Australia hardly seems to be the country that one would think of when discussing humility. If they have ever (and often) thrashed a team on the pitch, they?ve done little to hold their motormouths back from making apparent their true and heartfelt disgust for the other team as also a sense of pompous pride in their well-deserved achievement.
But I was there recently, tasting quite an array of wines here and around and managed a very fine tasting of wines made by Jacob?s Creek, but not just the meagre and modest lot of five that we see in India; these were the ?other? wines, made from single vineyards, select parcels, special ageing and blending processes?all in all, wines that were as far in price and provenance from their more generic stuff as chalk is from Mature English Cheddar souffl?.
The problem with the wine world is that it often, too quickly, becomes a victim of a self-killing fallacy. If a wine is good it becomes famous and as such, its popularity grows and the house tries to keep up with this demand. And then, just when it is at the very height of its hallowed image, it is deemed ?commercial? and free-falls from grace. And then, it is relegated to the lower end of the pecking order, it goes from being the preferred pour at VIP parties to the house pour at shady bars and finally, on to the discount bin at the supermarket.
Jacob?s Creek, although not scathed as badly, does have an image problem in India. People think it to be a mass-producing house with no capabilities or interest to produce wines of a higher quality. Sad how the tastings made me realise that this was so not the case. Mind you, I didn?t just taste their wines, I tried some of the more established reputed houses, too, and the higher-end wines from Jacob?s Creek could and would have stacked up neatly and seamlessly beside them.
To name a few of these precious wines, the Steingarten Riesling would be the one to kick off the list. It is crisp and bone dry with great mineral character, almost austere to someone who is expecting a sweeter German approach.
St Hugo series Cabernet Sauvignon wines from the Coonawarra is another winner: terroir-centric and honest, rich and robust and yet handled with much delicacy (as was evident from the older vintages such as the 2001 and the 1998). Unlike Bordeaux, Cabernet here shows more notes of spearmint and eucalyptus, and pepper is slightly less obvious. The red soils over fractured limestone make this region one unique land mass and one of the most Cabernet-friendly vine-growing regions of the world. And yet, the population of the town is no more than 30 people; safe to assume then that most of them work in the field of wines.
Then, there was their prized Shiraz from the Barossa, which is marked by its characteristic plummy aromas is another succulent juicy big and bold wine. And then, there is the flagship wine, the one dedicated to Johann Gramps, the founder, which is a blend of the best of the lot of the above-mentioned Cabernet and Shiraz. You can well imagine how fabulous that would be. And all three had tremendous ageing potential.
My reaction was one of amazement and surprise followed almost instantly by a mix of heartfelt concern and anger: why didn?t they bother bringing these wines to India? Didn?t they wish to show a growing budding drinking populace just how good they could be? Did they really wish to keep focus on entry-level wines and be written off like other houses, which were too slow with introducing their more prized wines and when they did get their better exploits, the people were only too quick in brushing it off as ?not serious? wines. Gallo comes racing to mind, a house that makes great wines, but today is considered the bootlegger wine; the one that you order when too many guests are coming over and nobody knows much about wine. However, their single-vineyard wines are superb and worthy of the finest of dining tables.
Jacob?s Creek is still safe from such but the clock is ticking. Very soon they will have to pave the way for cementing their own future. With the way local Indian wines are improving it won?t be long before we prefer a generic local produce over imported entry-level wines simply for the quality would be comparable, but the local ones would be fresher and cheaper. But terroir wines will never be and can never be replaced. They will always command a market and prestige for their origin is unique and their conditions of creation inimitable. And this is what makes a wine special and legendary.
So, while I thank the team at JC for having taught me about humility, I implore them to explore India. It?s time fellas! You need to bring in the good stuff, to show people what you can do, to plan a long-term stay strategy in this new market, but mostly to help people like me have a good drink at a sound value proposition of a price.
The writer is a sommelier