Pinot has a thinner skin than many other red grapes, meaning the wines will be lighter in colour than other reds.
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I make no secret of my love for cool-climate shiraz and chardonnay – these are the wines that fuelled my interest in wine – but I have found recently that I am drinking more pinot noir than ever before.
I spent four months working in New Zealand last year and the group of people I was working with – all Australians – drank a lot of pinot noir from New Zealand’s two main pinot noir regions: Central Otago and Martinborough.
The group’s enthusiasm became infectious. We’d send notes to each other recommending examples we had enjoyed, and we got together for regular dinners to show each other the wines we had unearthed.
I guess since then I’ve had a soft spot for pinot noir and have enjoyed getting to know the Australian regions that do it best: Mornington Peninsula, Yarra Valley, Canberra, Tasmania, Macedon and Gippsland.
Pinot noir is a hard grape to grow. It can be affected by seasons more than most grapes and needs lots of hands-on attention. That’s part of the reason it’s hard to find a good one for less than $20.
Smoke taint from the 2009 bushfires in the Yarra Valley badly affected many of the region’s best examples, to the extent that many wineries won’t be releasing wines from that vintage. Stock up now if there’s a 2008 pinot you’ve been enjoying from the region or you might miss out, as I did with a couple of my favourite wines.
Pinot noir is a native of the French region of Burgundy; the first references to it are from the 1st century, and over time it has spawned hundreds of different clones.
These clones all have different characteristics – berry size, colour, flavour range – and are suitable for different climates and wine styles; still and sparkling. Pinot has also mutated into other varieties, red and white, along the way with pinot gris (grigio), pinot blanc and pinot meunier all sharing similar DNA.
Suiting cool climates, pinot noir has found a home by the sea, where maritime winds cool the grapes in the heat of summer, and inland at high altitudes where it experiences warm days and cool nights.
Pinot has a thinner skin than many other red grapes, meaning the wines will be a lighter colour than other reds. But don’t let this light colour fool you into thinking the wines will be lacking in flavour. Some of the best examples I’ve had recently have been a similar hue to a dark rose.
When I open a bottle of pinot, I look for these characteristics (they are usually pretty easy to identify): perfumed aromas and flavours of spice, strawberries, cherries, raspberries and plum with gamey, forest-floor notes that should be well balanced with soft, velvety tannins.
If you consider yourself to be a bit of a pinot-phile, Mornington Peninsula’s Stonier Wines hosts its annual Sipnot event next Monday. It’s a benchmark tasting of top examples of pinot noir from Burgundy, the United States, New Zealand and Australia and our wines should stack up very well against the rest of the world.
Visit www.stonier.com.au for more information.
Follow Ben on Twitter @senorthomas
Love A Bargain?
Williams Crossing Pinot Noir 2008 (Macedon)
$24; 12.6% a/v
4/5
Food match: Duck terrine
This comes from Curly Flat and was deemed not quite up to standard to be released as its award-winning wine. It set the bar high at Curly Flat and this label is always one of the bargains of the year. It was coiled up tightly when first opened but after a couple of hours in the decanter, it revealed beguiling aromas and flavours of spice, plum, dark cherry and rose petals mixed with stalky, sappy notes.
TASTINGS \ DRINK THIS
Stonier Pinot Noir 2009 (Mornington Peninsula)
$28; 13% a/v
3½/5
Food match: Roast chicken
Last year was a tricky vintage for pinot noir on the Mornington Peninsula when a series of hot days shrivelled berries and reduced crop levels. This smells of strawberries and spice and everything else nice – perfumed cherries and plums. Bright flavours of tart raspberries and blood plums as well as sweet cherries are balanced nicely with fine-grained tannins. It’s only a pup, so give it some time in the decanter before drinking.
Picardy Pinot Noir 2008 (Pemberton)
$35; 14% a/v
4/5
Food match: Mushroom risotto
I’ve been really impressed with the 2008 reds from Picardy. They have character in spades. This has layered aromas of cherry and plum with some smoky, sappy, forest-floor characteristics, which keep drawing you back to the glass for another sniff. There’s great balance here with food-friendly acid supported by intense flavours of spicy strawberry, raspberry and cherries.
Holm Oak Vineyards Pinot Noir 2008 (Tamar Valley)
$30; 13.5% a/v
4/5
Food match: Peking duck
Holm Oak is one of many wineries in Tasmania’s Tamar Valley that the mainland is starting to notice. This output is characterised by aromas of strawberry, cherry and plum, with a hint of smoke and barnyard (which is appropriate as the winery has a pet pig) with a silky mouthfeel. Assertive acid is balanced really well by sweet-and-sour flavours of raspberries and strawberries along with cinnamon spice and earthy beetroot notes.
Quarry Hill Pinot Noir 2006 (Canberra)
$18; 13.8% a/v
4/5
Food match: Grilled tuna
I bought a few bottles of this last year and quickly polished them off, so I was pleased to see another bottle in the post. This is a rich wine that smells and tastes like black cherries, strawberries and spice with a little earthiness. It is medium bodied with fine tannins and a long, lingering aftertaste. Its intensity reminds me a lot of Central Otago pinot noir but without the hefty price tag.