Louis Latour Agencies

Winemaker Series: Adam Eggins pt 2

06 October 2014

In part two Adam goes into greater depth about the process of winemaking and his inspirations and wine making philosophy.

To read part one click here.

Adam, can you start by telling us about the high and low points of the winemaking year?

Vintage and it is both. The highest point and the lowest. Vintage is the pinnacle of our year, the high of activity and excitement and energy in the winery. It can also be the height of disappointment when things go wrong like the weather, mechanical breakdown or human error. We spend 9 months planning for vintage and when it goes well it is an amazing time of our year. When things get messy it can be a nerve racking time as well. Clare Valley is a great valley as most often when rain comes at Vintage you can go outside and star down the storm clouds. Most often they go right on by. You need the vision and you need the stubbornness to fight to hold the course through vintage.

How do you go about making the style of wine you want to achieve?

Kind of back to the Sommelier moment. You see it in your mind first. Then you find the fruit to match your vision, then the oak, then the winemaking approach and you watch and taste every step of the way. It starts off with believing in the style and forming the vision to achieve it.

Do you have personal favourite amongst all the wines you make at Wakefield?

Not fair now. We love all our children the same just differently. My favourite is Chardonnay when done very, very, very well. We are making good inroads here yet still have further to go. Great Shiraz can be amazingly soft and opulent, great Cabernet can be mesmerising yet Great Chardonnay somehow caresses your soul.

Who is your greatest influence in winemaking?

Wow more hard questions. From Australia perhaps Wolf Blass the man as he set out to make wines people wanted to drink and never really deviated from the plan. Globally much harder. I wouldn’t name a person but I would name a place. Burgundy for showing the world what Chardonnay can be and St Emillon for producing some amazing Merlot that can be quite affordable.

In conclusion, is there anything you’d like to change in the world of wine and why?

It’s boring but Australian wines are taxed heavily and I think if I could I would change that to help Australian wine be more globally competitive. I also think the governments of the world could do more to encourage research and development in all agricultural sectors. Then once breakthroughs are made they should be shared globally.

This does happen I just think more could and should be done.