AUSTRALIAN New Wave Wines - feat. ‪@wineforthepeople‬

A while ago, I made a video about Australian wine, and it was okay, but I didn't get to include many of the new and exciting producers from down under. Those wines can be difficult to source in Europe, but that fact did not stop me. I reached out to my friends from Wine for the People, one of the best YouTube channels out there, and those three guys are deeply involved in the Australian wine scene. They've selected six wines for me to taste blind and sent them over, so let's veg out and see what Ripper Wines, my Aussie mates, have put together. Reckon, I'm so lame. Before I dive into the wines, I need to explain a couple of things. Usually, when we taste wines blind on this channel, I don't see the bottles beforehand. It wouldn't be blind otherwise. In this case, the courier service messed up and broke a few bottles. The remaining bottles were poorly repackaged, so I had to have a quick look at the wines in order to decide whether we can still do this video. That was two months ago, and I hardly remember which wines I tasted yesterday. Also, only six out of many more bottles were selected, and Leon numbered them, put them in order, and they were then repackaged by someone else, so I don't really know which wines I'm going to taste. I certainly don't know which order they are in, and I think most of these wines are pretty much unknown to me anyways. The team from Wine for the People prepared a short clip where they talk about the wines that I'm going to taste. I haven't seen that clip yet, so you will know more about the wines than me. G'day, Constantine. Wine for the People checking in with you here. Henry, Noah, and Brendan from Down Under, and we've put together this little six-pack care package of Aussie wines that we think are really emblematic of the changing wine scene in Australia because it's been an interesting 20 or 30-odd years. 100%. To start us off, we've got Agricola, Flaxman Valley Shiraz by Callum Powell, son of Dave Powell from Torbrick fame, if you actually know your Aussie Shiraz, and as well as Gentlefolk. So, Gareth Belton, one of the star winemakers out of Adelaide Hills, just literally down the road here, doing some really awesome stuff with Pinot Noir. Pretty easy variety to muck up, but he's doing a good job. Let's start off with Noah. We've got Josh Cooper, who is putting Victorian Cabernet back on the map, kind of taking a classical-style approach, but farming it and making it a bit of a hands-off, modern way. It is absolutely stunning stuff, some of the best Cabernet you can get in this country, and we've also got Dr. Edge, Peter Dredge, Adelaide boy in Tasmania, making some amazing Pinot Noir, some Riesling, some Petnats, but he's also making an antique Chardonnay, which we all absolutely love, in that more Chablis-esque style, with a really good handling of oak, really linear, delicious stuff. And then we've just got two whites. Two whites that have sort of gained a lot of popularity in Australia in the last 20 or 30-odd years, as we were saying. First of all, Fiano by Alex Shiraz. Fiano grows really fantastically in Australia, hot, dry climate, just like the south of Italy, where it's from. So, seeing some really interesting examples of that variety from here. And then finally, we've got a Vermentino as well. Now, the reason that we've chosen this Vermentino for you, is it's a little bit orange, a little bit skimsy, and that's something that's really blowing up in the Australian wine scene as of late. So, that's by Kerner. I hope you enjoy these wines, Konstantin. Thank you so much for trying this. And yeah, that's checking out from Down Under. Ciao! All right, now you have been briefed, and you can guess along which wine is which. Let's taste. All right, let's start with wine number one. That's the one. Okay, that's very light color. Check out that color. It's really, really pale. This could be like a Trollinger from Germany, which is a grape variety many joke about, because it is very, very pale. I'm guessing it's not a Trollinger, though. So, pale color often points to Pinot Noir. It could also be Grenache. There's lots of Grenache in Australia. And if you handle it very carefully, you might get a pale color like that. But yeah, we'll find out. So, this smells very lively, bright, fruity. It smells of strawberries, cherries. There's a little bit of raspberry character as well. I think this smells very much like Pinot. It's really bright, really fruit-driven, very light touch Pinot. When people think of Australia, they often think of big and kind of concentrated red wines and whites, but there's a new wave going through Australia. And this is more on the lighter and elegant side. On the palate, it's super fresh and lively. It's a delicious wine. You know, the last Pinot I tasted before this tasting was the DRC Latache. So, this wine is in a tough spot, I guess. But it is really delicious. I mean, it's very fruit-driven, very lively. It's not heavy at all, but it's not simple. I mean, there's something to it. There's really good length and freshness. I'm going to rate this 91 points. Delicious Pinot. So, next up, we have wine number two. Again, a red wine, but this time quite a bit darker. So, this is not see-through. I mean, it's really pretty concentrated. It's very, very dark and dense. It is typical Australian without the Australian cleansliness. So, there's like bright, intense fruit character, blackberries, cassis, notes. There's also eucalyptus, and that is a typical flavor from Australia. It's in the air in many places because of the eucalyptus trees. Those aroma compounds then travel on the berry skin. And as you make a red wine with the skins in contact with the juice, quite a lot of that flavor also goes into the wine, and I can smell it in here. That's terroir for you, and that's one of the more obvious ways to taste terroir in a wine. But apart from those very Australian traits, there's also a little bit of funk there. I would say this is probably made in a low-intervention way with low levels of sulfites. So, there's a little bit of nuttiness, a little bit of wildness. On the palate, it's actually quite structured with grippy tannins, fresh acidity. It's not really big. It's more linear. And there's also a little bit of funkiness in the mouth. After some time in the glass, it opens up and shows more complexity. For me, this feels very much like a Cabernet Sauvignon because of the cassis fruit flavor, the tannic grip, the fresh acidity. But it's not the most classic Australian Cabernet Sauvignon. They tend to be a little bit bolder and richer. This feels much more linear and fresh. I think this is really good. I think it's quite appetizing, structured, and it would go very well with a steak from the Barbie. I'm going to rate it 89 points. So, let's move on to wine number three, which is, again, red. So, this is definitely not a light-colored wine. I mean, this is super purple. Not mega purple, super purple. Really dark in color. You can't see your fingers through it. Mm, and I love that smell. This reminds me of my trip to Australia, sitting outside, eating some meat and drinking some awesome Shiraz. And this feels very much like Shiraz or Suran, whatever you want to call it. They call it Shiraz. So, this has like the blackberry, blueberry, fruit character, a little bit of spice coming from barique aging. On the palate, it's actually quite structured. There's a good core there, quite a lot of concentration, but there's also grippy tannins, fine-grained tannins, and lots of freshness at the finish. I also detect a little bit of pepperiness, which is typical for Suran or Shiraz. Maybe I'm jumping into this too quickly, but for me, this feels very Shirazi. Looking at the wine in the glass, it's also really cloudy. So, this wasn't fined or filtered. I'm guessing that this is also a more low-interventional wine, but it's actually pretty clean. There are no obvious flaws there, and it's quite complete. I'm going to rate this 93 points. I think this is delicious, but it's not your everyday Australian Shiraz. So, it's a bit more, yeah, a bit different. So, let's move on to wine number four, and that's the first white. This is really precise, very linear, very bright, fruit-driven, with a little bit of oak influence, I believe, but not necessarily new oak. There's also influence from lees aging, so I think this wine spent a while on the lees, on the dead yeast cells. It's a running gag on Wine for the People that Henry always thinks something is Chardonnay, and I think this is Chardonnay. It feels very Chardonnay-esque, but not the type of Chardonnay that you normally get from Australia. They tend to be a bit bigger, bolder, and more oaky. This is actually very lean and fresh. It feels like a Chardonnay that is from a cooler side, that was picked fairly early, and that was handled very carefully. On the palate, it has concentration, but there's also lots of texture, and kind of comes after you emptied your mouth. So, the tannic rip, the fresh, vibrant acidity, super lively, really, really good. You know, sometimes when you use oak with Chardonnay, you cover up the fruit and make the wine a little bit dull. It tastes good in the beginning, but then it gets really boring after a while. This is much more zesty and lively. There is, I think you're not going to get bored of a wine like that very quickly. It just refreshes your palate after every sip, and keeps you interested. So yeah, I think most of the wines, or pretty much all of the wines, were from cooler spots and harvested a little bit earlier. This definitely seems to be a trend in Australia, picking early in order to achieve the perfect balance between ripeness and freshness. I'm going to rate this 93 points. I think it's absolutely delicious. Is it the best Chardonnay in the world? No, I mean, there are other options with Chardonnay, but as it is a style that is more on the freshness and liveliness, I think this is just really, really good. And here we go, wine number five, another white wine. Again, really pale in color, lemon gold. On the nose, this is quite interesting. I mean, it's really zesty and intense. There's like a lime character, lots of citrus fruit, quite intense and fresh. There's also a little bit of green tea flavor. Quite interesting. On the palate, it's juicy, lively. The acidity is not very high, otherwise I might have guessed that this could be Riesling, but no, that doesn't really work. And there's good grip there. I mean, it's a textured, aromatic white wine that doesn't feel very ripe. So I don't know, it could be like Vionier or Roussanne, or I have no idea. I mean, there's quite a lot of great varieties planted in Australia that aren't mainstream, so it could be something really odd. So sorry, I really don't know, but I think this is quite delicious, like a juicy, fresh, and fruit-driven white wine. I'm going to rate this 89 points. I think it's really crisp, and on a sunny day, this is a great choice. Last but not least, we have wine number six. It's a bit more golden in color, slightly orange, so this could have seen some time on the skins. It's not like a deep-colored orange wine, but yeah, there might be some more skin contact here, which is obviously an element that has become much more mainstream now that orange wine is in the world, and people have experimented with it. Quite a lot of normal white wine producers also do more skin contact in order to extract a little bit more flavor out of those skins. On the nose, it is quite delicate, but also profound. I mean, there's quite a lot of substance there. I mean, it smells of lemon zest. It smells of orange. It has a little bit of green apple flavors coming through, so it's quite fruity, but serious fruity. On the palate, it's really grippy. There's quite a bit of acidity, but also body there, so it's a really interesting wine. But grape variety-wise, I'm again fishing in the dark. I mean, for some reason, I think this could be Gruner Veltliner. I don't really know how much of it is actually planted in Australia. Maybe it's just because Austria and Australia sound so much alike, but yeah, for me, this has some characteristics of Gruner. It could also be Silvana or Chasselas, but tricky. I mean, it's not an aromatic grape variety, but it's not something more common like Chardonnay. It has a beautiful structure, and it's made in a very interesting way. But yeah, I'm just going to leave it at that. Quality-wise, I actually think this is really interesting, and I'm going to rate it 91 points. I think this is not the greatest white wine in the world, for sure, but it has lots of really interesting elements, and it's quite an interesting wine. All right, it's time for the big reveal. First of all, thanks to Wine for the People. They make great content, and they've selected some really cool wines, so you should check out their channel. I'll link it up in the description. Secondly, New Wave Australian Wines is really interesting. I think there were three main themes here, cooler sites, early harvest, and less protective handling of the wine. So all of the wines were quite fresh and vibrant, really lively, ripe, but not overripe, and always balanced with quite a bit of acidity. And there was a little bit more funkiness than people might be used to when it comes to Australian wines, so they were less protective, maybe lower doses of sulfides, and maybe more character. But now let's go through them one by one and see whether I identified them correctly. Let's go. Wine number one I thought was a Pinot, and I rated it fairly highly because I thought it was really juicy and lively. So a fresh and vibrant Pinot instead of the big and concentrated one. So let's see. It is a Pinot. Monometh. I don't know whether I'm pronouncing that correctly, but it says Pinot Noir on the label, and the label looks like the most natural wine label possible. Very simple, handwritten name, and grape variety. I mean, it's printed, but it looks handwritten. And yeah, good stuff. So let's move on to wine number two. I thought this was Cabernet. I thought it was really good, quite structured. Maybe not the best wine in the tasting, but a really good representation of Australian new wave Cabernet. And it is Chase Flat, Lansborough Valley Cabernet. 13% of alcohol, so quite low in alcohol. And yeah, and this coolness, this freshness really came through. Maybe that's also why it didn't have more complexity. I mean, Cabernet needs some heat in order to develop all of its complexity, and maybe this didn't quite have that. So let's have a look at wine number three. So far, I'm two for two, so I'm quite happy with myself. I obviously struggled more with the whites, but I thought this was a Shiraz, or Syrah, whatever you want to call it. And it is a wine. It doesn't say which grape variety it is. Maximum Valley, Coppermine, Agricola. Yeah, I have no idea. Australian wine obviously championed the varietal labeling, but there's no varietal on there. So I couldn't say whether it's a Syrah. I can maybe Google it. Give me a second. It is a Shiraz. I was right. So let's move on to wine number four. I love that wine. I thought it was a Chardonnay, and a really well-made Chardonnay. Not a big one, but a delicious one. So let's see. It is Dr. Edge, or D-R-Edge, Dredge, from Tasmania. Okay. Chardonnay, 2022. So Tasmanian wines are getting more and more press. I've never been to Tasmania, so I really need to go there, but obviously it's further south from mainland Australia, and it's even cooler there, producing really light and vibrant wines, just like this one, which is just delicious. So let's have a look at wine number five, which, well, I didn't know what it was. I thought it was like a really nice, aromatic, fresh, lively white. That's not very master of winey, but that was my result. It is Shira, a Fiano from McLaren Vale. Fiano, Shira. Okay, Shira is not a play with words on Shiraz. It's Alex Shira, that's the winemaker, and this is Fiano. Yeah, I think Fiano is quite popular in Australia right now, at least when I watch the Wine for the People videos, it comes up quite often. It's an Italian grape variety, obviously, but it seems to do well in Australia. This was quite nice. I liked it. So last but not least, wine number six, which I didn't know what to do with either, but I thought it felt almost like a Gruner Verlina, but let's see. Oh, Körner, Clare Valley Pigato 22, and it's a Vermentino, and it's clearly cloudy and probably made with some skin contact there, but quite nice. I do like Vermentino. I mean, it has kind of the reputation of being more of a, well, bland or less interesting wine, but this proves it wrong. I mean, it's quite an interesting grape variety if you handle it correctly. So thank you for watching. Thanks to Brandon, Noah, and Henry for selecting these wines and, yeah, just playing along. It was very interesting for me to taste them, and now I know more about New Wave Australian wine. So I hope you liked this video. If you did, then please like it down here, subscribe to my channel if you haven't done so already. My question of the day is, what do you think of New Wave Australian wines? Have you ever tasted any or not? Let me know down below in the comment. To finish this all up, I think there's even a little blooper reel from the guys from Wine For The People, so check that out and check out their channel. But whatever you do, stay thirsty. G'day, Konstantin. Got the Wine For The People boys here from Australia. You got Henry, Noah, and Brandon. Sorry, sorry, sorry. We're gonna send him this reel of just how long it took us to do this. The changing wine scene here in Australia. Brandon, what are you gonna start out with? We've got agri, agri, agri, agri. Agricola? Agricola. It's like agri-cola. Oh, it's real late in the day here, boys. The Alains who do, oh, *******, no, that's not it. It's not the Alains, nevermind. Fuck, sorry, boys. Let's go again. We all get one. Ciao. It's like, I forgot to hit record.