Australia's 10 best winemakers
We asked 100 wine experts to decide the country's top 10 wine producers - and found a male domain has been invaded.
In 2003 we dared to ask the question: who are Australia's best winemakers?
Who got the pulse racing, the lips smacking in anticipation of not just a wine but something magical and truly uplifting in a glass?
The results showed a mix of old-school, technological brilliance and new wave, with riesling winemaker extraordinaire John Vickery of Leo Buring fame in first place followed by Petaluma founder Brian Croser and chardonnay master Rick Kinzbrunner of Giaconda.
Today, we revisit the question.
Who are the best living/working winemakers in Australia? We have asked 100 winemakers, wine buyers and sommeliers across the nation and here are the results.
As you will see, a lot has changed in 11 years.
In 2003, there were no women in the top three. There were two in the Top 10 with the highest placing going to Vanya Cullen at number four.
In 2014, three women are now considered among the best winemakers in Australia. Is this a step towards greater recognition in what has been a traditionally male domain? It seems that way.
Eight winemakers (including both ''equal'' fourth-place getters) in the 2014 Top 10 represent small wineries where some of the most idiosyncratic and exciting winemaking developments are taking place in Australia.
But it also appears that the role models many winemakers hold dear today are long-time industry stalwarts. Five winemakers in 2014 also appeared in the Top 10 back in 2003.
Gold, Silver and Bronze winners are:
1. LOUISA ROSE Yalumba
To her Barossa Valley winery colleagues she is Lou but to her admirers - and she has legions among her colleagues - she is a "rockstar", a "leader" and a "great communicator".
Louisa Rose's correct title is head of winemaking at Yalumba and the Hill-Smith Family Vineyards but in simpler terms, she is the custodian of both Yalumba tradition and innovation at the 165-year-old winery. It's a big task but one she has been groomed for since her first vintage at Yalumba in 1992 straight from her wine studies and her parents' vineyard in the Yarra Valley.
Her gifts as a taster and winemaker have been on display ever since.
She is acknowledged as one of the country's top riesling makers, the voice of Eden Valley riesling under Yalumba's Pewsey Vale label. And then there's viognier. It's her baby, the wine she is now most closely associated with, simply because Yalumba dared to believe the Rhone Valley white grape had a future in this country.
"She took on the winemaking challenge with gusto," recalls her mentor, former Yalumba chief winemaker, Brian Walsh. He considers Yalumba is the most influential producer of viognier in the world today due in large part to her work.
The great viognier project turned into an often frustrating search for flavour.
"Of all the grape varieties I deal with, viognier as relatively no flavour until it is ripe," she explains. "You've got to be patient and then one day you'll taste apricots and honeysuckle (in the grapes). Gorgeous!"
Walsh recruited Rose for her "intelligence" and "practicality" but soon found, he says, a person with a profound work ethic and ability to multi-task. She is not only chief winemaker but farmer, senior wine judge and wine industry representative on many boards and councils. As the chair of the board at the Australian Wine Research Institute, co-chair of the South Australian Wine Industry Council and member of the South Australian Agribusiness Council (among other out-of-hours pursuits) she is one of the most influential winemakers in the country.
● Signature wine? Yalumba The Virgilius Eden Valley viognier $50.
● Louisa Rose's top winemakers: Iain Riggs (Brokenwood), Sue Hodder (Wynn's), John Duval (John Duval Wines).
Read more at: http://www.goodfood.com.au/good-food/drink/australias-10-best-winemakers-20140802-3d0ag.html
In the Netherlands Yalumba wines are imported by Verbunt Wijnkopers www.verbunt.nl
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