Baileys of Glenrowan News & Reviews

Good Weekend Wine Review by Huon Hooke

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Huon Hooke featured Baileys of Glenrowan in his regular column for the Age's Good Weekend magazine. Here's what he had to say about us:

It’s been a while since I’ve been so impressed by Baileys of Glenrowan. The latest crop of reds is a very strong quartet. I have had a soft spot for Baileys since living in Albury in the ’70s, and regular trips to Glenrowan were required to keep up the supply of liqueur muscat and liqueur tokay, not to mention the full-bodied, gutsy reds. Baileys was rustic back then: earthen-floored tasting room, and no lawns, museum or frilly bits like today. These were reds for real men. Someone described them as not merely wines, but steak and eggs and a good cigar as well. Like everyone within cooee of Glenrowan, Baileys played up the Ned Kelly connection. It fitted the macho image.

Now Baileys is part of the Foster’s stable and the winery is proving useful: it’s needed to process the grapes Foster’s takes from the phylloxera quarantine zone of north-east Victoria. So this once sleepy, half-forgotten outpost now crushes 1600 to 1800 tonnes of grapes a season in a new winery. Many of those grapes go into other Foster’s wines, but at least the top two – the 1920s Block Shiraz (ultra-ripe liqueur, cherry-like and juicy) and 1904 Block Shiraz (rich berry fruits with a hint of eucalyptus-mint, intensely flavoured, medium-bodied and delicious) – are from the estate vines. The 1904 Block was planted on rootstocks by the Bailey family following the late-1800s phylloxera plague. It is dry-grown and low-yielding: a real heritage vineyard.

The cabernet is the surprise: not every year produces good cabernet but the ’06 is a cracker: ironstone, earthy, smoky-berry aromas lead into a palate of good weight, backbone, fruit and style. Indeed, all the wines are balanced and alcohol is not overdone, even in the 1920s Block which is 15 per cent (the others are 14 per cent).