White-hot Australia

AMERICANS are developing a real taste for Australian red wines -- inky, fulsome Shirazes from the Barossa; dark, herb-scented Cabernets from Coonawarra; and stout-hearted blends from century-old vines in the McLaren Vale. But it’s time to squirrel these away, along with your winter woolens, until Labor Day.

Instead, wake up your palate with whites from the same continent. Australia simply excels at certain varieties -- Riesling and Semillon in particular -- making wines that are every bit as distinctive as the famed whites of Germany, Austria and France. For every full-bodied tannic red, there is a light, nervy white with fresh, palate-cleansing acidity -- and springtime is a very good time to get acquainted.

Although Australia’s white wines have lived in the shadow of their more substantial red counterparts, they have a long and storied history.

Like the western U.S., Australia boasts large and temperate wine-growing regions. Its warm, dry climate confers nominal success on nearly every variety grown. For whites, this includes California staples such as Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, as well as a few interesting transplants, such as French Colombard and the Portuguese grape Verdelho. Blends, too, are worth checking out, if only for their names: Yard Dog, Shoofly and Broken Fishplate.

In Australia, as in grape-growing regions throughout the world, Chardonnay dominates the acreage. There are some nicely delineated Chardonnays from cooler regions, including the Yarra Valley and Margaret River, but much of the rest was fairly monochromatic until about 10 years ago, when un-wooded, steel tank “naked” Chardonnays emerged, such as the Trevor Jones “Virgin” and Plantagenet’s “Omrah.” These are wines with clean, unadorned fruit flavors and brisk, refreshing charm.

But Australia’s most recent white success story has been Riesling.

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Clean, elegant Riesling

IF you were allowed only one word to characterize Australian Rieslings, it would have to be nerve. Well-made Rieslings the world over possess the acidity to give them poise and tension; in Australian versions, though, it’s more like a racing pulse.

Their aromas are clean and lime-scented, sometimes with a hint of green apple or white peach, with exotic elements of ginger, minerals and a kind of crisp, rainwater freshness.

On the palate they can be thrillingly dry -- no consistently drier Rieslings are found in the world. Their uncompromising firmness lends that clean-lined, pulsating angularity of texture -- lovers of German Riesling might find them a bit shrill at first -- but to me it’s like the difference between sitting in a La-Z-Boy and an Eames chair; both will give you support and comfort, but you’ll marvel at the latter’s elegance and taut, clean lines.

Fine Riesling is grown on several parts of the continent. In western Australia, for example, there are well-regarded Riesling vineyards in the Margaret River south of Perth, and in the area known as the “Great Southern” you find the important districts of Frankland River and Mount Barker.

But if this country has an ancestral home for Riesling, it’s the state of South Australia, in the wine districts that flank the city of Adelaide. Originally settled by German immigrants of Silesian extraction, it’s home to some of the country’s most famous and important red wine regions, from Coonawarra and Padthaway to the McLaren Vale and Barossa Valley.

Barossa, of course, is renowned for powerful reds and a notoriously torrid climate, so it’s odd to note that the region next door, the Eden Valley, produces some of the country’s best Rieslings. This appellation climbs to more than 1,700 feet in elevation, well above its neighbors in Barossa, so heat accumulation there is relatively moderate during the growing season, making it ideal for aromatic whites.

The country’s first Riesling vines were planted here, at Pewsey Vale in 1847; the winery was also the first in the world to experiment with screw caps, back in 1977. Ever since, Australian producers seem to have reached consensus that that screw cap closures best preserve Riesling’s delicate aromatics. In fact, in the Clare Valley, about an hour’s drive north of Barossa and Eden, there has been a regional mandate to make screw caps the obligatory closure for Riesling.

In every way, Clare Valley Rieslings are as well-regarded as those in the Eden Valley. Here the climate is less maritime and more continental and generally warmer. And yet, the Clare has bracingly cool nights, for a dramatic diurnal shift; few white wine regions produce more feathery, ethereal wines.

Perhaps the most famous Rieslings in the country come from Clare Valley winemaker Jeffrey Grosset, whose Polish Hill and Watervale bottlings are marvels of tension and stony intensity. Several other fine producers here are also worth pursuing, including Leasingham, Annie’s Lane and Pike’s.

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Aromatic Semillon

AFTER Riesling, the country’s most distinctive dry white wine is Semillon (rather than the French pronunciation -- sem-ee-yon -- most Australians call it as they see it: sem-ill-on). Semillon originates in Bordeaux, where it’s used in Sauternes, in white wines from Graves and in the charming but rather ordinary wines from the inland Bordeaux region of Entre-deux-Mers. Dry white Bordeaux is nearly always blended, and though it’s occasionally quite fine, it has a rather limited range of expression -- and Semillon is usually but a meager contributor in these wines.

Semillons from Australia, however, have a character all their own, either fresh out of the winery or after several years of bottle age.

The country’s heat index seems to grace Australian Semillon with more intriguing aromatics than those found in Bordeaux; notes of mango and passion fruit are common, along with more classic aromas: honey, beeswax and corn silk.

They possess a broad middle palate like the French, but Australian versions seem to have more intensity, and they retain a finely wrought acidity that gives them a thrilling edge.

They also age beautifully. Philip Shaw, former winemaker at Rosemount who now makes wines under his own name in an emergent region near the Hunter Valley called Orange marvels at their longevity. “There’s a bit of a dip after two years or so,” he says, “but after that, it can age for 20 years, with a beautiful honeyed, nutty richness.”

Good Semillons are also found across the country, but if there’s an ancestral home for this grape in Australia, it’s the Hunter Valley in the eastern state of New South Wales, a warm, temperate, uncharacteristically humid area north of Sydney, probably the only region in Australia that produces more white than red wine.

Here, traditional wine estates such as Rosemount, Tyrrell’s, Brokenwood and McWilliams have established worldwide reputations, some of them practically on their Semillon alone, although these wines are not easy to find in Southern California.

Semillon’s success in the Hunter Valley led to its propagation across the country in the late 19th century, and older, well-established vineyards are plentiful in South Australia. It’s a staple in Barossa, where old Semillon vineyards are planted side by side with old Shiraz vineyards; the Eden Valley too has its share of old vines.

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Rich, complex Viognier

FOR all of the red Rhone varieties found in Australia, including Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvedre, Rhone whites have been in relatively short supply. And yet the world’s oldest Marsanne vines, a principal grape found in white Hermitage, are planted at Chateau Tahbilk in the Nagambie Lakes region of Victoria. (This marvelous wine has had a troubled import history in the U.S. and is currently hard to find.)

Lately, however, other Rhone varieties such as Viognier have gathered some steam, especially in South Australia, where the hot, dry, disease-retarding climate makes it an ideal place to grow the grape. Here, many producers have taken to co-fermenting a small percentage of Viognier with Shiraz, mirroring a practice employed in the Northern Rhone region of Cote Rotie. The practice seems to leaven the red grape’s brooding intensity, while deepening the color and providing some aromatic delicacy.

Inevitably, Viognier has found its way into a few bottles of its own, and in Australia it has a unique character, with rich, unctuous textures and bright tropical fruit aromatics. Traditional Rhone variety winemakers such as d’Arenberg in the McLaren Vale have been making stalwart, wonderfully structured Viogniers since the early ‘90s, in blends, and in a wine they call the Last Ditch.

But perhaps the best regarded Viognier of the moment comes from Yalumba, whose best white goes by the august name of “The Virgilius.” Winemaker Louisa Rose has been making this wine since 1998, with each passing year retreating more from wood character and employing natural yeast fermentations, which give the wine considerable complexity. It’s a wild, fascinating wine, with bold peach fruit character that’s teasingly offset by a floral edge and a long, exotic finish.

Not surprising for wines from an island continent, these Australian whites intersect nicely with seafood in its various forms. The Viogniers have enough body to pair with seafood pastas, razor clams, monkfish, even lobster. Semillon has the right palate weight for a slightly lighter fare, such as mahi-mahi or, better yet, barramundi, an Australian native that’s been turning up on menus lately. And I’m unscrewing a citrusy Clare Valley Riesling for my next rendezvous with the ceviche bowl at Mario’s Peruvian & Seafood Restaurant.

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food@latimes.com

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Standout whites from Australia

THE excellent South Australia wines recommended below are readily available, but don’t limit yourself to just that district; Australian whites from other regions made from these grape varieties are worth exploring too. Wines are listed by variety, in order of preference.

Pike’s 2005 Clare Valley Riesling. The driest of a group of very dry Rieslings, this lean white leads with scents of lime and grapefruit pith. Cool and angular on the palate, it has a salty tang to accent its fresh lime flavors and a bright granular texture that will sing with ceviche or poached white fish. At Hi-Time Wine Cellars, Costa Mesa, (949) 650-8463, (800) 331-3005, www.hitimewine.net; and Wine Cask, Santa Barbara, (805) 966-9463, www.winecask.com (about $16).

Annie’s Lane 2006 Clare Valley Riesling. This delicate wine has a light floral scent accenting aromas of blood orange and kaffir lime. On the palate it’s taut and lean, but there’s a fine touch of cream in the middle palate, with just a hint of mango fruit flavors and a clean, mouthwatering finish. At Larchmont Village Wine, Spirits & Cheese, (323) 856-8699; and K&L; Wine Merchants, Hollywood, (323) 464-9463, www.klwines.com (about $11).

Rolf Binder 2005 Eden Valley Riesling. Succulent and balanced, this generous wine possesses a bit more amplitude than many of its fellow Rieslings; it leads with a delicate Meyer lemon scent and a hint of wet stones. Its generous flavors and gentle texture are assisted by just a touch of residual sugar. Pretty and poised. At Colorado Wine Co., Eagle Rock, (323) 478-1985, www.cowineco.com; and Heritage Wine Co., Pasadena, (626) 844-9333, (800) 630-9463, www.heritagewinecompany.com (about $16).

Henschke 2005 Eden Valley “Louis” Semillon. Slow to open, this wine leads with savory, mildly herbal scents of celery and fennel. With a day’s air, those give way to richer aromas of acacia to beeswax. Honey and quince lead the way on the palate; the fruit is ephemeral, a fresh core that seems hidden within. A long ager, clearly. At Manhattan Fine Wines, Manhattan Beach, (310) 374-3454, www.manhattanfinewines.com; and Wine Exchange, Orange, (714) 974-1454, (800) 769-4639, www.winex.com (about $22).

Kaesler 2005 Barossa Valley Old Vine Semillon. From vines planted in 1961, this subtle, soft wine has a hint of quince and white plum fruit, with a mildly grainy texture on the palate and pear-like flavors, but it’s very dry and concentrated, suggesting a kind of old-vine intensity. Very firm and clean on the finish. Less complex than the Henschke, but that directness is its strength. At Silverlake Wine in Los Angeles, (323) 662-9024, www.silverlakewine.com; and the Cheese Store of Silver Lake, (323) 644-7511, www.cheesestoresl.com (about $15).

Yalumba 2005 Eden Valley “The Virgilius” Viognier. Not shy, this golden-hued wine: The aromas lead with honeysuckle blossoms and apricot fruit, ripe, heady and rich. It’s all apricot nectar on the palate, with a creamy texture, a touch of fat and a finish that gathers the wine with impressive focus and a long finish. At Hi-Time Wine Cellars and Manhattan Fine Wines (about $32).

D’Arenberg 2005 McLaren Vale “The Last Ditch” Viognier. From one of the mainstays for Rhone varietal wines in South Australia, this is a well-structured Viognier with hints of ripe peach and apricot aromas that give way to ripe stone-fruit flavors as well -- with perhaps an added touch of mango. Its firm structure would pair well with grilled mahi-mahi. At Silverlake Wine (about $22).

-- Patrick Comiskey