You know you’re getting old, or older than you want to be, when you start talking in decades. Those of us losing our hair and looking down on a paunch (I can’t and will not speak of the ladies in this manner) will well remember various wine fads and fashions and, like old fashions, we shake our heads and can’t believe that it was so. Things are just so much better now, right?
Tasmania has been gripped by a viticultural assault in recent years, not only for its climate, but lets be honest, because the real estate’s cheap. Land that’s zoned for agriculture demands a high deposit from the banks, 50%, unless you have some serious money behind you, so it’s no small wonder that after decades in the industry wine people are moving south. Wine doesn’t pay well, and unless your family is aristocratic, ‘established’. or you are a large corporation, wine people have absolutely Buckley’s chance of buying a good piece of dirt. The Australian agrarian dream is dead.
There is, however, a tiny little window that’s just about to close, called Tasmania. Let’s be honest, Tasmania isn’t all beer, skittles and vinous holy grail; it’s early days and although the likes of Sailor Seeks Horse, Home Hill and Tolpuddle seem to have nailed their style, many still haven’t.
In the rush to be different, many wines were made screaming, and they still are, screaming with acidity, the likes you might have found in a cool 1980’s Mosel vintage (at least they balanced their wines with residual). But decades have a knack of sorting shit out. Look at the Mosel, look at Burguundy, hell taste through all of Europe nowadays, and you’ll find the lean meanness of those “elegant” decades is over. The use of oak is a bit of a question mark too. Too much or too little, but I feel we need to go through these early decades before more and more producers settle into their groove and establish what style suits their vineyards best.
I don’t know why Decades is called Decades. Maybe because its founders, Brad Rogers and Steve Flamsteed, have lived through a number of them now, or that they’ve known each other for three of them, or that the vineyard has two decades behind it? I like to think that its a culmination of all of that, and you can taste it in the wine.
Decades’ first ever vintage release is from 2023, a fantastic year throughout the state, and it had to be good, really bloody good, not only to justify its higher price but the impossibly high expectations surrounding Steve Flamsteed. What I love about this release is that it’s as if I’m already familiar with the wines due to their lithe, athletic, pristine, pure, linear character – a kind of Tasmanian classicism that has been established for decades.
I feel they’ve nailed it, and fads and fashions will come and go, but what it is to be Decades was established from the very beginning. Wonderful wines, coming off a mature vineyard in the Coal River Valley, made and crafted by some mature dudes of some moderate Decades.
Beauty is immediate. The pure and crystalline quality is captured in the gorgeous aromatics of grapefruit, fig, melon, spring jasmine and chocolate orange. Concentrated, but not big. Lithe, athletic and pure, but with a tempering suppleness; the tightness of youth and coiled power finessed, creamy and fleshy. Citrus and orchard fruits, mostly, the palate gripping and all enveloping. Long drive, the elements holding their form, unwavering, before a lip-smacking salty minerally cleansing, and there’s an urgent need for another glass. Grand cru Tasmania.
Is there more promise for Tasmanian chardonnay or pinot noir, or in a sense, are they equal? Considering the Decades chardonnay and pinot noir are off the same vineyard and the wines are as they are, I find i cannot apportion preference. Fragrant; it’s so beautifully alive with lavender and violets, clove, smoked paprika and a compote of blue, red, black and hedge fruits. Intense, filled with energy, but like the chardonnay, the litheness is made supple, and despite the sinew of firm thread, it’s silk that’s holding it all together. Some tertiary notes of fresh compost and tobacco too, and a long, pointed mineral horizon hints at an exciting future, at least a decade away, and no doubt, decades of pleasure to come. Miniscule production of just over 2000 bottles, so put some aside for investment purposes. An investment in pleasure that is. Grand cru Tasmania.
