Four decades of Jim Barry The Armagh Shiraz tasted as it debuts at La Place de Bordeaux

The Armagh really stands in a league of its own when you consider great Clare Valley wine. In a region that has pinned its recent reputation on excellent riesling, a bold and uncompromising shiraz like The Armagh is a whole world away, and has come from humble beginnings to prominent international exposure.

The Armagh is about to debut on one of the elite fine wine stages, La Place de Bordeaux, where all the top names of Bordeaux are bought and sold as well as a few wines from Italy, the United States, Chile, and Argentina. It’s the first time Australian wines will be on offer.

“I do not see anything against it,” said Philippe Casteja, the head of the Bordeaux negociant house of Borie Manoux. “Bordeaux wine merchants have the distribution and network for it. As regard to Bordeaux brokers, that is another question as they are Bordeaux specialists and dedicated to the region. Already some famous Californian, Chilean, Italian famous labels use the Bordeaux channel for all or part of their distribution and apparently successfully for both parties.”

The late Jim Barry planted the eight-acre Armagh vineyard between 1964 and 1968 and hand watered the vines through the drought of 1968-69 off the back of an old ute. It sits in the fork of Benbournie and McRae Wood Roads and takes its name from The Armagh Creek that runs through the center of the vineyard. Shiraz occupies the eastern flank of the site, which was the last section to be planted, while the western section is planted to cabernet sauvignon and malbec.

When Jim Barry’s son Peter released the first The Armagh Shiraz in 1985, South Australia was in the middle of the government “vine pull” initiative, a program that subsidized the removal of vineyards to correct an oversupply. “Releasing a shiraz of that quality and price point was very ambitious at that time,” says third generation Sam Barry. “And to now be launching the 2016 vintage through La Place in September is a long way from where my grandfather started.”

To coincide with the impending 2016 vintage release, I tasted through four decades of The Armagh, 17 wines from 1989 to the soon-to-be-released 2016 vintage. See the notes and scores at the bottom of this article. I also spoke with Emma Thienpont who, along with colleague Tom Portet, has assembled the Australian First Growths platform to feed top tier Aussie wines through to the Bordeaux negociant network.

This vertical tasting, spanning what is nearly The Armagh’s entire life in bottle, showed that it is clearly at the level of many of the top wines now selling in La Place and revealed a number of outstanding vintages, as well as a high base line of quality.

The style of The Armagh has moved through distinct chapters of winemaking culture too. The first phase (1985 to 1998) really sits in a classic 1980s-informed Australian red wine style of medium-to-full-body with time weathered American oak framing still-fresh fruit. The next phase runs from 1999 to 2009 and this sees the style grow in stature and harness fuller power and structure. The third and current phase starts to take shape in 2010 where The Armagh is refined and focuses on the character of the fruit and site.

Top-rated vintages are found in all three of these chapters and that is testament to the site itself, and the recent move towards a greater reliance on fruit allows the wine to shine. The oldest bottle of the tasting was from 1989 (93 points) and opened beautifully with an almost nostalgic rendering of red fruits, cedary oak and silky tannins. The 1990 (94 points) delivered a fuller shape and texture and a great 1992 (95 points) showed classy layering of long, fine tannin.

The 1999 (98 points) was a highlight of the tasting and the oldest in a set of wines in the mid-life of The Armagh that are bold and forthright in style. The cool 2002 (97 points) had a spicy and smooth-honed feel, the blockbuster 2006 (99 points) showed almost Barolo-like tarry aromas and an ultra-concentrated core of ripe blackberry fruit. Both 2008 and 2009 (96 points each) represent hotter vintages with quite different tannin profiles, the 2008 more firm and the 2009 more round.

Then 2010 (99 points) heralds a new era of complex and still-youthful aromas with concise, focused and contained power driving the palate. The Armagh 2012 (98 points) is a show pony with such ebullient, attractive fruit intensity and the 2016 (99 points) more akin to the 2010 with polished, layered and powerful style. It delivers such intensity and composure. Certainly it is a great vintage to take to La Place on debut.

“This Australian First Growths (AFG) initiative is almost three years in the making,” said Emma Thienpont, co-founder and director at Australian First Growths. “Our objective to create a vehicle for Australian producers to contact Bordeaux negociants is designed to remove the impediments of proximity in terms of both time zoning and distance.”

Alongside The Armagh, they have also signed up Wynns John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon from Coonawarra, Cloudburst Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay from Margaret River and the Yarra Valley’s Dominique Portet Cabernet Sauvignon.

As the lone shiraz among a suite of Australian cabernet sauvignon wines in the tight AFG folio, there is much attention on The Armagh and, if successful, others will surely be added. “We plan to add some more producers for next year’s campaign,” said Thienpont.

“My grandfather Jim’s motto was to cut your own path and he always said if everyone is going one way don’t follow,” recalls Sam Barry. “He planted shiraz at Armagh when cabernet and malbec dominated the region and now we’re taking The Armagh Shiraz to the traditional stage of La Place de Bordeaux as one of Australia’s and the world’s great red wines.”

– Nick Stock, Executive Editor