One aspect of the Australian wine industry that I most admire is their fearless spirit of innovation. They did, after all, in the 1970’s and 80’s, transform a moribund, hundred year old industry making widely mocked plonk – Monty Python fans will recall “the prize winning Nuit San Wogga Wogga, which has a bouquet like an armpit” – into the epitome of a modern, high production industry.

Now these mega wine corporations are taking their game to a new level – the wines are just getting a whole lot better. A more sophisticated approach in both the vineyard and the winery is yielding more refined wines. Sure, the macho Shiraz’s and Cabs are still around but alongside them are appearing a range of altogether more interesting wines.

One such lovely is this week’s Five Star Nick’s Wine Of The Week, the Penfolds Bin 2 2008 ($15) a blend of Shiraz and Mourvèdre.

Mellow, round and juicy, at least after it has been open a couple of hours, it shows beautifully integrated hints of minerality, a zingy blackberry bite on the finish, and a surprising depth of complexity given its modest price. This is not the sort of wine I would have expected from Fosters, Penfold’s owner and a cornerstone of what has become known, somewhat admiringly, somewhat derisively, as Australia Wine Inc.

Curious as to how this atypical Oz red came about I talked to Peter Gago, chief winemaker for Penfolds.

First of all it’s aged entirely in old oak barrels, neutral oak in the sense that it doesn’t impart that aggressive vanilla creaminess that afflicts much New World wine. “Most of our wines are sold in other countries, and some people who prefer the more European style wines really like Bin 2.”

The main difference between how Bin 2 was made a few years ago and how it’s made today is what happens in the winery. “Now, rather than use continuous presses we use either basket presses or a membrane press, it’s more gentle. Tannin management is very very different. We don’t want to over-extract. There’s a lot more attention to detail, time on skins, all those tannin management techniques. The biggest thing though is getting the fruit to the winery and into the barrel post ferment a lot more delicately, a lot more carefully. Not necessarily via technology but just a consciousness of not so much what to do but not what not to do.”

Beneath all this wine-speak one thing is clear – today they are far more conscious now of how they handle the grapes, the pressed juice and the new wine than they were a few years ago. “It’s just about refinement I guess” concludes Gago.

Now this is what I call worthwhile innovation.

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