The search for greatness

When I was young, I considered the wine poured into my sherry glass every Christmas Day a great wine. It was wine, it tasted great … ergo, it was a great wine.

How I judged such things then was rudimentary. I was eight years old. The wines of the world were just a little beyond my grasp. Later, the sweetly fizzy Barossa Pearl won my affections. For a while it was even better than Mateus rosé´, and that was imported.

Clearly, greatness in wine means different things to different people at different stages in their drinking lives. It's personal taste.

Getting a panel to discuss the notion of greatness is asking for an interminable debate, or a fractious one, or both. But it's a good excuse to open some mighty fine wines.

The props were a clutch of wines Melbourne Food and Wine Festival's wine committee agreed showed greatness for one reason or another, or a whole heap of reasons. Over two hours, 10 points to greatness would be ticked. I suspect there are more.

First up, Dagueneau 2010 Pur Sang (Pure Blood), a most un-savvy-like sauvignon blanc from Pouilly Fume. Didier Dagueneau, hairy, wildly eccentric and a darling of the wine media, was killed in an ultralight plane crash in 2008, leaving a cult following for his wines, making, by comparison, other Pouilly Fume producers and their wines appear conservative and meek.

Here, it was decided by the panel, was a wine made great by the person rather than the vineyard (1). For the counter argument was the Raveneau 2009 Les Clos from Chablis, off a tiny handkerchief of land - just 6000 square metres. ''Greatness lies in the terroir,'' Franck Moreau says (2) succinctly.

The Chablis stamp - wet stone, flint, apple, nougat, honey - was there along with a little Raveneau texture and unfailing beauty. It was also single vineyard, increasingly seen by some as a kind of short cut to greatness. It isn't.

That kind of talk also denies the mastery of the blender. Penfolds Grange would not be acknowledged as the world-class wine it is if that was the case.

The 2006 Grange, one of the strongest vintages in recent years and blended from three regions, illustrated the point beautifully. Whether you approve or not, Grange is also highly collectable (3), rewarding those who cellar for taste as well as profit.

Age-worthiness (4), so underplayed, has to be a consideration.

''To me,'' Jancis Robinson says, ''all great wines have the ability to get better and better in the bottle, with few exceptions.'' We were tasting the Tyrrell's 2006 Vat 1 semillon; the Hunter Valley seven-year-old was still a juvenile, capable of another decade of good drinking easily. Its longevity is at the heart of what makes it astounding. As a one-year-old, it's a different story: gangly, acid, water and neutral flavour, and hardly astounding.

The Vat 1 also shows you don't have to pay big dollars for greatness. It's $60 but wasn't the cheapest in the line-up. That was the darkly handsome Spanish amontillado from Equipo Navazos at $50. These are the exceptions. Most of the time, greatness equals big demand, which equals big bucks. You have to pay (5). History (6) is an essential part of the debate. The house of Trimbach, whose '05 Clos St Hune riesling is way too young to even contemplate drinking, dates to 1628. Mosel producer J.J. Prum, who makes a wine for every bucket list, has the remarkable, luscious Wehlener Sonnenuhr (sundial of Wehlen) auslese, which goes back to the 1920s.

The two producers have been making wine for decades and have the runs on the board. A newcomer, with no history and little background, simply can't produce greatness.

''I like to see a track record,'' Robinson says. We all do. J. J. Prum also delivers on another point - excelling in its attention to detail in the vineyard to produce great grapes (7). In 1968, Tenuta San Guido broke with Tuscan tradition when it released Sassicaia, a Bordeaux-style blend. It definitely made a statement, changing the way fellow producers thought about non-Italian grapes and introducing a new term to the wine lexicon, Super Tuscan. Importantly, it influenced others to pursue the daring style.

While Sassicaia can be irritatingly inconsistent in quality, it challenged the status quo (8). ''It was an absolute game changer, a trigger for the renaissance of Italian wine,'' Michael Hill-Smith says.

How do you measure greatness in the glass? ''All great wine must have three things,'' James Halliday says. ''Line, length and balance (9). Unless it's got balance when it's young, it will never be great when old.'' A great taste is seamless, it doesn't suddenly change gear or deviate, something along the lines of the beguiling Armand Rousseau 2007 Chambertin.

So, we've ticked off the winemaker, the vineyard and history, as well as paying attention to the quality of the grapes to produce an exceptional-tasting wine that ages well, and yes, is also expensive. It can also influence others and be highly collectable.

That leaves just one thing …

*Does it move you (10)?

What they looked for

Who: The panel comprised Australian wine writer James Halliday, British wine writer Jancis Robinson, South Australian winemaker Michael Hill-Smith and Sydney sommelier Franck Moreau.

What: The event was Great Wines of the World: An Exploration, conducted as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

The 10 signs of greatness:

1. A great winemaker.
2. A distinguished winemaking site or terroir.
3. Collectability.
4. Age-worthiness.
5. Price.
6. History.
7. Quality grapes.
8. A game changer.
9. Taste and balance in the glass.
10. (See last paragraph*)

Great wines of the world … well, some of them

Dagueneau 2010 Pur Sang, Loire Valley, $150-$200.

Raveneau 2009 Les Clos, Chablis, $250.

Tyrrell's 2006 Vat 1 semillon, Hunter Valley, $60.

Trimbach 2005 Clos St Hune riesling, Alsace, $250.

J. J. Prum 2010 Wehlener Sonnenuhr auslese goldkapsel, Mosel, $170.

Domaine Armand Rousseau 2007 Chambertin, Burgundy, $510.

Tenuta San Guido 2008 Sassicaia, Tuscany, $250.

Ridge 2005 Monte Bello cabernet, California, $320.

Guigal 2006 La Mouline, Northern Rhone, $450.

Penfolds 2006 Grange, South Australia, $650.

NV Equipo Navazos bota de amontillado ''Bota No'' No.23, Spain, $50.

NV Chambers rare muscadelle, Rutherglen, $300-$350.

Listed in tasting order.