Savour Australia Day 4: Jacob’s Creek deep & wide
Posted on 21 September 2013
I’ll go back to the Savour Australia tutored and free-range tastings shorty but the morning after, a large group of delegates was shuttled up the Barossa to Jacob’s Creek. You likely are familiar with this brand as in many countries (including Poland where Yellow Tail, its direct competitor, is very small) it is the leading Australian wine brand.
Steingarten: one of Australia’s leading vineyards.
I’ve always rather liked Jacob’s Creek in the commercial context. For the money (it retails for ca. 7.50€ in Poland) it is really a better bottle of wine than many similar brands from California, Chile or Argentina: tasting less artificial and more juicy-fruity.
Steingarten indeed has a lot of Stein.
So it was interesting to learn the reality behing the hundreds of millions of bottles of JC. Even if it was a rather manicured reality as we were taken to the company’s Visitor Center restaurant for dinner and refurbished 1847 heritage house for lunch – and to see there is an actual creek below the house itself. But the day started at Steingarten, a historic vineyard in the Eden Valley planted in 1847 by founder Johann Gramp, modelled on Mosel vineyards with their very high planting densities. Tasting a glass of the 2013 Steingarten Riesling on the panoramic terrace with a bitterly cold wind emphasising how Eden is one of the coolest locations in Southern Australia, I could appreciate the Germanic analogy: with its tart and pithy underripe taste, that Riesling resembled an austere Ruwer or Saar Kabinett more than anything else. (Later at dinner we had the 2005, which has mellowed in time into a more presentable, complex Riesling).
As contemporary as it seems, Jacob’s Creek has nearly 170 years of history.
We had two tastings throughout the day. One focused on Jacob’s Creek Reserve range. There was honestly little objective excitement in the six wines here, though for $15–18 retail they do represent a safe buy. My favourite, as on other occasions I tasted them, was the 2010 Reserve Shiraz with its broad-shouldered peppery expression of Shiraz. A good surprise came from the 2013 Adelaide Hills Sauvignon, a juicy wine less tart than many Aussie whites these days.
There -is- an actual creek at Jacob’s Creek.
The afternoon session was vastly superior, showcasing Orlando’s (the company behind Jacob’s Creek) top bottlings. We notabled looked at Johann Shiraz Cab, the icon wine here, in the 2009 and 2001 vintages, both impressive with natural concentration, as well as a pretty Chardonnay called Reeves Point (the 2005 drinks now well). But my favourite wine was the 1991 Lawson’s Shiraz, a rich, moreish, supremey balanced wine with perfectly integrated tannins. The current release of this and other wines (the underwhelming Jacaranda Ridge Cab and big blowsy Centenary Hill Shiraz) is $65, not cheap but that 1991 was well worth the price and waiting.
My vine at Jacob’s Creek. Expect a 100-point wine a few years down the line.
We briefly went to the vineyards to partake in a “Plant Your Own Vine” exercise before heading for a dinner celebrating 30 years of the St Hugo bottling. The food was excellent, prepared by resident chef Genevieve Harris, using much produce for the adjacent garden. We tasted three 2010s: Shiraz, GSM and Cabernet Sauvignon, the latter the best wine although the 2010s are far from ready to drink. The 2001 and 1994 CabSauv offered an insight into the drinking window of these wines, the latter nicely round and mature although both a little charmless.
Chef Genevieve Harris talks artichokes in the restaurant garden.
The best bit came when I was invited behind the scenes to taste five experimental wines from Orlando: made from Fiano, Arneis, Montepulciano and Sangiovese, they represent Orlando’s take on the varietal diversification now so much en vogue in Australia. The Arneis was green and fruitless and would hardly be appreciated in the variety’s homeland (see my profile of Arneis for more details), and the 2013 and 2011 Fiano shared the green underripe lean flavour with the other examples of this grape I tasted here in Australia. But the Montepulciano was balanced and deliciously drinkable with slightly rustic tannins but pleasant red cherry crispness (more of it than any Italian example I know) while the 2012 Sangiovese (yet to be released but said to be retailing in the UK for £7) actually resembled its Italian original with a good medium body, strong cherry flavour and well present tannins. Sangiovese better than Shiraz? Perhaps but different, enjoyable and interesting.
Disclosure: my trip to Australia including flights, accommodation and wine tasting programme is sponsored by Wine Australia. Jacob’s Creek is a diamond sponsor of Savour.