The Proof In The Australian Wine Pudding

Australia's wine scene comes in hot and heavy with many producers quick to try and deliver crowdpleasing wines that seem to be designed with the primary goal of wanting to be bought by every person on the planet - that is to say, to put it bluntly, that they tend to cater to the lowest denominator. And I've always believed that that in large part has made it difficult for the wines from Down Under to begin ascending to the upper tiers of being perceived as truly iconic. As the saying goes - trying to be liked by everyone is a great way to be liked by no one. And that's quite the disservice given just how truly unique Australia as a winegrowing region is!

Put aside all the marketing bells and whistles, Australia holds amongst the largest remaining parcels of old vines that were brought over by European settlers in the 1800's that were miraculously shielded from the scourge of Phylloxera (the plague that killed vines across Europe in the late 1800's and into the early 1900's, requiring large scale replanting) as a result of Australia's geographical isolation. That means that in areas like Barossa Valley and Hunter Valley, it's possible to find a sufficient amount of old vines (hence you might spot the term "Old Vines" or "Old Block" on Aussie bottles) of Shiraz, Grenache, Mourvedre, Cabernet Sauvignon and Semillon that can yield just enough bottles! These vines are substantially older than what you can find elsewhere, particularly in the Old World (especially Europe), and the fact of the matter is they won't last forever. Vines - as with all things - have a maximum limit to their productive age range, after which they simply can't produce anymore, and so these Old Vines so to speak are truly something special and likely won't ever exist again! And if you're ever wondering what the big fuss is over Australia - there you go, this is perhaps the primary and also the most fundamental reason for their being.

100 year old vines at Glaetzer's Ebenezer vineyard.

And so it's worth therefore searching through the amplitudes of winemakers to look for the few folks who're not just harnessing what's unique about the winegrowing area but also doing things right - to save the suspense, there are indeed stars to be found. One such star is Ben Glaetzer.

Meet The Glaetzer's

Ben is the second generation of the Glaetzer Winery, which his father, Colin, had established in 1995 when he had concluded that the market was right for the family to launch and build their own brand rather than simply remain as growers selling their fruit to someone else. Nevertheless the Glaetzer family as a whole have really been here in the Barossa for far longer - 1888 to be precise, when they had immigrated from Brandenburg, Germany. They got to the Barossa and immediately got into vine growing and had served as growers for over a century. For them this was simply a continuation of what they had been doing for generations longer back in Germany and Austria.

Colin and Ben Glaetzer.

They eventually got into the contract winemaking business and at peak were crushing 10,000 tons of fruit every vintage (over 30 different grape varieties), which would go into over 1,300 different wines that the Glaetzer family would help produce for clients. Somewhere in there was then the family's own Glaetzer Wines whose focus was on ancient vines in the Barossa Valley, in particular from the little known yet highly acclaimed Ebenezer vineyard where the vines were between 80 to 110 years old ungrafted. These vines were essentially dry farmed with no irrigation, and also farmed to organic practices (although like any self-respecting producer, they refuse to make it a point to call themselves "organic") - this keeps their vines healthy, with longevity, and incredibly concentrated in their expressiveness of the special terroir.

A New Generation Unlike Before

While Ben's father had achieved quite some success - he debuted the E&E Black Pepper Shiraz in 1994 which has gone on to be come an Australian icon - Ben would take it one step further. Having grown up working the family's winery and then later studying winemaking at Roseworthy in Adelaide, as well as staging in wineries around the world, he would eventually return to the family's winery ready to take over the helm in 2002.

From the get go, Ben already had a good sense of what he wanted to achieve from his wines. With 16-17 different soil types in the Barossa, along with quite the range of altitudes allowing for everything from big reds to elegant whites and even fortifieds, the canvas whilst large, can also be quite intimidating. Yet with great familiarity with the region having grown up right in the Barossa, Ben had wanted to focus on delivering elegant yet intense, thoughtful reds (as opposed to the bigger, riper, opulence we tend to see from the valley), as well as whites (under the name Heartland) that showcase more terroir and character, without coming off generic. “I’m trying to make wines that will make people think,... there are more dimensions to Australian wine that many people give credit for.” says Ben. And thus particularly delving deeper into Glaetzer Wines, Ben would focus his entire attention on just a single square mile of vineyard, the Ebenezer.

“We have divided the vineyard into 40 blocks, each with different measured parameters. I admit I don’t want to see the analysis; I just want to taste. There’s a window of perhaps four days between physiologically un-ripe, and over-cooked fruit in the Barossa, but I pick on ripeness of tannins and taste, not analysing the ripeness of the fruit and sugars. 

I’m looking for animated fruit. Wines have to stay alive. I want the fruit to smell fresh, alive and animated." elaborates Ben on his process.

And right off the bat like clockwork, his wines have immediately struck gold. His Amon-Ra Shiraz would go on to score a potential 100 from America's favourite wine critic Robert Parker. Named after the king of the Gods in Egyptian mythology, whose temple is believed to be the first temple ever to harvest a monoculture vineyard for the auspices of the temple's citizens, the wine has become a cult wine that was even named as one of the twelve great wines in the hit Japanese wine-genre anime Drops of God. This immediately propelled Glaetzer Wines' success and laid the groundwork for a grand entry into the US. And yet as Ben tells it “Basically I could ship everything I make over to the States and sell it all for twice the price at the moment, but what would be the point of that? We are in this business for the long term, and want to build up loyal customers not cash-in on a great score from Parker.”

With a penchant for culture and lore, Ben has gone on to produce other hit wines such as Anaperenna, so named after the Roman Goddess of the New Year who was asked by followers for longevity and in turn had her followers drink a glass of wine on the first full moon of the Roman calendar. And then of course there's Wallace, whose Celtic imagery on its label pays tribute to Ben's mother (whose maiden name is Judith Wallace) who is of Celtic ancestry.

Even rockstars gotta have wine.

Ben's success in becoming the star of Australian winemaking is nevertheless not totally unexpected. Beyond having come from a multi-generational winemaking family, as well as his experience in bringing out the terroir of Australia's unique old vines, he is quick to also point out that his is the first generation where winemakers were able to not only study oenology formally, but who have also had the opportunity to travel and see winemaking in other parts of the world and to also be able to try wines from abroad. Ben talks of how in the era of his father and his uncle, who had run the family's winery, there was simply not good access to imported wines and ease of travelling. This worldliness has helped Ben learn from others and to also better understand the multivariate ways that wines can be made and could be express themselves.

Into The Glaetzer Vineyards And Cellars

Going into the Ebenezer vineyards, you'll find thick canopies which protect the fruit from the intense Australian sun, with the fruit having to be picked early to preserve freshness and to control for ripeness and acidity. "The really important thing in making world class wines is having world class vineyards and it doesn't mean you have the prettiest vineyard in the world and it doesn't mean you have the most manicured. It basically means you are producing fruit that is symbolic of the soil that you are given and the climate that is there." says Ben. And thus Glaetzer's wines come from vineyards that experience minimal intervention, and with most practices organic in nature.

In the cellars, only neutral yeasts are used so as to express the fruit's purity and cool ferments with extended skin contact are also used to add softness and to extract tannins as gently as possible. For Ben, oak is perhaps the biggest difference between his work and that of his predecessors. His observation has been that winemakers in Australia have now a much better understanding of different types of oak, what makes good oak barrels and how they work the wines. Working with 16 different handpicked coopers, Glaetzer's wines are aged in 3 year seasoned American oak barrels that have been seasoned in France. Ben's perspective is that oak aging should work towards adding structure and depth, without adding any of the wood's flavours to the wine.

Today, whilst the Glaetzer family continues to produce wines for contract, 30-40% of its capacity has now gone towards Glaetzer's own wines across the Glaetzer brand name, Heartland (whites) and a joint partnership named Mitolo. The winery is equipped with 110 individual fermenters of varying sizes, allowing for quite a variety of styles of wines being produced. Each year, 5,500 barrels are filled, and whilst the contract wines have to be made with efficiency, practices enhancing the wines' quality are continuously added to the process, such as having everything passed around via gravity, even if that means literally using a fork lift to pick up a fermenter and pushing the juice through air bag presses that are then used to fill barrels.

With all that said, let's try Glaetzer's Wallace! As we talked about before, Wallace pays homage to Ben's mother Judith Wallace, and her Celtic heritage. It is a blend of 84% Shiraz (50-80 year old vines) and 16% Grenache (50-100 year old vines). The Grenache is not aged in oak, whilst the Shiraz component is aged for 2-3 years in oak hogsheads (80% French oak, 20% American oak).

Let's give this a go!

PS. Shoutout to 67 Pall Mall for putting together an incredible anniversary party where some amazing wines, like the Glaetzer, was served! If you're a wine lover, you probably already know of the go to wine members club 67 Pall Mall - which you should know stands above and beyond with their throwing of incredible parties (with equally incredible wines) and keep a 1,000-bottle wine list filled with legendary wines that you can enjoy by the glass, priced pretty much close to cost! Definitely look into that! Happy anniversary 67 Pall Mall! 

Wine Review: Glaetzer Wallace Barossa Valley Shiraz Grenache 2021

Tasting Notes

Aroma: Opens with moderate cherry, raspberry jam and cherry frosting. It's layered and polished overall, though there's an evocative undercurrent of rustic barnyard character and a distinctly earthy impression with freshly dried tobacco leaves, damp soil and mustiness of wood dunnage. A slight pyrazine green bell pepper note too.

Taste: The fruit character on the palate much is less ripe than the nose suggested. It’s a medium-bodied, well-saturated expression dominated primarily by black fruits. Opens with dark cherries, blackberry preserves and raspberries with a velvety texture balanced with moderate tannins. Some delicate touches of rose come forward, accompanied by a subtle malolactic creaminess reminiscent of strawberry milk and a faint medicinal hint of Wood’s Cough Syrup. Some dried mint as well.

Finish: Tannins soften in the finish. Quite complex and lingers with dried sour plum, dried figs, raisins, herbaceous nuances of Wood’s syrup and eucalyptus, and some rancio and savoury iodine.

My Thoughts

The Glaetzer Wallace offers very good intensity without crossing into overripeness. It’s got expressive and appealing dark fruit flavours and showcases some really terroir-driven character, especially evident in the light earthiness on the nose and subtle umami notes towards the finish—which seems to be a hallmark many of Ben Glaetzer’s Shirazes.

It already strikes nice a balance between freshness and complexity, and although currently somewhat restrained in depth, I think it holds very promising potential. With an additional 5 to 10 years, the tannins would could much further to allow the wine to reveal much more elegance and dimensions.