Mount Langi Ghiran, Stripped Bare: 40 Years of Langi’s Langi Shiraz
The first official release of a Mount Langi Ghiran Langi Shiraz was 1981. Image: Copyright Campbell Mattinson.
Langi Shiraz is historically important. But in many key respects, its most important time is now.
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Adam Louder grew up around the corner from the Mount Langi Ghiran vineyard. He started working there in 1998 before heading off to work multiple vintages in Margaret River, Bordeaux and the Napa Valley. When the job of head winemaker at Mount Langi Ghiran became vacant in 2016 people said to him that he should apply, that he’d be perfect. His reaction though was simple: no way. “I don’t want that responsibility”, he thought. Given the experience Louder had gained to that point this initial reaction spoke volumes. It said that he knew just how special the Mount Langi Ghiran place was and, perhaps, that he didn’t want to be the one who stuffed the great and glorious history of Mount Langi Ghiran up.
It was an appropriate reaction. Mount Langi Ghiran and the (relatively) nearby Craiglee hold a special place in the history of Australian red wine. These wineries helped introduce pepper to the palate of Australian shiraz. As someone said on the day, recently, when 28 vintages of Langi’s Langi shiraz, spanning 40 years, were opened and tasted: when Langi first made its mark, “there was South Australian shiraz, there was Hunter shiraz, and there was peppery Victorian”.
From the 1980s onwards therefore Mount Langi Ghiran has held a totemic position.
This is both what scared Adam Louder off, and drew him in. Gradually though, as the job of head winemaker sat vacant, the magnetic force of Langi began to lock on. “I started to think that I’d be an idiot if I didn’t go for it.”
The next step is obviously history, though the important point to remember from this is that Louder, who grew up around the corner but then travelled via the cape to come home, now thinks – in his own, measured words – that he was “supposed to be here. I was meant to be here.”
“All I’m trying to do,” he now says, “is honour the site.”
It’s interesting to also note here, in this light, that Langi’s Langi shiraz went through a keen “whole bunch” period from early in this century onwards, but that under Louder’s guidance there have been no whole bunches used in Langi Shiraz from the 2019 vintage onwards. “Whole bunches are a tool. I’m prepared to use it, but only if the wine or the vintage really needs it”.
Adam Louder, winemaker at Mount Langi Ghiran. Image copyright Campbell Mattinson.
Many of these “whole bunch influenced” releases of Langi Shiraz were highly regarded and reviewed, of course. Personally, I loved many of these releases and, largely against the tide of those assembled at the recent tasting, loved many of the wines made during the winery’s peak whole bunch era, as aged wines. I loved the 2008, 2009 and 2010 releases, for instance, the latter of which was 100% whole bunch. All these, for me, are stunning wines.
It takes quite some courage, and confidence, and resilience, to change such a winning formula.
The thing of course is though: at some point, in the life of a great terroir, both the bride and the groom, winemaker and land, must be stripped bare.
Louder, in many ways, now walks this truth. Langi Shiraz is not a trick. It’s grown great, and it’s made by a local. This is the course Langi’s founder Trevor Mast set and held for as long as he possibly could; this is the course being set and held by Louder.
Louder, who talks softly, and who is introspective, notes that “a lot of people don’t like the isolation of the Grampians. Personally, I love the isolation”.
When I first met Louder, at the winery a handful of years ago, I suggested to him that he must be happy with where Langi Shiraz was at, in general. I expected him to nod and to agree. He didn’t.
“I’d like the wines to be gentler,” he said, back then.
At the recent tasting, Louder said: “I like to see pepper in the wine but what I want to see are blue/black berries, loaded with baking spices, with fine, long tannins. What I hope to see is a well-structured, medium-bodied red wine.”
The backbone of Langi’s Langi Shiraz is the estate’s old block, which was planted in 1969. I often wonder where Victorian wine would be if it weren’t for the vineyards that were planted in the 1960s; they sit like lights on the hill, as guides to everything that was to come. Although Langi’s start is, officially, the 1981 vintage release – which was Trevor Mast’s first – the vineyard itself is one of Victorian wine’s guiding lights.
Langi Shiraz hasn’t been made exclusively off this block through the course of its history but for the most part it has, and all recent vintages – thanks to Louder – have been sourced exclusively from this original block. Langi Shiraz is back to basics now. It is exposed, in the ring, in the glass. The original vineyard. No whole bunches. An isolated place. A winemaker, once reluctant, now determined.
If you can manage it, taste the 2021 Langi release. It tastes, in short, exciting. Langi Shiraz has been on a journey but it has come back to its essential self. The alcohol levels are no doubt higher than everyone would like but the flavour, the length, the style and the intent are all, right now, beautiful.
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2021 Mount Langi Ghiran Langi Shiraz – Winefront review.
Winefront notes on Mount Langi Ghiran Langi Shiraz dating back to the 1981 release – available here.
