No low blow: Being lower in alcohol no longer means lacking taste

 

In these health-conscious times, one segment of the wine market, low and no-alcohol drops, is increasing rapidly.

It’s not as though this is a new idea. I can remember back in the 1980s, Orlando (best known now under the Jacob’s Creek name) produced a range of lower-alcohol wines made by de-alcoholising wines using spinning-cone technology andadding various levels of alcohol back into the blend.

There have been various other attempts over the years to introduce lower-alcohol drops but it seems to have been only in the past few years that the market has taken the idea seriously.

Funnily enough, a couple of Australia’s greatest styles have always featured wines lower in alcohol than many counterparts, particularly red wines. I’m talking here about Hunter Valley semillon and South Australian rieslings, which frequently had (and many still do) alcohol levels of only 10 to 12 percent, against many reds (and several whites, particularly chardonnays) featuring alcohol levels of 14 percent and more.

Edenvale's low alcohol range

It wasn’t too long ago that to be called wine, an Australian drop had to have a minimum 8 percent alcohol. This was only changed because imported wines that followed all the rules of their country of origin could have far lower alcohol levels and still be called wine.

Now, a beverage can have almost no alcohol and be called wine. Indeed, the accepted definition of a low alcohol wine something with less than 1 percent alcohol, while drops with less than 10 percent are referred to as lower-alcohol wines.

There seem to be two approaches to low and lower-alcohol wines. One sees the grapes taken through to full ferment and that product then de-alcoholised. The other sees grapes picked earlier at lower potential alcohol levels and then fermented, making wines with lower alcohol levels than the equivalent picked a riper sugar levels.

Sadly, one of the problems is that alcohol does contribute body and richness to wines and taking that out can leave the resultant beverage tasting thinner and less satisfying. That’s why, for me anyway, white wines seem better suited to the no and lower-alcohol regime.

Riesling, pinot gris, vermentino and sauvignon blanc seem better suited to the process but with advancing technologies, the market is seeing more acceptable roses and red wines.

One way producers can get around that lack of body is by leaving more residual sugar in the wine, which somewhat negates the idea of reducing the alcohol level to cut the carbohydrates. The drier (or less sugar) the better a drop is if you are looking to cut the calories.

Australian labels in the very low alcohol segment include Edenvale, Soul Tracker, McGuigan Zero and Lindemans, who also have a foot in the lower-alcohol segment with their Early Harvest range, featuring wines as the name suggests picked earlier in the vintage to give lower alcohol and calories.

Several New Zealand producers also offer lower-alcohol wines, with one relative newcomer in State of Light having three wines, a Marlborough sauvignon blanc and a pinot gris and rose from Hawke’s Bay. They’re made using spinning cone technology to take out the alcohol while preserving the varietal and regional characters. All sit around the 7 percent alcohol mark and can be found at Dan Murphy’s, BWS and First Choice outlets.

Lovers of big, rich higher-alcohol reds and whites are not going to be breaking down the doors for them but advancing technology means these styles are becoming much more approachable and acceptable and are earning their place in many people’s fridges.

For more background information, go to 

www.edenvale.com.au

www.mcguiganwines.com.au

www.lindemans.com.au

www.stateoflight.com.au

Rare treat: Riverland durif may not have the reputation of its Rutherglen counterparts but it is worth a go

 

Durif from the Riverina has not exactly been recognised as a quality wine style. So it came as something of a shock some years ago when Calabria’s Three Bridges durif performed very well at the Brisbane wine show, knocking off quite a few more fancied wines in the process.

However, if you’ve had the chance to taste the wine over the years, you would recognise that it is a distinctive style well worth seeking out.

It may not have the trademark firm  tannins of its Rutherglen counterparts but it has all the rich, blackberry and plum fruit for which the variety is noted. The tannins are still there but not as obvious as in its Rutherglen counterparts.

The latest vintage, the 2019 ($25), can be drunk now alongside hearty red meat dishes such as beef cheeks with polenta or lamb shanks but it will be even better in a decade.

It’s part of an impressive line-up of Calabria’s flagship Three Bridges wines, with other reds coming from the family’s Barossa Valley vineyards. There’s a 2019 Mourvedre ($35) from 1914 plantings, 2019 Grenache ($35) from vines aged more than 50 years, 2019 Shiraz ($25), vine age about 50 years and a 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon ($25), vine age 25-50 years.

The whites in the range are a Riverina Semillon ($30), Tumbarumba Chardonnay ($25) and a Riverina Botrytis Semillon ($25 a 375ml bottle).

They’re delicious wines that have always offered well above value for money and are worth trying.

You can find out more about the wines, the vineyards and the Calabria family at www.calabriawines.com.au

All together now: Australia's great wine co-ops may be a thing of the past but there's still a collective spirit in the industry

In the 1960s and 1970s grapegrower co-operatives played a major role in the Australian wine industry, notable in the Barossa and the Riverland. Kaiser Stuhl, founded in the 1930s, and the Berri and Renmano in the Riverland concentrated mainly on cheap and cheerful quaffing wines although both aspired to greater things, Kaiser Stuhl through its “Ribbon” wines, high-quality varietal wines from individual growers, and Renmano through its Chairman’s Selection series, chardonnay in particular doing extremely well on the Australian show circuit. Sadly, most have disappeared. Kaiser Stuhl was taken over by Penfolds and has all but disappeared from the scene, Berri Renmano joined Hardys to form BRL Hardy, which has been swallowed up in the Accolade Wines giant. However, all is not lost on the growers co-op scene with the appearance of a band called The Group, made up of more than 100 growers and their families from McLaren Vale and the Adelaide Hills.

Partnering with renowned chef Matt Moran, the collective has released four core wines, 2017 The Murder McLaren Vale Shiraz, 2019 The Shadow Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir, 2019 The Quiver McLaren Vale Grenache and 2018 The Fever McLaren Vale Grower Blend. All are available from Liquorland and First Choice outlets for about $34. Appropriately, the labels feature drawings of the creatures whose collective names their bear _ crows on The Murder, jaguars on The Shadow, cobras on The Quiver and stingrays on The Fever. And on the limited edition 2019 The Siege McLaren Vale shiraz appear herons (or storks, depending on your fancy).

Fruit for The Murder came from the vineyards of Brian and Valerie Cameron, third-generation grapegrowers, that for The Shadow from Mike and Judy Press and their son James, The Quiver from Dave and Jen Wright’s Wylpena Vineyard, The Fever (merlot, mourvedre and cabernet sauvignon) from Rob and Julie Symonds and the Siege from David and Ang Paxton, long-time promoters of biodynamic grapegrowing. This is an impressive collection of wines that are great reflections of their origins and are worth seeking out. You can find out more about The Group and its wines at www.thegroupwines.com.au

Left field: An intriguing result when you take an uncommon grape variety and give it unconventional treatment

The northern Italian grape variety savagnin is not widely grown in Australia. Indeed, it’s something of an accident that it is here at all. Grapegrowers and wineries looking for the “next big thing” were keen to plant the attractive Portuguese variety albarino locally and began obtaining cuttings they thought were this species. Unfortunately, due to a mix-up somewhere, what they planted was actually savagnin. Apart from a name that is far too close to a French variety much loved in the New Zealand wine district of Marlborough, savagnin is a very attractive variety in its own right, thought to be closely related to traminer and sharing some if its spicy, floral characters.

However it happened, Soumah winery in the Yarra Valley has taken this uncommon variety and subjected it to some highly unconventional practices. For starters it is wild fermented in a mix of clay eggs and seasoned oak and then left on lees and solids for some time. Then, the winery has been blending differing vintages, including the 2015, 2019 and 2020 crops, in a solera system similar to that used in making fortified wines such as muscat and topaque (what used to be known as tokay). However, what is produced is not a fortified style but still very much a table wine, albeit with extra complexity and depth and, dare we say it, funky characters. It shows citrus and spice on the nose, with a rich, complex palate and crisp finish, belying its age and time in barrel, with some components going back to 2015. It’s a delicious drop now, with Soumah suggesting pairing it with an aged comte cheese or any French cow’s milk cheese, or with a dish of pasta ribbons with asparagus, parmigiana Reggiano and a touch of cream. It also can stand up to richer chicken or lighter pork dishes. At this stage it is only available for pre-order to Soumah wine club members through the Soumah website (www.soumah.com.au) for about $80 a bottle. However, Soumah has a range of more conventional wines including its Savarro (based on savagnin) and a range of delicious Yarra Valley chardonnays and pinot noirs, plus pinot grigio, viognier, shiraz and cabernet sauvignon and a sparkling and a sweet wine made from the possibly even rarer Italian variety brachetto.