30 Years On – a reflection on what defines Giaconda
15 March 2016
Who says you cannot teach an old dog new tricks? 30 years on I am still learning in the vineyard and winery; the last six being the most prolific, more so than the previous twenty-four.
From the outset I determined to follow my intuition: to craft wines that reflect this tiny and unique site near Beechworth and show my passion for wine styles that are cutting edge in an international context. Giaconda was never going to be a trend follower nor an imitation of others who have come before. Giaconda is the style. It has not always been a comfortable ride. My perseverance and determination to stay true to my vision, and not become seduced by the glamour and noise of “wine entertainment” has ensured Giaconda remains innovative, at the cutting edge of premium wine production, and above all, relevant to our ultimate critics, the consumers. I have always preferred to let my wines do the talking!
Embracing change is essential to any business if it wishes to grow and flourish. This is also true for premium wine production. Here the challenges come in the form of: climate issues, shifts in consumer preference, economic issues abroad and at home and the rise of new, equally determined producers with a vision and a story to tell.
Giaconda is its own style; it has relevance because it resonates with people who understand and appreciate a commitment to maintaining a style that is consistent. The integrity of Giaconda is based on a steadfast determination to fine tune, to improve but never to jump ship and follow the latest fashion thought bubble that has for example beleaguered Chardonnay of late.
My guiding principle has been to question everything we do: vineyard practices, replanting and removing vines (saying farewell to the Estate Cabernet), updating wine production and processing equipment and of course, where and how we mature the wines. Our cave has been central to our wine ethos that maturing wine slowly and gracefully in an all year round cool environment will only enhance quality.
It has taken me 30 years to arrive at a point where I can confidently say we are now well placed to handle the vagaries that nature throws at us. There is no denying that climatic conditions have been extremely challenging since 2000 with many earlier vintages. The change and innovation I have referred to has enabled me to cope with these climate hurdles and in many cases turn them to an advantage.
Let me explain. We seem to experience of late much warmer springs but little, or no more, intensity of heat during mid-summer. Warmer springs advance the growing season but the actual length of growing time remains much the same. Not picking the fruit too ripe, or too late, has ensured the grapes are in beautiful condition with perfect acidity. This has enabled me to produce an unheralded run of powerful, complex Chardonnays from 2010 all at slightly reduced baumes.
This dog might be older, but I am still barking and there are more tricks to earn.
So to the wines. There is no 2014 Pinot Noir nor 2014 Warner Shiraz this release. Both fell victim to the spring frosts. Subsequently the fruit we picked did not reach a standard that befits Giaconda single vineyard wines. Smaller amounts were made of both these wines and will be released under our Nantua Les Deux label at a later stage. Watch this space for details!
On the point above, our Chardonnay quantity (but not quality) was also reduced due to frost on the lower parts of the vineyard. However this wine has been the real surprise of the 2014 vintage – at the pinnacle in terms of quality – amongst our very best with stunning power and complexity. This wine will sell out very quickly due to the reduced yields so don't miss out.
The 2014 Estate Shiraz avoided the frosts, perched near the top of the slope. It was an ideal season for the Shiraz and resulted in a wine of startling quality, possibly the best to date. Here the tweaking of vinification methods with a slight adjustment in the origin of the forests that we use from our Sirugue barrels has added further stature to this wine. What I am finding now is the inherent beauty that can be achieved with Shiraz. No longer is it just the domain of Pinot Noir to be ethereal.
The first vintage of our Red Hill Nebbiolo vineyard is in barrel. This wine from the 2015 vintage shows extraordinary varietal character – good colour, a perfume of spice, rose petal, emerging notes of tar and beautiful interplay between tannin, fruit and acid. There was not enough to fill our 1600 litre Italian Botti, so it rests in older 228 litre barrels in the cave. Nebbiolo is renowned for being shy and reserved in its youth. Patience is essential. My feeling is that Red Hill will be a natural home for the production of quintessential Nebbiolo. It will be fascinating to follow its development.
Finally, I would like to thank you all for your encouragement and support for Giaconda over the past 30 years. I am truly grateful to all of you who have deemed my wines worthy of your patronage.
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Sincerely,
Richard Kinzbrunner
Jeremy Oliver's Wine of the Year - 2012 Estate Vineyard Shiraz!
01 November 2014Australian Wine Annual 2015 - Giaconda Estate Shiraz 2012 (98 points)
Since 1999 Rick Kinzbrunner has been fashioning cutting-edge cool climate Australian shiraz. Fifteen years ago there weren’t too many Victorians making this variety into a style we perhaps more associate with the northern Rhône Valley, but Kinzbrunner has always drawn inspiration from the wines he most enjoys drinking. So until 2008, the only Shiraz from Giaconda was the deliciously perfumed, floral, spicy and savoury Warner Vineyard Shiraz, which has been continually sourced from a sloping, north-facing section of the Warner Vineyard, 6.5 km from Beechworth and located at a marginally cooler, higher site than that of the Giaconda Vineyard itself. For many years I have rated this as a 5-Star wine.
It took a long time for Kinzbrunner to plant shiraz at Giaconda, since for the first decade and a half at his Beechworth site he was more concerned at matching different parcels of the property with chardonnay, pinot noir and cabernet sauvignon. But the consistent quality from the Warner site convinced him that a warmer, north-facing plot at the top of the property was just the place to plant two acres of shiraz, with Hermitage well and truly in his sights. In itself this was a radical but confident decision, because Kinzbrunner initially chose the predominantly south-facing property to reduce the impact of heat on its elevated but still warmish location.
Retarded by the extended drought of the first decade this century, the young shiraz vines struggled to develop and produce a crop, but in doing so dug their feet deep into the site’s granitic loam soils, which overlie decomposed gravel and clay. But when they came, the results were astonishing. The first wine from the new shiraz vines was the 2008 vintage, quickly affirming the site’s potential with what I described at the time as a ‘super Rhône’. It quickly revealed the layered, meaty and mineral attributes we now expect from the site. Kinzbrunner fine-tuned winemaking regimes for the next two vintages, exploring means by which to express the potential of the site’s terroir into anexpression of shiraz fit to rival the Rhône’s elite. Very closed and reductive in their youth, cloaked by layers of oak and tannin, the 2010 and 2011 releases delivered quality, but not enough to meet Kinzbrunner’s expectations, or even indeed the Warner Vineyard Shiraz in 2010. All that has changed with the 2012 vintage. Fermented in tank with a small proportion of viognier, it was matured in the mineshaft-like cellar under the Giaconda vineyard for 22 months inside French oak barrels, around a third of which were new. From its earliest days it looked special. Thankfully, it is safely into bottle for its real journey now to begin.
I like the fact that winemakers like Rick Kinzbrunner, Phillip Jones, Joe Grilli and Roman Bratasiuk are so honest and focused on their extraordinary ambitions. From the outset, Kinzbrunner started this project to make a wine worthy of the greatest sites of the northern Rhône, and he didn’t mind who he told about it. The clearest ambitions can carry with them the highest risk, but the risk can bring the reward.
In this case, the reward is a wine that does what Kinzbrunner has done before with chardonnay, and is also promising to do again with nebbiolo. It is taking the perceptions of what has been considered possible with Australian wine, spinning them about and exposing them for their shameful lack of imagination and inspiration. That’s what great winemakers do and why the Giaconda Estate Shiraz 2012 is such a worthy Wine of the Year.
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