Last week wine writer and critic James Suckling set sail down under to embark on a two week trip across Australia with the aim of tasting and rating over 2500 wines, in an apparent attempt to discover what he feels to be “real Australian wine”. Respectfully, James – Where have you been for the past five years? ‘Real Australian Wine’ has been produced, communicated and thoroughly enjoyed for a long time and we fear all the hoo-ha surrounding your visit is outdated, it would seem that you were clearly not invited to the opening party…Or, and as per our title, you are years late.

His first stop was Western Australia where James inevitably spent a bit of time in Margaret River and whilst comfortably sat at his table, ploughed his way through 465 wines. Now, 2500 wines over two weeks roughly works out to be 178 wines a day, across fourteen days, so we realise that this is a fair amount of wine to get through, but we can’t but help think that it also feels a little soulless and a little rushed. Simply a conveyer belt of samples, we guess not dissimilar to the en primeur tastings at Bordeaux which are held in a room with hundreds of wines to get through. But the Bordeaux tastings are of wines from one region and are merely designed to score one against the other, to get a sense of the vintage and to be objectively critical and assess age-ability. But Mr Suckling, as respectful as we are of him, is claiming to be on a voyage of discovery and a quest for “real Aussie wine” (hash-tagged on Twitter) and we can’t help but wonder, why go all the way to Australia just to sit at a table in a hotel lobby? How can one get a genuine sense of what is happening in the industry right at this moment, without tasting with the producers? 

Ok, of course he cannot be expected to visit 2500 wineries in two weeks but it would be nice to see and hear a bit more from the producers and about what life and the industry is like for them.

Perhaps 2500 wines isn’t completely necessary if it meant that he is able to visit more wineries, and talk to more producers to actually be able to define what is “real Aussie wine”. We're sorry to burst this bubble but real Australian wine was discovered some time ago and has been championed and sold in the UK for several years now.

Anyway, Mr Suckling is well under way on his voyage of discovery across the country and is keen to show us that Australia doesn’t just produce big, jammy fruit bomb wines, although we knew that anyway! In Margaret River it is all about freshness and balance, the two things that Mr Suckling was looking forward to experiencing from the region and we have to say, he couldn’t have chosen two better words to describe them, especially the Chardonnays. 

Australian Chardonnay is well and truly on top of its game, something that we hope will be highlighted by James Suckling as he endeavours to discover real Aussie wine. Thankfully though, we have already discovered it and are continuing to fill our shelves with it, almost by the week. The freshness, elegance and precision of today’s Australian wines are the perfect indication of the level of wine being produced in the country today and we feel our portfolio offers an insight into some of Australia’s very best “real Aussie wines”.

Hoddles Creek Estate Chardonnay 2017

Yarra Valley

95 Points - James Halliday 

"This is Wickhams Road's twin playing games with you, for there is that little bit more of every facet of Wickhams Road present in this wine, even its colour is that little bit greener. It's the extra dimension of the faintly reductive aftertaste that draws me back for more."

£17.50 per bottle

**Available for delivery late July / early August 2019**

Hoddles Creek Estate Chardonnay 2018

Yarra Valley

93+ Points - Gary Walsh 
(The Wine Front) "Juicy and peachy, spiced oatmeal, fennel and a little stuck match. It’s flavoursome with ripe pear and nectarine flavour, flinty texture, an appealing grapefruit cut to the acidity, and a long, well-defined chalky finish. Feel the quality of quiet confidence. It’s a great thing to drink even as a young wine, though a couple of years will help it along too."

£17.50 per bottle

**Available for delivery late July / early August 2019**

2015 Deep Woods
Hillside Chardonnay

Margaret River

James Halliday "A number of batches picked, each whole bunch-pressed to used French oak barrels for wild fermentation and 6 months maturation on lees. Very much a la mode, reducing the impact of oak to the texture, not flavour, picking the grapes at the crucial moment to ensure maximum varietal expression (no wannabe sauvignon blanc), yet retain crisp acidity, and offering a Margaret River chardonnay at a mouthwatering price."

£17.95 per bottle

2017 Nocturne
Chardonnay

Margaret River

Acclaimed Margaret River winemaker Julian Langworthy and wife Alana are turning heads with their own boutique label, Nocturne. This Chardonnay is their take on the famous regional style, with great success. Born and raised in the region Julian has developed close relationships with some of Margaret River's finest growers, with this Chardonnay coming from a single vineyard in Treeton, planted to some of the region's best-suited clones.

£27.95 per bottle

2011 Flowstone
Chardonnay

Margaret River

96 Points - James Halliday 

"Hand-picked, whole bunch-pressed, fermented in French oak (15% new), with natural mlf; 11 months in oak. Gleaming green-gold; the cashew/walnut complexity of the bouquet carries through to the palate, but here takes second place to its intense pink grapefruit core. Awesome second-tier wine."

£23.95 per bottle

2015 Flowstone Queen of the Earth Chardonnay

Margaret River

97 Points - James Halliday  "The 'lucky' 7th vintage, whole-bunch pressed, fermented in French barriques (50% new), 100% mlf, matured for 18 months. The brilliant straw-green hue says there's something special here, for it's incredibly detailed, precise and balanced, the three spears of perfect varietal fruit, high quality oak and acidity all unsheathed, but not required to be thrown. Only 88 dozen made."

£27.95 per bottle

2016 Watershed
Awakening Single Block Chardonnay

Margaret River

98 Points -
James Halliday Top 100 2017 

"The soaring intensity and precision of the wine obliterates any comment about the oak. It is one of those uncommon chardonnays that demands you give it time, the more the merrier. Grapefruit is the masthead, but it gathers around it a suite of flavours that keep its energy and drive on track."

£33.95 per bottle

2017 Watershed
Awakening Single Block Chardonnay

Margaret River

This Chardonnay for the Awakening range has been produced using handpicked fruit from the Watershed Estate vineyard. The wine exhibits intense aromas of citrus and stone fruit accompanied with notes of spice and roasted cashew nuts. On the palate, the dense creamy texture is complemented by grapefruit and mineral notes followed by a long nutty finish. 

£29.50 per bottle

The image of Australian wine has suffered in the past from volume-lead brands that had dominated the Australian section of supermarket shelves, but recent reports suggest that this is changing. According to Wine Australia, Australian wine is number one in the UK off-trade which consists of both supermarkets and independent retailers and is continuing to grow with exports of Australian wine to the UK growing in value by 4% in 2018.

This is no surprise to us but the interesting fact to point out is that export volume actually declined by 3%. The volume sector is dominated by familiar names which ship bulk wine, some of which are bottled in the UK, to fill the supermarket shelves. This is very muchAccolade’s niche in the UK, having the largest bottling and labelling facility in Europe which is based in Bristol. These premium wines are a far cry from the bulk wines of the past which were responsible for previously tarnishing the reputation of many of Australia’s wines and grapes. All I can say is that anyone who is still strictly opposed to drinking Aussie Chardonnay is missing out on many of the best value chardys around. Some familiar names such as Hardys, Wolf Blass and Penfolds can all be found in the sub £10 section of supermarket shelves but how many, bar those of us that are lucky enough to be in the know, are aware of the premium wines from these producers? Ok, maybe Penfolds Grange is famous enough but how many UK wine drinkers are aware that Wolf Blass Black Label is almost as iconic as Grange, and how many know about the more premium offerings from Hardys such as the Eileen’s, Thomas Hardy or HRB?

I have a brother who lives in Australia and a few years back, I asked him what he drank over there to which he replied, “Hardys.” I’m embarrassed to admit that I smirked when he said that as, all I knew of Hardys back then was the volume brands on the supermarket shelves. Before joining The Vinorium I worked for a merchant that stocked 50% French wine, a large percentage of that being Burgundy to which I remain a big fan. But to taste the Eileen Hardy Chardonnay for the first time was a revelation.  Having been paying upwards of £40 a bottle for a Burgundy of the same quality left me feeling that one, I’d been overpaying and two, ashamed of my previous perception of the Hardys brand. So much of the price tag of Burgundy wine is attached to the name and this is no wonder given that in 2017, the average cost of a Cote d’Or vineyard was 5 million euros a hectare. Whilst we’re on the subject of Burgundy, I had also been lucky enough to drink a bottle of Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru 1998 which I paid £80 for. This is definitely on the list of my all-time greatest Pinots, but I do wonder how much of this is being led by what is written on the label. I can say with genuine honesty, that I got as much enjoyment out of the Glaetzer-Dixon Reveur and the soon to be stocked, Sailor Seeks Horse Pinot Noir at half the price which both sit alongside the Charmes-Chambertin as my three all-time greats.

To get back to subject, what does it mean for Australian wine to be seeing continuous growth in terms of value but a decline in terms of volume?

It means that overall, the UK palate is becoming more refined and more people are choosing to explore the premium side of Australian wine. A recent poll has shown that the last year has seen a 30% increase in consumers paying more for a bottle of wine to drink at home, and people would rather spend money on a good wine than spend it on a night out. There has also been an increase by a third, of people stating that they won’t buy wine in pubs, which is understandable, as a less than average bottle of wine in a pub will cost the same as a good bottle of wine bought from a retailer. The interesting fact is that the average price of a bottle of wine sold by UK retailers (a statistic that will include and most likely be led by supermarkets) remains at just £4.92, a price point that is covered by the large, volume led brands which are in decline. The average price of a bottle sold by The Vinorium is £32.60 and the fact that our customer base continues to increase each week is a clear indication of the country’s shift towards quality.

 The volume led brands will always have their place and can offer some good value for many. But perhaps a lot of people are realising that as current UK duty on a bottle of wine stands at £2.23 for still wines with alcohol of 15% and below and £2.86 for fizz, VAT is 20%, add this to the many other costs which will include packaging and shipping and of course the retailer’s and the importer’s margins, then for a low cost bottle of wine, very little of what you pay is actually for wine. The majority of UK retailers will buy from UK based importers so there will be the importer’s margin as well as the retailer’s margin.

This reminds me to mention that over the weekend, I enjoyed a bottle of Akitu A1 (very good by the way) which I bought from The Vinorium before joining the team. The reason I bought it was that in my current job back then, I sold Akitu’s second wine, A2 for the same price that The Vinorium was selling the A1 for and couldn’t work out why. I’ve subsequently realised that The Vinorium were the first to ship the Akitu wines so are selling it with only one margin. We had bought it from an importer so obviously had their margin to contend with and were listing the less premium wine for the same price. At The Vinorium, we are in a privileged position to be able to ship many wines direct from producers, evident in our growing list of exclusives which is why we can offer our wines at the price we do.

The nation is beginning to realise that spending a few pounds more on a bottle of Australian wine will reward them with a quality of wine that far surpasses the extra investment. Australian wine scooped up a staggering third of all the medals at the London Wine Competition and continues to be the UK’s number one. It is reassuring to know that perceptions are changing, and the understanding of quality wine is improving.  People are moving away from the volume led brands and focussing on quality as we (the UK’s number one Australian wine merchant) are positioned right at the forefront of this. With Australia’s wine exports to the UK growing by 4% in value, it does lead me to wonder how much of this growth we are responsible for?