Australia’s Best Reds Are Slow to Arrive

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/dining/australias-best-reds-trickling-to-the-united-states.html

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Stereotypes are always troubling, and wine stereotypes are no different. I bristle when I hear some European winemaker assert that Americans make only big, powerful, alcoholic wines. Of course, many Americans say the same thing about Australian wines: the reds are all heavy-bodied and high-octane, overwhelming combinations of thick fruit flavors, oak and alcohol. Or, in their inexpensive, mass-market manifestations, they taste like artificial confections.

I know this isn’t true, though frankly, aside from the occasional riesling or an old standby like Penfold’s St. Henri shiraz, I’ve consumed few Aussie wines in recent years that didn’t support that view. I had read repeatedly about more subtle, graceful red wines made in Australia’s cooler climate regions, yet never actually found any wines like these in New York. Where were they, I wondered, and why couldn’t I drink them?

I’m thrilled to say that a few of these wines, in very small numbers, are now making their way to the United States. At a recent dinner at the Spotted Pig in New York intended to showcase them, I tasted more than a dozen Australian reds that belied this stereotype — that in fact were fresh, restrained and even savory with, yes, finesse and moderate levels of alcohol.

Luckily, I haven’t been alone in wondering why these wines were so hard to find in the United States. Some, like Gordon Little, were in a position to do something about it.

Mr. Little, an Australian who came to the United States a few years ago while working for the Australian Trade Commission, was disturbed that he couldn’t find any of the more delicate, intricate wines that he was accustomed to drinking in Melbourne. He was frustrated, too, that most Americans had no idea these wines even existed. He decided, with his American fiancée, Lauren Peacock, to import some of them himself. By the end of 2011, Little Peacock Imports was born.

“They think it’s all shiraz, and not just shiraz but heavy, jammy, high-alcohol, oaky shiraz,” he said at the Spotted Pig dinner, to which he contributed several wines. “When I pull out a pinot noir, they say, ‘Oh, Australia makes pinot noir?’ I say: ‘We’re making a lot of cool things. We just haven’t been exporting it.’ ”

Many of these cool things were on display at the dinner, including several pinot noirs. I loved a 2010 pinot noir from Eldridge Estate in the Mornington Peninsula, a cool maritime region that juts out into the Bass Strait south of Melbourne. This was a lovely, delicate wine with gentle floral aromas, yet the flavors lingered. The French would describe it as feminine. As far as I can tell, however, it is available only in California.

Among the other pinot noirs, I very much enjoyed a more fruity 2010 Dexter, also from Mornington; a lively, graceful 2010 Moondarra Conception from Gippsland in eastern Victoria; an elegant and lively 2008 Lethbridge from Geelong, to the southwest of Melbourne, and a vibrant, deliciously drinkable 2010 from Tarrington Vineyards in Henty, another cool region, in far western Victoria. Sadly, neither the Lethbridge nor the Tarrington are as yet imported into the United States.

Even more exciting to me were the shirazes I tasted, which were not remotely like the oaky, jammy, flamboyant style. They were far more subtle and savory, very much owing their allegiance to the northern Rhône Valley but with the subtle addition of some sunny Aussie flavors. In fact, to make explicit their inspiration, many of these wines were labeled with the French “syrah” rather than the Aussie “shiraz.”

The best included several wines from the Yarra Valley, just east of Melbourne: an olive-and-pepper-inflected 2010 Punt Road Chemin, made in an old northern Rhône style in which the grapes are fermented in whole clusters rather than separated from their stems; a pure, precise 2010 Jamsheed Silvan, also made with whole clusters; and a wonderfully mineral 2010 from Luke Lambert, partly from whole clusters. All of these wines were below 14 percent alcohol.

Another gorgeous Jamsheed syrah came from northeast Victoria, this one a 2011 from the Warner Vineyard in Beechworth, with beautiful herbal and meaty aromas and flavors. We also tried an excellent syrah from the Barossa Valley, a source of many in the flamboyant style. Yet this one, a 2012 from Tom Shobbrook, was mellow and savory.

The last decade or so has not been pretty for the Australian wine industry. At home it’s been bedeviled by drought, bush fires and a wine glut. Internationally, the value of the Australian dollar has increased by about 40 percent relative to the American dollar since 2005, which has made pricing chaotic. With higher prices, Australian shiraz has ceded much of the inexpensive market to malbec from Argentina. Even huge Yellow Tail, an Australian label that continues to sell millions of bottles in the United States, has taken big losses because of the exchange rate.

Just as Americans may have a monolithic view of Australian wines, so, too, do Australians have a homogeneous idea of the American market, which has made exporting many of these small-production wines difficult.

“If you’re a small producer who makes 1,000 cases, and you go with a giant importer, your wines get lost at the back of the portfolio,” Mr. Little said. “But a lot of small Australian producers see the U.S. as one giant market, when it’s really 50 different ones.”

We drank a couple more exceptional wines. I loved a 2009 Hewitson Old Garden mourvèdre from Barossa, made from vines planted in 1853 — dark, complex, compelling and not at all small — and, because one can’t exist on red wine alone, a pinpoint, refreshing 2008 blanc de blancs from Gembrook in the Yarra Valley.

Most likely not enough of these wines are available to change the image of Australian wines. But Mr. Little is doing his best.

“I want people to talk about Australian wine with the same passion and interest that they talk about French and Italian wines,” he said. “I want to change the conversation about what Australian wine is.”

AN AUSTRALIAN SAMPLER

Here are 12 superb Australian wines made in what Gordon Little, a wine importer, calls a “more delicate, intricate style.’’

Dexter Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir 2010, 13.5 percent alcohol (Little Peacock Imports, New York).

Eldridge Estate Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir 2010, 13.5 percent (H. Mercer Imports, Los Angeles).

Gembrook Hill Yarra Valley Blanc de Blancs 2008, 12.5 percent (Not yet imported).

Hewitson Barossa Valley Old Garden Mourvèdre 2009, 14 percent (Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York).

Jamsheed Beechworth Warner Vineyard Syrah 2011, 13 percent (Vine Street Imports, Philadelphia).

Jamsheed Yarra Valley Silvan Syrah 2010, 13.7 percent (Vine Street Imports, Philadelphia).

Luke Lambert Yarra Valley Syrah 2010, 13.5 percent (Epicurean Wines, Seattle).

Lethbridge Geelong Pinot Noir 2008, 14 percent (Not yet imported).

Moondarra Gippsland Conception Pinot Noir 2010, 12.5 percent (Vine Street Imports, Philadelphia).

Punt Road Yarra Valley Chemin Syrah 2010, 12.8 percent (Little Peacock Imports, New York).

Tom Shobbrock Barossa Valley Syrah 2012, 12.5 percent (Not yet imported).

Tarrington Vineyard Henty Pinot Noir 2010, 12.8 percent (Not yet imported).