The days of associating Australian wine with cheap plonk are long gone and while there are some excellent examples of Australian Shiraz and Chardonnay available today, the country has a lot more to offer the discerning wine drinker. And with Australian wine growers at the forefront of innovation and experimentation, this diversity will continue to grow as new regions, and different grape varieties and wine styles are explored and developed.
Son of a Bull Riesling 2019
Take Tasmanian Riesling for example. Although we rightly associate Riesling with Germany, Tasmania has ideal conditions for growing the grape. It has a cool maritime climate, aided by the westerly winds off the Southern Ocean, but at the same time it gets plenty of sunshine. This results in a long, reasonably cool growing season and enables the grapes to retain their acidity as they ripen.
This Son of a Bull Riesling (2019) from Pipers River is a dry wine and has aromas of blossom, apple, lime and grapefruit on the nose, and flavours of lime, apple, grapefruit and spice, with a hint of residual sugar, on the palate. A lively, fresh, well-balanced and medium-bodied wine with medium (+) acidity and a long finish with a pleasant minerality. A very good example of a Tasmanian Riesling, this is a delicate and refreshing wine, a perfect match for seafood or a Thai dish.
Available from Majestic £13.99 (£11.99 Mix Six)
Rutherglen Topaque
Although it’s fair to say the modern Australian wine scene is vibrant and exciting, wine production in the country has been going on for generations. The first vines arrived in 1788 but most of the early plantings proved unsuccessful. However, by the 1840s wine production had begun to rise in many parts of southern Australia and wine exports to the UK began in the 1850s. The country hasn’t looked back since and one successful wine producer, now in its fifth generation, has been producing rich sweet wines for over 150 years.
The Campbells have been producing wine in Rutherglen, N E Victoria since 1840 and if you have tried their Rutherglen Muscat, you will know how successful they have been. The Rutherglen Topaque is outstanding and won Gold in the Decanter World Wine Awards 2020.
This is a lusciously sweet wine made from Muscadelle grapes. With aromas of toffee, honey and tea leaf, and flavours of treacle, caramel, nuttiness and honey on the palate, this is pure bottled indulgence. A smooth, complex wine, well-balanced with a clean finish, the Topaque is a perfect match for treacle tart, fruit-based desserts and blue cheese; indeed, it is also perfect by itself as a chilled aperitif or after-dinner digestif.
Available from The Bottle Club (£12.90 half bottle)