Two visitors to Ireland this summer from Australia offered the most compelling proof in a long time that wine tastes best when it comes with a good story attached. The travellers' overlapping tales had the usual New World elements which we old world drinkers, ensconced in our fat armchairs, love. They showed us doughty pioneers in the outback, working round the clock and taking crazy chances for the sake of a heap of grapes. But there was a surprise ingredient - the pioneers turned out to be Irish.
Mitchell Taylor of Wakefield Wines and Peter Barry of Jim Barry Wines brought news of their vineyards in Clare Valley, a miniature Ireland, cool, green and distinctly out of place in the parched country north of Adelaide. It was named by Edward Gleeson, a native of Sixmilebridge, Co Clare, who thought of home the minute he arrived in this verdant oasis in the 1840s to establish a sheep station.
Gleeson called his house Inchiquin, laid out the village of Clare (where soon there were hotels and inns all run by Irishmen) and was chairman of the District Council when 5,000 "Irish pauper girls" were shipped in to work as servants and help keep the single male settlers sane.
By the 1890s, with local mining in decline, many had followed Gleeson's early lead in planting vineyards. Wine has kept the Clare Valley on the map ever since, and the Irish connection continues more or less undiluted. About the time Edward Gleeson was becoming established, one Michael O'Neill arrived in Adelaide - also from Sixmilebridge - in 1852. His descendants went on to be hoteliers and publicans, and his great-great-great-great-grandson, Mitchell Taylor, ended up growing grapes in the Clare Valley. "My father Bill grew up in a pub, but his dream was to produce wine," explained said Mitchell Taylor. "He drank Bordeaux first growths in the 1960s, which was unusual in Australia at the time.
"All my mother's family are proud O'Neills," Mitchell went on. Here on a belated honeymoon, Taylor has been investigating his origins. "The original house is still in Sixmilebridge. It's a ruin, but it was a hell of a buzz to find it." As well as his connections with Ireland through his wife, Bill Taylor seems to have Irish blood of his own. "There seems to be some northern Irish blood on the Taylor side," says Mitchell. "I've a lot of cousins with red hair and pale skin."
Before long, Bill Taylor's dream was realised, with the proceeds from the sale of five hotels invested in vineyards and a brand new winery. Taylors' Cabernet Sauvignon burst upon the scene in 1973, winning a gold medal at every Australian wine show that year. It has gone on to become Australia's bestselling red wine in the premium (over $10) category, and with reason (see Bottle of the Week), with the name changing to Wakefield to avoid conflict with Taylors' port.
Other Wakefield wines include the Riesling listed below, the White Clare - an unusual, tasty blend of Chardonnay and Crouchen - and the new Unoaked Chardonnay.
More Irish connections: the first winemaker at Wakefield was Jim Barry, a neighbour in the Clare Valley and one of Australia's first tiny crop of trained oenologists. He is the grandson of an Ennis man who had gone to Adelaide in the 1880s to work as a policeman. Barry had extensive vineyard holdings of his own, and ambitious plans for the small, quality-oriented, family company which has since brought Jim Barry Wines such wide acclaim.
His son, Peter Barry, is now general manager of the family firm, alongside his brothers Mark and John, winemaker and viticulturalist. "My father's favourite saying has always been `Hey, they used to think the world was flat. You have to get out of the square," said Peter Barry. "He has always been open to new ideas, and has kept pushing us to extend the vineyards."
Barry's policy of growing all his own top-quality grapes, coupled with his rigorous analytical approach ("he can sit and think about a wine for days") underpins the development of The Armagh, the stunningly rich Shiraz which has become one of Australia's most highly prized wines. Full marks to Dunnes Stores for capturing an allocation, both of this precious treat and its more affordable young brother, McCrae Wood.
To round off a tasting trip through the Clare Valley's Irish-flavoured wines, you might try two made there for the substantial company Mildara Blass by their hotshot winemaker, another man with Irish origins, David O'Leary. Annie's Lane Chardonnay and Annie's Lane Cabernet-Merlot (prettily named after a turn-of-the-century Annie whose horse and cart stuck on a muddy track as she was delivering lunch to the vineyard workers) are further proof of this area's versatility, never mind quality. Exhilarating, lime-fresh Riesling, dense, intense Shiraz, and plenty else in between. And you can't complain that the name's hard to remember. Cool, green Clare - all the way over there.