Green Point Matt Steel
by Brenda Francis
You find a common thread when you meet winemakers. They are usually foodies, if not gourmet cooks. They appreciate artistic endeavors, weather it is their pastime or another's, and they have a knack for nurturing. Matt Steel, one of Australia's rising young winemakers loves to cook and garden. He tells me about his small yard, overgrown with herbs, lettuce, and vegetables outside of Melbourne. "I allow the lettuce to self seed. There are always young tender leaves as well as plants going to seed. I wished I had a larger space to garden at home."
Matt's love of flora extends to his job as well. As the winemaker responsible for all still wines at Green Point Wines, he gets to collaborate with their grape growers. "We can sit down with our growers and discuss the wine. If it needs more concentration, they may need to adjust the canopy management." His understanding of how good wine is made from quality grapes reinforces the importance of vineyard management.
Green Point Wines is owned by Moët & Chandon. Rather than create another Australian mega-brand, which Moët & Chandon could do with its massive resources, they explored first-rate vineyards in the Yarra Valley for the possibility of high quality sparkling wine. The potential was so great that they adopted both sparkling and still wine production in this cool valley and other areas of the Australian state of Victoria. Consequently, Matt works with some of the most prestigious vineyards in the Yarra Valley. Pairing Matt's talent with the ability to contract with the best vineyards is like giving a fine artist the best oil pastels money can buy.
Matt is a young man, but has an impressive winemaking resume. He was formally educated at Australia's prestigious Roseworthy School of Agriculture. He has worked in some of the top estates producing Grand Cru Burgundy in France. He worked for Petaluma and various esteemed wineries in the Yarra Valley.
His love of chardonnay comes from his days working with Grand Cru producers in Burgundy. He speaks of chardonnay extensively.
"It was the mid 1990s, when we were really getting going with chardonnay. Think about the wine you were drinking in the 1990s, big, rich, with fig flavors. We experimented with the rich butter bomb style for our chardonnay, but we've moved away from this. Now only about 90% is barrel fermented, but only about 10% is new oak. The malo is low, only about 15% of the chardonnay sees malolactic fermentation. I've been very lucky to have worked in Chardonnay producing regions. I worked in Petaluma and then back to the Yarra Valley were I grew up."
The Green Point 2004 Chardonnay, Victoria, Australia has a tropical nose, with hints of anise. It has soft acidity, with flavors of mango, papaya, peach and nectarine. The finish offers complex notes of lemon.
He produces two reds that are prevalent in Australia, but are rarely this graceful. His Green Point 2004 Cabernet Shiraz is dense, soft, with perfect acidity offering flavors of blueberries, spice and vanilla. We drink his 2004 Shiraz and find more intensity, a smooth dark chocolate note, spice, soft tannins, and more berry flavors.
"We've gone back to the philosophy of blending. It increases the complexity, it increases the quality. We vinify the batch separately to grab a little bit of what each batch has to offer. We use a lot of old barrels and we use a little American oak."
Australia is the forerunner in many winemaking technologies and is one of the champions of screw caps. He regrets that the American market has not yet warmed up to the idea of Stelvin closures. He continues to use corks for our market. Corks run the risk of TCA taint, which will ruin a wine. Because of this, he has to be meticulous about which cork supplier he buys from. "We are absolutely vigorous about our corks. We buy 400 different corks and test each one for 10 days. Every wine I make back home has a screw cap for a closure. But here in the US, I got a clear answer about screw caps from the market, 'not on my watch.' The only other market that is more difficult is the French market. The English are demanding screw cap closures for their wines."
Australia is also known for its hot growing regions which struggle with poor acidity. The Yarra Valley is special because of its cool climate. This gives producers in this valley an advantage over other Australian producers. Matt explains "We don't have a problem with acidity. It is one of the things I focus on. We harvest in several sweeps. Early is for fragrance and later is flavor. We are very attentive at crush. We monitor everything. I believe you get it right then, while it is on the skins and then you never have to worry about it. The sooner you balance your wine the better. The idea is, if it is balanced now, it will stay balanced."
Balance is the reason Green Point wines make great gifts. They are perfect for the person who is going to open the wine right then or the person that likes to collect. They are also an ideal pick from a wine list; they drink beautifully as soon as they are opened. Their exceptional quality is unusual at this price range. The wines are versatile pairs with different fare, making them a good choice for sharing regardless of the entrées served. They offer insight into a wine region that breaks out of the stereotypic Australian approach. Elegance, balance, fruit, and style are the moniker of Green Point Wines. Matt Steel will modestly tell you that its his team that makes the wine so great, but we suspect they've got an visionary artist leading the way.
