Wine Australia’s Barossa Valley ‘Winemaking of the Decades’ masterclass was one of the highlights of this year’s London Wine Fair. Hosted by James March, of the Barossa Grape and Wine Association the panel featured winemakers Ben Glaetzer [Glaezter/Heartland Wines], Matt Gant [First Drop] and Toby Barlow from St Hallett. The wines demonstrated the ability of Barossa Shiraz blends to age gracefully into silky, cashmere old age. Two fascinating tawny ports were shown, the Saltram Rare Vintage Tawny 1959 being an absolute stunner.

Noses to the grindstone at London’s Saatchi Gallery

January is certainly antipodean month on the London tasting calendar. Just ahead of Australia Day, Wine Australia put on their annual trade tasting, christened A+ Australian Wine at the Saatchi Gallery in London’s Chelsea [above]. Much has been made of how Oz wine has lost its way in recent years, at least in marketing terms and certainly in the battle of the brands, but as the big conglomerates have lost ground, or at least looked uncertain, the real excitement in Australia is the bevy of superb wines being made both by established names and relative newcomers at the smaller and medium sized end of the business.  

An isolated strip of red soil on the South Australian and Victorian border has for the past fifty years provided Australia with its finest Cabernet Sauvignon. Great Cabs do come of course from Western Australia’s Margaret River and also from Victoria but no region in Australia has consistently produced such fine Cabernet as Coonawarra. In that sense it is the ‘Medoc’ of Australia, if not necessarily in style, certainly in importance.