The capital of food in Australia has always been Melbourne. There is a lot of Italian and Chinese influence. The food even 25 years ago was already spectacular.
But, Adelaide has always had a high food and café culture.
A great Italian restaurant, home based food. The cook comes from the same town that my mother came from, they used to know each other when they were young girls. Buona Sera.
Fresh from winning this year’s Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy for the Best Red Wine in the 2006 Vintage Year, Michael Scarpantoni spoke to us about divine dissatisfaction and the contradiction of beauty and imperfection.
Michael and his brother Filippo are the winemakers at their McLaren Vale winery, established with their father, Domenico, in 1979.
Michael & Filippo Scarpantoni
You grew up on the vineyard, what was that like?
When we were kids, great fun. We had room to move. We loved the changing seasons, we get four proper seasons here, So, it’s lovely to see. And we used to do a lot of work in the vineyards as teenagers. I used to enjoy that
Then, when we started the winery. That was tough times in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Really hard times in the industry.
What made you want to start a winery?
It was an intention we always had. We were fairly significant growers in the region and my father always envisaged that we should to take it one step further. My brother and I who are very close in age decided that we didn’t want to be just growers. We wanted to take it the next step become wine producers.
Did you have a specific vision or inspiration?
At that stage McLaren Vale wasn’t the best-known region in Australia, so our vision was to really bring the region up to the forefront and really get the reputation it deserved.
It was tough because the world was going through the white wine revolution and of course we were red wine producers. And, in particular Shiraz was our forte. The next boom became Cabernet, which again doesn’t help us.
They were trying to emulate the European or French styles, which are greener and lighter styles. Again it wasn’t what we produced best. We kept going because we believed in the product we were making.
There was always a core of Australian drinkers, that’s what kept us surviving. And of course, it caught on over seas. That’s where it got easier.
How does the history get passed down to you?
My father worked in Hardy’s Winery where there was Bob Haggly a great winemaker in Australia and a good manager and he learned a lot from him. But also, you know we’ve grown up with a lot of old names from the area, the Kays, the D’arrenbergs, the Johnstons.
Do you find you continue that connection?
The good thing about the Australian wine industry is that it’s pretty much a big family. You can talk openly with any winemaker or proprietor from any winery, anywhere in Australia and we will discuss openly information, ideas and styles.
Do you think it’s true that if one person’s sucess is good for all of you?
Yes, definitely. I’ve always felt that way. Quite often we’ll ring up one another and congratulate. I had a lot of good will and wishes from all over Australia when we won the Watson this year, it was good, nice to see, that just shows the camaraderie.
People seem so connected to their land, Tim Kirk spoke of liquid geography.
The wine making is all in the vineyard and all about the soil. That’s why we are so connected to the winemaking side of it, because we are growers at heart.
I’ve always said, from the time you put the vine in the ground and by the time you’ve sorted out how to get the vineyard and the wine right, it takes about 20 years of fiddling and adjustments. So it’s a very long experimental cycle.
Since it’s such a wide range, how do you know when you’ve made something special, how do you feel successful?
You don’t. You always think you are going to make the next one better.
Someone sent me a quote by a dancer named Martha Graham who said artists have a “divine dissatisfaction” that keeps them moving forward.
That’s exactly how I feel, never satisfied with the wine. Even when you do get good accolades, and everybody says well that’s fantastic, you say ‘yeah but I’m sure I’m going to do it better next time’.
And then of course the next time the season might defeat you. So you think well the year after that the season’s going to be better and I will get it right.
The most beautiful women in the world have some little imperfection. That's what creates interest.
So then, when you are drinking a great wine what inspires you?
In a great wine, I’ll taste the wine and I can see how good the fruit is and the soil. In a really great wine, I can also see the influence of the winemaker deliberately added—I don’t like to use the word, but – faults.
What do you mean?
Well, a perfect wine is just an expression of the fruit. It means that there is absolutely no outside interference. A crafted wines, to me, will have little touch of VA or a combination old or new oak, all those sort of things add technical imperfections to the wine.
What is V.A.?
VA, volitalie acidity, when the wine starts to go to vinegar. A lot of great wines have a small level of VA. It’s considered a fault. But it’s desirable thing on the human palate, it’s why people like vinegar.
The crafting of a great wine is just allowing the right amount. It you have a salad and you have perfect lettuce and perfect tomatoes and it tastes good, right? So you put a little bit of vinegar it tastes better.
What does that imperfection give you?
It gives it more character, more depth, more complexity—another dimension.
Like they say, there’s no such thing as a perfect diamond, they all have imperfection with them. The same with human beauty. The most beautiful women in the world have some little imperfection, that’s what creates interest.
Because is makes them more individual?
I think so, yeah. That’s the craft of true, great winemaking is, how to put all those things together.
People don’t realize, a lot of the top wines are full of technical faults. You don’t talk about them, even the winemakers don’t talk about that, because you aren’t supposed to pick out faults of the great Chateaux. But, the fact is, they are there. And, that’s what makes them interesting.
It’s a conscious choice?
Yes it’s a conscious choice.
So as a winemaker, how do you learn to make that choice?
Of course you come out of university and you are taught to make perfect wines. From then on, that’s were the individuality of the person comes through. They decide what is going to give this wine some complexity and interest, rather than just go for a technically perfect wine every time.
Do you remember the moment when you understood the ethereal beauty that imperfection brings?
I do actually. It was many years ago, I was a young winemaker, probably in my twenties. I was with a group of also young winemakers, and we opened a bottle of an Italian wine. It was a great wine, a great label.
We were sitting at the table all picking the faults out of the wine. I looked at the wine and thought, why did they have these faults’?
I realized it was just a wonderful wine to drink. I turned and I said to all my mates at the table. “You know what guys? One day we will learn to make wines like this” And they just laughed at me. I understood at that point what individuality of wine was.
Who should we talk to next?
Have you talked to a guy named Ben Glaetzer? He’s a young lad. He comes from a fantastic family. He’s got an uncle and a father that have just made some of the best wines to come out of Australia. And he seems to have the talent as well. And he’s a great guy to talk to.
