6 minute read
Young Gun: Luke Tocaciu
Luke Tocaciu
Winemaker, Patrick of Coonawarra
Luke Tocaciu is amongst a school of winemakers who are looking to challenge the familiar flavours of the noble grapes – Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Merlot and Pinot Noir. Heading up an established winery in Coonawarra, Tocaciu’s experimentation helps to provide a taste of what could continue to set the industry apart from international competitors. Harrison Davies spoke with him about why he likes to explore new techniques.
Change in the Australian wine industry comes from the ground up. Winemaker Luke Tocaciu is looking for just such a change in the ground upon which he stands. As the winemaker at Patrick of Coonawarra, located in the region included in the name, Tocaciu has generated interest amongst wine industry professionals for embracing parts of the Australian terroir that are unique to the continent. His wines have elements of eucalyptus and other bush flavours that he says help bring out notes of summer berries and savoury notes. These bush flavours he highlights are the main characteristics in his recent Méthode range, a limited range of classic varietals that highlight flavours than are different to what consumers may be used to.
“The concept of ‘terroir’ has always been well understood in the wine industry, with the environment, climate and vineyard all playing a significant role in the final taste of the wine,” he said. “Something as simple as having eucalyptus trees in the vineyard has an influence on the final wine. The Méthode Eucalypt Cabernet takes this concept and dials it up a notch to maximise the flavour that this introduces into the wine.
“The surroundings are very important in grapegrowing and winemaking and something that winemakers should be trialling to make interesting, fun wines that speak to the place where they are grown.” Exploring new flavours and new styles has been the engine that has pushed his career every step of the way.
Pure bred in wine
Tocaciu has been around wine his whole life. He was born in the Barossa and moved out to Coonawarra when he was five years old.
Luke Tocaciu
His father was involved in the wine industry himself and this brought a young Tocaciu to be surrounded by cellars and vines from a young age. As a youngster he would find himself exploring the grounds of Hollick, where his dad worked, and he began to find himself lending a hand with responsibilities throughout the process. “I used to help turn pumps on and off, jump in the tractor during vintage and skateboard around the winery on the weekend,” he said. “It’s something that I realised I wanted to do from a very young age, and I couldn’t think of anything else that I would want to do.
“The production side of winemaking was fun and exciting and to see the joy in my Dad bringing his own wine to a dinner party was the icing on the cake that got me hooked.”
A few years of university gave him the technical skills that aided him before he found himself back in the cellar, now a graduate. He said that in the years following his degree, his style was much more calculated than it is today. “My winemaking approach was initially quite clinical and calculated, always checking the numbers and trialling lots of things before I did them. After just completing university, this was all I knew,” he said. “After I started working with my Dad, I began to understand there was a lot more tasting and knowledge that I had to build and a lot more to winemaking that I had to learn. “Today, I would describe my winemaking as a bit more fluid in my approach. I still do things that my Dad used to do to keep the history of the Patrick brand going, but then have introduced more modern approaches with new styles and experimental techniques.” After years of working with his father in the winery, Tocaciu took the reigns as director in 2013, following his father’s passing. Now at the reigns of the business, he has been looking at ways to help the region find a new understanding of its principle varieties – Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.
New days and new styles
Tocaciu’s most recent venture has been the Méthode range; a limited run of wines that showcase native flavours, particularly that of eucalyptus.
Tocaciu with the team at Patrick of Coonawarra
Patrick of Coonawarra winemaker Luke Tocaciu. Photo: Modern Currency
Luke Tocaciu
The herbal, almost medicinal flavours of the tree have been aspects that many vignerons have tried to avoid and seem to split with consumers down the middle. Cabernet is not known for the herbal notes provided by eucalyptus, but Tocaciu believes it’s a part of Australian terroir that should be embraced.
“There is a huge opportunity to make diverse styles, using new techniques with traditional varieties. The traditional varieties are what Australian wine’s great reputation has been built on,” he said. “It allows the wine drinker to have a choice in the style of wine that they are drinking without stepping too far outside their comfort zone. “Alternate varieties that are obscure and often hard to pronounce can be intimidating, leaving the consumer with no idea of what it might taste like. “By trialling new techniques such as what I’m doing with Cabernet, they know the variety, and it’s easier to explore styles and flavours within that.
“The response from the Méthode Range has been excellent. It continues to surprise me that it has not only appealed to younger demographics but the more traditional customers wanting to try something new.” Tocaciu tipped his hat to the innovations made in the beer and spirits industries and suggested that the reason for much of their success had been due to producers’ ability to try new things. He himself has embraced change by not only making wines that express a different terroir from their international counterparts, but are also presented to show that they are different. The two styles of Cabernet, the Nouveau and the Eucalypt, are packaged in clear, Burgundy style bottles to signify that they are not the ‘traditional Cab Sav’ they might see on their pub’s wine list. “The wine industry is better positioned to explore localised flavours because, in most cases, we control the growing of the raw product, being grapes,” he said. “This allows for the full story to be told and adds a dimension to the story of the final wine. There are so many great wines out there, so we stand out amongst the crowd by doing something different. “This innovation brings a new drinker into the traditional wine space and blurs the lines between wine drinker, beer drinker and spirit drinker.”
