Eden Mylunsch
Eden Mylunsch
And it might just be a factor of the vintage. 1993 was good but not great, and may be teetering just a little past its use-by date. Likewise the 97s I've tasted recently. Continuing with generalizations, I've been surprised by how well the better 1999s have been looking these days. Not over the top like a lot of the 98s and it was a little before everyone started pushing the envelope with the fervor encountered with the 2001 'sell 'em while you can" vintage.
Sadly, yes. Since I'm generalizing about vintages (above), it's not out of line to generalize on the palate terroir ofWine Disorder in terms of the esteem in which Aussie Shiraz is held here, ie: a level of esteem that might be likened to that of someone on the wrong end of the suicide prevention hotline.I would put forth the thought that the generalized Australian wine flavo(u)r profile would not find favo(u)r at Wine Disorder even if its label indicated that it came from Cornas, Bordeaux, or Slovenia. In general, the climate's too warm to get grapes physiologically ripe and still have the acidity Disorderlies seem to enjoy in their wine. No harm, no foul, it's just what it is.
It's useful to consider the wineries mentioned by the esteemable Graeme in his post above and no, they're not having difficulty "shifting their Shiraz", but they're not shifting much of it in the USA. Asia, UK and the domestic (Aussie) buyers have picked up the slack, and while these wineries aren't totally abandoning US consumers, they're not pursuing us as actively as they did in the past. Now that most of the Aussie closeouts have been scooped up, importers are ordering less wine and moving toward more cool-climate selections, opting for wines with balance and a sense of place that wasn't apparent in the Parker era of Oz wine appreciation. The fondness for the 101 point fruitbombs passed with the depletion of the stock market and subsequent (and relative) disappearance from the market of collectors of new world wines. Buyers of the current Oz releases tend to be people who taste the wines, like them, and buy them without considering speculation or fearing castigation from their old world collecting colleagues.
The Aussie market in the USA has lately come to resemble the market for Argentine wines; a lot of decent, well-crafted plonk at the low end, great value wines in the middle, and some fantastic wines at the high end that are distinctive but not necessarily collectible and thus don't get the respect from "serious" winegeeks. Grange and Hill of Grace will always be collectible because they always have been. That's just the way these things work, just as how Vega Sicilia will be the one Spanish wine in every self-proclaimed "serious" collector's cellar.
Will this situation in the USA change any time soon? How the hell would I know?! Will it change on Wine Disorder? Probably not, but why would anyone think it would, and why does it matter?
-Eden (lots of questions today and few answers)