Launch of new style Australian wines at the Walbrook Club

June, 2009

The Walbrook Club is a little oasis around the corner form the Bank of England that is becoming increasingly built in by large concrete and glass erections that would probably have Prince Charles’ ears twitching. The club was established in 2000 in a renovated Queen Anne house down a side lane off Walbrook and is near or behind the Sir Christopher Wren's church of St Stephen, which has been rebuilt twice, after the Great Fire of London and the Second World War. To add to the quirky juxtaposition there is a Starbucks on the corner to the lane. 

It was at the Walbrook Club that Silvano Giraldin, a legend of the hospitality business and formerly General Manager and Director of Le Gavroche in Mayfair hosted a lunch for Martin Krajewski along with winemakers David Fatches and John Duval as part of the launch in the UK of their Australian winery Songlines Estates. 

Songlines Estates has set out to make a great and distinctive Australian Shiraz from selected vineyards in McLaren Vale, some of which have vines over 100 years old. Currently Songlines concentrates on Shiraz with three versions increasing in price, but also produces a Semillon and a Chardonnay from the Hunter Valley where the winery is located. Winemaker David Fatches is a Hunter boy and Martin Krajewski, owner of Chateau De Sours in Bordeaux, has visited the Hunter Valley many times over the years; however they believe some of the best and oldest Shiraz in the world is grown in McLaren Vale. 

John Duval, who for many years was head winemaker at Penfolds and in charge of making Grange, arguably Australia’s best wine and definitely one of the world’s great wines, was initially brought in as a consultant. However he has since come on board as a shareholder. 

Attending the lunch was a mixture of twenty or so members of the wine trade, shareholders and wine writers, including Cos Kampanaos, managing director of Sommelier Cru, the association of professional sommeliers. He was telling me how his members attend lots of wine tastings in their efforts to find the right wines for their wine lists. Their collective vinous knowledge and ability to advise and steer their customers in the right direction must be immense. He thought people were dining out less and buying more wines for home consumption in the below £10 price range for everyday and in the over £20 price range for entertaining. 

We were joined by Bob Tyrer of the Sunday Times in a discussion about the challenge of finding wines prices around £5 - £8 that were interesting and worth writing about. I pointed out that the better independent wine merchants like the bunch the Spectator Wine Club deals with are experts at finding reasonably priced wines that are interesting, well made and eminently drinkable as opposed to some of the mass produced bio-fuel presented as wine by the supermarkets. 

Out and about and settling into his new role was Jeremy Palmer, Managing Director of Lay & Wheeler, a traditional fine wine merchant purchased by Majestic Wine earlier this year. I first met Jeremy in the mid 1990’s in McLaren Vale when he was on a buying trip for Majestic in Australia. He was visiting wineries in the region and I was engrossed with helping my friends the O’Briens reinvent a dated winery with great vineyards which is now called Kangarilla Road. Each winery was supposed to collect Jeremy from the previous winery he visited in the usual friendly co-operative way McLaren Vale operates. 

Only months into taking over the winery and vineyards and flying by the seat of our pants we completely forgot to collect poor Jeremy but luckily he was delivered to us. With his good nature he took this neglect completely in his stride as we scrabbled to present wines for him to taste and communicate the vision for Kangarilla Road. Despite our lack of professionalism Jeremy liked what he tasted and saw and ever since Kangarilla Road has been a key Australian supplier for Majestic. 

From wine buyer Jeremy was put in charge of developing the Majestic website from scratch and then made Commercial Director of fine wines before jumping at the chance of running Lay & Wheeler with its proud history. The purchase is a bold but logical move for Majestic who have been the best performing multiple off-license chain for some time. 

He says Majestic is holding its own with private consumers despite the recession but they have been particularly hit by the drop in corporate purchases especially of Champagne. I asked him how much the weather makes a difference to sales in Majestic stores and he said if it is hot and sunny they see a huge spike in sales of rose, white wine and beer. It’s almost like being a farmer at the mercy of the climate and governments. 

Coincidently I received this week a letter and some very smart brochures from Richard Wheeler, formerly of Lay & Wheeler and owner of Wheeler Cellars, one of the Spectator Wine Club’s wine partners, announcing they were changing their name to The Colchester Wine Company. They have a very enticing programme of tastings, dinners and producers’ markets. Visit www.thewinecompany.co.uk for details. 

During the lunch we tasted the Songlines 2008 Hunter Valley Semillon accompanied by prawns and the Songlines 2006 Hunter Valley Chardonnay accompanied by large scallops. Hunter Semillon is a unique wine style that produces lean austere wines with white fruit and citrus flavours, low alcohol and good acidity when young, reflecting the terroir of the region which then develop with age and careful cellaring into a rich complex unctuous wines tasting of honey and toast. The Songlines Semillon worked a treat with the prawns. 

David Fatches told us how the Chardonnay is picked from the vineyard next to the winery in several batches at different ripeness to provide complexity in the wine. Some is fermented and matured in oak barrels whilst some is fermented in stainless steel to express the fruit flavours. Finally one batch is fermented as whole bunches and allowed to ferment with wild yeasts before finishing off in oak barrels, which produces a big rich style of Chardonnay that contributes to the overall blend.   

The Songlines Chardonnay is of the modern Australian style with restrained and elegant flavours, complexity, well handled oak yet flavoursome. Very enjoyable. It was interesting to hear David Fatches comment how he personally still prefers the big buttery Chardonnays. 

We were then treated to the Leylines Shiraz and the Bylines Shiraz followed by 3 vintages of the Songlines Shiraz the top of the range wine. Both David Hatches and John Duval have intimate experience and knowledge of vineyards in McLaren Vale so they have sniffed out fruit from selected vineyards in the region. The younger fruit tends to end up in the Leylines Shiraz but many different batches of Shiraz are made using differing techniques to provide complexity and choice when grading and putting together blends. 

John Duvall explained how the grapes were picked in McLaren Vale then crushed immediately before being transported over 1,000 km up to the Songlines Estates Hunter Valley winery in small 1 tonne tanks whilst enjoying a cold soak on the way up. This adds also to the complexity and draws out soft tannins. 

For me the red wines have typical Australian and McLaren Vale fruit characters of black fruit and dark chocolate with increasing depth and complexity as you travel up the range but it is the velvety silky tannins and layers of opulent fruit that make them distinctive and sets them apart from many other Australian wines. 

The wines were thoughtfully matched with the excellent food allowing them all to express themselves in the airy and bright dining room that overlooks the garden at the back of St Stephen’s. 

As I thanked Martin Krajewski for his hospitality he told me of the hail storms that had cut swathes through parts of Bordeaux including a section of his Chateau de Sours vineyards, decimating crops. His vineyard workers had put some of the hailstones in the freezer which they showed to him when he returned. They were the size of golf balls. Another reminder of the risky business that growing and making wine can be, but it has its compensations. 

Songlines Estates wines are available through Private Cellar.