Interview and Tasting: Kingston Estate in Beijing

22nd July 2008

South Australia’s Kingston Estate visited Beijing with importer Summergate hosting a media lunch at Aria restaurant. Bill and Ivanka Moularadellis were on the first leg of a tour that would take them on to Shanghai and a number of other Chinese cities, presenting several of their wines.

Bill Moularadellis, an Australian of Greek extraction (whose family emigrated to Australia during the 1950s), is a passionate oenologist, having trained at Roseworthy College (University of Adelaide) with some of Australia’s biggest names.

Kingston Estate is itself a sizeable venture, weighing within the top ten of Australia’s producers by volume (producing 40 million bottles a year). But the research and experimentation Mourlaradellis has pioneered, particularly with Petit Verdot, indicates a commitment to quality which was borne out on the wines on show in Beijing.

Moularadellis cogently explained how most of the international grape varieties hailing from Europe, especially France, were never acclimatized to the heat Australia experiences. In fact, it was only when Australia led its wine technology revolution that the country could even produce stable dry wines (Australia’s earliest wines being fortified).

Mourlardellis is convinced Petit Verdot (right) is the grape that proves the exception to the rule. We talked about this Bordeaux grape’s desire for heat and tendency to unripeness (Petit Verdot meaning ‘the little green one’), recalling the old Bordeaux joke that the only time Petit Verdot ripens is when you don’t actually need it (because your Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon will have ripened already). And yet a number of Bordeaux chateaux still favour this spicy and intriguing grape which Mourladellis explained is much more likely to ripen properly in Australia. The Kingston Estate ‘Empiric’ Petit Verdot 2003 we tasted over lunch was certainly ripe and an impressive wine.

Of course, not any place will do. Kingston Estate has devoted most of its Petit Verdot plantings to Riverland and Langhorne Creek (up to 100 hectares in the former, the largest vineyard area planted out to Petit Verdot in the world); whilst some of the cooler regions in South Australia, such as Clare Valley, are simply not hot enough to support the grape. The ‘cool climate’ Chardonnay we tasted bore this out (Kingston Estate Chardonnay 2005).

Having cropped his first Petit Verdot vintage as far back as 1994, Mourlardellis also spoke of this grape’s malleability, being easy to vinify and not clonally diverse. It just requires some positive oxidation during vinification and not too much oak treatment if it is to sing.

Petit Verdot also emerges as a great blender, complementing Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot exceptionally well; although it does not seem to offer the same advantage to Shiraz (we also tasted Kingston’s top Shiraz over lunch which is well put together: Kingston Estate ‘Echelon’ Shiraz 2002). But for Mourlardellis this actually represents an opportunity to trumpet the grape as a single varietal as well as an occasional part of the ‘Bordeaux blend’.