Torbreck Woodcutter's Shiraz: Australia's Proof of Greatness

At a tasting I did for some wonderful clients the other night, I poured an Australian Shiraz. It was well-received but then I got the question I get every time I pour Australian wines these days -- "Can you even get good Australian wine? I mean, isn't it all cheap, mass-produced stuff?" My heart broke a little for Aussie wine, but the question was completely appropriate and reflects the sad state of Aussie wine for a lot of wine drinkers these days.

So what happened to this giant of the wine industry that seems to have been usurped in popularity by stuff from South America, Spain, and even the rising stars of South Africa and New Zealand? Marketing happened. Too much marketing and not balanced enough marketing. Excess led to implosion.

Now, I've mentioned this before, but I have an MBA (go Tarheels -- I went to University of North Carolina!) and was a marketer/strategist for nearly 15 years. Even though wine is my passion and my career now, I am still a keen student of branding and marketing. So watching the rise and fall of Australia's marketing juggernaut has been particularly fascinating for me. My insights may be a little controversial, but I'm calling it like I see it.

As background, the Aussies started making wine in the 1820s - 1830s (although the first attempts were in the late 1700s when some dudes brought cuttings from South Africa -- another reason I think it's weird that we classify South Africa as New World. How can you be New World when you are established enough in the 1700s to be spawning whole industries on other continents? But I digress). This is when James Busby (the Scot pictured, left), who's termed the father of Australian wine, brought vine clippings from France and Spain. With this great raw material, the settlers figured out how to deal with the hotter than hell, sun-scorching (in most places) climate and got to business making some serious wines.

Unfortunately, like everywhere else in the wine world, in the 1870s that vine serial killer, phylloxera, hit. It's a bug that attacks the roots of vines, causing galls that result in mass murder of all things sacred in the vineyard and then multiplies like Charles Manson's disciples. In true American fashion, we caused the problem by spreading this louse from the Eastern US, but then we were also able to save the day by providing roots that were resistant to the bug and could have European grapes grafted on them without a change in flavor. It was a real boo/rah moment.

Whereas everyone else in the world picked up the memories of their shattered wine lives and decided to go back to making normal, awesome wine post-phylloxera, the Aussies got stuck and for about 100 years just made sweet wine, which they termed "stickies." Even their most famous and revered wine, Penfold's Grange, which is dry and unbelievably delicious was made under cover of night in the 1950s. Although Grange and a few others worked out ways to make dry wine, it wasn't until the 1980s that Australia as a whole had its coming out party.

It was then that the marketers got to work and Australia bet the farm on making high quality, inexpensive wine. Wine drinkers loved it. They bought in droves and the ride began. In the early 2000s exports increased 35 times what they were in the 1990s. Why? People around the world dug this stuff. It was fruity, mouth-filling, and most wasn't too complex...and it was cheap. What a great starter wine for people just getting into this kind of intimidating world!

The problems then arose (BTW, I kind of feel like a "Behind the Music" writer for VH1..."and then disaster struck when Ozzie Osbourne did an 8Ball one night..."). In the early 2000s every wine coming out of Australia was a so-called "Critter Wine" -- with the success of Yellow Tail I'm convinced that all the people that marketed those lameass Beanie Babies (oh yes, I did go there) lost their jobs when that craze was over and migrated to Australia to make up stupid critter names for wine brands. Pretty Penguin, Kuddly Koala, Wombat Wine, Kangaroo Kitsch (I making this up, but I'm not too far off) were manufactured to make us buy based on label. We all fell for it.

Then we all got over it. Many of us also got tired of these big, jammy wines. We wanted something more complex and interesting. We got our start in Australia, but we set our sights on Latin Lovers -- Spain, Chile and Argentina, and back on our old flames California, Italy, and France.

Uh-oh -- now what? Australia had staked its whole positioning on affordable wines with cute labels. Maybe they reasoned that Disney had been around forever with the cutsy thing. I mean couldn't Australia have that longevity based on their version of Mickey Mouse for wine? We voted with our dollars. No. The bloom was off the rose.

That's not to say that we were done with Australia, but it is to say that the exuberance was over and their industry started to feel it. I can tell you that the hot Australian brands at the large hulking winery that I used to work for didn't get the attention they used to. Money was redirected to Spanish and Argentinean brands, and back to funding successful California brands.

So that leads me back to the question I get frequently -- "Can you even get good Australian wine? I mean, isn't it all cheap, mass-produced stuff?"

And here's the answer. Although you can still get cheap, mass-produced stuff, Australians are not dumb. They know what happened and they are working to right the ship. They are focusing on re-branding. They are trying to let us know that they are dedicated to quality and to growing grapes in the best possible areas instead of everywhere there is available space that can be irrigated.

They're actually learning from their upper tier, I think. There are a few producers that have been leading the way and who haven't been slammed as badly as the lower tier producers. The success of Penfold's with Grange, Henschke with Hill of Grace, Clarendon Hills with Astralis, D'Arenberg with Dead Arm, and Torbreck with Run Rig show that first class wines can come from Australia and can command a premium. But they prove that care and feeding must be given.

Although I didn't have the Run Rig, I did have the delightful experience of tasting Torbreck's Woodcutter's Shiraz .

Before I get to the wine, I need to tell you that this is a freaking cool winery. David Powell, the founder and winemaker, was studying to be an accountant in Adelaide, following in his father's footsteps but he really loved wine. In his time off, he would go work at the wineries in the Barossa. The guy took his walkabout and wound up travelling to the great wine regions of Europe and even spending some time as a lumberjack in the Torbreck forests of Scotland (hence, the name). When he went back to Australia, he decided to go for it. He realized that there were a ton of neglected Barossa Valley properties that had old vines on them but weren't being maintained. He approached the owners to ask if he could work the land. Powell did this at a few farms and his first vintage launched in 2003, with great results. Torbreck is now iconic for the Barossa -- all hand-harvested wines that are highly rated and classic for the region.

So what does a good wine from Barossa taste like, here's what I thought of their base tier wine, the Shiraz:
The Wine: Torbreck Woodcutter's Shiraz
Where It's From: Barossa Valley, Australia
The Grapes: 100% Shiraz
Vintage: 2008
Price: $21.99

Color: Like most Australian Shiraz this wine was not shy on showing its color. It was nearly opaque and blood red. It stained the glass, it was so rich in color. The wine was nearly vampiric in appearance (any other Twi-hards out there? Sorry for the reference). This amount of color usually indicates big flavor, so I braced myself for the smell and taste of this.

Smell: Absolutely typical for a Barossa Valley Shiraz. Rich oak and ripe boysenberry just flooded out of the glass after a good swirl. There was a prune or raisin note to the wine, and lots of alcohol burn -- a cilia singer. There were these unbelievable black pepper, licorice, and bacon aromas (all from the grape -- Syrah/Shiraz often develops these delicious smells with time). The aromas imparted from the oak were unreal. Warm cinnamon and nutmeg, rich roasted coffee beans, savory herbs cooked in butter, and an aroma of maple or tree sap just made my mouth water. Complex aromas usually = unreal wine.

Taste: Torbreck did not disappoint (nor did I expect it to, given the reputation of the producer and the fact that they care so much about their wines!). Black cherry, boysenberry, and even a little black raspberry fruit flavors were so awesomely balanced with a bitter chocolate, nutmeg, cinnamon, coffee thing. But what made this wine so complete and different from a lot of Australian Shiraz -- it actually had a great balance of mouth-watering acid and mouth-drying tannins. What a beautiful thing.

Food: Here's a perfect match for roasted and grilled meats, and heavy beef or mushroom dishes. I do also think it will be equally at home with Mexican, greasier food, and anything from the barbecue. A really versatile food wine.


Drink or Down the Sink?: Drink it! This wine is evidence that Australia is not all about cheap 'critter wine' or Yellow Tail. When you get a quality producer who takes times with the vines and knows the land, they can produce a wine that proves Australia's future is in boutique wine that is made well and has a beauty and style all its own.

PS -- You may want to decant this wine (just pour it in a glass and leave it out) for an hour or so before drinking. Although I loved it, I found it was better the day after I opened it!