Six of Clare Valley's best: Wendouree's 2018 vintage release

The six-wine 2018 release from Wendouree includes a 100-point shiraz.

I visited Wendouree Cellars last week in South Australia’s Clare Valley and had the opportunity to taste the six new releases from the 2018 vintage. This winery consistently plays at the top end of the quality scale, and a release of this calibre represents a significant moment. All six 2018 wines are of exceptional quality and the shiraz is rated a perfect 100-points, making this probably the best collection to leave the Wendouree cellars in the last 25 years. 

The wines of Wendouree occupy a very particular and historical place in the story of Australian wine. The original cellar, built in the late 19th century, still forms the backbone of the working winery today. After planting vines in 1893, the first Wendouree wines were released in 1895 by founder Alfred Percy Birks. He bottled by hose and tap at the cellar for visitors but predominantly sold wine from cask to country hotels which he visited on horse and cart.

In 1917 Birks retired and the running of the estate passed to his son Roly who continued the same modest manner of trade, adding further plantings in 1919, 1920, 1940 and 1971. Roly had also started selling bulk wine in cask to merchants like Doug Seabrook in Melbourne as production allowed. Casks would be selected by Seabrook at the winery then shipped to his Melbourne cellars and bottled for his Victorian clientele and rare bottles of these wines are still drinking well. I drank a 1967 Claret last night (a blend of shiraz, cabernet and malbec) and it was full of character with beautiful shape and power, the rich fruit still full of life.

Not much has changed at Wendouree today. Current custodians, Lita and Tony Brady, added new plantings in 1975 shortly after they took over. They bottled the 1975 vintage under the same label you see on these latest 2018 releases and the founder’s name A.P. Birks still takes pride of place. They moved the method of sale of the wines to a tightly-held annual mailing list. The offer arrives by letter each winter and must be posted back to Wendouree. Allocations are made and wines are despatched. There is no email, nor is there a website. 

The 2018 vintage is a very strong one across all red wines in the Clare Valley region and Wendouree’s plantings of shiraz, mataro (mourvedre), malbec and cabernet sauvignon all performed exceptionally well. “I picked a little earlier than I normally would,” explains Tony Brady. “And there was very healthy chemistry.”

The wines have such impressive primary fruit intensity as well as a strong sense of freshness which make them all very drinkable already.

The famous longevity of the wines is completely intact, underwritten by old and very old vines as well as a regime of winemaking that is custom fitted to the vineyard. Yields were balanced in 2018 and mitigated some of the season’s warmth. The site-derived character across all six wines is as good as I have seen here. This character can bend to leafy and herbal tones with eucalyptus and dry bushland characters in some years. In 2018, it manifests as a savory, slate-like stony thread with notes of coal smoke, iodine and graphite. 

And whilst the commanding tannins of Wendouree give rise to the great longevity of the wines, they are not for everyone. The comparisons with nebbiolo and Barolo in particular are commonly made but in recent years, particularly since the wines moved to bottling under screw cap in the 2009 vintage, the tannins have turned towards a smoother, more emulsified and pliable texture.

These qualities are certainly there in the 2018 wines where the uniformly ripe tannins are gently swayed by each varietal and blend format. Brady is a firm believer in co-fermentation for the blended wines and the three blends (shiraz mataro, shiraz malbec and cabernet malbec) are designed in the vineyard with an eye to threading compatible parcels together.

The two most consistent wines are the shiraz mataro and the cabernet malbec and I rate the latter constantly at the top of the estate’s releases while the shiraz mataro delivers a brand of understated drinkability that is always so attractive. Both have hit an outstanding level of quality in 2018, rated 98 and 99 points respectively, but it is the shiraz that stands apart with a perfect 100-point rating.

These wines are difficult to find as they are highly coveted by fiercely loyal collectors. A small portion of each vintage is sold to loyal trade accounts, some of whom do offer the wines for retail sale.

– Nick Stock, executive editor