Margaret and Peter Lehmann |
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| An avenue of pruned wineglasses |
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| Winemaker Ben Radford at work with an antique press |
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| Rockford Winery, Barossa Valley |
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| The 35 km Riesling Trail, Clare Valley, South Australia |
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| Autumn vineyards in South Australia |
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| An alpaca shepard and sheep in the vineyard at Radford Wines, Eden Valley |
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| Lunch with Peter Lehmann, Mentor of Barossa |
| 26 July 2010 by Graham Howe |
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| Graham Howe stumbles across fascinating South African connections on a
visit to the Barossa as a media delegate to the Australian Tourism
Exchange 2010 in Adelaide.
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Peter Lehmann doesn't like to talk about "new world wines".
"South Africa and Australia shared a common cause in the 1970s when our wines were disparaged as new world wines" he tells me over lunch in their family cellar in the Barossa Valley. Looking back on a life in wine spanning sixty years, the "mentor of Barossa" reminisces nostalgically on the early years. When I ask about the highlights, the feisty sage of Australian wine simply sighs "It's a long story - I can't go over it all again".
Over a wine tasting, Peter Lehmann nostalgically revisits his wine trips to South Africa in 1978 and 1980. He recalls the beauty of Delheim, Muratie, Simonsig, Lanzerac, Overgaauw and Twee Jonge Gezellen, and the warm hospitality of his generation - Frans Malan, Ronnie Melck, Nico Myburgh, Nicky Krone, David van Velden as well as Spatz Sperling and Duimpie Bailey. When he admired Meerlust manor, Nico said, "That's the new wing added in 1788!" Making his point, Peter says "And people talk about new world wine! That's the year Australia was founded!"
Whether the Barossa or the Cape, the tapestry of family wine history is a passion for Peter and Margaret Lehmann. Some 700 grape growers in the Barossa and many of the 75 cellar doors are still under family ownership despite buy-outs by big wine corporations. The winery sources fruit from vineyards owned by 186 grape growers, some sixth generation. He says the proliferation of small family-owned wineries and vineyards, "the caretakers of the land", gives him faith in the future - along with the huge improvements in viticulture through research.
Peter Lehmann is a descendant of the Lutheran refugees who founded the Barossa in the 1840s. He's fond of quoting Martin Luther's saying, "He who loves not wine, women and song remains a fool his whole life long". When I ask why he put the trademark Queen of Clubs on their label, he says "Starting our own winery in 1978 was a hell of a gamble - and I'm a big fan of Damon Runyon's gambling stories".
Today, Peter Lehmann Wines are linked to sister estate Glen Carlou through a partnership with Hess Family Estates, investors in six wineries from Argentina and California to Australia and the Cape, whose logo is "terroir wines on four continents". His son Philip and grandson Michael worked vintages at Radford Dale and Glen Carlou. Lehmann's laments will be familiar to local winemakers. He says, "Chenin Blanc is one of the great varieties in the world - but very under-rated in Barossa. Riesling suffered the same fate as Chenin - everything used to go into it. The label integrity programme sorted out confusion over true grapes. Now we have to tell the truth!"
We taste a few of the dozen or so labels of Lehmann Shiraz, the cellar's signature variety over a lunch of real country pie with salads from the chef's garden - as well as Margaret Barossa Semillon 2005, a tribute to Margaret Lehmann's passion for another under-rated variety. I am told the cellar was the first in the Barossa to label this wine made from old vineyards as "Semillon" - and has championed the variety as "a unique Australian dry white wine style to the world", released only as a five year-old wine.
But Peter Lehmann is no fan of Sauvignon Blanc. 'We keep it at the end of the terrace" he quips. "I prefer eating my own asparagus to a spear though the stomach!"
I counted over 36 wines on the cellar-door wine-list from sparkling Shiraz to Tempranillo and fortified reds. In a tasting centre hung with original artworks by Rod Schubert depicted on their arty wine labels, I asked Peter why they make so many styles of wines. He answers famously, "Because we can! We have so many different growers, micro-climates and varieties. Shiraz is our great strength - and world-class Riesling." (The winery has won Best Riesling and best Shiraz in the World at the IWC while Andrew Wigan twice won International Winemaker of the Year at IWSC.)
Every wine at lunch tells a story about the Barossa. After tasting the Semillon and Wigan Eden Valley Riesling 2004 (another five year old release) we move onto the Lehmann flagships - The Futures Shiraz 2007 (named after their maiden 1980 release sold to family and friends on a "pay now and we'll deliver the wine in a few years" basis), Eight Songs Shiraz 2005 (after the opera and art of "Eight Songs for a Mad King"), the iconic Stonewall Shiraz 2005 (from old vines going back to 1885) - and Mentor Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 - a wine of great longevity like its namesake that pays tribute to "a man amongst men with individual style, character and integrity."
After lunch, I came across more South African connections at Rockford, a cult Barossa winery owned by Robert O'Callaghan. Ben Radford, a familiar name in Cape wine, worked eight vintages at Longridge, Spier and The Winery of Good Hope with Alex Dale (who still makes acclaimed wines under the Radford Dale label). Since returning to Australia, Ben, a sixth-generation grape grower and his South African wife Gill have acquired a wine farm in the Eden Valley - which is the new home of Radford Wines: a producer of bio-dynamic Riesling, fortified Riesling and Shiraz.
At Rockford, Ben took me on a tour of the antique 19th century winemaking crusher, basket press and open slate fermenters in the old 1850's settler farm outbuildings. This delightful little winery is deliberately built on the same scale, age and pace as the growers' vineyards - and aged in old 2200 litre wooden barrels. These cult wines handcrafted from traditional Barossa varieties are sourced from small patches of ancient vines in long-term partnerships between Rockford and old family growers in the valley - making Semillon and Riesling from 85 year-old vines to Grenache, Mourvedre, Shiraz and old varieties like Alicante Bouchet and White Frontignac.
Apparently, Rockford is one of five wineries in Australia which sells up to 80% of its wines directly to consumers through mail order and at the cellar-door. Every week the winemakers host a food and wine tasting at a long table for members of its Stonewall Society in an old stone shed - using ingredients from their organic, bio-dynamic garden. Cape winemaker Rianie Strydom tells me the concept inspired The Long Table, the delightful new cellar-door restaurant at Haskell Vineyards - where a good selection of Barossa wines is now available on an innovative Australasian wine-list. Wines from Peter Lehmann and Hess wines can be tasted at Glen Carlou in Paarl.
To my great surprise, I also came across South African wine and brandy on a wine list in the Barossa but that's a story for another day...
* Graham Howe was a guest of Tourism Australia and South Australian Tourism - see www.australia.com and www.southaustralia.com. For specialist food and wine tours, contact Taste of South Australia at www.tastesa.com.au and see www.barossa.com.
Tune into SAFM Time to Travel every Wedneday evening at 21h00 and listen to Graham's four-part radio series on his adventures down under, starting 28 July.
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