State Of Origin - NSW Wine Vintage

With vintage well and truly done, it is time for a bit of review from Andrew Thomas at Thomas Wines via Gourmet Traveler Wine.

For the full article check it out here.

Mike Bennie takes us on a tour of NSW’s wine regions, talking to winemakers about the 2013 red vintage. 

Andrew Thomas, Winemaker, Thomas Wines, Hunter Valley
"Well, despite some challenging conditions with all that nasty weather up north, we've actually come through relatively unscathed," says the affable Andrew Thomas of Thomas Wines. "It seems much of New South Wales didn't get smashed by rain and talking to winemakers around the area, everyone is extremely happy with the quality of the reds this year," he qualifies. This comes off the back of the red wine disaster in the Hunter Valley in 2012, where summer seemed to pass unnoticed, quashed by incessant rain.

Thomas, affectionately known as Thommo by most in the wine community, says that red wines from 2013 offer respite. "This year it's so good to have high quality reds in the house - I am pretty impressed. I talked to people in the supermarket or pub, winemakers like Jim Chatto, Mike De Iuliis and PJ Charteris, and everyone is punching the air and saying it's all looking great."

So why the turn around in 2013 for red wines of New South Wales? "Well, a lot of it comes down to vineyard management, pedigree of vineyard, vineyards we hear about that might have that something special to get them over the line," explains Thomas. "It also comes down to crop levels, anything that was too big a crop struggled to get ripe. We go through and thin down anything that looks on the higher side."...

The Hunter, of course, still holds Thomas' biggest interest for red wines. "The contemporary style of Hunter Valley shiraz is more fruit driven with aromatic vibrancy and it's elegant, medium bodied and savoury," he says. "Across a lot of New South Wales we've seen producers following this lead with unforced wines which are ticking the authentic-to-region box, which is something often overlooked." Thomas cites Clonakilla, particularly Tim Kirk's work with shiraz, as iconic wine of New South Wales. He also elevates Canberra District producers Ravensworth, Nick O'Leary and Alex McKay as "doing great stuff with red grapes". He earmarks Winburndale, Chalkers Crossing, and Lowe from Mudgee as heirs apparent.