Take a leaf out of a Kiwi book
AFTER A WEEK AT THE triennial Pinot Noir New Zealand show, many Australians were asking why this country has no event of similar calibre. With 500 delegates, including the cream of wine writers from Britain and other countries, the four-day event showcased the pinot noir grape, with exhibitions and educational activities at which up to 400 wines were sampled.
Australia could and should do something similar, and the obvious grape to feature is chardonnay. Experts around the world are now agreeing with locals that Australia's chardonnay is second only to Burgundy. Leading English writer Tim Atkin says he believes Australia is making the best chardonnay in the world - after Burgundy, of course. We should strike while the iron is hot.
These thoughts recurred while tasting the latest chardonnays from Margaret River winery McHenry Hohnen Vintners with its co-founder, David Hohnen. He is a fit-looking, square-jawed and serious man who doesn't laugh or smile easily but has a wicked sense of humour. He prefers to play the straight man. Hohnen has runs on the board: he founded Cape Mentelle and Cloudy Bay before starting McHenry Hohnen with his brother-in-law, Murray McHenry. It's a family affair, with Hohnen's daughter Freya involved, and her partner, Ryan Walsh, was chief winemaker until recently. McHenry is managing director and Hohnen is brand manager.
Hohnen has been somewhat reborn: he is less visible in the trade than he used to be, preferring to stay home and tend his garden and his animals - sheep and pigs for the gourmet meat market. He and his team are aware of sustainability, and vineyard manager Mike Sleegers is in charge of a thoughtful vineyard program, which Hohnen says is neither biodynamic nor organic but similar to both. ''We call ourselves biological farmers,'' he says. ''We don't use pesticides or herbicides and we apply biodynamic sprays such as Preparation 501. It's about having rich soils that are alive with creatures - worms, fungi and bacteria. It's about delivering the organic form of the elements to the vine, which will then express the minerality.''
Hohnen has always been interested in vineyards first and foremost. This stems from his education in California in the 1960s - not at the famous Davis campus of the University of California, but at the state's other wine college, Fresno. ''Fresno was different,'' he says. ''Davis was for academics, Fresno was for viticulturalists. At Davis you had (Professor Roger) Boulton and other scientists who produced the guru Brian Croser, who came back to Australia and preached the gospel of low pH. Our wine science lecturer at Fresno was off with the fairies. But we had a great viticulture guy, Vince Petrucci, and we had a winery and we taught ourselves to make wine by doing it. I paid for most of my education with two crops of carignan.''
All of which is quoted here only to make the point that Hohnen is a man of the earth, a son of the soil, who understands that it's the grapes that determine the qualities and attributes of the wine.
But back to the chardonnays. They were made by Ryan Walsh, who trained at Curtin University in Perth. ''He has his own way,'' Hohnen says. Walsh semi-retired at the end of 2012, and his deputy, Trent Carroll, has taken over as chief.
There's no doubt Hohnen approves of the wines he's hawking around the trade. There are three McHenry Hohnen 2011 chardonnays, from three vineyards. The wines were made the same way, by ambient yeast fermentation in barrels, most of which are not new, and given the same time in oak, on their yeast lees. The clones are all the same - Gingin or Mendoza, which is the traditional Margaret River clone. So the only variable that explains the differences in the wines - and they are all quite different - is the vineyard sites, and specifically the soils. They are all 13.5 per cent alcohol and all screwcapped.
McHenry Hohnen Calgardup Brook Chardonnay, $35
This is on deep loam flats by a creek, and because it's low-lying it misses the first and last sun of the day. Its grapes have the highest acidity. The wine is the most typical Margaret River regional style, with powerful Gingin-clone grapefruit flavour underlined by toasted hazelnut oak-derived characters. Full-bodied, powerful, lingering and totally satisfying. I scored it 95/100.
McHenry Hohnen Burnside Chardonnay, $35
On black micaceous soil, these vines are on a hillside, north-facing and have never been irrigated. The vines are the oldest, planted in 1982. Hohnen used to take its grapes for Cape Mentelle chardonnay. The wine has a rich nose of vanilla and malt, and is weighty with a touch of broadness: not as powerful and balanced as Calgardup nor as fine and penetrating as Rocky Road, but very good. 91/100.
McHenry Hohnen Rocky Road Vineyard Chardonnay, $35
The soil at this vineyard is classic Margaret River ironstone gravel over granite, north-facing. This is a puzzling wine, which shows oxidative nuances in its malt and marzipan aromas. Its colour is the most developed. There are roast-hazelnut aromas amid a complex bouquet, and the palate is linear and penetrating, lean and non-fruity, with a definite savour. It seems to lack fruit, but when I try the wines again with food, it's transformed and is the best of the three. I tried it with unsalted nuts, then salmon gravlax with sour cream and chives on biscuits, then grilled chicken marinated in lemon and garlic. The wine came into its own, its piercing intensity and leanness penetrating, lifting and carrying the flavours of the food. I end up enthusiastically scoring it 94/100. Another example of how food alters the flavour of wine, and how hard it is to make such decisions on a judging bench. Wine can be unpredictable, and knowing David Hohnen, I suspect this might bring a grin even to his poker-face.
huon@huonhooke.com.
