AUSTRALIA: Cool and Trendy

Australia’s cool climate regions have become ultra desirable, their wines deemed superior in quality. So which areas fit into this category? And what factors, other than temperature, are at play? Sally Easton MW investigates

what makes cool climate Australia so trendy all of a sudden? If you believe much of the marketing blurb it seems that any region other than the Murray Valley is suddenly “cool climate”. It’s time to pin down cool climate to some identifiable locations, whose wines’ attributes differentiate them from wines from warmer areas.  
The temperature map of Australia in the new edition of the World Atlas of Wine shows only a few spots of potentially cool climate, and they are south of the Great Dividing Range, where January (July in the northern hemisphere) surface temperature is below 20°C. The theory goes that cooling Southern Ocean winds creep into part of the south-facing slopes of the mountains, helping moderate temperature. As soon as you’re over the top of the mountains, things warm up considerably – you’re on your way to the interior.
This is perfectly exemplified by the Macedon Ranges/Heathcote boundary in Victoria. The Macedon Ranges, about an hour northwest of Melbourne, are acknowledged as the mainland’s coolest wine-growing region. It sits atop the south facing slopes of the Great Dividing Range. It is gaining reputation for its sparkling-wine fruit, Chardonnay, and cool climate talisman Pinot Noir. Acclaimed Michael Dhillon, of Bindi, makes his wine in the Macedon Ranges, as does Phillip Moraghan at Curly Flat. Moraghan spent 18 months searching cooler climate Australia before settling in the Macedon Ranges, having become empassioned about “Pinot grief”, as he says, in Switzerland.

Immediately north of Macedon is reputed Shiraz territory, Heathcote, which is already atop the north-facing slopes of the Great Dividing Range, and considerably warmer.
Temperature is generally acknowledged as the primary determinant of climatic suitability for viticulture. (See box for the nitty-gritty.) But defining cool climate is much trickier as so many other parameters come into play: exposition, proximity to bodies of water, wind (speed, direction, temperature, humidity, timing), evapotranspiration, cloud cover, annual rainfall patterns, ripening-season rainfall, altitude. Vintage variation is a given.

Why is it important?  
Cool climate has become shorthand for high quality. There’s an anecdotal association with longevity in bottle. Though, if Bordeaux is deemed cool climate, it’s only too well known there’s poor quality there, but there’s also the best.
Scale is a factor. No cool climate region is large and homogenous. As Chris Smith, viticultural manager at Tasmania’s Cloverhill, says:  “When in a cool climate, vineyard practices have to be very precise”.
Claudio Radenti, of Freycinet Vineyard in Tasmania, says: “Go a few kilometres and things change. For us, site selection is very important shelter from the westerly winds,” and for Pinot Noir keeping the yield down to grand cru levels is also important. Though yield and attention to detail are commercial considerations, benefits include individuality of expression, complexity, finesse, and a higher return per bottle through a necessarily higher price.
Even the new Aussie industry strategy, Directions 2025, pays attention to the status of wines of place. Having ruled the roost for a decade and more with inter-regional blends, the industry wants to exploit the points of difference offered by cooler climate: different flavour profiles, higher price points, a focus on cool-fruit sparkling wines, grape varieties more expressive of the terroir, though Heaven forfend the Aussies would use such a word.

Definition of cool
A warmer climate seems pretty easy to identify: lower acidity, higher alcohol, fuller body, sweeter, jammier fruit, overt alcohol, and high extract easily achieved.
Too cold is pretty easy too: the grapes don’t ripen. This makes cool climate “just warm enough” to ripen fruit before the cold of autumn sets in.
Tasmania’s Dr Andrew Pirie, a cool climate specialist, postulates true cool climate as “regions with a mean January [or July] temperature equal to or less than 19°C or 1150 day degrees. It corresponds with the ability to ripen Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Traminer, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, but not Semillon, Merlot or Cabernet Franc, except in exceptional locations.” This would include Tasmania, Macedon, parts of Mornington and parts of the Yarra Valley.
Tasmania is undoubtedly Australia’s coolest climate, and it is reclaiming its main defining characteristic under the banner “true cool climate wines”.  A look at Tassie’s key grape varieties – Chardonnay, Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot Noir – pretty much confirm Pirie’s thesis. Sparkling wines are a forte. (See boxout).
Francine Austin, winemaker at Hardys’ Tasmanian Bay of Fires winery is very clear: “Cool climate is a combination of two things: finesse and elegance. A tightness of wine combined with power from a high concentration of aromatic flavour compounds.” For this, she says, “High sunshine hours and lower temperatures are needed, which retain delicate aromatic compounds. Acid degradation is slow, and ripening season day time temperature does not exceed 25°C.”

Bubbling along nicely
Dr Andrew Pirie is another long-time talent who has arguably done more than anyone to plough the furrow for all Tasmanian wine. Now heading up Tamar Ridge, as well as producing his own wines under the Pirie label, he said: “Tas sparkling Pinot has a natural mid-palate fruit sweetness and richness which seems lost in warmer areas and seems to be one of the features of true cool climate sparkling fruit.”
The new Pirie NV sparkler will be released later in 2008, the aim for which he said is to be a “complex, soft and rich 50/50 Chardonnay/Pinot Noir, with mid-palate fullness from good Tas Pinot Noir, and taut, but not aggressive, acidity from the Chardonnay”.
The big boys on the mainland were not slow to realise the potential of Tasmania’s “true cool climate”. Domaine Chandon’s winemaker, Matt Steel, says: “We have been sourcing from Tasmania since 1992 to use in our vintage-tier sparkling wines. It is part of our philosophy of building wines of complexity through regional diversity of fruit supply. We source base wines from regions such as Macedon, the Whitlands plateau, Strathbogie and Tasmania. The Tasmanian base wines exhibit a flinty aromatic, fine structure and very long length of flavour.”
Hardys bought the Bay of Fires winery in 2001, having sourced fruit from Tas for several years prior to this. Bay of Fires sources fruit from all over Tasmania for their three labels of sparkler: Arras, Bay of Fires and Tigress. Ed Carr, Hardys’ group sparkling winemaker, said: “Tasmanian grapes have a greater level of minerality than the mainland. The wines exhibit a structural elegance, suppleness and longevity which is essential for the production of premium sparkling wine. These characteristics allow the wines to be aged to a high level of flavour and complexity and yet retain a freshness and brightness that is only seen in world-class sparkling.”

While Jansz was one of the first sparkling wines from Tasmania, its fortunes have been blooming since the purchase, in 1998, by the Hill Smiths of Yalumba. Robert Hill Smith says: “While Australia is seen as the home of robust, big reds, sparkling winemakers in Tasmania are quietly producing wines that give most genuine Champagnes a run for their money in quality and price.”
That most of the big producers have already invested in Tasmanian fruit illustrates the excitement generated by the quality of its bubbly. Hill Smith said: “Jansz has a single-minded focus to be among the best in the world.” 

© db January 2008