![Hunter Valley Kangaroos[UNVERIFIED CONTENT] Wild kangaroos among a vineyard at Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley region, New South Wales, Australia.](https://media.guim.co.uk/ed28a775166b943e492ded6c045e0846195f2285/0_89_2720_1632/1000.jpg)
Robert Oatley Semaphore Series Shiraz, McLaren Vale, Australia 2021 (£10.50, The Co-op) Like all businesses, the wine trade tends to obsess about novelty. There’s a habit, exacerbated by press and influencers, of always looking for the next big (or, for the fashion-conscious, small) thing, which in wine generally translates into talking up bottles made from lesser-known grape varieties or from smaller, or less-established wine regions. I do plenty of that myself, not least when it comes to the UK’s biggest source of wine, Australia, where it’s easy to be dazzled by the emergence and increased mastery of what the Australians themselves call “alternative” varieties, from the Greek assyrtiko and southern Italian fiano to Iberians such as tourgia nacional and tempranillo. The fact is, though, that, more often than not, my favourite Australian red wines are made from the big-name grapes with which the country first rose to prominence, with shiraz – of which The Co-op’s recent addition is a particularly succulent and savoury example – still first among equals.
Tesco Finest McLaren Vale Grenache, McLaren Vale, Australia 2021 (£11, Tesco) Other shiraz bottles I’ve enjoyed recently range from the deep and richly satisfying but fresh and floral-edged blackberry of The Lodge Shiraz 2021 (£15.99, or £9.99 as part of a mixed case of six, majestic.co.uk) from the ever-reliable firm Jim Barry in the Clare Valley in South Australia, to the supremely elegant and complex Luke Lambert Syrah 2021 (from £37.50, thesourcingtable.com; philglas-swiggot.com) from the relative cool of Victoria’s Yarra Valley, which, as the name suggests (syrah is the French name for shiraz) has a certain kinship with the great syrah wines of France’s northern Rhône region. Increasingly, however, shiraz is being upstaged by another long-established Australian import from southern France with which it is often blended but which has sometimes struggled for attention: grenache, which is the base for both the bountiful herb-and-white-pepper inflected soft berry fruitedness of Tesco’s bottling and the exquisite, ethereal Yangarra Old Vine Grenache 2021 (£33.95, thevinorium.co.uk).
The Society’s Australian Cabernet, South Australia, Australia 2021 (£8.50, thewinesociety.com) The main challenger to the Rhône varieties (shiraz and grenache) in Australian reds is the world’s most widely planted wine grape variety: cabernet sauvignon. Although other countries – notably France (Bordeaux), USA (California) and Chile – may spring to mind as cabernet specialists before Australia, there are some world-beating cabernet wines made Down Under, with top cuvees from the likes of Penfolds, Mount Mary, Moss Wood, Wynns, Yarra Yering, and Cullen all right up there at the very top table of Australian wine. There’s value to be found, too, though, not least in the gloriously pure, ripe cassis stylings of The Wine Society’s great-value own-label blended by the excellent family producer Yalumba from vineyards around South Australia. Like shiraz and grenache, cabernet is also good in Australian blends, whether with merlot in the slick, stylish Vasse Felix Filius Cabernet Merlot, Margaret River 2021 (£14.99, or £12.99 as part of a mixed six, majestic.co.uk) or with merlot and shiraz in a comforting old favourite of mine, Wirra Wirra Church Block 2020 (£15, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose).
Follow David Williams on Twitter @Daveydaibach
