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A Dream Vertical Feature - Sam Miranda

Through the generations, names like Brown, Darling, Pizzini, Chrismont and Dal Zotto have passed down knowledge, heritage and passion, and have shaped the modern identity of Victoria’s King Valley.

One of the names playing a part in that identity is Miranda, and for the past two decades, third-generation winemaker Sam Miranda and his wife Rachel have created something special that reflects Sam’s Italian heritage and his desire to add fresh layers to the Miranda wine legacy.

POP’S PASSION – PASSION POP

Sam's Snow Road Vineyard.

The Miranda family journey in Australian viticulture began generations ago when patriarch Francesco (Frank) “Pop” Miranda came to Australia in 1938 after a stint in the Italian army as a young man.

“My grandfather was one of 11 kids, and as was the practice in those days one was sent away to the Church and educated,” explains Sam. “Back then, if you had a university degree or you had education, you were automatically an officer in the Italian Army.

“After his service he travelled to Australia and as war broke out, he was interned and sent up to Darwin to serve. In Darwin, the army said ‘you’re Italian, you know how to make wine’, so he got some dried out sultanas, rehydrated them and fermented that out. And that was basically how it all started.”

MIRANDA WINE'S SPARKLING DYNASTY

After the war, Frank moved back to Griffith and started the Miranda Wines brand. By the 1980s, with the help of his three sons, Sam Snr, Jim and Lou, Miranda was one of the largest wine groups in the country.

Along the way, the family built an unassuming Aussie wine icon: Passion Pop. Created in the late 1970s, Passion Pop was a bubbly, low alcohol, fruity wine that ended up being the largest production fizz in the country.

After finishing school, Sam decided that wine was not his native calling. “At uni I majored in finance and managed to score a job on the futures floor,” he recalls. After four years however, he’d had enough and quit. While killing time in the Napa Valley, he stumbled upon something that struck a chord that called him home.

“I remember going through a vineyard and winery and thinking, ‘oh god, we’ve actually got one of these at home,’” he laughs. “So I rang dad and said I wanted to come home and work in the winery. Dad was shocked, but I went back. I was 25 years old, earning $19,000 a year, living with mum and dad.”

PUTTING DOWN ROOTS: SAM MIRANDA AT HOME IN KING VALLEY

Power Couple, Rachel & Sam Miranda.

Miranda Garden Goodness.

On his return, Sam studied winemaking and began playing a greater role in the family business. At that time, the family had acquired vineyards in the King Valley as well as the Barossa. The brand and Griffith-based infrastructure was then sold to McGuigan Simeon. In the carve-up, Sam took the King Valley and his father Lou the Barossa site.

“It all happened pretty quickly,” explains Sam. “After that meeting I called my wife and said, ‘I think we just bought a winery,’ and that’s literally how it happened.”

Two decades on, Sam, his family, and the Miranda name are very much part of the King Valley landscape. As a winemaker, Sam’s approach has become synonymous with both heritage and reinvention. His wines have added fresh energy to the Miranda name, and he’s become a champion of the region that is now his home.

In 2011, he was a co-founder of King Valley’s Prosecco Road, a now-celebrated regional tourism success story, and started the Sam Miranda Gran Fondo in 2007, a mass participation cycle race that is held during the Men’s and Women’s National Road Series.

Sam’s three daughters are now involved in the winemaking and marketing side of the business, with his wife Rachel shaping and driving the all-important hospitality side of things. “This isn’t my story – it’s ours,” he insists, reinforcing the importance of family.

THE STYLE OF SAM MIRANDA'S WINE

Sam assessing his work.

Sam’s Prosecco, a mainstay of the King Valley Prosecco continuum, stylistically represents his overall approach to winemaking, and was shaped generally by the majority of wines that were coming out of Australia in the 1980s and 1990s – big, bigger, and biggest.

“Full-blown Chardonnays and the 14-15% Shiraz, Cabernets and Merlots felt a bit clumsy to me and I don’t think that style works here,” says Sam. “When I got here, I started looking for freshness and drinkability, and in whites that comes from being just on the greener side of ripe. Same for the reds as everyone here; the Pizzinis, the Dal Zottos, the Chrismonts and the Browns.”

SAM MIRANDA PROSECCOS

Sam makes a wide range of sparkles, but his stylistic ethos and approach come into clear view with his Proseccos. The NV Prosecco is tight and crisp with fine layers of classic flavours. The aromatics are quite fleshy but the palate is tight and precise. Sam’s bone-dry, “Aperitivo” style lends itself to entertaining-styled foods as well as mid-termed cellaring.

Sam’s “Prosato” is a playful approach to the Rosé-styled Proseccos we are starting to see, and again it’s dry and tight, but with width thanks to savoury layers of Sangiovese and Nebbiolo. The wine goes in the opposite direction of its playful packaging and verges on seriousness with elegance, complexity and mouthfeel.

“Col Fondo” translates from Italian as “with the bottoms” and refers to the lees left in the bottom after the secondary fermentation. It’s not disgorged, has no sugar added, no preservative, and could be considered Sam’s Italian tilt at a Pet Nat.

Unlike most Pet Nats however, it doesn’t taste and smell like carbonated kombucha, and is clean, crisp, fresh and creamy, with refreshing lemon/lime flowing across the palate. The Prosato Col Fondo is clean and juicy, with a delightfully complex array of red cherries and strawberry fruit-tingles dancing across the palate.

TASTING THE WHITE WINES OF SAM MIRANDA

Sam's Ballerina Range.

Sam’s personal version of ‘drinkability’ becomes even clearer when looking at his range of whites. The Grüner Veltliner is savoury, Euro-styled and delicious with a core of creamy, softly-shaped green beans, lemons, limes, white pepper and green apples. The wine has a flinty mouthfeel driven with restrained power, telling you it’s going to evolve nicely over time.

Next is Sam’s Verduzzo; chalky, citrus-lined and dressed with white blossomed aromas, it’s well-structured, complex, and finishes with a phenolic, white tannin grip that is the variety’s signature move: a great wine for those wanting depth and muscle.

Sam’s Bianco is nod to Soave and is made with Arneis, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio. This wine best represents the undertone and atmosphere of his cellar door restaurant, and is perfect foil for the trattoria style food served there.

Sam’s Arneis however, is the star of the show. Translated as “Little Rascal”, the picking window for Arneis is always hard to get right. Too early and the flavours can be too acidic, too ripe and the wines are flabby and sweet. Sam’s is right in the pocket with pretty layers of complexing pear, lime zest and lemon pith. Delicate and fine, this little rascal is up there with the best in the country.

TASTING THE RED WINES OF SAM MIRANDA

Sam's awesome Nebbiolo's.

Service with a smile.

The lead roles in Sam’s red show are undoubtedly Sangiovese and Nebbiolo. Coming from the estate’s Myrrhee Vineyards in the cooler, elevated reaches of the King Valley, both varieties deliver an attractive and unadorned expression of these Italian icons.

Sam’s approach is gentle, with care taken to not remove anything that contributes to their “soul.” The results across both varieties are soft, long-living wines with balance, freshness and honest varietal character.

The Sangioveses have charry, earthy, smokey and leather-tinged aromas that f low to red and black cherries sitting nicely over layers of chocolate, earth and herbs. The 2015 and 2018 both showed bottle age is their friend, with the 2018 sitting pretty with glorious, mouth-watering appeal.

Sam’s Nebbiolos are deep and brooding wines that sit softly in the mouth, and flow through to fine textured, silky finishes. Like the Sangioveses, these wines are built for the long haul, with each vintage expressing high degrees of individuality.

The 2015 is an ethereal, weightless wine with lovely baking spice f owing across the palate and aromatics; the 2016 is soft and fresh with chinotto and liquorice characters lifting the wine. The 2017 is an incredible wine with an earthy depth to its fruit laters that seem to flow on forever, and the 2019 is a slippery, silky wine that is still waiting to evolve.

Like his Nebbiolos and Sangioveses, time has been friendly to Sam and his family’s King Valley efforts, and as experience and vision mature and are passed on, it’s clear that the Sam Miranda family picture will only look and taste – ever sweeter.