Thread by @danielmkim

As promised, another #CookingForLieutenants thread, but this time a primer on wines from Australia & New Zealand. Oz & Aotearoa produce still & sparkling wines that are among the best in the world, with a wide range of climates & terroirs that span a distance of 5000 km.

Admiral Arthur Phillip, RN, & probably a bunch of other posh English acronyms, brought vine cuttings from South Africa with him when he established the first penal colony at what is now Sydney, in 1788. This initial experiment failed, though not for lack of trying.

Within 30 years of the first English settlement, the original vine cuttings had found a natural home in Hunter Valley, New South Wales (pictured).

By the 1830s, James Busby, later the founding father of the NZ wine industry, brought French & Spanish vine cuttings to both NSW & the Barossa Valley. One of the cuttings he brought was syrah from the northern Rhone Valley in France. You may also know it as shiraz.

In 1845, wine production had advanced to the point where "claret" from the Adelaide Hills region of South Australia was presented to Queen Victoria as a gift from HRH's Australian subjects.

Prussian & Italian immigrants, ecstatic at discovering the warm, dry Mediterranean climate in NSW & South Aust., added their own winemaking expertise, and placed thousands of additional hectares under vine by the 1860s.

French missionaries further east in NZ needed communion wine, because one imagined they needed something to soothe their spirits after trying to convert justifiably suspicious Maoris. By the 1850s, the first vineyard in Hawkes Bay was planted. For, um, communion wine. Lots of it.

The zenith of the early Aussie wine journey came in 1872, when they submitted Bordeaux-style blends to the Vienna Exhibition. The Aussie team would've won, if not for snooty French judges who canceled the entire tasting when they found out where the winning wines came from.

Mind you, the *first* vitis vinifera vines were *just* being planted by American settlers in northern California around this time. Mendoza had also already been making Malbec for around 50 years. We're talking the OG New World winemakers.

Australian Shiraz came into its own by the turn of the century, around the same time as New Zealand’s now-mature Pinot Noir & Hermitage (aka Syrah) vines yielded complex, lush wines that reflected their particular volcanic terroir.

What’s more, the Aussies realized that with good irrigation, they could even grow wine in regions as climactically disparate as the dust-dry Margaret River valley in WA, or the lush greenery of the Gold Coast.

Did I mention volcanoes? I did, didn’t I? Because volcanic soil like New Zealand’s - not the clay or slate found in North America or Western Europe - is rich in the nutrients that wine vines need to thrive. And boy, did they thrive, from Kaitaia to Raikura.

Phylloxera, the mite that fed on wine vines, hit both Oz & NZ in the late 19th century, but as with Europe, grafting North American root stock to their own vines hardened them against this mini-plague that otherwise would've wiped out their wine industries.

The Great Depression hampered wine production in both countries, but didn't cripple it because neither country would've been as Puritan as the US & it's folly of Prohibition. Most wine in Oz & NZ was produced for domestic production, which sufficed until WW2 intervened.

After the war, wine production continued apace, with the postwar recession hardly touching Aussie & Kiwi winemakers because of increased demand in other Commonwealth countries, whose former soldiers had drunk & appreciated these wines between firefights. I kid. Kind of.

Australia concentrated on increased demand for its "stickies," or fortified sweet wines, while NZ continued to experiment. Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet, & Merlot were more widely planted by the 1950s, in vineyards on both main islands.

Then something magical happened. In 1955, Penfolds Grange, the granddaddy of Aussie wine houses, made what it called GSM, for a Rhone-style blend containing Grenache, Syrah/Shiraz, & Mourvèdre. I was once honored with a taste of 55, and it blew me out of my socks - in 2004.

This heralded a switch in focus from stickies to standard non-fortified wines in Australia, with winemakers also returning after learning tours in the0 US & Europe, bringing those regions' best practices home.

Unfortunately, on the eastern side of the Tasman Sea, vineyards were suffering from over-cultivation, with so many different varietals being planted so widely, & with little plan for crop rotation, that quality plummeted in the 1960s & 70s.

The second renaissance for both countries happened in the 1980s. The oddly named Montana Estate in Marlborough, on South Island, rediscovered its knack for growing & making Sav Blanc, but with a Kiwi twist that planted American & European snobs on their asses.

Those twists? Not blending Sav Blanc with Semillon, as had been happening in Bordeaux & Napa forever & ever, amen. Also, vinifying the grapes & ageing the wine in stainless steel, not oak barrels. Heads swirled, until Cloudy Bay was judged the best Sav Blanc in the world in 1985.

Across the Tasman Sea, shiraz demand bloomed thanks to its relatively low price compared to Oz's French rivals, & increased international acclaim. Winemakers began to experiment in wonderful ways, like adding Cabernet Sauvignon, or even Cab Franc, to shiraz.

NZ planted more & more Sav Blanc to meet demand in the 1990s, while its stellar Pinot Noirs, sadly, still continue to be underappreciated. As a wine professional, it still boggles the mind that Kiwi Pinots haven't gained more of a foothold here in the US.

Now for the fun part, which I know many were waiting for: what do I like & drink? Here goes, in no particular order.
Mollydooker, "The Maitre 'D"
Jim Barry, "The Florita" Riesling
D'Arenberg, "The Dead Arm"
Leeuwin Estate Chardonnay
Cape Mentelle Cab/Shiraz

Walsh & Sons "Felix" Cab/Shiraz
Tait "The Ball Buster" Shiraz
Torbreck "The Descendant" Shiraz
David Franz "Long Gully Road" Semillon
Penfolds "Bin 389"

Caveat: this is just a partial list of my favorite Australian wines

Aotearoa (a far more poetic name than New Zealand):
Two Paddocks "Fusilier" Pinot Noir (owned & operated by Sam Neill)
Escarpment Kiwa Pinot Noir
Ata Rangi Sav Blanc
Mount Beautiful Riesling
Pegasus Bay Pinot Noir
Kumeu River Chardonnay

Why do I enjoy these wines? They reflect the hardiness & bullheadedness of the Aussies & Kiwis who make them. They reflect centuries of winemaking traditions that forged their own paths, instead of staying in lockstep with the more hidebound France or Italy.

Finally, & most importantly, they're delicious.

Cheers.

Here endeth the lesson.