Wine, Patrick Rafter and The Joker: Australia is Awesome

Time is money out here in France, so I’m going to make this short and sweet; Start drinking more Australian wine.  I’ve honestly been thinking about this since the wine fair in Dusseldorf and it hasn’t been able to escape my mind. To find a Burgundy wine merchant carrying even one Australian wine is about as likely as Rick Santorum winning the United States Presidential election this year. The only difference is I wouldn’t jump off of a cliff if I found a bottle or two of Aussie Shiraz in Dijon.

Without going too in depth about wine geek talk, I want to establish that the massive fruit bomb 18% alcohol Shiraz represents all Australian wines the same way The Situation from Jersey Shore represents all Italians…They don’t.  Barossa Valley still brings the big dogs around but other regions like Margaret River and the McLaren Vale have really made their wines more focused and terroir driven (and these are  the regions I really recommend exploring).

The perfect example of this style of Aussie wines that many wine drinkers may not be familiar with comes from the Jones Block Shiraz from Paxton Vineyards (http://www.paxtonvineyards.com/home.php).  This would have to be the most complex wine I’ve ever had from Australia.  It brings a beautiful mouth of fruit while bringing an amazing structure of tannins, acid and alcohol to balance it out perfectly.  It is almost as if it is a perfect combination between Northern Rhone and a great big Aussie Shiraz.  This can be explained because the Jones Block Shiraz comes from vines that are around a century old (older vines =deeper roots and less fruit production which = higher quality grapes).  Hopefully this wine and similar (or at least attempting to be similar) Shiraz’s are being imported all around the globe because these seriously need to be tasted by all.

Another reason why I believe Australia is a great wine region to support is that the people who are involved in the industry over there are extremely open minded in terms of adapting to new issues in the wine sector… They are also, as I would say, hella nice (maybe even the nicest).  Their passion and personality strikes many similarities with microbrewers and winemakers from the Pacific Northwest in my opinion.

I must say it feels good to be excited about another wine region in the world (Northwest wines in the USA and Burgundy will always be top for me though).  Obviously I love all types of wine (including Carlo Rossi), but it takes a lot for me to get pumped (this means excited for you old timers) about a whole wine region. To my very good friend and Barclay Webster (Aussie wine professional) back in Seattle, I’m expecting the finest tasting in history lined up for me when I get home.

Anyone have any good suggestions on other Australian wine producers or know any importers who can get me a case of Jones Block in Europe??? Let me know!