but brand taste.”