Adam Foster is not normal — but that’s a very good thing. Because if he was normal, then his wines just might be too, which would be a bloody shame. During a recent chat with Adam, it was plainly clear that this is a man who, by his nature, thinks far outside the square. Adam entered the wine world via the food door, as a chef for a number of years, working with the likes of Jeremy Strode at Adelphi (now of Sydney Bistrode fame) and with Alla Wolf-Tasker in the early years of the Lake House in Daylesford. And if you are involved with great food, then wine is never too far from your lips, which led him to a stint at Melbourne’s Walters Wine Bar and back to the Lake House as Food and Beverage manager. Then the vinous fever heated up to a level that caused Adam to make what some normal folks would call an insane move — he gave it all up and became a cellar rat (an affectionate wine term) for Dave Powell at Torbreck in the Barossa Valley.

More fevered acts of irrationality followed, with stints in France at the famed house of Chapoutier in the Rhone Valley — a Mecca for anyone who truly seeks the secrets of the Syrah (Shiraz) grape. He garnered his first French nickname ‘Monsieur Interrogation’ for the relentless questions he kept firing off, but was eventually saddled with the moniker L’Imposteur as an Aussie trying to be French, which became the name of his French made Grenache wine.

The birth of his Syrahmi label (a combination of Syrah and the French word for friend, ‘ami’) came in 2004 when he was offered some fruit and he took the plunge. Adam says ‘I always knew I would make wine’ and he strives to make wine from a place of passion, a wine of interest versus a primarily technically good wine. He believes in ‘a single piece of dirt, a single vineyard and a single grape’ and he follows the motto of the late French winemaker Jacques Reynaud of Chateau Rayas fame — ‘to make great wine, do not take much out of the earth.’

He adamantly claims he is not a winemaker, at least not a jack-of-all-trades one who attempts to understand all facets of wine from A to Z. To that end, he seeks out others who can do what he feels he does not do well. Hence, his great relationship with green thumbed viticulturist Mark Walpole of the Greenstone Vineyard who supplies him with his most essential ingredient — the best Heathcote grapes he can buy.

Despite accusations by his friends that he makes Syrahmi for the lifestyle, he says he does it because he simply loves doing it. At this stage, Syrahmi and L’Imposteur have an annual production that nudges the 1,000 case level, which suits him just fine — add in the 3,000 cases of Foster e Rocco wines (with sommelier mate Lincoln Riley) and he is a very busy boy. Adam’s 10-year goal is to make a Côte Rôtie, a French Holy Grail Rhone wine that one of Adam’s much admired winemakers Marcel Guigal has mastered so well with his famed La La’s (La Mouline, La Landonne & La Turque). In the best years (2006 available now and 2008 out next year), Adam makes an honorary Guigal reserve Syrami called, you guessed it, La La.

And as much as Adam is barrel deep into his wines, he keeps a hand in the food business with his Syrahmi salamis, which he started after the 2007 vintage. And like his wines, he is a wee bit unorthodox in his approach, marinating the meat in a dozen or more bottles of his Syrahmi wines which his small-goods butcher partner thought was pure madness.

Well, now he knows Adam Foster…

Syrahmi ‘Climat’ 2009 Heathcote $45 — $50

Mr. Foster names each vintage of Syrahmi with some meaningful epithet, the 2009 vintage is named ‘Climat’ which is a French noun that translates to a vineyard name or named vineyard and catastrophic climate conditions. The latter definition was definitely the applicable case as a massive heat wave hit Victoria where the temperatures stayed in the 40’s for 7 days — not your desired grape ripening conditions by a country mile. The nose on this wine was initially one of strong oak but with some time in the glass, a bit of swirl action it opened up to a mix of olives, leather, liquorice and a touch of tar. This wine has gone to the dark side in a very good way — complex, with structure and texture up the wazoo and oodles of black fruits wanting to come out to play. As individual a wine as its maker, Mr. Foster. Excellent holiday hooch for that special wino in the family…

Foster e Rocco Rosé 2011 $27 — $30

Over the years I have been vary wary of Australian or New Zealand made rosés as they are: (a) mostly a wine afterthought as in “we got some spare juice…hey! Let’s make a rosé!” and (b) they tasted mostly like lolly water. Well over the past few years things have improved dramatically and rosés are being made with the same level of seriousness as our other wines and damn if they haven’t finally got the style right (at least for my palate). This wine is made from the Sangiovese grape, a singular focus for these two fellas as they also make a gluggable red if that is more your fancy. This is rosé the way I like my rosé with some real guts to it, one that tiptoes the line between savoury and fruitiness but is dry and clean as when you swallow.

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While we’re very good at whining, we also love a good glass or seven of wine. So, for all our drinking pleasure, Duncan Wilcox has been providing the Tribune’s reviews and tasting notes since 2009.

Follow El Wino on Twitter: @The_Wino

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