It is hard to talk about Australian wine without a mention of Penfolds, one of largest and oldest wineries from the land down under.
It all began back in 1844, when a British doctor named Christopher Penfold emigrated to Australia, and set up a small winery beside his home to produce medicinal tonics for the patients in his medical practice.
Sadly, the days of your family doctor prescribing a shot of hooch for whatever ails you are long gone, but the winery itself has grown to include plantings in all the major wine-growing regions of Australia.
Making wine was a much cruder enterprise in those days, with little attention paid to sanitation or quality control, so the keen scientific mind of a physician was a welcome addition to the nascent Australian wine industry of the day,
Business boomed when England stopped shipping convicts to Australia, and free immigration from Europe began in earnest. By the 1870s, Australian wines were consistently winning international competitions, much to the dismay of the stuffy old-world wine producers of Europe.
Penfolds was consistently winning awards, even in those early days, and it was not realized for some decades that the brains behind the operation was actually Mary Penfold, wife to the good doctor.
It seemed that Doctor Penfold was too busy in his medical practice to tend to the vineyard, so his wife Mary tended to the viticulture, aging, blending, and bottling, all by herself, which was considered entirely unbecoming for a respectable woman in those days.
Luckily for the world, Mary Penfold paid no heed to the naysayers who tut-tutted and cluck-clucked about the impropriety of a well-bred woman undertaking such an enterprise, and she continued to operate the winery following her husband’s death in 1870.
By the time that Mary Penfold retired in 1884, she had grown the small hobby winery to a size where it controlled a third of the Australian wine trade. Her daughter assumed control of the winery in 1884, and the winery is still controlled by the Penfold family to this very day.
Penfolds produces all of the expected old-world varietals like Chardonnay, Riesling, Merlot, Cab Sauv, etc. However, they are most famous for their signature Shiraz blend, known internationally as Penfolds Grange.
Penfolds Grange was first produced in 1951, following a tour of Bordeaux by the head winemaker of the time. The goal of the fledgling Penfolds Grange brand was to duplicate the qualities of the best wines of Bordeaux, which is still considered the gold standard to the present day.
Penfolds focused on the Shiraz grape, which is called Syrah in France, and started experimental blends with other noble grapes, eventually settling on a ratio of 92% Shiraz with 8% Cabernet Sauvignon, although the ratio changes slightly based on harvest yields and weather each year.
Consumers loved the Penfolds Grange, and it has remained a top seller for decades, with many wine pundits crediting that one brand with singlehandedly starting the Shiraz revolution in the Australian wine industry.
Today, Australia has the 2nd-largest plantings of Shiraz vineyards, a close second to the vast Syrah vineyards of France. As consumer tastes continue to gravitate towards the fruit-forward flavors of new world wines, your intrepid liquor reporter predicts that Aussie Shiraz will overtake French Syrah within the next ten years.
The Syrah / Shiraz grape produces a lush and full-bodied red wine, which coincidentally, is the same way your intrepid liquor reporter prefers his women.
Differences in terroir between the original Syrah plantings in France and the Shiraz vines in Australia account for noticeable differences in wines from these two regions, even though the grapes are the same.
French Syrah tends to have a more elegant and subtle flavor with a smoky dried fruit finish. Aussie Shiraz has a higher alcohol content, and is much more fruit-forward, with jammy flavors of fresh berries and a peppery aftertaste.
The new-world flavor of the Aussie Shiraz tends to be more approachable to new wine drinkers, much to the chagrin of the snooty French sommeliers who see the less elegant flavors as an affront to their long history with the varietal.
So, the next time you are perusing the Aussie aisle of your friendly neighbourhood booze merchant, pay some extra attention to the Penfolds section, and take home a piece of Australian wine history!
