Fallen Giants Shiraz 2016

The Fallen Giants Vineyard, planted in 1969, is situated on the steep eastern slopes of the Grampians at the western end of the Great Dividing Range in Victoria. The vineyard has a history of producing great wines; fruit from Fallen Giants made it into the 1986 Grange and the 2019 Fallen Giants Shiraz won both the Jimmy Watson Trophy and the Trevor Mast Trophy at the 2021 Royal Melbourne Wine Awards. The 2016 is also right up there, earning a whopping 98 point rating from James Halliday.

"Grampians shiraz. All French oak. A study in elegance. Such sweet control, such savoury charm. It doesn't scream the words Grampians shiraz; it purrs them into a microphone. Plums, cherries, nuts, and low-but-important-levels of peppers and associated spices. Oak has been pinned immaculately to the fruit. It all sings through the finish. Modern and traditional at once. It feels completely unforced. Bless it."  Campbell Mattinson

Expert reviews

"This has classic Grampians shiraz flavours; all black fruits and a strongly structured palate with a rocky edge to the fruit on the mid-palate; spices, cracked pepper and licorice all at maximum levels. Indeed, you would never have believed it possible that an even bigger wine would exist a few metres up the hill. Let me say, however that although this is super-full-bodied, it doesn't rely on tannins. Screwcap. 14.5% alc. Drink by 2045."  James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion - 98 points and Special Value Wine  ★ 

"Grampians shiraz. All French oak, 10% new, for 18 months. A study in elegance. Such sweet control, such savoury charm. It doesn't scream the words Grampians shiraz; it purrs them into a microphone. Plums, cherries, nuts, and low-but-important-levels of peppers and associated spices. Oak has been pinned immaculately to the fruit. It all sings through the finish. Modern and traditional at once. It feels completely unforced. Bless it. Alcohol: 14.5% Closure: Screwcap. Drink: 2022 – 2040."  Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front - 95 points

Awards

Special Value Wine – Halliday Wine Companion  ★ 

A giant leap

Fallen Giants owner Rebecca Drummond proudly showcases the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy.  Photo: Paul Carracher 

The 2019 Fallen Giants Shiraz won both the Jimmy Watson Trophy and the Trevor Mast Trophy at the 2021 Royal Melbourne Wine Awards. The Watson is for best young red wine of show, the Mast is for best shiraz of show. This was only the third time since the Trevor Mast Trophy was created in 2012 that a wine has won both the Mast and Watson in the same year.

Fallen Giants owner Rebecca Drummond paid tribute to Justin Purser of Best’s Great Western, who made the wine. "Its flavour and intensity were really beautiful and we were really happy with the wine itself and knew it was an exceptional vintage. Every aspect of the winemaking process played its part. You can’t make great wine with bad fruit, but you also need a great winemaker," she said. "The two have to work together and we’re very lucky to work with Justin."

The following article by Huon Hooke appeared in The Real Review in December 2021

You could not have scripted it better. When Grampians vineyard Fallen Giants won the 2021 Jimmy Watson Trophy and the 2021 Trevor Mast Trophy together, the chickens verily came home to roost.

Sorry about the metaphor, but it’s exciting to me that the Trevor Mast Trophy, named in honour of a man who was a mentor to me and many others, was won by a vineyard he once owned, and the wine was vinified in the winery where he once worked: Best’s Great Western.

Mast died prematurely in 2012 as a consequence of early-onset dementia. He was a champion for cool-climate shiraz, having worked 12 vintages as chief winemaker at Best’s Great Western and then taking on Mount Langi Ghiran Vineyard as part-owner, chief winemaker and chief promoter. Cool-climate shiraz wasn’t really a 'thing' until Mast came along. Yes, great wines such as Craiglee, Best’s, Seppelt, Yeringberg and Tahbilk existed but Australian cool-climate shiraz was yet to acquire the cachet it enjoys today.

After he died, the Trevor Mast trophy was instigated for the best shiraz in the Royal Melbourne Wine Awards. Serendipity immediately came into play, when Best’s 2011 Bin No 1 Shiraz won the inaugural trophy in 2012.

Nine years later, it’s Fallen Giants' turn. Not only the Mast trophy but the Jimmy Watson, for the best young red wine at the same show.

Fallen Giants is the present name of a vineyard at Halls Gap in the Grampians ranges, which was established in 1969 by Bernie Breen as Boroka vineyard. I recall buying some of his 1978 Boroka shiraz, which was light-bodied, elegant and very peppery. Trevor Mast and his wife Sandi owned the vineyard from 1996 to 2002, and the Rathbone Wine Group, which owns Mt Langi Ghiran Vineyard, owned it from 2002 to 2013. The wines were made for several years at Mount Langi.

The vineyard was bought by its present owners, Rebecca and Aaron Drummond, in 2013 and re-named Fallen Giants, which is a reference to the local First Nations people’s story of how the Grampians were created. The vineyard also produces superb riesling.

The 2019 Fallen giants shiraz  vintage was made at Best’s by Justin Purser. It’s a bargain at AUD $35 and I suspect will sell out before you can open your wallet.

As the chief judge of the Royal Melbourne Wine Awards Matt Harrop impressed on me, while everyone talks about the Jimmy Watson, the Trevor Mast is probably the hardest trophy to win. 

"There are more wines competing for the Mast trophy than for any other trophy. Something like 760 wines were in the running for that trophy this year, more than for any other varietal trophy. So the Fallen Giants had to beat a lot more wines. In pinot noir, there were about 120 wines, in shiraz cabernet blends only 30 or 40."

He pointed out that it was only the third time since the trophy was created in 2012 that a wine has won both the Mast and Watson in the same year. In 2012 it was the Best’s Bin No 1 Shiraz 2011, and in 2014 it was S.C. Pannell Adelaide Hills Syrah 2013.

Is it easier for a cool-climate shiraz to win such an award as the Mast in Melbourne, where there are always plenty of Victorian judges?

"Well, we did have an all-Victorian judging panel this year because of COVID, but I’d get into trouble if I agreed with that!" Harrop added:  "There were four wines in the taste-off for the Mast trophy – one each from NSW (Lerida Estate Cullerin Syrah), Western Australia (Fermoy Estate) and South Australia (St Hugo) as well as the Fallen Giants."

After winning the Mast, the Fallen Giants then progressed to the Jimmy Watson judging, which is for the best young red wine of show.

The Drummonds

Fallen Giants owners Aaron and Rebecca Drummond  

Aaron Drummond 

Aaron grew up on the Mornington Peninsula. His foray into wine started in the early 2000s when he started leasing a disused vineyard at a friend's farm. Later he joined the Wine Industry starting with Mount Langi Ghiran and eventually working across the Rathbone Wine Group (Yering Station Mount Langi Ghiran and Xanadu) as Sales & Marketing Director. It was during this latter period that Aaron and Rebecca purchased the Fallen Giants vineyard from Mount Langi.

In 2015 Aaron left for NZ to take up the GM role at iconic New Zealand Winery, Craggy Range. After 8 years in Hawke’s Bay, he came home to be part of the next chapter of Fallen Giants.

Aaron and Rebecca, together with two other families, acquired the Stonier winery, vineyard, and brand in December 2022. Aaron is the CEO of Stonier and also sits on the Board of Craggy Range and Brick Lane Brewing.

Rebecca Drummond

"My brother Aaron and I grew up on the Mornington Peninsula, surrounded by wine. While at Uni in 2002 we leased a neighbours vineyard and had a crack at making wine. While the wine was terrible it started us on a path…Aaron’s a little more direct to wine than mine! I headed into Global Markets as an FX Dealer.

My brother Aaron and I grew up on the Mornington Peninsula, surrounded by wine. While at Uni in 2002 we leased a neighbours vineyard and had a crack at making wine. While the wine was terrible it started us on a path…Aaron’s a little more direct to wine than mine! I headed into Global Markets as an FX Dealer. In 2013 Aaron and I and our parents had the opportunity to purchase the Fallen Giants vineyard from Mount Langi as it was surplus to their requirements. In 2015 Aaron left Australia to take the GM role at the iconic New Zealand producer, Craggy Range. With two young girls, I decided FX was not compatible with being a mum. My first degree was in science, and I loved being outdoors, so the vineyard quickly became my passion. So 8 years on, I still prefer to be on a tractor, and am loving seeing the vineyard evolve." 

Aside from working in the vineyard, Rebecca is the CFO of Fallen Giants and Stonier.

About the winery

The Fallen Giants Vineyard is situated on the steep eastern slopes of the Grampians at the western end of the Great Dividing Range in Victoria. The vineyard was planted in 1969 to Shiraz, Cabernet and Riesling by a long-term grower for Seppelts and Penfolds. The majority of the 23-acre planting was to Shiraz (14 acres) and was part of the second coming of the Victorian wine industry, which had seen very few new plantings since the turn of the 20th century.

Fruit from this vineyard, together with fruit from the first vineyards in the Grampians region which were planted at Bests and Seppelts in the early 1860s, have a history of producing great wines - fruit from Fallen Giants made it into the 1986 Grange.

The late, great Trevor Mast, famed Victorian winemaker, purchased the vineyard in 1996. He owned it for 8 years and sold it to Mt Langi Ghiran, part of the Rathbone Wine Group, in 2002. The wines were made for several years at Mount Langi.

Current owners, siblings Aaron and Rebecca Drummond, had the opportunity to purchase the vineyard from Mount Langi in 2013 when it became surplus to their requirements (Aaron worked for the Rathbone Wine Group as Sales & Marketing Director at the time). The Drummonds renamed the vineyard 'Fallen Giants', from the Dreamtime stories of the original owners of this land, the Djab Wurrung and Jardiwadjali people, which refer to the creation of Halls Gap.

Since 2016, the wines have been made by Justin Purser at Best’s Great Western - Fallen Giant's closest neighbour.

The Vineyard

"The vineyard has been farmed organically since 2018 and will be certified in 2022, likely the first in the Grampians to be so.

It is cooler site being at high elevation (260M) and East facing in aspect, with the Mount William Range on the western boundary providing relief from the afternoon sun. Mean January Temperature (MJT) is 20.6 degrees Celsius.

The soil is red clay loam with granite and ironstone top soil washed down from the steep face of Boronia Peak & the Sera Range. The geology is old, dating back 380 million years ago to the Devonian period. As the soils are old and weathered the vines are naturally low yielding averaging less than 2tn per acre in an normal year.

We love our place and have been working hard at improving how we farm and manage it. 30% of the property is now regenerating native bush. In the vineyard, aside from the organic management, we have been promoting native grasses as cover crops and also introduced more than 100 bee hives.

Since 2019 we have been supported by Tim Brown as a viticultural consultant, especially around improved organic management and pruning technique (Poussard method)."  Fallen Giants