Our list of the best 100 Australian wines of 2018 focuses on wines that really highlight the unique qualities of Australia’s best wines – wines that look to both a proud heritage and to a determined future.
They come from across the continent, from climates warm and cool, from small and big producers and from very diverse terroirs. These wines share a common thread: they are manifest by a strong desire in the wine producing community to champion the taste of place.
Tyrrell’s Old Patch Shiraz 2017 sits at the pinnacle of this list with a perfect 100-point rating.
The Australian winemakers seen here have refined their approach to focus squarely on vineyard site, or origin. “Better viticulture focuses the attention of a wine,” explains Steve Pannell of S.C. Pannell. “As winemakers it frees us up to move beyond overt winemaking influence and inputs like oak and technique and to fall back on the taste of place to dictate wine style.”
One example: Pannell’s 2015 Koomilya JC Block Shiraz, the third-placed wine in this year’s top 100 Australian wines. It delivers the concentration and richness of quality McLaren Vale shiraz but does so with an astute sense of focus and detail. It is matured in large format 2,700-liter vats, to nurture and gently shape the wine without overtaking the innate character of the parcel.
Chris Tyrrell of Tyrrell’s Wines in the Hunter Valley is also a fan of this approach and to the use of these 2,700-liter vessels. Tyrrell’s deploy these across a suite of their top red wines including the Old Patch Shiraz 2017, the top wine in our list with a perfect 100-point rating. Planted in 1867, the Old Patch Vineyard is a tiny 1.11-hectare plot and the jewel in Tyrrell’s collection of seven vineyards more than 100 years old.
The style of wine Old Patch makes reflects the elegance and subtle power of the Hunter Valley; unfettered and really very ‘un-made’ in terms of winemaking inputs. Some clusters are left as whole bunches, the remainder is gently de-stemmed to whole berries. It ferments with only ambient yeasts and is matured in a three or four-year-old cask for 15 months. It is all about discovering and nurturing the balance that emanates from vines 150 years in the ground.
The first proper release of the Henk Vineyard wines from Oakridge.
Red wines dominate the top 10 positions in this years list in vastly different tones. The outstanding 2017 Tolpuddle Vineyard Pinot Noir at number two champions the quest for ever greater expressions of pinot noir from distinguished sites. Clonakilla’s Shiraz Viognier 2017 and Shaw + Smith’s Balhannah Shiraz 2015 both underline that quality of cooler-climate shiraz, while Spinifex Single Vineyard Moppa 2016 delivers in neo-classical style. Best’s Old Vine Pinot Meunier from vines planted in 1868 represents a unique piece of vinous heritage and rounds out the top 10.
The Yarra Yering Dry Red Wine No. 1 2016, Penfolds Bin 169 Cabernet Sauvignon 2016, Mount Mary Quintet 2016 and Vasse Felix Tom Cullity 2014 remind us of the great diversity of elite cabernet-driven wines from the Yarra Valley, Coonawarra and Margaret River.
Finally, it is chardonnay that defines the upper limits of white wine quality in our Australian tastings for 2018, with a convincing fleet of wines from Oakridge, Yabby Lake, Tolpuddle, Bindi and Giaconda. All deliver very differently in terms of style and all are driven by superior sites and an undeniably strong collective sense of place. — Nick Stock, senior editor
