Images: S.C Pannell
A well-respected winemaker in the South Australian wine industry has been crowned Australia’s Vigneron of the Year by The Real Review.
Steve Pannell has taken the award with pride, after a long journey in the industry. He is best known as the owner and winemaker behind S.C. Pannell, the McLaren Vale winery he established in 2004 with his wife Fiona.
So what actually is a Vigneron? That’s the question we’ll leave for Steve to explain.
“Vigneron relates specifically to a person who grows grapes and turns them into wine,” Steve said.
“A lot of people buy their grapes, so other people grow them, but it relates specifically to someone who grows grapes that they then turn into wine.”
McLaren Vale became the place where the label’s story truly began, with a focus on wines that honour the region’s established strengths while exploring a much broader and more adventurous palette of varieties.
“In the last couple of years, we’ve moved to more than 95 percent where we grow them ourselves, because we have the right control.”
“That’s really important in Australia because, around the rest of the world, the most unique thing about wine is that it tastes like it comes from somewhere.
“The French call that terroir, and terroir means a wine that tastes like it comes from a certain place.”
Steve already has a serious awards line up, including International Red Winemaker of the Year at the International Wine Challenge, Gourmet Traveller Winemaker of the Year 2015, two Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy wins, the Max Schubert Trophy, and four McLaren Vale Bushing Trophy wins for best red wine of show.
If creating a wine that taste like the land is so important, then how do we actually tell if it does or not?
“That comes with years and years and years of experience,” Steve said.
“If I’m doing something to a grape that denudes or lessens that sense of place in the wine, then I don’t do it.”
“I look at all the fruit trees and all the gum trees and all the things that are going on around me, and see how they’re impacted by the climate and what’s going on,” he said.
While McLaren Vale has long been celebrated for its red wines, Steve has become one of the leading voices helping push the region into a more contemporary era.
His belief that the Vale’s benign Mediterranean climate and complex ancient geology could support varieties beyond the traditional favourites has shaped a portfolio that includes Grenache, Tempranillo, Touriga Nacional, Aglianico, Nero d’Avola and Fiano.
“When I first got to McLaren Vale, and I first worked here in the ’90s, Grenache really wasn’t on anyone’s hit list.”
“(Australia has) been growing grapes, but we made a lot of fortified wine, so port-style wines,” he said.
“Dry table wines have only been made in this country for probably 70 years as the most important or prevalent thing that we do.”
“I always had a love for medium to light-bodied reds.
“I’d always said, it’s weird that this district is known for big, fat red wines when we live next to the ocean that’s full of seafood, in Europe, that wouldn’t happen.
“I’ve always been pushed to do two things,” he said.
“One, make wine that’s more of a food rather than something you admire, and also to make light to medium-bodied varieties.”
Through his wines, Steve aims to convey a sense of emotional meaning and connection to the South Australian landscape. And from the way he speaks about wine, it is clear he has found a vocation that aligns deeply with his values, curiosity and love of place.
“For me, the proudest thing now is probably to see Grenache be lifted up to, and I think it will get to be, one of the great wines of the world,” Steve said.
“To know I’ve been part of that process, there is a great degree of pride.”
S.C Pannell
When: Friday to Monday 11am to 5pm
Where: 60 Olivers Road, McLaren Vale
For more info, click here.
