Fewer things excite a table of wine nerds more than the possible inclusion of a Beechworth chardonnay in a blind tasting. “This is from Beechworth, right?”, I myself asked anyone within earshot recently at such an event. The respect and anticipation wines from this tiny Victorian region garner is warranted.
Over the last 10 years, the Halliday team has reviewed a touch over 500 wines from the historic gold mining town – an impact that feels as light as a speck of dust atop a cloud when you consider we look at over 8000 wines annually. Yet despite its size, both in volume and as Australia’s smallest geographical indication (GI), a whopping 88 per cent of these wines achieved 90 points or over. This fact alone should provoke an audible gasp.
Beechworth doesn't boast a significant cellar door presence, but this is part of the charm, and the punters keen enough to book a tasting appointment are rewarded with a more intimate setting and experience. This is how I found myself taking in the breathtaking views at Savaterre, in the golden Everton Upper stretch opposite Beechworth royalty Giaconda and neighbouring Serengale and Domenica.
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I asked winemaker and owner Keppell Smith what makes his site, as well as the region, so conducive to growing remarkable chardonnay. “Do you want the real answer or the made-up answer?”, he replied. Greedily, I wanted both. “I dunno and I dunno”. Perhaps that sounds nonplussed, and maybe there’s a little ego there too, but truthfully, he doesn’t know because he hasn’t had to fix what isn’t broken – “I don’t need a reason,” he said. And he wasn't the only one.
It’s not all about chardonnay, though. The region can and does produce outstanding examples of other varieties. The now-sold Traviarti vineyard (watch this space) is home to arguably the nation’s best plantings of nebbiolo. Fighting Gully Road is producing sangiovese that could hold its own on the world stage. Raquel and Hugh Jones of Weathercraft have invested heavily in cultivating the Iberian varieties tempranillo and alvarinho. And Sorrenberg gamay, well. It brings a tear to the eye.
That’s not to say there aren’t challenges. Beechworth shiraz is practically a hand-sell – despite its resounding quality. The power and finesse of these vines planted in red clay and granite soils can be remarkable in the best examples.
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The Savaterre Reserve Shiraz has received 95 points for the last three consecutive vintages in the Companion. Castagna is also a producer of great significance for crafting shiraz of purity and elegance, as is Weathercraft.
Some wineries have even tried rebranding their shiraz as ‘syrah’ in a bid to evoke a sense of style. It hasn’t had quite the desired effect for some producers, and while Keppell says visitors to the winery “love it if they try it,” shiraz still isn’t moving from cellar to table with ease and so is predominantly destined for international markets. As it stands today, Savaterre has only 15 rows of shiraz left, having grafted most of the existing vines to chardonnay and, more recently nebbiolo.
Giaconda winemaker Rick Kinzbrunner has also pivoted, ceasing production of shiraz from the famed Warner vineyard and focusing his energy instead on roussanne, with incredible success. Peter Bartholomew, owner of newcomer Granjoux – one of the nation’s most romantic replanting projects – is consistently grafting 10 per cent of each vineyard’s shiraz plantings to chardonnay, year on year. However, it still cannot satisfy the demands of its rapidly evolving cult following.
It begs the question: Does the region collectively need to educate and entice the masses with its take on Australia’s best-known variety, or should it continue to pave the yellow brick road to chardonnay town?
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The decommissioned Beechworth Asylum, Mayday Hills, is home to the shared winery of Fighting Gully Road and A. Rodda. It’s deathly quiet there. On the surface, it looks a bit like a concrete carpark fenced in by a few dwellings, comprising an eclectic mix of galvanised steel sheds and ’60s brick architecture. A platform lift which descends into the cellar – undoubtedly the envy of Beechworth’s entire community of vignerons – gives a drone-like perspective to the barrels and clay walls beneath.
There is something disconcerting about discussing wine in the presence of wine maturing in barrels, but I asked Mark Walpole for his thoughts on the region’s excellent growing conditions anyway. Aside from high vine density, which he attributes to positive viticultural outcomes in most sites, he also notes climatic contributions when comparing the King Valley to the golden granitic hill of Beechworth.
“In the valleys, you tend to get high humidity at nighttime, so all of a sudden, the vine stress is being reduced. Whereas up here, if you look at the humidity overnight, it never gets very high. So, there's always a level of stress.” It’s this beneficial stress that forces the vine to work harder and produce favourable elements of concentration and flavour in the berries.
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Mark seems to enjoy an element of stress. He recently planted a new vineyard in the cooler sub-region of Stanley, about 10 minutes outside of the Beechworth township but still within the borders of its GI. As well as chardonnay, the site contains the first Aussie plantings of the Swiss variety petite arvine. The site was historically mined extensively for gold, and this became more apparent after heavy rain sunk a few of the new plantings into previously covered mineshafts. I asked him if he might put a camera down the shaft to see the extent, and he said with a smirk, “Not that one. There’s a dead sheep down there.”
On my last day in town, over a beer at the Stanley pub, I pondered the possibility that the producers might be gatekeeping a trove of well-kept viticultural and winemaking secrets. Perhaps it’s humility, or perhaps it’s more likely because they haven’t had to develop the well-rehearsed taglines of marketing-speak that other regions coin in the hope of drumming up a sale. I’m more inclined to believe the latter.
Beechworth wines sell themselves. It sure is tough out there. But it feels a little less tough here.
