Wine prices are getting out of hand
This year I’m going to start with a raised eyebrow about pricing. Many people, including our own customers, comment that the price of Giaconda Estate Vineyard Chardonnay is well undervalued. This wine has a proven track record and is considered one of the few grand cru alternatives that is available from the new world (at this price and quality). However, we have resisted the push towards higher pricing and there will be only a small increase this year, which considers inflation and rising costs. I think wine prices are generally getting out of hand, and I speak about chardonnay in particular, having seen one Australian example for $600! There is now a spate of chardonnays above $200 heading towards $350. These prices simply encourage other producers to be cavalier with their pricing, regardless of the quality.
I do a lot of blind tasting with friends and family and we see a very mixed bag out there. There are lots of people, especially some new younger vignerons who are making good and interesting wines at fair prices. On the other hand, some egos seem apparent with people making too many wines at too high prices and quality that is, in my opinion, questionable. I hope my longstanding policy of not bowing to fashion and only making the wines that I like to drink, continues to be appreciated. I do worry that our wines are no longer accessible to some of our longstanding customers. If any of you are in this situation, please feel free to discuss with me.
Continuing with Chardonnay, we have had a great run of vintages since 2010 with the recent succession of three La Niña seasons probably the best of all. Pointing to this, Antonio Galloni (of www.vinous.com) has given our 2022 vintage the best white wine in the world but admittedly only 35,000 were tasted! I consider 2023 to be an exceptional release from a cooler vintage and you’ll find a link to the tasting notes below. The input from my son, Nathan and Vineyard Manager, Casey, has been invaluable in lifting the overall quality of our wines. This frees me up to concentrate on creative ideas to further improve both our viticulture and winemaking.
I'm also very encouraged by the 2023 Estate Vineyard Roussanne, which is an exceptional follow on from its maiden 2022 vintage. This variety is planted on our warm north-facing amphitheatre block and is steadily improving as we learn how to manage the new site and experiment a little with the fermentation and barrel regimes. We are gradually finding the best vineyard management practices and crop level for this vineyard, to bring power and concentration while maintaining refinement.
Our secondary vineyard site in Beechworth is dedicated to Nebbiolo and this is going from strength to strength. The majority of this vineyard is now 15 years old and I consider the new release from 2022 to be our best to date. A well-known wine critic (considered an expert on Nebbiolo) has reinforced this opinion and you will find more information on this in the tasting notes linked below. As with all the red wines, this is now fermented entirely in terracotta amphorae and benefits from a component of extended maceration.
While the La Niña vintages have been beneficial for most of our varieties, there will be no Estate Vineyard Shiraz offered this year. The 2023 season was much too cool for this variety. In addition, we experienced record low yields across all varieties. This mostly effects Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and our offering in terms of quantities will be greatly reduced during the release this year. Please expect all the wines to sell out very quickly on April 15th.
The Future:
All this has led me to review what we do and play to our strengths. This vineyard, and in fact much of this area, really excels for white wine. We have planted more chardonnay here at the Estate Vineyard with the express purpose to produce our second label Nantua Chardonnay entirely from estate grown fruit. There will be one final release of this wine next year from fruit bought in from neighbouring vineyards and blended with a small component of Giaconda fruit. After this, Nantua Chardonnay will be sourced solely from the estate.
There is also a small plot of Pinot Noir in the cooler and more humid part of our vineyard which has been inter-row planted this season which doubles the vineyard planting density. The intention is that this should foster more competition amongst those vines and lead to greater quality. Look out for some interesting pinot noir wines from us in future years.
In other news we are considering to finish making shiraz here at the Estate and graft those vines over to more Roussanne and Chardonnay. This is not a fait accompli, however we will keep you updated on this project in future newsletters, once those decisions have been made.
Read the current release tasting notes.
Salut,
Rick Kinzbrunner
Back to the future for Giaconda's Pinot Noir
30 April 2015A decade or so ago Rick Kinzbrunner was dismayed at the quality of the pinot noir he was producing from his Giaconda vineyard near Beechworth. So dismayed that this figurehead of the Beechworth wine industry actually made several pinots between 2008 and 2012 in which Yarra Valley fruit from the Toolangi Vineyard (for whom he makes its Reserve Chardonnay) was the dominant fraction. This despite the still memorable qualities of estate-grown pinot noir vintages such as 1989, 1991 and 1992, not to mention the first-ever Giaconda wine I tasted, the 1988. I remember this wine as if I tasted it an hour ago. I was with my father, who was equally seduced, and I was immediately convinced Kinzbrunner was a genius.
I’ve just had rather a profound flashback to that very moment, 25 years or so ago. Why? I ripped the top from the 2013 Giaconda Pinot Noir, a wine that is again 100% estate-grown but which is taken from relatively recent plantings at a significantly higher – and therefore cooler – location at the Giaconda site. Here’s a truly stellar pinot noir, but one that talks its site as much as its variety. Having followed the 1989 very closely – and this is the vintage the 2013 most resembles – I speak with genuine confidence that this wine will age superbly, for the long term. It will become more complex and ethereal – which it is already to an extent – and will become firstly more powerful and then more delicate. It will remain elegant and savoury, will retain its effortless natural balance and freshness, and will please many a Burgundian collector, not just because it will age into something more Burgundian than many a Burgundy.
If you have the chance to taste this wine, do so. It has an Old Worldliness and a reserve that takes my breath away. For me it ticks the most important boxes: it’s about the place, the vintage and the maker. And most importantly, no other maker in the world could have created it. I hope Kinzbrunner is as satisfied as I am with his latest creation.
Jeremy Oliver
https://www.jeremyoliver.com