ABOUT 15 years ago Brian Croser, one of the Australian wine industry’s greatest intellects and most technically capable winemakers, then of Petaluma, stated that to win a gold medal in an Australian wine show was like winning the lottery.
That is… there was luck involved.
When a wine wins three or four gold medals, though, that is not luck.
Margaret River gained its earliest kudos for chardonnay but now cabernet has taken centre stage and the role as international flagbearer for the region.
The major European show results have confirmed that WA cabernet is next best to the greatest wines of the Bordeaux region.
Recently James Suckling, an established figure at the world’s most influential commercial wine magazine The American Wine Spectator reviewed the Australian cabernet scene in his personal blog http://www.jamessuckling.com, after spending three weeks down here.
WA was in six of his highest-pointed seven Australian cabernets and 28 of his top 36 – from its tiny 4.5 per cent of this county’s cabernet production.
The highest-pointed WA cabernets were Cullen Diana Madeline 2009 (98 points) Cullen Diana Madeline 2005, Juniper 2008, Pedestal Vineyard 2008, Vasse Felix Heytesbury Red 2009 and Woodlands Alma May 2009.
There’s more than luck here.