Barossa Shiraz by Dr Thomas Girgensohn

Barossa Shiraz: Building Regional Identity (Wakefield Press, 2013), by Dr Thomas Girgensohn, is an interesting book.  Its nuts and bolts are 164 pages in full colour throughout, with an RRP of $39.95.  Thomas Girgensohn is a former managing partner of the Boston Consulting Group and an Australian company director with experience in a range of industries. He was educated in Germany, with an MBA from Saabruecken and a PhD in business from the University of Munich. He has been collecting Australian wine for nearly 30 years, closely observing and following developments in the wine industry over this period. He currently publishes a wine blog, in which he shares his tasting experiences: ‘Alontin’s Australian wine review – and beyond.’

I say interesting, because this whole subject of Hand of God/Hand of Man is never far from the headlines these days and is the raison d’être of Girgensohn’s book. My problem is that there is an assumption one can ascribe particular flavour profiles to particular soils, making the case so strongly that whether the shiraz (for example) has 13% or 15% alcohol, has been matured in old French or new American oak, or comes from the 2011 or 2012 vintage, the site-flavour link remains inviolate.