In the Sotheby’s board room, viewing Australian aboriginal art while having lunch and sipping a Tasmanian sparkling wine and a Riesling from the Australian Pyrenees. Good on ya, mate.

Australia: Clover Hill, Leeuwin

Aboriginal art can include everything from ancient rainforest shields to contemporary paintings produced by indigenous Australian artists. I realized this and learned a great deal more when I viewed some of the works, soon to be auctioned in Sidney, on display last week in Sotheby’s New York showrooms. If I were on a different page in this newspaper, I could go on and on about this fascinating art.

But I am not an art critic; I am a wine writer. And wine was part of the picture, although not part of any pictures on the walls, which were symbolic and interpretive rather than literal or realistic, at least in a western cultural sense. I was invited to view the exhibit and to a small lunch hosted by Tim Klingender, Director of Aboriginal Art for Sotheby’s, who came along from Sidney with the works. We ate in the boardroom of the auction house and, much to my pleasure, we drank interesting Australian wines.

I began with Clover Hill, a sparking wine, while we discussed the art, just before sitting down to lunch. Clover Hill is produced in Tasmania, the Australian island now gaining a reputation for cool climate sparkling wines. Although the name Clover Hill sounds a bit mundane and folksy, the wine is anything but that. Produced according to classic French champagne methods, it is on the mark in almost every sense: elegant, harmonious, subtle and delicious. The taste is crisp, flavorful and clean, with a soft, biscuit tone that seems to dance in and dance out. The Clover Hill 2001 vintage sells for about $26.

Clover Hill has an interesting corporate pedigree. It is a property of the larger Taltarni Vineyards, located in the Pyrenees—the Australian Pyrenees, a respected wine producing region in Victoria, in the southeast corner of Australia. Taltarni, in turn, is under the same ownership as Clos du Val, a Napa Valley winery I have written about, and Domaine de Nizas, a French producer whose moderately priced rosé I recently recommended. All are under the direction of the eminent winemaker, Bernard Portet. Besides the Clover Hill label, Taltarni produces two other good but less ambitious sparkling wines under the Taltarni label, a Brut and a Brut Taché, which is pink. Prices vary by vintage but should be in the $20 range.

With a main course of sea bass, I drank a Leeuwin Estate riesling. Leeuwin is one of those wineries that attracts critical recognition and wins awards, so I had heard of it, but never before tasted it. I wish I had not waited so long. It is an excellent wine. Rieslings take many forms, depending on the region where the grape is grown and on the techniques of the winemaker. This one was zesty and tangy, with citrus and floral aromas, and enough mineral and acid components to make it an excellent match with food. The 2004 Leeuwin Estate Art Series riesling sells for $22.

Leeuwin makes a fairly broad selection of wines, including a sauvignon blanc and several different chardonnay, as well cabernet sauvignon and some blends, all of which have been highly praised by wine critics in the United States, England and Australia.

Both Taltarni and Leeuwin exemplify at least a few aspects of contemporary Australian wines. Just as it is a big, expansive country, its winemakers cover a spectrum of varietals and blends, in many styles and prices. They export everything from Yellow Tail to Penfolds Grange. And in the medium price range I’ve covered here, they are offering good value.