By John Rozentals.
By the time that most Australian wine lovers had worked out the correct pronunciation of ‘viognier’, Yalumba’s Chief Winemaker, Louisa Rose, had fashioned a firm reputation as this country’s preeminent exponent with this rare, exotic white grape variety.
Louisa Rose … has established an enviable status.
Viognier enjoys vinous cult status virtually worldwide because of a single vineyard, the Rhone Valley’s Chateau Grillet, which occupies the entirety of its own 3.8-hectare appellation, declared in 1936 and generally regarded as France’s smallest, though the variety is more widely planted in the surrounding appellation of Condrieu.
Yalumba has Australia’s most significant plantings of the variety, mostly in the relatively cool climate of the Eden Valley, perched above South Australia’s famous Barossa Valley, and through the efforts of Rose has established an enviable status for the company’s flagship Virgilius Viognier.
As they insist in the motoring game, advances at the top will eventually filter down, and so it is proving with viognier.
I firmly believe that viognier’s principal use is to make a soft, full-flavoured dry white, but that it been held back from wider acceptance by an abundant perfumed character that can make it something of an acquired taste.
I suspect that much of Rose’s effort has gone into taming these over-the-top propensities and she’s certainly achieved that without killing viognier’s personality and charm.
I really enjoyed tasting Yalumba The Y-Series 2018 Viognier and matching it with some spring rolls loaded with ginger and coriander.
Yalumba’s The Y-Series 2018 white-and-pink range — comprising a chardonnay, a pinot gris and a sauvignon blanc plus the wines individually mentioned — is on wide release and carries a full RRP of $15 but you should be able to buy the wines for a couple of dollars less. I managed to find a previous-vintage chardonnay a couple of months ago for less than $10.
I’ll even forgive the wines for that touch of harsh bitterness that most of them seem to carry. Drink them alongside food and that soon disappears.
WINE REVIEWS
Yalumba 2018 The Y-Series Riesling ($15): Riesling … dry riesling … has a long and wonderful history in South Australia, though its reputation is fast spreading other parts of the land. This represents a fine introduction to one of the finest grape varieties. It’s floral, it’s citrusy, it’s dry, it’s simply moreish. Have a few glasses and I think you agree with me and other writers who have been recommending for years that we have a great wine style at our fingertips.
Yalumba 2018 The Y-Series Sangiovese Rosé ($15): This Italian red variety seems to be leading a revival — or is it indeed a first-coming? — of dry, light-bodied Australian rosé, a wine style which so suits our climate and lifestyle. It’s fresh, crisp and demands little thought. But it’s pink! Is it a sweetish girlie drink? Having a couple of glasses to wash down a few slices of pizza will soon answer that one.
WINE OF THE WEEK
Gartelmann Wines 2017 Lisa Chardonnay ($40): Is this the best chardonnay to yet come out of Orange in Central Western NSW? I’m not willing to stick my neck out quite that far, but it’s certainly right up there — full flavoured and full bodied yet quite elegant and certainly not overly dependant on oak. It’s the sort of dry white that will bring even devout members of the ABC (anything-but-chardonnay) club back to perhaps the greatest of all white grape varieties. Named in honour of proprietor Jorg Gartelmann’s aunt, who, according to the back label, apparently saved his life.
