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The 2008 vintage marks Clare Halloran’s tenth vintage at the helm of TarraWarra Estate as chief winemaker. In out tasting notes and wine reviews, we often refer to Clare’s thoughts and judgments, but for many she remains an enigma.
We invited noted Australian wine writer, Sally Gudgeon, to ask her about how the winemaking at arrawarra has evolved over the past decade.
SG: Tell me about your career path to becoming a winemaker?
CH: I was studying Phys. Ed. at uni and to pay my way I worked in restaurants and bars. The restaurants gradually became better and better and I worked at Fanny’s, the Latin and Stephanie’s. My interest in wine developed from there. After uni I still didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I went to Italy and France and became even more interested in wine. When I came back to Australia I moved to Adelaide and studied winemaking at the university for two years.
SG: What was your first winemaking job?
CH: I started working at T’Gallant on the Mornington Peninsula in 1994, and continued my winemaking studies by correspondence at Charles Sturt. I did three vintages there.
SG: They were interesting times back then at T’Gallant, Kevin McCarthy and Kathleen Quealy had just produced their first vintage of pinot gris, what did you learn from them?
CH: They were both great. They were on a tight budget, and I really learnt how to improvise, Kevin’s favourite phrases were, ‘bucket winemaking’ and ‘going by the seats of our pants.’
SG: Since becoming chief winemaker at TarraWarra Estate, what changes have you made to the winemaking style of the Estate?
CH: When I started with Michael Kluzcko the pinot winemaking was quite extractive, with extended maceration post ferment, and use of rotary fermenters. This produced a very tannic style of wine, which tended to dominate the fruit. I have a more gentle style. Once it’s in barrel, it’s not moved around a lot, and this helps to retain the fruit purity. My belief is the wine has to be in balance from the start. All the components should be in harmony from the beginning then develop together. I’ve also reduced the new oak component in the pinot, bought some barrels from different coopers and we now use some puncheons.
SG: And the chardonnay?
CH: With both chardonnay and pinot we’re making wines that are drinking really well in ten years time, which is hard in the Australian market because everyone wants the wines to be drinkable in two years, so it’s hard to make a chardonnay that fulfils both roles. When I started, the chardonnay style had been really quite successful, and I didn’t want to muck around with it too much. I’ve reduced the new oak component, and over the last five or six years I’ve reduced the malolactic fermentation too, which was up around 80%. We hardly use any now. David Warren was the first winemaker at Tarrawarra, and his earlier chardonnays were made without malo and they have aged beautifully. Some of the bottles of 1986/87/88 I’ve tasted are great; they’re a lean, lower alcohol style not dissimilar to the Yeringberg chardonnays. Then David went to Burgundy, and that’s where the 100% malo style came from. We’ve also had some issues with corks and storage, causing premature development in the wines, but these have been addressed. The climate-controlled warehouse where we now store all our wines has made an enormous difference, and everything is now under screwcap.
SG: Have you made any changes in the vineyard?
CH: The most important changes in fact. We’ve introduced some new chardonnay and shiraz clones and we’ve grafted merlot onto seventeen-year-old pinot vines. We’re now seeing the benefit of having older vineyards. The pinot vineyard was planted in 1983, and really from 2001 onwards we’ve been seeing the best fruit. The vines have started to come into maturity; they have a lot more complexity, and seem to be able to age better. We’re also getting better acid retention, so we don’t need to adjust this in the winery. Most Burgundy producers won’t use vines less than twenty-five years old for grand cru wines.
SG: Do you have a favourite variety to work with?
CH: That ‘s a really hard question! I love all my babies! Pinot is the most interesting and probably the most challenging.
SG. How do you sum up your winemaking philosophy?
CH: Interpreting what you get in the vineyard the best way you can. We’re also working on our approach to sustainability, such as composting the vineyard, and using the marc. We’re working on decreasing our footprint.
SG: And after a disastrous 2007 vintage, how is 2008 looking?
CH: Very good. It’s very exciting. The fruit’s in beautiful condition. You can make good wine with good fruit.
SG: And talking of good wines, what would your desert island, dream dozen of wines be composed of? (Bearing in mind the mixed case of Tarrawarra Estate is already there).
CH: It would include 1996 Drouhin-Larose Clos de Bèze, some Domaine Romanee Conti and Leflaive Montrachet, Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny, some Australian riesling, maybe Grosset Polish Hill, a few Barolos, Krug, German gewürztraminer and some muscat and tokay from Rutherglen.
SG: Can I come too?
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