South Australia is the one state in Australia specifically founded as convict-free. Strict enforcement applied; no convicts allowed to settle in this new state. Immigrants from Britian-- especially young couples who could propagate the species-- were encouraged to come. After this wave of Brits came the Lutheran Germans. They came to escape religious persecution. And, they brought their vine cuttings with them.
Welcome to Barrossa Valley. Founded primarily by these hard-working model citizens. Along with wine, they also brought their culinary talents of aging meats, charcuterie (sausages) and cheesemaking. And, despite their reputation for being decent citizens, during the World Wars they received the same discrimination that we offered our Japanese and German citizens in the United States. During the World Wars, towns changed their Germanic names, Germans were locked up, and many people changed their names and culture to avoid persecution. Some did remain in their state and persevered.
South Australia is dry. Summer finds the area gold and dead and thirsty. Rains come in Winter, when the land is green. South Australia is the driest state in the driest continent in the world. In South Australia, the older, traditional European vines grow. Shiraz. Semillon. Reisling and Muscadet. Cabernet. Grenache.
In the land of green and gold, an old vine lives. Over 165 years, this vine faces increasingly hot summers that burn gardens and bake apples still growing on their limbs. It survives through dry winters that suffer increasing drought. This vine is the oldest Shiraz vine in the world, due to three cultural factors:
1. World wars. South Australia avoided direct contact with World Wars, so their oldest vineyards have remained intact since the 1840s.
2. Prohibition. Other than a brief sampling in New South Wales, Australia remained unscathed by that messy little affair. Vineyards intact.
3. Phylloxera . As of today, South Australia has enjoyed a Phylloxera-free harvest and hopes to remain so.
(Pyhlloxera-- a tiny aphidlike insect that attacks the roots of grapevines-- sucks the nutrients from the roots and slowly starves the vine, creating a dramatic decrease in fruit. It doesn't affect the taste of the resulting wine but, eventually, replanting is required. Unfortunately, new vines do not produce the same quality fruit until they mature, which can take 8 to 10 years or more.)
The 165 year-old vine lives out its days in the lovely Barrossa Valley in South Australia. Each year it lives, its wine changes; quantity decreases while the quality improves. So, while better, an old wine is more costly and cumbersome to produce.
It's easy to produce a new vine. Simply stick a (1 metre long) cutting halfway in the ground. Water and wait; it'll grow soon enough.
Vines do love water. The more water you offer them, the more (and larger) fruit you will yield. However, to produce a quality wine, it's recommended to not water vines beyond the first year. That first year, you might water only 3-4 times. And, that is it. Imagine; you need never water vines! When you water, you water only around the base of the vine. The reason is that you want to encourage the tap root to adapt and grow-- to learn what it needs to do, to care for itself. If you water too much and around the plant, the roots will spread out, the tap root will become sedate and sluggish, and the plant will not develop the resiliency it needs. It will not receive the fresh water and minerals from the earth, nor pick up the tastes and scents from the other flora in the soil. It will not come to know its land. When you water a vine, you spoil it; you remove its motivation to thrive.
After 4-5 years, a vine is old enough to produce wine. Young vines can produce gobs of wine. An average young vine can produce up to 20 bottles per season. Compared to the 165 year vine, which, if you're lucky, will yield enough fruit for about 1-2 bottles. The young vines produce great quantity, but their quality is lacking. This is due to many, but mainly two factors:
1. Tap root. The mature vine sends its tap root down-- to 60 feet deep into the soil-- where it extracts pure water and loads of minerals and nutrients from the soil. Compared to the young vine, whose tap root is short and thin-- under 10 feet.
2. Grapes. The size of grapes diminish in older vines, although the quality of the grape improves. Meaning the tannin structure in the skin, the ratio of tannin-to-juice in the grape, and the nutrients from the tap root. These smaller, fewer grapes are condensed jems in nature. Compared to the young vines, who have larger grapes with less character and are more watery, in comparison.
As you might extrapolate, major vineyards bastardize and manipulate the poor vine, which creates a poor wine. First, they water regularly. And, not just at the center of the vine-- encouraging tap root growth-- but generally, so the roots spread out, lazily. The grapes do grow larger, but, they lose their tannin-to-juice ratio. Imagine a balloon: you can blow it up larger, but, in doing so, you will not increase the rubber. You just produce more hot air. So it is with these "pumped up" vines. Think steroids. They produce more liquid that produces more wine that produces more profit.
There are other ways of manipulation. Any real wine worth it's salt is aged in oak barrels. But, barrels are expensive; good ones run 700.00 to thousands of dollars. They can be used about 3 times, then discarded. So, bigger wineries will use humongous stainless steel vats-- some a million litres large-- and toss oak chips into them, for the fermenting process. Or, they'll use "oak enhancement"-- artificial oak flavoring.
Finally, they value youth. Major wine companies will keep vines for maybe 30 years. When the vine yield wanes, it is too costly to keep. They simply remove these vines and replace them with young, vigorous specimens.
The old vine has lived for generations, hundreds of years. It has withstood brutal transformations in climate and landscape. It has changed hands and cultures again and again. Each year, it continues to produce wine-- a bit less each year, but the quality-- the quality! of the sweet fruit-- the jewels of wisdom to be extracted from each tiny grape. In each fragile, diminishing cluster. It is a wine to be savored-- honored even. It is an old wine, in the land of green and gold.
Happy Birthday, Dad. I love you.
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