Off the Vine: Rob Walters

Geez, where do you start with Rob Walters? Deep thinker? Creative writer? Fine wine slinger? The owner/proprietor of Bibendum immerses himself in European dirt for several months a year, but the Melbourne-based wine wholesaler and importer still manages to eke out some of the more interesting wine producers doing grape stuff from Victoria.

Walters is set in a slender frame, but has a deep, chocolatey voice that he uses incessantly to talk about drops that reflect the elusive concept of ‘terroir’ – a sense of place in wine. 

What was your first foray into wine importing?
I imported my first batch of wines around ten years ago. I brought in a collection of small producer French wines. I was always interested in wines of place, wines that seemed distinctive because of where they were grown rather than how they were made. France was my holy land for this type of approach. Meanwhile, well before this, I was retailing and wholesaling Australian wines – Victoria has always been a great curiosity for variations of interesting wines.

Why is vineyard dirt important?
It’s diversity that makes wine interesting and exciting. We all want to drink great wine, but great wine is even greater if it relates back to a specific place. The grape species has an ability to transmute a specific place – it’s genius. Without this, wine would be like vodka or something –how well it's made would be key, not how interesting the place is that it comes from.

What is it about wine that gets under your skin?
Wine gets you drunk. But, wine gets you drunk in ways that other beverages can’t. Wine makes you think as you drink. And I like those wines best that create a moment. Oh, and I like getting on the wines that you can drink a bottle of that won't take you two days to recover.

Are there any wines that you hate?
I don’t hate any wine. I choose not to drink homogenised industrial wines. I recognise those wines have a place in the beverage market but they aren’t what’s interesting about wine to me. They're things you drink for affect –  like you drink an alco-pop. I moved on from those a few years ago... I don’t like techniques in winemaking that strip away the ability of the wines to express where they have been grown, especially if that place is special or distinctive.

How do you go with local drinking?
Victoria is a very diverse state geologically and climatically, and there are some very cool micro-climates. So, you can get some very elegant examples of wines – like with Bindi in the Macedon Ranges which sits at 500m above sea level on a site riddled with quartz and gravel. There is no coincidence these wines are very different to other wines from the region. Likewise, Mac Forbes reflects individuality with his single site wines in the Yarra. Greenstone manages to show a different shade of Heathcote, while Bannockburn is a tour de force of individuality, and older vines, in Geelong’s fine wine growing belt. Victorian wine producers really are some of the most exciting in Australia today.

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