Around Australia in 20 wines: Matthew Jukes’ selection

When you notch up 20 years doing something, there is always an urge to look back, picking out the highlights and the lowlights while trying to plot a course for the future.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores of 20 top Australian wines to try

I used to host a wine slot on the BBC’s London FM radio station GLR back in the 1990s. This short 10-minute slot during the breakfast show turned into a half-hour spot and, to pad out the weekly wine tastings and anecdotes, I took to interviewing notable wine personalities. As it turned out, touring Australian winemakers usually landed at Heathrow in the early morning, so it was a doddle for them to come straight to the studio in time for my show. I interviewed many of the big names back then, and it was during this time that I learned more than I could possibly imagine about the stories behind the great Australian wines and winemakers.

I had always been a fan of Australian wines since the very beginning of my wine trade career in the late 1980s. I worked at The Barnes Wine Shop (now a branch of Lea & Sandeman) in southwest London, and it occurred to me that the Cabernet Sauvignons from, say, Cape Mentelle or Wynns were more attractive, accurate and delicious than the clarets at the same price level. Peter Lehmann’s or Tim Adams’ Shiraz trumped the various Rhône wines. Rosemount’s Chardonnay demolished inexpensive white Burgundies, while Pike’s Riesling outclassed the various Alsace and German counterparts.

Decades of value

My taste memories are incredibly vivid from all those years ago, and while I didn’t quite realise it at the time, I was already well on my way to becoming an Australian wine advocate.

From 1990 and for the next 26 years, I wrote a wine list for Bibendum Restaurant in Chelsea, central London. One of my favourite coups was buying the entire UK allocation of 120 bottles of Torbreck’s 1996 RunRig Shiraz. I sold it for £32.50 a bottle on the wine list and left it at this price after Robert Parker awarded it a perfect 100 points and the retail price in New York hit $1,000 a bottle. The Australian section of the wine list had more than 100 bins and our sommeliers and customers loved these wines.

From 1999 until 2022, I wrote a weekly column for the Daily Mail, and I occasionally look back at old articles to remind myself of wines that caught my eye in the old days. So many of the best-value wines on the shelves during this two-decade period were Australian – and they still are. But it was my third book, The Wine List 2003, that inspired me to come up with the idea for my 100 Best Australian Wines report.

The Wine List detailed my favourite 250 wines sold in UK retail and, in the 2003 edition, 50 of these were Australian. Tasmanian Pinots, Pemberton and Adelaide Hills Chardonnays, Clare Rieslings, sparklers and sweeties; good old Penfolds St Henri 1998 was £29.99, and cool-climate Shiraz was already a thing. It drives me up the wall when people think that Australia only used to make big, blocky, clumsy wines when, 20 years ago, delicacy and balance were already living and breathing mantras.

Ever on the move

Throughout my whole wine life, I have been a recommender and not a wine critic. There is so much to be said about delicious wine, and I prefer not to waste words on those bottles I don’t like. So, 20 years ago, I decided to move away from being a generalist and start to specialise in the wine styles that I loved. I focused my efforts on Bordeaux, Burgundy, Piedmont and Australia. After all, these four wine regions make up 90% of my own cellar.

100 Best was born, and I launched the first 2003 edition at the London Wine Trade Fair. I invited the Australian High Commissioner to bring a degree of formality to proceedings.

Back then, the list was two sides of A4 paper with heroic wines such as Jansz Tasmania 1999, Leeuwin Art Series Chardonnay 2000, Mount Pleasant Lovedale Semillon 2003, Shaw & Smith M3 Chardonnay 2002, Cullen Diana Madeline 2001, Kooyong Haven Pinot Noir 2001 and Penfolds Bin 389 2001, among others, making the cut. It was simply a list, with no tasting notes, but it has evolved greatly over the years.

In late September last year, I launched the 2023/2024 report – the 20th anniversary edition – at Australia House on The Strand in London, with the current Australian High Commissioner, Stephen Smith, lending his support. The selection includes recent vintages of the very same wines mentioned above, and others besides, now part of a 32,000-word colour booklet.

In addition to the consistently excellent wines that form the heart of this report, other smaller estates always catch my eye. The inaugural 100 Best featured curios such as Craigow Riesling 2003, the epitome of a cool-climate Tasmanian white wine – very much the flavour on everyone’s lips today. I included Wirra Wirra Grenache 2002 – McLaren Vale has come of age recently as a Grenache mecca, but the signs were there 20 years ago.

Of course, some brands have disappeared over the years, but the discoveries keep coming. Australia never sits still, and this year I have 13 newcomers among the 100 Best wineries – Alkina, in my selection below, is one. Over the past 20 years, 290 different names have featured in my various reports. Only three have appeared in every single one: Penfolds, Tyrrell’s and Yalumba.

It’s only natural: bright prospects

I have mentioned that some things never change and that the signs were there many years ago for trendy hooks that appear to be recent phenomena, such as cool-climate wines, the emergence of Grenache as an elite wine style, Pinot Noir coming of age, old vines earning the respect they deserve, and Australian Chardonnay – finally – being recognised as every bit as refined and even more long-lived than the most famous examples overseas.

So, what are the real threads that are genuinely new and exciting? I can safely say that I never fell for the so-called natural or low-fi wines that temporarily distracted many retailers, restaurateurs and unsuspecting consumers over the years. I think that most of these wines have cleaned up their act, the producers realising that hands-off winemaking only makes sense if customers genuinely enjoy the wines and come back for more.

I have tasted a large number of wines recently that, in the past, I would have dismissed as faulty and unpleasant, but which today taste dynamic, clean, detailed and accurate. These wines often employ little oak, preferring to focus on their authenticity, purity and openness. Australia leads the way with this new style of bright and professional ‘natural’ wine.

Exemplary ageing

I could never have kept up my excitement for 100 Best had the wines stayed the same. The rate of improvement in all sectors of the Australian wine scene is staggering, and one of the most overlooked aspects of Australian wine is its ability to age. While most wines drink beautifully from the off, on account of their intrinsic balance, I am always amazed at how exquisite old vintages of Semillon, Riesling and Chardonnay, and virtually all styles of red wine, age.

Perhaps this is because Aussies have mastered bottling under screwcap, while being expert ‘finishers’. So many wineries around the world can make decent plonk, but then fail to get it into the bottle in one piece. Australians are sensational at this discipline. While the rest of the world suffers from wines that tend to age prematurely, Australian wine, at all price points, defies logic in its ability to mellow and evolve without losing traction and freshness.

Australians are great story-tellers and the stories that inspired me to follow these wines nearly four decades ago, told to me by winemakers Peter Lehmann, Bob McLean, Charlie Melton, Di Cullen, Len Evans and many, many others, are mine to pass on to young people wishing to learn more about the incredible wines from Down Under. It is my honour to do so.

The 20th anniversary edition of the 100 Best Australian Wines report, by Matthew Jukes, is available now via his website, matthewjukes.com

Around Australia in 20 wines: Jukes’ pick

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