A look at Australia’s Fine Wine from Family Producers

In 2010, a band of 11 leading Australian multi-generational family wine producers with more than 1,200 years of collective winemaking experience combined under the Australia’s First Families of Wine (AFFW) banner. Their purpose? To quash the notion ‘that Australia and fine wine don’t go together… we want to bring perception and reality together’, said then chairman Alister Purbrick of Tahbilk in Victoria.

That objective was firmly achieved at a recent tasting in London where the group members each showcased one of their museum-release flagship wines.

Australia’s Fine Wine

The Shirazes from Henschke, d’Arenberg, Mount Pleasant and Jim Barry stood out for sheer quality and emphatic sense of place, highlighting the mesmerisingly diverse styles of Australia’s most planted grape: the fragrance of Eden Valley’s most famous vineyard; the earthier grunt of McLaren Vale; the ageability of acid-driven Hunter Valley Shiraz; and the bottomless fruit pit of my top scorer, from a sun-drenched vineyard in Clare Valley.

Conversely, Yalumba’s flagship wine, The Caley, showcased Australia’s multi-regional blending tradition. This polished, precise third release puts Coonawarra Cabernet firmly in the driving seat, with Barossa Shiraz for complementary muscle and spice.

Two lovely Cabernet Sauvignons from Western Australia and South Australia’s Clare Valley rounded out the reds, proving that it’s not just Coonawarra where this majestic grape thrives.

Grape-sourcing from more than 5,000ha in 16 regions enables AFFW members to invest in more esoteric styles too, such as the Hunter Valley’s unique unoaked Semillon, a sparkling wine from a plateau at 800m in Victoria’s King Valley, and an unoaked Marsanne which Tahbilk has grown in the Nagambie Lakes region since the 1860s – when it was known as ‘White Hermitage’.

Finally, drawn from a solera of fortified Rutherglen Muscat laid down well over 70 years ago, Campbells’ Merchant Prince is rare by name and nature and a true special occasion wine. How better to celebrate long-term thinking over short-term gain – surely one of the beauties of family-owned businesses?

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And long-term thinking means being ready for every possible challenge, including climate change, already wreaking havoc across Australia through devastating droughts. For sixth-generation wine grower Johann Henschke, nurturing his ancient soils through biodynamic viticulture is key, while Peter Barry’s legacy to the third generation is Greece’s heat-loving Assyrtiko grape. In a similar vein, d’Arenberg’s fourth-generation winemaker, Chester Osborn, is now working with 37 grape varieties, including Mencía, Montepulciano and Fiano.

‘You can’t be scared of climate change,’ concluded Barry. ‘You just have to focus on making better wine.’

Tasting flagship Australian Wines from the AFFW members:

Members of Australia’s First Families of Wine

Brown Brothers (Victoria)

Campbells (Rutherglen, Victoria)

d’Arenberg (McLaren Vale, South Australia)

Henschke (Eden Valley, South Australia)

Howard Park (Margaret River, Western Australia)

Jim Barry (Clare Valley, South Australia)

McWilliam’s Mount Pleasant (Hunter Valley, New South Wales)

Tahbilk (Nagambie Lakes, Victoria)

Tyrrell’s (Hunter Valley, New South Wales)

Wakefield (Clare Valley, South Australia)

Yalumba (Barossa, South Australia)

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