Greg Norman Estates: Value Leader

By Harvey Steiman
Wine Spectator

Wearing a business suit and tie during an interview, Greg Norman looks every bit the global businessman he has become since phasing out of the professional golf circuit. He still plays golf, but his primary income flows from lines of products that carry his name, including clothing, grass sod in his native Australia, and his own Australian wines.

Greg Norman Estates draws from thousands of acres of vineyards spread among most of the major regions in Australia.

His multicolored shark symbol decorates the bottles, but Norman isn't exactly stomping grapes and rolling barrels. He leaves the heavy lifting to Beringer Blass, the mammoth Australian-American wine company that owns the Norman brand, launched in 1999. The firm draws from thousands of acres of vineyards spread among most of the major regions in Australia for its Greg Norman wines and makes them at its regional wineries, such as Jamieson's Run in Coonawarra and Yarra Ridge in Yarra Valley.

The winemakers responsible for Greg Norman Estates get to pick some of the best fruit from Beringer Blass' vineyards, and it shows in the wines. The eye-opening reserve Shiraz 1998 (94, $40), an astonishingly majestic wine at the price, is the standout, but the non-reserve wines, at $15 to $20, have consistently scored in the high end of the very good range, at 87 or more points.

Vic Patrick, chief viticulturist for Beringer Blass in Australia, was part of the small group that met with Norman to discuss the potential for joining forces. "We sat and talked with him about regions, and he knew what he was talking about. Should the Chardonnay be from Hunter Valley? No, Yarra. Cabernet? Definitely Coonawarra." Why Norman? "All his other products were quality products," says Patrick.

Chris Hatcher, Blass' chief winemaker, and Hugh Cuthbertson, the marketing expert who thought up the idea, had brought along several dozen sample wines representing specific vineyards in regions they had already discussed. "He tasted the lot and got involved in the decisions by telling us which ones he liked," Patrick recalls. "He liked the bloody good stuff, I have to tell you. This wasn't a guy looking for a quick buck on a 2-million-case brand."

Andrew Hales, winemaker at Jamieson's Run, explains that his facility processes all the grapes from more than 3,000 acres in Coonawarra, Wrattonbully and Padthaway, collectively known as the Limestone Coast. Hales chooses the fruit for the Norman wines after selecting for the winery's small-production reserve wines and two small single-vineyard bottlings.

"We're looking for good varietal fruit [for Greg Norman], and we try to balance it with a good foundation of oak behind it. It has to be approachable on release, so the reds have soft tannins, but pretty good palate weight," Hales says. The Cabernet is all Coonawarra. Shiraz tends to be mostly Padthaway, with more Coonawarra than Wrattonbully filling it out. The success of the Shiraz Reserve has spawned plans for a Cabernet Reserve, expected to sell for $35 to $40 in the United States. They're also considering a Yarra Chardonnay Reserve.

Matt Steel, winemaker at Yarra Ridge, uses several vineyards around the valley and in cooler regions nearby to make the Chardonnay. "For Yarra Ridge, we're looking for tight flavors. For Greg Norman, we're looking for broader flavors, trying to fill out the palate," Steel says. Greg Norman Chardonnay started at 47,000 cases in 2000, then dipped a bit to 44,500 in 2001 and 25,000 in 2002. The figure for 2002 would have been higher, but the vintage was smaller than anticipated and everything had to be cut back. Still, they might come up with 1,000 cases of a 2002 Reserve from a new vineyard source in Murrundindi, a cooler region just north of Yarra.

Beringer Blass upped the ante on Greg Norman with that powerful, distinctive Shiraz Reserve 1998. The source was a prized McLaren Vale vineyard. The 1999 Reserve, to be released later this year, is a blend of Coonawarra and Heathcote, in central Victoria. "Every year it will be the best Shiraz available to us," Steel says.

"The best decision we made with Greg Norman was to over-deliver on it," says Jamie Odell, vice president of marketing for Beringer Blass in Australia. "It would have been easy to just repackage some anonymous odd lots and slap a Greg Norman label on it. But that wasn't his style, and we're glad we didn't do it."