S C Pannell – wines to admire, and drink

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1 February 2018 We are republishing free this 2015 tasting article as a complement to Max's latest report from Australia we published on Tuesday in which he profiles Warren Randall whom he identifies as the most important man in Australian wine today. Steve Pannell is head winemaker at Randall's Tinlins winery in McLaren Vale where S C Pannell now has its own winery.

23 October 2015 We recently published a compilation of more than 200 tasting notes on many of Australia’s finest wines, but decided that those of Stephen Pannell deserved a spotlight of their own. In many ways he is a standard-bearer for what one might call the new style of fresher Australian wines, particularly reds. He has just been voted Winemaker of the Year by Australian Gourmet Traveller WINE. The chairman of judges Peter Forrestal commented, ‘Stephen Pannell is one of this country’s most articulate winemakers: thoughtful and compelling when talking about wine; keen to place his work in a philosophical context. While many would agree with Pannell’s ideas about making wines that are suitable for and reflect our climate, his comprehensive and classy portfolio of wines illustrates this thinking more clearly than any other we have seen in Australia.’

Huon Hooke, a fellow judge (and also responsible for the much-revised Australian entries in the new, fourth edition of the Oxford Companion to Wine), added, ‘it would be difficult to conjure a more complete all-round wine guy than Steve Pannell. He really understands the vineyard, the winery, the market, the zeitgeist, and wine quality. His wines result from this, so little wonder at his success.’ Quite some accolades, I’m sure you would agree.

Pannell grew up on a wine farm. His father was one of the founding fathers of the Margaret River wine region and had close links to Burgundy. He has been based in Adelaide for many years, having been in charge of making red wines for Hardy’s for a long time before setting up S C Pannell on his own account. Just for good measure, he uprooted his young family and spent quite a time in Barolo country, so has a truly cosmopolitan vision of where his beloved McLaren Vale fits in to the world of wine.

Pannell’s wines (see this 2007 wine of the week, for instance) are perceptibly different from the Australian norm, with real energy and harmony to them. He has been deliberately picking earlier, thinning out unripe grapes, and in the winery (he still doesn’t have his own, but makes his wines at wine tycoon Warren Randall’s Tinlins winery) his preoccupation is with ‘shutting the wine down rather than building it’. This means lots of whole-bunch fermentation and reductive winemaking, ageing the wine on the lees in large oak and being no fan of early racking. What he does do earlier than most is bottle the wine, ‘before it’s drinkable’.

He is proud to proclaim ‘I have no fear of tannins’, a complaint lodged with regard to some Australian wine styles. ‘Australians tend to be tannin-phobic but my Barolo experience made me admire them. I’m on this journey to express the wine in terms of the different tannins each variety has. Tannins are my number one weapon in controlling the texture of a wine.’

The S C Pannell label was born in 2004, selling mainly in Australia. But after the 2008 South Australian heatwave, Pannell undertook what he calls ‘a re-assessment and soul searching. I decided the ideology of wanting to be France was just not so valid in our climate. It was 37 degrees Celsius for 17 days in a row, with grapes gaining half a degree Baumé a day. It would be easier to make wine on Mars. The worst Shiraz was 25% potential alcohol. The grapes didn’t ferment, they just floated in the syrup. They were 9 Baumé after fermentation!’

In 2008 Pannell made his first Touriga, reckoning that a Douro grape variety would surely be used to high temperatures. ‘The Touriga came in at 13.5 and was fine.’ He thinks it is no accident that the first grape growers planted hot-climate varieties such as Touriga, Mataro (Mourvèdre), Doradillo and the Grenache he is currently so interested in (‘we’re making it more like Pinot and less like Shiraz’). He points out that McLaren Vale terroir is ‘more like Sardinia than Spain’, presumably because of the maritime influence from the south. In early September Pannell had just been in Greece looking at other hot-climate varieties such as Xinomavro and Assyrtiko (he has high hopes of being allowed some Assyrtiko cuttings from the Barrys) and he is also considering Aglianico, Nero d’Avola, Nerello, Tinta Cão, Tempranillo and Loureiro.

‘The wine you make needs to be a circle with the food you like (I eat fish)', he declared. ‘If you look at our history – we’re plonked in this place but I wonder how long it will take to make wines that truly represent what and where we are? We’ve got to work out what’s going to be important in 30 to 40 years. That’s why I’ve changed a lot of what we do. Australian Shiraz needs to go through the same evolution as Australian Chardonnay. We need to remove the artefact to get to the sense of place – the truly unique thing that wine has.’

I asked him whether he ever added acid and he shuddered. ‘Every bone in my body is against it.’ It is almost incredible to think what he has achieved despite buying his first vineyard, 13 hectares (32 acres) first planted in the 1850s next to the original Tintara vineyard, only three years ago. Last year he bought Tapestry near D’Arenberg with a further 9 ha of Shiraz. Other than that, he tends to buy from the same growers, increasingly in cooler regions such as Lenswood in the Adelaide Hills.

He was particularly enthusiastic about the 2015 vintage. ‘It was fabulous. We had a very cold January, then it warmed up and then cooled down again. The acids are great so we have Sauvignon Blanc at 13% alcohol and total acidity of 9 g/l as tartaric. In 2014 we had a bit of rain just pre harvest which stopped everything for 10-12 days. But we managed to make some bright, fruit-driven reds.’ You can say that again. Most of his reds end up at about 14% alcohol. ‘If you pick at 13.3% you get 14%', he says, declaring the trick is to pick just before you think the grapes are ripe. He cites Peter Fraser of Yangarra as a fellow traveller. 

His other passion is big oak. ‘Oxygen and small new oak is like steroids for a body builder – the wines get bigger and bigger, and sweeter. But for Australia it doesn’t make sense. You need to control the wine, lock it down in stainless steel and then rack it into 500-, 800-, even 4,500-litre oak.’ He had to go out and buy new oak, from the large-vat facility bought by Francois Frères.

One of his mantras is that ‘there’s a difference between admirability and drinkability’. Amen to that.  

The wines below are listed in the order tasted.

S C Pannell Pinot Grigio 2015 Adelaide Hills

Stelvin closure. South-facing slope. 1,200 cases made.
Smoky nose, reductive and fresh on the nose. Good clean fruit. Some smokiness and recognisably Pinot Grigio. Quite long. (JR)

13%
Drink
2015
2016
£15.99 RRP
16

S C Pannell Sauvignon Blanc 2015 Adelaide Hills

pH 3.12. Smells very Australian to me. Smoky and not at all Marlborough. Big and boisterous and round with masses of guava fruit and extract. Pink cactus. Real beginning, middle and end. Proper wine – with lots of pink grapefruit. Quite a rich nose. Intense. (JR)

13.5%
Drink
2015
2016
£15.99 RRP
16.5

S C Pannell Shiraz/Grenache 2014 McLaren Vale

55% 70-year-old Grenache, 30% Shiraz, 15% Touriga Nacional. All 500-litre seven- to 12-year-old big barrels for 10-11 months.
Dark crimson. Very fresh and scented in a floral sort of way. Juicy and lively. Pure fruit and ‘a Swiss army wine’. Quite long and responds well to chilling. Perfect for Oz climate. (JR)

14%
Drink
2015
2018
£17.99 RRP
16.5

S C Pannell Tempranillo/Touriga 2014 McLaren Vale

Stelvin closure. 14% Tinta Cão (planted by Stephen Pannell for Hardys port in 1999), 36% Touriga, rest Tempranillo from Blewitt Springs and Sellecks Hill. For Stephen Pannell, the challenge, influenced by his time in Barolo, is to make savoury wines in Australia.
Dark crimson. Introvert. Savoury. Really quite edgy and dried leafy with the Tempranillo dominating. Not an ounce of sweetness here! (JR)

14%
Drink
2016
2020
£17.99 RRP
16.5

S C Pannell Grenache 2014 McLaren Vale

78-year-old vines on a sandy hill just behind D’Arenberg in the heart of McLaren Vale. Vineyard changed hands. The sandy soil gives a big root system so they deal with drought much better. First vintage 2005.
Light crimson. Much more transparent than any Châteauneuf. Lively and racy. Dry end. More like a maritime Cannonau. Very fresh and slightly salty. Bracing and very fresh. Again, not sweet. Red fruit but not sweet! You’d want to keep going back to this wine. (JR)

14%
Drink
2015
2020
£33.99 RRP
17

S C Pannell, The Vale 2014 McLaren Vale

80% Shiraz from Pannell's own vineyard, 20% Grenache from the Zarella vineyard on the corner of Oliver’s Road – ironstone and not sandy so it ripens earlier. Pannell is happy for other people to use the term The Vale. This blend has always been McLaren Vale’s signature.
Very deep crimson. Very meaty nose with a hint of leather. Round and juicy. But very savoury on the finish again. Needs food! Pure and very distinctive. Long and reverberant. Juice and then slightly salty. (JR)

14%
Drink
2015
2022
£28.99 RRP
17

S C Pannell Syrah 2014 Adelaide Hills

The 2013 vintage won the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy. Lower yield – 40% less than 2013 and picked 17 days later. No whole bunch because the stems are a little greener. From a vineyard in Uchinga, and made since 2009. It's picked three weeks after McLaren Vale. All large vats.
Very dark crimson. Silky and polished. Racy and really succulent. Treacle top note but overall it's not sweet. Great balance and length. Very bright fruit. Sinewy finish. (JR)

14%
Drink
2015
2023
£28.99 RRP
17.5

S C Pannell, Koomilya DC Block Shiraz 2013 McLaren Vale

Red-block-printed bottle. Debut vintage. 64-year-old Shiraz from the Kellys’ vineyard – 23 ha. This comes from just less than 1 ha of the vines, abutting Hardys' old Shiraz Tintara vineyard. Faces due south. This is Pannell's first go at a top Shiraz. 14 days on skins and picked at 13.3% potential alcohol. When Pannell was 15 he found an old ship’s bell while diving off the end of the Busselton jetty in Western Australia. It was the bell for the SS Koomilya, a ship carrying hard wood from Western Australia to Adelaide. Koomilya means 'woman' in Port Lincoln Aboriginal dialect.
Blackish crimson. Punchy and intense. But not sweet: treacle and balsam, succulent with lots of freshness. Dry finish and a sleeping giant. Not dry or drying. Lots of personality. Appetising and lively. (JR)

14%
Drink
2016
2026
£54.99 RRP
17.5