Chardonnay that shines

Three gold medals and two trophies, including the Chairman's Selection Trophy for Best Wine of Show. Those were the attention-grabbing results for Dawson & James Wines at the 2015 Tasmanian Wine Show judged in Hobart in January.

Remarkable in their own right, they shone just a glimmer of light on a winemaking operation that is all the more noteworthy given the industry-cred of its two company principals, Peter Dawson and Tim James.

Both are former Hardys winemakers. They met in 1976 and have been firm friends ever since. Between them, they have a combined career total of more than 80 vintages of winemaking. 

Their single-minded purpose today is to produce Australia's best single vineyard Pinot Noir.

So it's no wonder Dawson and James don't own so much as a single Pinot vine. Or a small winery for that matter. In establishing their two-man band wagon back in 2010, they cut to the chase. They wanted top quality fruit from well-managed vines. Mature vines with a proven track record for success. 

A special site in cool climate Tasmania.

It was the Ellis family's Meadowbank Vineyard that answered their call. The site was first planted in 1974 and is 60km upstream from Hobart. It's an elevated sun-trap, overlooking the rollocking River Derwent.

(The family later owned and operated a second vineyard called Meadowbank Estate in the Coal River Valley, but sold it to Frogmore Creek Wines in October 2010.)

Dawson & James wines are processed and matured in Tasmania at the former Hardys Bay of Fires winery. It's at Pipers River, a three-hour drive from Meadowbank. The facility has been owned by Accolade Wines since 2011.

"Logistically, this project is a bit of a challenge," Dawson admits.

"We have to travel from Adelaide to Hobart six or eight times a year or so. But we think it's worthwhile because we believe Meadowbank Vineyard is one of the best in Tasmania. If not the best. The growing conditions for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay there are just about ideal."

"If I was 20 years younger - and if I knew then what I know now - I'd be living in Tasmania, without a doubt," James says.

January's Tasmanian Wine Show results once again validated Dawson and James's carefully considered assessments of the 40-year-old vineyard. However, it was Chardonnay rather than Pinot Noir that took the limelight.

Meadowbank was one of just a small handful of Tasmanian sites that contributed to the show's Best LD Sparkling Wine, the 2002 House of Arras EJ Carr Late Disgorged. Ditto the five other vintage and non-vintage Arras wines that won show gold as well. Clearly, it's a site of some considerable viticultural distinction.

When Gerald Ellis and his wife Sue purchased Meadowbank from the Winspear family in 1976, a tiny vineyard was already established on the 4000ha grazing property. Adding more vines seemed entirely reasonable if anything at all was to come from that pioneering venture into cool climate viticulture.

"But conventional wisdom at the time said you couldn't grow grapes in the cold wilds of Tasmania," Ellis recalls.

"It was too wild; too unpredictable. We were too close to the edge of the world."

But the Ellises went ahead and did it anyway.

Look who's having the last word now.

"Admittedly, the climate has changed a helluva lot since those early days," Ellis continues.

"We can be pretty dry here. Our annual rainfall is now much less than it was and it's expected to get worse with climate change. We're so lucky to have such a great water resource nearby. The Derwent flows right past our front door. It's gold to those of us who are farming here."

The Ellises inherited Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon plantings but made Chardonnay and Pinot Noir their vines of choice during a significant vineyard expansion in 1989. Their inaugural releases under the Meadowbank label came with wines from the 1993 vintage made by Andrew Hood.

The couple struck gold at their first wine outing. Meadowbank's 1993 Pinot Noir won two trophies at the Royal Hobart Wine Show that same year, judged under the chairmanship of the legendary Dr Max Lake. The wine was named Best Tasmanian Red in Show and Best Tasmanian Wine in Show.

Sydney wine judge Huon Hooke described it thus: "This is a classy, elegant wine with spicy and cherry flavours of real finesse."

A little over three months later, the same wine won two trophies at the 1994 Tasmanian Regional Wine Show: Best Dry Red and Best Wine of Show.

The good news travelled far and wide.

"I can remember the first year Hardys took fruit from Meadowbank," Dawson recalls.

"It was pretty early on, in 1995. Some Chardonnay and Pinot Noir were allocated to Ed Carr's then-new Arras sparkling wine program. The company eventually entered into a long-term contract arrangement that enabled Gerald to expand the vineyard in 2000 and continue on with Arras.

"When my association with Hardys ended in 2009, I began having discussions with Tim. We decided it would be great to have a crack at making a good Pinot Noir. I said I'd had a long and very productive relationship with Gerald at Meadowbank… and the rest is history."

The timing couldn't have been better for the Ellises. They had already decided to take a brief spell from producing wines under their own Meadowbank label. 

The Dawson James label was launched amid considerable fanfare in late 2011. Its Chardonnay and Pinot Noir releases - both from 2010 - received critical acclaim.

This year's showstoppers were products of only the project's second and fourth attempts at making wine from Meadowbank fruit. The 2011 Dawson James Chardonnay was named the 2015 Tasmanian Wine Show's Best Chardonnay. Meanwhile, the 2013 Chardonnay also caught the judging panel's eye. James Halliday awarded it his special Chairman's Selection Trophy.

The superb quality and consistency of the 2013 vintage in the upper Derwent Valley was underscored by another gold medal - for the Dawson James Pinot Noir.

Hooke described the event overall as a gold rush for Tasmanian wine producers. More than 10 percent of the wines presented to the judges won gold medals. An extraordinary achievement, he noted.

"Most wine shows award around 4 to 5 percent gold medals."

There's nothing tricky or complicated about the origins of Dawson & James's award-winning Chardonnays. They're grown in lean sandy loams over limestone; soils that support vines with naturally low vigour.

Clone I10V1 does most of the heavy-lifting.

The selection was brought to Australia from California during the late 1960s and is widely grown throughout Australia. Typically high-yielding, it's especially well-suited to sparkling wine production in Tasmania.

More recent plantings at Meadowbank include Chardonnay I10V5.

The KISS principle drives all Dawson & James winemaking. It starts with hand-picked fruit and progresses through barrel-fermentation, partial malolactic fermentation and barrel maturation in French oak barriques. There's little pomp and ceremony here.

"It's a very simple approach that reflects the minerality of the site while also allowing fruit quality to shine through," Dawson explains.

If the recent Tasmanian Wine Show is any indication, it appears one man's 'shine' might be another person's 'dazzle.'