From left are Clinton, Bill Justin and Mitchell Taylor.
When Justin Taylor told me that his family winery, Taylors, had been around for 45 years I did a double-take.
But time goes by in a flash, doesn't it?
And in that second I realised that I couldn't remember a time when, walking around a wine shop, I wouldn't have seen a bottle of Taylors something-or-other on the shelf. It feels like its always been here, reliable, like an old, comfy, cabernet-coloured jumper. "Consumer resonance" is apparently the proper term for that feeling, Justin says.
The Taylor family began exporting its wines to New Zealand 30 years ago. "Dad (Bill Taylor) tells this story of coming over because our Kiwi distributors were only selling like a pallet a month (56 dozen). He was set to sack these guys who were supposed to be selling his wine because they were doing a terrible job. But they said, "Bill, your pricing is all wrong, everything is all wrong - here's what you need to do in the New Zealand market ..."
"Bill said, 'All right, I'll give you 12 months'. He did what they said and they turned it into one of the leading red wine brands in the country."
The birth of Taylors wines occurred in the late 1960s after Justin convinced Bill Taylor snr to ditch their existing hospitality businesses in Sydney and get into wine. "My grandfather asked Dad one really key question and that was: 'Son, how much do you know about wine?'
"Dad said, 'Not a lot'. So he and my Mum were dispatched to Bordeaux and they fell in love with the 66 Mouton Rothschild. It was Dad's lightbulb wine and he came back with this vision of becoming New World winemakers with Old World finesse. My grandfather liked that, so they sold the hotels, which was a hugely risky move at the time because acceptance of Australian wine was nothing in the late 1960s like what it is today." The first vines went in the ground in 1969, planting a whopping 93ha of cabernet sauvignon on the historic St Andrews site adjacent to the Wakefield River in the Clare Valley. Back then it was the biggest holding of cabernet sauvignon in the Southern Hemisphere. Their first cabernet was crafted in 1973 and won gold medals at every Australian show they entered.
Forty-five years on, just when you think they've done everything possible with cabernet, Bill jnr and his sons Mitchell, Justin and Clinton have decided to launch The Visionary, a no-holds-barred "exceptional parcel" cabernet sauvignon dedicated to Bill snr and his vision for the future. Usually, upon hearing that a wine is "super-exclusive" I roll my eyes, because it's bound to be something we can't get in New Zealand, only 18 bottles were ever made and only virgin princesses can look upon them without being turned to dust. But no. "It's actually 21 bottles," Justin says. The wine is exceptional. I can imagine when Bill Taylor snr dreamed of creating a New World wine with Old World finesse, this is what he envisioned.
I've picked apart all the individual components in "Sips of the Week". And while you squirrel away your next $160 imagine it's the wine equivalent of a family of cuddling meerkats, sitting atop a lion, which growls menacingly as it pads its way across the tundra of your tongue.
It boasts a powerful muscular base and a majestic meaty finish.
Why the seahorses on Taylors labels? During the excavation of the vineyard dam, seahorse fossils were found, confirming that the area had once been part of a sea.
After this discovery, it seemed only natural to adopt the seahorse to represent their wines - and today the three seahorses serve as a tribute to three generations of Taylors winemakers.
Taylor's Wakefield 'The Visionary' Exceptional Parcel Release Clare Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2009, $160
Think about the last thing you spent $160 on. I'll bet it came nowhere next to being as sexy and generous as this wine.
With cedar, chocolate, prune, pepper and molasses aromatics, deep inky colour and savoury, soy and olive layers in the mid palate, all blanketing a core of bright, buoyant fruit, it is stunning stuff.
Seamless and succulent, it will be made only in the best of vintages - for example, there'll be no 2011. If I could give it six stars I would. Outstanding is an understatement. regionalwines.co.nz
Taylor's Wakefield St Andrews Clare Valley Cabernet 2009, $65
Pronounced spearmint, black plum and dark, smoked berry characters lead to a plump, juicy spectrum of fruit intensity in the mouth.
The tannins are deliciously grainy yet supple - adding to a warm, spice-induced cosiness on the finish. Love it. regionalwines.co.nz