PENFOLDS PIED PIPER

The former school teacher and radio broadcaster turned winemaker and author is the Pied Piper of Penfolds Wines. He's at the top of his field and easily one of the most entertaining and informative speakers in the wine business today. The strengths of Gago (pronounced GAY-go) are many. He's a communicator, thanks to his teacher roots, but it's his passion for, and knowledge of, wine growing and winemaking that puts him well ahead of most of his contemporaries. As one Down Under writer put it, "He's such a good speaker, and I love that lilting Melbourne accent. He is so articulate and knowledgeable about his topic, it makes the pleasurable exercise of tasting Penfolds wines even more pleasurable." Gago, who is an avid collector and trader of great wine, admits that as much as he loved teaching, he loves wine more. It was love enough to become a student again at Roseworthy Agricultural College where he topped his graduating class for a bachelor of science (enology) course in 1989. After Roseworthy he completed vintages at Primo Estate and Mountadam before moving to Seaview to make sparkling wine, and then Killawarra to make still wine. Today, despite a gruelling speaking schedule, Gago is the Penfolds red winemaker and part of the elite team at Nuriootpa in the Barossa Valley entrusted with making Grange, Bin 707, RWT, Bin 389, St. Henri and much more. Gago is based at Magill Estate, the original home of Penfolds and The Grange cottage, founded in 1844 by Christopher Rawson Penfold. It's now engulfed by the suburban sprawl of Adelaide. At Magill he dabbles in hands-on experimental winemaking and experimental wines - sangiovese and pinot noir to name but two. There's symmetry in Gago's daily proximity to The Grange cottage. Historically it is important as the home of Penfolds flagship red wine, the Grange Shiraz, a label that has taken its maker around the globe. Earlier this spring, Gago was in Vancouver (a city he ranks among the best worldwide for its food and wine culture) to preview his company's '99 reds, and more recently I caught up with him in New York City, where Australian wine is still very much a curiosity. It was a unique opportunity to watch him work a tough trade crowd - people who only grudgingly are beginning to accept the wines of Oz. Gago was enthusiastic and as patient, as he need be with the New York trade, most of whom are still contemplating whether or not anything but Grange would sell in the Big Apple. When I suggested they might sell more Australian wine than Californian within the next decade, many buyers and restaurateurs looked at me as if I were from the moon. I wanted to say that in B.C., where we drink twice as much wine per capita as New Yorkers, Australia had just surpassed California as the Number 1 import wine category, but it might be more fun to just watch it happen. As for all the new Penfolds releases ... well most live up to the standard and it was good to learn that just about all of them will be available in B.C. A few wines are already in the B.C. system, and most will released over the summer and fall, so if you're interested, check the shelves regularly. Although it would be difficult to top the terrific 1998 vintage, many of the '99 reds have distinguished themselves. What follows is a personal selection of some of the best releases coming to B.C.: Bin 138 Old Vine Shiraz Mourvèdre Grenache ($30) gets no new-oak contact, and the fruit is sensational. It's a lovely drinking wine with ripe blackberry, prune and chocolate flavours. It will improve with another three to five years of bottle age. Bin 128 Shiraz ($34) is all Coonawarra fruit aged in French oak and bathed in spicy rosemary and coffee aromas, and blackberry, leather and prune flavours. It reminds one just a bit of French Hermitage. Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz ($35) is always a favourite. The '99 is still dry and tight with some rough tannin to drop, but it has plenty of spicy vanilla, blackberry and leather flavours. Hold it two to four years. RWT Shiraz ($100) is simply amazing. This all-French-oak shiraz has spicy clove, pepper, vanilla, blackberry and smoky licorice aromas, with heaps of blackberry jam and black cherry flavours. The finish is elegant, silky and long. Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon ($100) is a blend of Coonawarra, Padthaway and Kalimna fruit, all aged in American oak. It's big yet somewhat lean, and less ripe than the massive 1998. The aroma elements are spice, pencil lead, green beans, olives and vanilla; the flavours are pepper, sandalwood, cassis and earth. This one needs four to five years to fatten up and drop some of that lean cabernet character.