Mostly an update and an article on Barossa and RWT. ----- Forwarded message from "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> ----- Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 13:07:33 -0600 From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> To: wine(a)thebarn.com Subject: Red and Ready at Five User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.4i Greetings, We're heading to Five this week. We're paying $5 per person lieu of corkage. Wine style du jour is "Red and Ready". Thanks to Joyce for arranging! Address, web site, etc: Five Restaurant & Street Lounge 2917 Bryant Ave. S., Minneapolis 612.827.5555 www.fiverestaurant.com It's a stone's throw from JP's. Just a block or two west. We're down for 10 people, but we want to provide Joyce and the rest. w/ an update by the end of today. Joyce Betsy Bob Annette Lori Ruth/Warren Nicolai Jim Roger LeClaire Russ/Sue Bill Cheers, Jim Barons of Barossa Australia's famous big-bodied Shiraz wines are produced by some outsize personalities - Linda Murphy, Chronicle Wine Editor Thursday, February 9, 2006 Click to ViewClick to ViewClick to ViewClick to ViewClick to ViewClick to ViewClick to View Tanuda, Australia -- It was pouring, so 75-year-old Peter Lehmann did the gentlemanly thing. He pulled his SUV off the muddy lane that led to the tiny country cemetery, drove to within a foot of a headstone and let his passenger out -- nearly on top of a grave marker. "I know people here," he said. "They won't mind." Lehmann was giving a tour of the Barossa Valley, settled by his German Lutheran ancestors in the 1840s and now arguably Australia's finest wine-producing region. Along the way, he called on other vintners without appointments, chain-smoked in front of an asthmatic, let his beloved dog, Bronson, have the run of any place, and salted his speech enough to be edgily entertaining, though not pristine enough to print. No worries, because the folks in Tanunda, the largest town in South Australia's Barossa region, love Lehmann for all that he is -- bigger than life, loyal and true, a Barossan through and through. Just like Barossa Shiraz, the region's big, bold and richly flavored -- never shy -- red wine made from grapes also known elsewhere as Syrah. Barossa Shiraz has the softness and warmth that make it more sumptuous than Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and the depth and complexity to satisfy any red-wine drinker. Shiraz put the Barossa on the world wine stage; Lehmann and his fellow "barons of Barossa" made it possible. Like people in nearby Nurioopta, Angaston, Marananga, Bethany and the other hamlets that make up the tight-knit Barossa community, Tanundans have a deep respect for Lehmann, who helped save their wine industry from drowning in its own liquid in the 1970s. He later rescued his own company, Peter Lehmann Wines, by going public and adding nearly 4,000 loyal shareholders to his list of friends. Then he dodged a hostile takeover by a multinational wine and spirits company in 2003 by partnering with a Swiss company that Lehmann says "has family values." He's got street cred in "the Barossa," a region encompassing the Barossa and Eden valleys and located an hour's drive north of Adelaide, South Australia's capital city. For most of his life, Lehmann has preached with the fervor of his Lutheran pastor father that Barossa wines are on par with any in the world. He's had help, from Max Schubert starting in the 1950s, Robert O'Callaghan, Grant Burge and Bob McLean in the 1980s, and newcomers like David Powell in the 1990s. First taste of greatness Schubert in 1951 created the great Penfolds Hermitage Grange wine, an American oak-aged Shiraz that today commands $200-plus per bottle. It was the first Australian red wine to be taken seriously outside of Oz. In the mid-1980s, O'Callaghan, proprietor of Rockford Winery (he's still there today) prevented the destruction of many of the ancient, low-yielding vines that thrive today in the Barossa and are the backbone of its best wines. With the South Australia government encouraging growers to yank out their old Shiraz, Grenache and Mataro vines because they were uneconomical -- Aussies were drinking white wine then -- O'Callaghan persuaded growers to keep their red-grape relics in the ground. In 1992, Powell, then working at Rockford, started cleaning up sections of these old, dry-farmed vineyards and made small lots of wine from the grapes. By 1994, he founded Torbreck Vintners, paying the growers a percentage of the market value of the grapes in exchange for viticultural control. Critic Robert M. Parker Jr.'s 90-point-plus ratings of Torbreck wines have added more sheen to Barossa's image. "Peter Lehmann saved the growers, and Robert O'Callaghan stood in front of the bulldozers waiting to pull out the old vines," Powell says. "To keep the growers in business, Lehmann bought their fruit, made it into wine, and told the growers they would be paid when the wines were sold. It might have taken him three years, but the growers got paid." Barossa driving tour As Lehmann drives through the Barossa's lush rolling hills and traverse valleys, he points out vineyards 100 to 150 years old, their stumpy, gnarled vines growing so close to the ground that workers must get on their knees to tend them. He recites the names of the dozens of small churches whose heavens-pointing spires are in sharp contrast to the dense, emerald vines around them. Homes made of stone mined from local quarries stand next to shops selling smoked meats, sausages and baked goods. Germanic and English architecture intermingle, blending Old World history with New World winemaking. The European culture came from English and German-speaking Prussian immigrants who arrived in the Barossa in 1842 and planted an array of crops, including wine grapes, which were mostly used to make fortified wines -- Australian versions of port and sherry. Lehmann, a fifth-generation Barossan, was born in 1930 in Angaston. He hated school and in 1947, at age 17, became a winemaking apprentice at Yalumba winery in Angaston. After 13 years there, he moved to nearby Saltram winery and became winemaker, staying for 20 years. To increase production at Saltram, Lehmann formed a strong bond with area growers who sold him the high-quality fruit he needed. Deals were sealed with handshakes. After Saltram's owner reacted to a massive country-wide grape surplus in 1978 by telling Lehmann to break his deals with the growers and stop buying their fruit, Lehmann refused and bought the grapes himself. "The growers would be ruined financially if they couldn't sell their grapes," he says. "I couldn't let that happen. I gave them my word." He formed his own company, Masterson, named for the Damon Runyon character Sky Masterson from the "Guys and Dolls" collection of stories. Masterson was a gambler; the queen of clubs became the company logo and continues to be used for Peter Lehmann Wines. "Peter went out on his own, and many employees -- including me -- walked out with him, as did 50 or 60 growers," says Lehmann chief winemaker Andrew Wigan, who has worked for Lehmann for 30 years. "He saved the valley with that move. People said he was crazy -- there was a glut of wine, so how would he survive? "Our plan was to make bulk wine from the growers' fruit, sell it to the industry and play golf the other six months of the year. We tried bloody hard and we didn't quite get there; the glut forced us to bottle our own wine for sale." With investor backing, a winery was built in Tanunda in time for the 1980 harvest. On Feb. 12, 1980, Lehmann waited at his sandstone weighing station for the first of his growers to bring in their grapes, which he weighed before directing them to the crusher. "The Weighbridge" became a place where Lehmann and the area's farmers swapped stories over bottles of wine and platters of pickles, smoked meats and cheese. The tradition continues today, with Lehmann still holding court. In 1982, the company changed its name to Peter Lehmann Wines, and all was well until 1992, when the winery's majority partner experienced financial difficulty and the business was in jeopardy. With financing from a close friend and a public stock offering that drew 3,600 shareholders, Lehmann was back in the black. Hostile takeover averted He had yet another battle ahead, in 2003, when he fought off an uninvited takeover by drinks giant Allied Domecq. Lehmann formed a relationship with Swiss investor Donald Hess, whose Hess Group (owner of The Hess Collection in Napa) became majority shareholder in Peter Lehmann Wines. Peter, who "retired" in 2002, and his wife, Margaret, retain a 10.7 percent share and he still goes to the winery most days. Their son, Doug, is the company's managing director. At Torbreck, Powell is the winemaker, managing director and a shareholder. The company owns 150 acres of vineyards, share-farms 100 acres and purchases grapes from 40 independent growers. Named for a forest in Scotland where Powell worked as a lumberjack for 2 1/2 years, Torbreck has skyrocketed to success after just 10 years in business. "The Barossa is a special place, with special old vineyards," Powell says. "Syrah and other Rhone varieties are what Barossa does best, and the wines we make here are different than anywhere else. "There is no real Barossa terroir, no one thing that typifies the soil. It's quite a mix. Most of the valley floor (vines), I wouldn't tie a 10-foot pole to. Most of our vines are not on the deep alluvial soils of the valley floor." Rather than produce single-vineyard wines, Powell prefers to blend. "Some Syrahs are one-dimensional," he says. "In most cases, you're better off blending from various sites." Barossa Shiraz typically has blackberry, black cherry and plum flavors that are bright and lively, although a prune-y character creeps into Shirazes made from super-ripe grapes. Coffee, chocolate and vanilla are usually present, and licorice, black pepper, mint and baking spice crop up as well. Once devoted to American oak barrels, Barossans are using more French oak, which tends to impart fewer dill and coconut notes, and more vanilla, and gives the wines a finer texture. Balance and smooth, supple tannins are a Shiraz winemaker's goal. "When made the right way, Shiraz is a powerful velvet explosion," Lehmann's Wigan says. "There is a powerful intensity to Barossa Shiraz; the trick is to make balanced Shiraz." High-alcohol wines Balance is the way the fruit ripeness, acidity, tannins and oak character acquired from barrel aging all come together, so that no one component dominates the others. In the hot, dry Barossa, grapes are going to get quite ripe in a normal season and that means the alcohols can get into the 15-percent range. The Shiraz wines tasted for this story (see Page F4) range in alcohol from 14 to 15.5 percent. "The difference is when you pick the grapes and how you blend," Powell says. "If the fruit can carry the alcohol, the wine is balanced." Powell gets grapes from the Eden Valley, home to Henschke winery's 140-year-old vines and its iconic $200 Hill of Grace Shiraz. Eden Valley is cooler than the Barossa Valley to the west, and grapes grow at higher elevations (up to 2,000 feet), thus producing wines that are firmer in structure and with more mint and eucalyptus character. There are approximately 550 growers in the Barossa, many of them sixth-generation residents. Some 22,000 acres of vineyards contribute just 5 percent to Australia's total grape crush, yet the Barossa's colorful history and startlingly good wines elevate the region to superstar status. Small producers like Torbreck, Rockford, Elderton Wines, Charles Melton Wines, Rolf Binder Wines and Three Rivers surround multinationally owned wineries such as Wolf Blass and Jacob's Creek. Yalumba, founded in 1849 by British brewer Samuel Smith, is still in the family, directed by Robert Hill Smith. Owned by Foster's Wine Estates, Penfolds, based just outside of Adelaide, has major vineyard holdings in Barossa, including the Kalimna Vineyard, a major contributor to Grange. Barossa vintners are proud of their Rieslings, Semillons and old-vine Grenaches, yet those varietals aren't easy sells in the United States. The Rhone white variety Viognier, however, has found favor, both as a blender with Shiraz -- a common practice in the Cote Rotie region of France's northern Rhone Valley to enhance Syrah's aromas and color -- and as a standalone wine. Yalumba senior winemaker Louisa Rose has a deft touch with Viognier, producing four versions, including the well-made and widely available Yalumba Y Series Viognier ($10). Viognier is also a key component of Yalumba's generous Barossa 95% Shiraz & 5% Viognier wine. Still, Shiraz is king here, and the mighty Penfolds brand played a major role in drawing global attention to Australian Shiraz. By definition, the maker of Grange is a baron of the Barossa. The heritage of Grange Peter Gago is only the fourth chief winemaker at Penfolds, following Schubert (1948 to 1973), Don Ditter (1973 to 1986) and John Duval (1986 to 2002). He continues the success that is Grange (changed from Hermitage Grange in 1989 after protests from producers in the Rhone Valley's Hermitage region) and shapes the RWT (Red Winemaking Trial) Barossa Valley Shiraz, which takes advantage of Penfolds' access to Barossa fruit. In addition to Grange, Penfolds has used Barossa Shiraz in several wines, including Bin 28, Bin 398 and St. Henri. With RWT, Barossa stands alone in the bottle. "Grange is a style," Gago says. "It's a blend from multiple regions, it's aged in American oak, it won't change. It's made to be consistent, vintage after vintage. "But RWT is all from the Barossa and is matured in French oak. We created a new wine with RWT, without compromising Grange." Not compromising -- it's the Barossa mindset, a never-say-uncle attitude that, for most of the region's wine folks, puts loyalty, family and the preservation of traditions ahead of profits. Peter Lehmann is a personification of that. E-mail Linda Murphy at lmurphy(a)sfchronicle.com. -- ------------------------------ * * Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *