The South Australian Wine Story

Prestige Australia’s very best wines Penfolds Grange has become a global phenomenon. Headlines are generated weeks before the August release of each new vintage, and chief winemaker Peter Gago is as likely to be at a launch event inNewYork, London or Hong Kong as in Adelaide. When he is in town, however, the long queue waiting before dawn at the picturesque Magill Estate Winery for the traditional 7.30 am first tasting – and first chance to purchase – highlights his, and the wine’s, status. Yet while Grange is unquestionably magnificent (the 2008 vintage is the only Australian wine to be awarded a maximum 100 points by both Robert Parker Jr and Wine Spectator magazine), it is very much just the icing on a spectacularly good cake. All but two of the 16 Australian wine brands ever awarded 100 points by Parker were South Australian. In the most recent Langton’s Classification of AustralianWine , released in 2018, 13 of the 22 wines rated as “exceptional” – the very best in Australia – are from South Australia. So too are more than half of those in the “outstanding” category. In all, 75 South Australian wines are listed, significantly more than the 61 from all other states combined. Thirty come from Barossa/Eden Valley alone. They include the Rockford Black Shiraz, the first ever sparkling wine to be listed. The judges suggest it is the best example of a “distinctive, historic and uniquely Australian wine style”. The Langton’s classification is considered the authoritative guide to Australia’s premium wines and one of the most comprehensive outside Europe. Updated every five years, it measures excellence over a sustained period of at least 10 vintages. The South Australian wines listed as exceptional alongside Grange include another Penfolds gem, the Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon, and two from the historic Henschke vineyards of Eden Valley – the Hill of Grace Vineyard Shiraz (considered by some judges to be the best of the best) and the Mount Edelstone Shiraz. Six Barossa wines are in the top category – five classic Shiraz alongside the iconic Seppeltsfield 100-Year-Old Para Vintage Tawny – as are three from the Clare Valley. Some of the great names of Australian wine are represented, from Torbreck and Rockford to Grosset, Jim Barry and Wynns Coonawarra Estate. Not surprisingly, these same wineries achieve 5-Star ratings in James Halliday’s annual listing of wineries with a track record of sustained excellence, alongside other exceptional South Australian wineries such as Petaluma, Peter Lehmann, Shaw + Smith, Grant Burge, Wirra Wirra, Wolf Blass and Yalumba. More than half of Australia’s 5-Star wineries in Halliday’s 2019 Wine Companion are located in South Australia. South Australia’s reputation for crafting prestigious wines of distinction is also reflected in a constant stream of national and international honours, for both our established champions and a new generation of world-beaters. Wolf Blass Wines has been named International Winemaker of the Year no less than three times at the prestigious International Wine & Spirit Competition in London, for example, while South Australia winemakers have dominated Australia’s most famous wine trophy, the Jimmy Watson, winning 67% of the trophies awarded since 1962. Peter Gago. Image: Royal Agricultural & Horticultural Society of SA The South Australian Wine Story 05