Mornington Peninsula

Pinot noir is effectively a proxy for cool climate, and in the Burgundian model, where pinot noir does well, chardonnay is sure to follow. Perfume, brightness of fruit and vivacity of body should be hallmarks of cool climate wines, so when Wine Australia held a tasting in London during November of wines from Victoria that are available in the UK, these are the two varieties I stuck with, and I still didn’t manage to taste them all.

Australia, with many of the top examples coming from Victoria, has revolutionised its approach to these two grape varieties in the last, less-than-a-decade. Practitioners who are making classy pinot noir have often worked vintages in Burgundy at high profile domaines, and are bringing back to Australia the philosophy and practicalities around site-specificity required by such a capricious grape variety.

Attitudes to chardonnay, traditionally in Australia the winemakers’ malleable friend, are also revolving to much less active involvement. Instead, minimal intervention and more fruit-caretaking are leading to more refined, linear, even austere, expressions of this grape.

In Victoria, specific sites within such places as Mornington Peninsula, Geelong, Gippsland, Yarra Valley and Macedon Ranges are all making some outstanding examples.

Tasting notes, London, November 2011

Chardonnay

Crittenden Estate, Estate Chardonnay 2008, Mornington Peninsula, ~£18
Sweet leesy cream nose and palate with tropical fruit, and I feel a bit of an alcohol kick though it’s a pretty standard 13.5%.

Crittenden Estate, The Zumma Chardonnay 2008, Mornington Peninsula, ~£25
Creamy lemon on dry brown toast to nose, verging on the buttery sweet, which detracts a little for me. Sweet, unctuous sort of style, has good backbone, but a bit full-fat for my preference.

Dexter Wines, Chardonnay 2010 Mornington Peninsula, ~£25
Mealy and a hint reductive in that leesy, crème fraiche sort of way. Lovely sweet texture that’s not overpowering and with an acid frame that keeps everything fresh and tingly.

Kooyong Estate, Clonale Chardonnay 2010, Mornington Peninsula, ~£15
Light and leesy – meal, brioche, with sweet notes amid citrus fruits. Uncomplicated.

Kooyong Estate, Farrago Single Vineyard Chardonnay 2005, Mornington Peninsula, ~£26
Fatness and slippery broadening texture of some age, vegetal would be a bit strong, but still with savoury, leesy lines (as opposed to sweet lines), bread and dry biscuit notes, hints of sweet texture come towards the back. Lovely balance.

Stonier, Chardonnay 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£12
Sweet lemon cream nose and palate in quite a sharp lemon-syllabub sort of tartness. Softens on the palate into a good example at the price. Balanced, uncomplicated.

Stonier, Reserve Chardonnay 2008, Mornington Peninsula, ~£18
Weightier that the straight chardonnay as you’d expect, with some aromatic tarriness on the nose. Everything in the right place, but can’t quite get excited.

Ten Minutes by Tractor, 10X Chardonnay 2010, Mornington Peninsula, ~£24
Closed nose, in reductive style of slight sweat / flinty element, mealy notes amid just-ripe peaches on the palate attack, rich-linear profile of good intensity. Good personality and dimension. Some nice sophistication here, very good.

Ten Minutes by Tractor, Estate, Chardonnay 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£35
Wafting wood smoke is the first nose, slippery-textured attack, very smooth and richly concentrated. ‘Nice’ biscuitiness, almost unctuous-dry texture with linearity and clarity.  Vg.

Ten Minutes by Tractor, McCutcheon Chardonnay 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£45
Cream, leesy gentle toastiness, richness and creaminess are the themes, sweet-dry textured.  A huge wine, but finely balanced and sweetly balanced for that. Seductive and blanket-wrapping cuddliness at the same time. Vg.

Yabby Lake, Red Claw Chardonnay 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£15
A bit gunflint and austere, lean lemons and acacia-steel sort of stuff.  Good volume of that apple tart fruit, with a bit of leesy cream alongside. Good at £15.

Yabby Lake, Single Vineyard Chardonnay 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£26
Lees, meal, lemon cream, steely/metallic note on the mid tongue. Austerity, or, at 12%, just not quite ripe?

By Farr, Geelong Chardonnay 2008, Geelong, ~£34
Meal, white peachiness, huge intensity of ripe, near tropical fruit amid that leesy, toasty refinement, erring to full body, in quite muscular style, and with backbone of defining acidity. Not a particularly elegant wine but has a well-proportioned balance.

De Bortoli, Reserve Release Chardonnay 2008, Yarra Valley, ~£20
Lees and crème fraiche. Sweet texture and purity of fruit without huge complexity, but packs a lot of those lovely, sweet-line chardonnay characters into a straight down the line wine.

Pinot noir

Crittenden Estate, Estate Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£18
Crunchy black cherries with attractive hessian notes, nicely balanced with fresh core. Good intensity.

Crittenden Estate, The Zumma Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£25
Fresh and juicy, with very nice concentration of primary fruit. Good.

Dexter Wines, Pinot Noir 2010, Mornington Peninsula, ~£20
Pale colour, bright, sweet red cherry fruit, juicy succulence, enticing density of fruit with sweet lines. Lovely drinkability.

Kooyong Estate, Massale Pinot noir 2010, Mornington Peninsula, ~£16
Rich, round sweet footballs of juicy red plums and redcurrants. Sweet balance and uncomplicated juiciness. Focuses on the primary fruit, with the backbone of acidity, so not a fruit bomb.

Kooyong Estate, Haven Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2005, Mornington Peninsula, ~£28
Developing a nice feral forest floor on the nose, dark berries, sweetened and fattened with ripeness, with a savoury spear of structure keeping the whole in its pure lines. Some nice sophistication of texture and dimension here. Vg.

Paringa Estate, Peninsula Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£25
Warm herbal and earthy note on the nose, supple fruit with firm defining acidity, medium full body of huge intensity. Richly textured and layered with light bramble fruits and graphite earthiness. Vg.

Stonier, Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£13
All quite light and with a faint hint of bitterness. Not hugely liking this one.

Stonier, Reserve Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£20
Pale colour, redcurrant spiciness nutmeg and allspice. This is nice in a good ’solid’ unexciting way. Sound, but at a high level of soundness.

Ten Minutes by Tractor, 10X Pinot Noir 2010, Mornington Peninsula, ~£28
Bright, sweet red cherry and redcurrant, big hit of fruit delineated by freshness that gives it form. Perkily balanced with nicely toned lines. Vg.

Ten Minutes by Tractor, Estate Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£38
Smokiness an added note of complexity here, amid dark cherries and hint of dark chocolate, in a full, rich, nutmeg infused whole. Fine grains of new oak still to meld in, as are youthful notes of silkiness. Vg.

Ten Minutes by Tractor, McCutcheon Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£55
Smoke with hint of charcoal, on the nose, smooth, super-fine grained tannin in rich, lush (dry) palate sensation. Is a seductive, strong and slinkily built wine. Filling out on the palate nicely. Long finish. Vg.

Yabby Lake, Red Claw Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£22
Pale colour, spicily toasted redcurrants, medium weight, bit of austerity here too, certainly less fleshy than some other examples. Gentle, modest texture.

Yabby Lake, Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£29
Sweet red cherry/redcurrant compote on the nose, enticing and cuddling. Perfectly proportioned tonality with intoxicating fruit/acid balance and volume of fruit/ nutmeg spiciness on the palate. Vg.

By Farr, Tout Près Pinot Noir 2008, Geelong, ~£65
Aromatic smoky with a hint of graphite on the nose. Sun-dried cherries attack the palate sweetly and freshly, warming into a full bodied, big style for pinot noir. Succulent, juicy, and with retaining frame that keeps the whole thing tastily proportioned. Long finish. Vg

William Downie, Gippsland Pinot Noir 2010, Gippsland, ~£35.00
Earth, dry compost and high-toned raspberries on the nose, an intriguing combination. Full steam ahead on the palate, rich, tongue-tingling, fresh dried raspberries and strawberry pieces; savoury, not quite earthy/graphite core. Hints of tannic grip, just enough to intrigue and critique, without losing the pleasure of tasting/drinking. Just young. Vg.

Sam Plunkett

Plunkett-Fowles arose as a merger of two family wine businesses in 2005, both located in the rather rugged, granitic region of Strathbogie Ranges, remote even though it is only around 130km north of Melbourne. The business is run by chief winemaker Sam Plunkett, and CEO Matt Fowles.

Strathbogie is one of Australia’s cooler growing regions. With an HDD 1460 and an MJT of 20.7°C (James Halliday, Wine Atlas of Australia, 2006) it is little wonder that riesling is a favoured grape variety, and producers such as Domaine Chandon have a vineyard in the area, growing chardonnay and pinot noir, much going to their sparkling wine.

In one of those quirks of Australian viticulture, shiraz is also making a more than respectable name for itself.  Plunkett summed up his region thus: “Strathbogie is a 400 million year old mountain range. It’s two key features are firstly elevation, and secondly, granite.”  Elevation certainly plays a cooling role, with vineyards from around 200 to 600m above sea level, amidst granite tors and boulders.

Plunkett added “a lot of cool climate Australia is coastal – maritime, with high rainfall and the mould and disease pressure” that that brings, but “Strathbogie has less rainfall, it’s continental.  We get things ripe because there is less [disease] pressure to pick.” And in terms of ripening, Plunkett said Strathbogie is 1-2 weeks behind the Yarra Valley.

Strathbogie Ranges

The soils are infertile though, Plunkett said it’s mostly “timber land and sheep farming.” But in 1968, Plunkett’s father planted 30 grape varieties across three acres of their farm, though commercial plantings had to wait till 1980.  Now, the two wineries have 500 acres (200 hectares) of vineyard, and also make wine under contract for around 20 clients, half of whom grow grapes in Strathbogie Ranges. In any given year, Plunkett said “we crush between 2,300 and 4,500 tonnes.”

Plunkett-Fowles are also the makers of the quirkily-named Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch range of wines, available, in the UK, through wine merchant Naked Wines for around £15 a bottle, for riesling, chardonnay, shiraz.

Plunkett is a firm believer in getting his wines to express the site as best they can: “we don’t use yeast which will influence the flavour, and we don’t use too much new oak which will mask the place.” Though he added “it will be a decade and more before we get a sense of what Strathbogie Ranges is” in terms of site expression.

As well as ‘Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch, which Plunkett regards as something of branding phenomenon, the winery makes the ~AUD$25 Stone Dwellers range (granite boulders in the landscape), the ~AUD15 490m (the altitude of the farm), plus flagship wines The Rule and The Exception.

Tasting notes, in situ, October 2010

Plunkett-Fowles, Stonedwellers sauvignon blanc 2010
Grassy, aromatic, herby. Residual sugar was a bit too high for me (5g/l), I thought it made the wine a bit loose.

Plunkett-Fowles, Stonedwellers riesling 2010
However, in the riesling, 6g/l of residual sweetness created the perfect balance, with pithy lemon zest; light, bright, and with intense apple and lime. Vg

Plunkett-Fowles, Stonedwellers riesling 2008
Lime and petrol combo, with some nice weight developing. Light, steely, with gentle savoury notes, and good intensity.

Plunkett-Fowles, Ladies Who Shoot Their lunch riesling 2009
A third in old oak for texture, plus a tiny amount of gewürztraminer.  This was not my style, petrol development on the nose, fuller and fatter style.

Plunkett-Fowles, Stonedwellers Shiraz 2007
Black pepper spice, dense and gravelly, then with smooth, supple attack and texture. Dark brambly pepper, dense, sweet fruit, smooth, characterful and good.

Plunkett-Fowles, Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch Shiraz 2008
Spicy plum and red fruit aromas, hints of new oak aromatics in a rounded, supple, less complex wine, undoubtedly more wide appealing for that.

Plunkett-Fowles, The Rule Reserve Shiraz 2008
Deep, smooth texture, very fine tannins. Fine, sophisticated, new oak absorbed completely in ripe, perfumed, dark, black gravelly fruit. Vg

My research visit to Australia in October 2010 was sponsored by Wine Australia.

Cobaw Ridge

Alan and Nelly Cooper set up Cobaw Ridge in 1985, having bought the land in 1981 as a place from where they could commute (quite lengthily) to Melbourne.  Their original plan had been to sell the grapes, but they were smitten and decided to make wine before the first crop was off the vine, which was in 1989.

They are high up in the Macedon Ranges, with their 5 hectares of vineyards ranging from 610 to 635m above sea level. Shiraz was planted in 1985 and 1985 on granitic sandy soils.

The vineyards are also planted to chardonnay, pinot noir and lagrein, that little known red Italian grape variety from Alto Adige.  Indeed the Coopers were there first people outside of Italy to commercially produce lagrein. They had planted a little cabernet sauvignon but it only ripened one year in three so they grafted it over to lagrein.  “The site and soil match Bolzano” Alan said, so he had to give it a go.  The first vintage was in 1997, with the first commercial vintage one year later.

Elevation gives a good degree of cooling and Alan, a fifth generation farmer, said “shiraz can ripen 7-8 weeks behind central Heathcote, yet you can drive there in 25 minutes.” And there’s not so much disease pressure because it’s a windy place, and it dries out quickly, he added “the predominant winds are from the south east, and they can up to 65km/hour.” This has no doubt helped with the conversion firstly to certified organic, in 2009, and more recently, in 2011, to certified biodynamic farming.

Cooler climate shiraz is a very different beast to classic Barossa shiraz, and Alan calls his syrah, as though to distinguish the cooler from the warmer. He said cool climate shiraz is “spicy, savoury, minerally, earthy.  It could be spicy on the nose and peppery on the palate, or the other way round – black pepper and graphite.” His is attractively redolent with piquant black pepper spiciness.

The Coopers have also been working on a couple of so-called natural wines, where, effectively, additions in both the vineyard and the winery are kept to a minimum, though a strict definition is hard to come by. Alan said “The move to being ‘natural’ to us really is a natural progression from chemical farming to organic then to biodynamic. I guess all about letting ‘here’ speak a bit clearer,” allowing the place to have first voice in the expression of the wine.

Tasting notes, in situ, October 2010

Cobaw Ridge, Chardonnay 2008
14% 100% barrel, 20% new barrel fermentation.
Creamy vanilla nose and very smooth texture. Rich, sweet creamy, nougat, Good sweet spot, nicely balanced, alcohol seamless.
Alan: “it’s richer than we’d like to see – 2008 was warm”

Cobaw Ridge, Pinot Noir 2008
Aromatic smoky tar nose; sweet palate attack, cherry and soft berries. Gaining suppleness amid sweet fruit and fleshy body, auguring well for a bit more bottle age.

Cobaw Ridge, Syrah 2007
Cooler vintage than 2008
Medium deep, bright ruby colour. Spicy, black pepper, rich intensity, with freshness, and depth of flavour, nice concentration, big intensity, layered flavours. Vg.

Cobaw Ridge, Syrah 2008
Medium deep ruby colour; warm cherry pie nose, fruit taking on rich and sweet notes, ripe and supple, and still with attractive freshness. Supple and mouth-filling wine. Good.

Cobaw Ridge, Lagrein 2006
13%. Dark cherry nose, smooth attack, dark and ripe, chewy tannins. Fine-grained dark, brooding sort of wine.

Cobaw Ridge, Lagrein 2007
Sweet, dark cherry fruits, sweet core, plum and cherry, good and chunky, with juicy core of fruit.

Cobaw Ridge, Lagrein 2008
Juicy plum and dark cherry fruit nose and attack. Fine bit of grip is just softening into the fruit nicely.

My research visit to Australia in October 2010 was sponsored by Wine Australia.

Ridgeview

English wine is the flavour du jour, but is it set up to capitalise on the recent awards and consumer demand?

Total production is currently tiny, around three million bottles. And 2010 marks a tipping point. Julia Trustram-Eve, marketing manager for English Wine Producers, said “it will be the first time that sparkling wine production has exceeded still wine production.”

Producers are confident about the domestic market, citing the 100 million bottles of sparkling wine consumed each year, around 35 million bottles of which are Champagne. Of the 65 million bottles of non-Champagne, only 1% sells for more than £10 – which is where virtually all UK sparklers are or will be pitched, many at £20 and above, though producers are aiming to take market share from Champagne.

Ian Kellett, managing director of Hambledon Vineyard, is bullish on the market potential, saying “It’s already proven beyond doubt that the UK is the second best sparkling wine region in the world. We [the UK] need to be a 10, 20, 30 million bottle a year business.” And he was really just talking about sparkling wine.  Whatever the ultimate size of production Mike Roberts of Ridgeview reckons “still wine will represent about 10% of the market” in five or six years’ time.

One of the most recently announced ambitious newcomers, ex-hedge fund manager Mark Driver, who has bought a 600 acre farm in East Sussex, called Rathfinny, with plans to plant around 400 acres, was equally bullish, saying “I think there’s increasingly a very good market for English wine.  I’m the target market for English sparkling wine, but a year ago I’d never heard of Nyetimber or Ridgeview. And there’s a growing market for sparkling wine in Asia and North America, where there is an affinity to certain good quality English products.”

It may need the likes of Driver to take the UK industry to the next level, as the main barrier to entry is the cost of set up and the delay between harvest and market, hence the splurge of City émigrés. With up to eight years to plant, make and get to market, financiers with plentiful resource are a necessity.

Driver spent around £3.5m buying the farm and land, and “will invest a similar sum in the next five years, planting, building a winery and equipment.” Their first sparkling is unlikely to be on the market before 2017, and he added “I would hope in 10 years time we start to make some money.”

Kellett expects to invest even more to get historic Hambledon Vineyard back up and running, saying “at the end of the day it will cost us £10m plus to build the business we want to build.”

Chapel Down

The initial objective, he said, is for 250,000 bottles, and “the core plan is to way beyond that.” A £4 million fundraising project closes before the end of January 2011. Kellett said before he went “to the world to ask for £4m” he had to prove his credentials, so for the last three years they’ve been selling grapes to the leading UK producers of sparkling wine “demonstrating to my satisfaction that we are producing the right standard of grapes.”

Someone who has always declined the opportunity to put a figure on the amount he’s invested is Eric Hereema of Nyetimber.  When he bought the property in 2006, just 34 acres were planting producing around 60,000 bottles.  Hereema said “since the most recent planting, we have over 400 acres under vine, not all producing yet. Our target production is 1 million bottles, on average”, which will make him the UK’s biggest producer.

The company is not yet exporting as Hereema sees more potential in the domestic market, saying “all our sales activity is focused in the UK, [but] ultimately we will export. We constantly receive requests from abroad, but at the moment we don’t think it will help the brand.”

Hereema said he hoped to make a profit in about five years’ time. Arguably Nyetimber’s main competitor, Mike Roberts, said Ridgeview “became profitable in 2000, our first full year of sales.” Now, he said, from 170 acres they are making around 250,000 bottles of sparkling, and they’ve just doubled the size of the winery, to cope with 400 to 500m bottles, so there’s still plenty of room to continue the expansion, though Roberts’ plan is now to “create markets and open doors.”

Along with Ridgeview, the industry’s one publicly listed company, Chapel Down, follows a ‘Champagne model’ of sourcing fruit from a “great many vineyards, including established growers who’ve grubbed up the likes of huxulrebe and planted Champagne varieties”, said their managing director Frazer Thompson.

Having raised £1.5m in 2004 plus another £1m about a year ago to finance their 72-acre vineyard expansion in Kent’s North Downs, Thompson said “we have to make it clear that wine is a long term investment and it depends on weather. Our plans were set back by 2007 and 2008 being very low harvests.  We needed to be nimble to compensate for that.” They’ve increased prices, invested in Chapel Down branding, opened the restaurant ‘Richard Phillips at Chapel Down’ to increase the destination value of Tenterden, and been selling more wine direct.

A'Beckett's Vineyard

On a more modest 30 acres in Hampshire, AXA Millesime’s managing director Christian Seely has joined forces with ex-city financier Nicholas Coates to create Coates and Seely sparkling wine. Coates said “Clearly we love wine, but this is a business venture, we’re persuaded the economics stack up. For people who know what they’re doing and have a track record in the production of high quality wine, we’re confident we can make and sell it economically.“

Another 30 acres under vine (on a 400 acre estate) is to be found at Hush Heath Estate, the home of Balfour sparkling rosé, which has grown from 4.75 acres since 2002. The target production for owner Richard Balfour-Lynn, who doubles as the chief executive of a property company that owns the likes of Malmaison and Hotel du Vin, of 100,000 bottles is five times that of the currently released 2006 vintage. Coates and Seely’s winery is also configured for 100,000 bottles.

Balfour-Lynn is clear of his competitive set, saying “pink sparkling is one of the areas the Champagne houses don’t do so well as white, so I decided to challenge them on that. I’m competing with Laurent Perrier Rosé and Billecart Salmon Rosé.”

With as RSP of £37 the aim is high, but he said, branding is “part of positioning, creating a brand and creating a following. The quality is critical, but equally critical is branding, marketing and the PR that goes behind it. We use copper labels and solid copper ice buckets,” adding “the challenge for the English wine industry is to invest that type of money into marketing.”

Confidence in market potential is not restricted to the large scale. At the other end of the spectrum, where personal money is not an option, fundraising remains a necessity, and some innovative approaches have been adopted. And the key at this level is to keep the brand local and focused.

Paul Langham, of A’Beckett’s in Wiltshire, started a vine lease scheme in 2009 where vines are rented for 10 years. He said “vine lease was a way of expanding the business without going near a bank, or taking on an investor.” And “finding the right investor could take a very long time, and so much heart and soul gone into this, how easy would it be for us for us to cede some control? This is a family business with community involvement.”

A’Beckett’s will reach 5.6 ha if the 2011 offer is fully subscribed. If they’d been bigger, he said the route to finance might have been different. But retaining the small, community feel and ‘add-ons’ such as plans for a rural shop and ‘outdoor’ education rooms is important for his brand.

Upfront investment by vine leasing is the option also adopted by 22-acre PebblebedVineyards in Devon, which started off as half an acre on a south-facing field. Geologist and owner Geoff Bowen said “we’re only just breaking even after 7 to 8 years”, after investing five figures of his own money during the last decade. He drew attention and local investment after succeeding in the Dragons’ Den where so many others have been slain.

Their scheme asks for £2,000, “a figure which people might be able to invest.”  And, Bowen said “the scheme is also about involvement, the process of planting, watching the grapes grow, making wine. People will get their money back in bottles, vineyard tours and lunches over ten years.”

It’s clear that supply is not keeping pace with demand for English sparkling wine, and this is the great unknown, because UK sparkling wine is generally on allocation or not widely distributed. But crunch time is just around the corner. Trustram-Eve said “there‘s not much market-ready wine out there. Approximately 1.7m bottles of sparkling wines will be on the market for next year, with 2015 showing about 3.6m bottles coming to market.”

Dream or reality? If just 10% of Champagne buyers move to English sparkling wine, then the market for English bubbly trebles.

An HDD 1460 and an MJT of 20.7°C (James Halliday, Wine Atlas of Australia, 2006) put this region towards the cooler end of the wine growing spectrum, so it is no surprise that the likes of Domaine Chandon have a vineyard in the area, growing chardonnay and pinot noir, much going to their sparkling wine.

Elevation also plays its cooling part, with vineyards varying in altitude from 200 to nearly 600 metres above sea level, in a striking granite landscape.  Grant Taresch said “Strathbogie is a renowned cool growing region. You could never grow wheat or corn.  The soils are well-drained, infertile, and rocky, on a granite base.”

And it’s a windy region, which may explain why the estate has a 30m tall, 150kw wind turbine on the property. Grant said “we generate two times the electricity that we need in the winery.  So we supply the national grid.” They say they are the first winery in Australia to be fully self-powered by renewable wind energy.

But this couple don’t just generate electricity. Their whole ethos is geared toward maximising the sustainability of their farm. Suzanne said “Grant built the winery on sustainable practices. We started in 2001, ahead of the game, and it took five years to get the wind turbine project.  It started rotating in 2007.” The winery was ready for the 2004 vintage.

Elgo Estate water treatment lagoons

Elsewhere, Grant said “we compost all organic waste and re-use it in the vineyard. The liquid waste is treated in a series of lagoons, to a point where it can be reused in the vineyard,” before explaining in more detail “the liquid waste is aerated at night for aerobic bacteria, which break it down quicker and [without] smell. The sludge – organic solids – falls down and is composted again. And the winter storage lagoon is pH neutral and can be used in the vineyards.” The three lagoons mean water is in them for up to two years before being re-used in the vineyards.

But the pair is deliberately avoiding an organic certification, as Grant said “with organic, there would be more tractor time, so more diesel and more compaction.  We do use glyphosate weed killer.  If we didn’t use it, there would be more tractor time, which means our carbon footprint on the environment would be bigger if we were certified organic.

“We run sheep in the vineyards in winter. As spring starts, we take the sheep out, the grass grows a bit. We keep the mid rows covered with grass, and we add one spray immediately under the vine row to kill the grass and get a band of bare soil there, which sets us up for the year.  If there was grass up against the trunks, we’d get water competition.” The 4,000 grazing sheep reduce tractor trips and fuel usage.

In addition, 80 hectares of the property are ring-fenced for wildlife sanctuary, and they have created 6 km of wildlife corridors, planting around 10,000 native trees and grasses this millennium, with more to come.  In total the farm extends over nearly 900 hectares.

In the winery, the carbon dioxide from fermentation is recycled to protectively blanket bulk wine against oxidation.  Marc is put back into the vineyard. And said Grant “we watch what we use in the winery too.  No waste is carted away apart from card and plastic.”

About 10,000 cases are made, entirely from fruit grown on the 60 hectares of vineyard, lying across three sites at different altitudes, which give different fruit expressions. The lowest, Tarcombe Valley, is around 320m, planted to cabernet sauvignon and shiraz.  Upton Hill vineyard is at 530m, where the winery and wind turbine are also situated, and Lake View vineyard, at 480m, they bought from Hardy’s in 2004.

Two ranges of wine are made, Elgo Estate, and the easier drinking Allira range, so named after the indigenous word for quartz, which is common in the region. Suzanne described the Allira style as being “on the edge of having a glass by itself, or needing food with it.”

Wines, tasted in situ, October 2010

Allira  Sauvignon Blanc 2010
Peachy on the nose, full bodied, and attractive, in tropical style

Elgo Riesling 2006
The current release. Petrol, lime, zest and juice. Good intensity, fresh and pure fruit. Attractively balanced, with good density, and lovely varietal definition. Vg.

Allira Shraz 2008
Dense plummy, sweet nose, sweet attack, with fresh, attractive balance, and black peppery notes, with fresh fruit behind it all. Full, sweet body.

Elgo Shiraz 2006
Smoky and black spiced, with savoury hints among the dark, fresh fruits, with plush, nicely dense fleshy fruits.

My research visit to Australia in October 2010 was sponsored by Wine Australia.

No-one seriously disputes that Tasmania is properly cool climate, but a slightly more confusing picture is emerging on the mainland.  And with ‘cool climate’ wines being cool, trendy and of different flavour profile than ‘warm climate’, it’s too easy to let the moniker roll off the tongue without paying due regard to proper climatic data.

Canberra District, ACT

HDDs and MJTs still form the backbone of broad analytical data (see chart below), but part of the confusion in the Australian industry about cool climate may partly be due to a fairly long-standing AWBC reference to ‘warm inland’ regions, namely Riverina, Murray-Darling-Swan Hill and the Riverland, accounting for some 50% of total production, and what became known, as a matter of convenience, as ‘cool’ regions, meant to be the ‘non-warm inland’ regions, being the other 50%. 

But this internal industry distinction is not an official definition and has nothing to do with climate data, and more to do with a splitting out of high cost versus low cost.

It has been modified slightly as Peter Bailey, senior analyst at AWBC explained: “We don’t use the term ‘cool’ anymore because of the confusion surrounding temperature but use ‘cool and temperate’ when the sort of high-level industry supply and demand analysis is conducted.”  Given than climatic temperature zones have a scientific basis which affects viticulture and wine style, producers may mistakenly use ‘cool’ as having an official meaning.

Such internal industry nomenclature notwithstanding, there are patterns in cooler climate Australian viticulture via an enmeshed combination of climate, variety and resultant stylistic expression.

The marginality of ripening  

The limit of ripening for grapes is often used as a measure of climate. What’s cool for shiraz is warm for pinot noir. And pinot noir is useful proxy of cool climate because if it’s grown somewhere too warm, it becomes, hot, blowsy, and just another red wine. To have any varietal character the aromatics and delicacy need to be retained.  

On this measure, some of Australia’s most acknowledged pinot noir/cooler climate areas are coastal and maritime: Geelong, Gippsland, Mornington Peninsula, Tasmania.

Diurnals

But this is not the only story.  High diurnal temperature variations, found at higher elevations, are also crucial for retaining aromatics and delicacy. Where this is combined with the 0.6°C reduction in temperature for every 100m increase in altitude, cooler climate styles emerge.

Orange region, New South Wales

At Brangayne, in Orange, owner David Hoskins said “January can go below 10°C at night. An average day time would be 26°C; a hot day here would be 32°C and really hot is 35°C.” The advantage of this, he said is that “the growing season is long, and fruit is on the vine longer, which means post-veraison flavour development is not rushed by heat. And sugar accumulation here is slower” so resulting alcohol is not so high as in warmer areas. 

Added to which said Hoskins, who has vineyards at 870m and 970m, “we notice it’s worth more than 0.6C between our two properties. The lower vineyard is more open, worth at least a degree more [warmth]. On its western slope, buds burst and grapes ripen earlier than the north-east slopes” of the higher vineyard.  Hoskins reckons the lower vineyard gets more warmth from the prevailing westerly weather.

In Canberra District, which varies from 300m to 800m elevation, Richard Parker of Long Rail Gully Wines said “we’re not Tassie cool, but we’re cool. We have a big diurnal, 25°C in the day to 10°C at night. Our peak summer temperature is around 32°C. These really cool nights maintain our acid. The warmer days give us a riper type character, but cooler nights bring us back.”  He added the cool style is lighter in body, with more finesse and restraint of fruit character with more spice [shiraz], and alcohols held around 13.5%. 

Greater natural acidity

For Phil Sexton of Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander in the Yarra Valley, those cold nights are critical to “drive low pH and therefore keep total acidity high.”  As they are for Richard Thomas of Mayfield Vineyard in Orange, whose vineyards reach 870 to 920m. He said “the high diurnal[s] in the growing season maintain a natural acid backbone, which enhances flavour through gradual flavour development.”

The acidity, or acidification, question is an interesting one from a European perspective, where de-acidification is the permitted norm in EU cool climate regions.

Added to which sunshine, and its management in the vineyard, in the southern hemisphere is different to the northern, as Ron Laughton of Jasper Hill, explained, for his Heathcote region “it’s not only about heat, it’s the quality of the sun. Summer here is radiant, without so much heat – we needed a blanket on every night last summer.  Shiraz needs some sun and warmth to ripen. There are some cooler areas within Victoria, where shirazes show more elegance than mine, but also less ripeness.  Here we get ripe flavours and elegance.  The best indicator for me is not extreme sugar ripeness, but full tannic ripeness, full flavour ripeness, and full acidity still.  In 30 years I haven’t adjusted acidity.  That’s the single biggest indicator that this area is great for shiraz.”

Heathcote may indeed be cooler marginal for shiraz. But it is not ‘cool climate’ by the numbers (see chart), and is a modest 200m above sea level. 

Elevation and aspect – high country    

Altitude is needed to get those high diurnals, but as though in recognition that the cool climate moniker is becoming muddied, ‘high country’ is becoming a term of increasingly common parlance. Indeed Orange is the only GI defined by altitude – vineyards falling over 600m.

King Valley, Victoria

One of the recent pioneers to plant in Orange was Philip Shaw, when he was working at Rosemount. He said “I was flying over here when I was looking, for Rosemount, for somewhere to plant pinot noir and chardonnay. I planted my own back in the 1980s,” at 900m. He added “At 600m it was looking something like southern France, Spain and Italy. Higher up it was looking more like Champagne.”

The King Valley also reflects such dramatically changing climate by altitude. Its 150m altitude north end is notably warm at Milawa, while the 800m Whitlands plateau at its southern end, just some 25 km distant, nudges the foothills of the Australian Alps. Brown Brothers long ago saw the potential of this higher altitude, establishing the Whitlands vineyard in 1982 specifically for fruit for sparkling wines, of which there were none in their range at that time.

The significance of altitude was recognised last year by one of Australia’s three ‘cool climate’ wine shows.  The entry requirements for the International Cool Climate wine show in the Mornington Peninsula state “wines must be made from grapes grown either: south of latitude 37.5 degrees south, or north of latitude 37.5 degrees north, or from a property in the southern or northern hemisphere which has an average January/ July (whichever is applicable) temperature below 19° Celsius, as confirmed by the nearest Bureau of Meteorology site, or vineyard site is above 800m in altitude.” 

The 19°C limit is stricter than Winkler Region I, but, said Meg Brodtmann MW, of Southern Cross Wines, who chaired the competition in 2010 said “the altitude was introduced in 2010 as they were missing out on a lot of cool climate wines based solely on latitude and MJT.” She emphasised “newer regions of Australia are cooler once you go up a bit.”

Another benefit is that the growing season is delayed, so that grapes are not ripening at the hottest point. Alan Cooper of Cobaw Ridge, with vineyards up to 635m, in the Macedon Ranges said “shiraz can be around six weeks behind central Heathcote, yet you can drive there in 25 minutes” before explaining “cool climate shiraz is black pepper spicy, savoury, minerally, earthy, graphite. It could be spicy on the nose and peppery on the palate, or the other way round.”

Similar cool climate style comments are replicated in Canberra District, where Brindabella Hills’ Roger Harris said of shiraz, cool climate brings “an attractive perfume of violets, in a style that is not heavy and weighted down with a load of tannin; it’s not relying on weight and power, more seductive. You want to have another glass of it.“

Lower Yarra Valley

And in the Lower (higher altitude) Yarra Valley an extra couple of weeks are required for ripening compared to the valley floor 230 to 250m below.  The advantage, said Mac Forbes of Mac Forbes Wines, of “picking at least 10 days later, is that the cooler sites have a slower ripening, with a greater retention of aromatics”, another one of those experientially defining parameters for cooler climate.  In addition, Forbes gets his chardonnay from southern slopes (facing away from the sun), to “retain freshness and line” he said.

A southerly aspect was an important decision for Savaterre’s Keppell Smith, a specialist in chardonnay and pinot noir, whose chardonnay has been listed in the latest Langton’s. He said his Beechworth “vineyards face south on sloping ground to avoid the frosts, which fall down the slope.” But, he added “the sun’s still strong, so I have at least one layer of leaves.”

Beechworth vineyards stretch from around 400m to 550m. Slopes are important as frost is an issue, and it is the more altitudinally-forgiving chardonnay that has excelled in this region of passion-driven individuals, where Giaconda’s vineyards are at 400 to 420m, on the opposite side of the road to those of Savaterre.

Whether the drive is towards the Antarctic or into the high country, cool and cooler climate results in wines significantly different from Australia’s previous models.  Mayfield’s Thomas sums it up as “cool climate has less density, it has more fruit expression, more elegance and finesse, it’s less overpowering and more complimentary with food.”  Do we begin to arrive at nuance, not a word yet commonly encountered in a Pom’s caricature of Aussies?

Source:  Wine Australia

Canobolas in cloud

Locals also make a big deal about having four distinct seasons to Sydney’s ‘two-season subtropical’ climate. Indeed ‘Brand Orange’ runs four big promotional events a year – one to coincide with each season.

It helps that Orange town, lying at 850m, has some attractive ‘old money’ heritage and architecture in its gold rush origins. Streets are broad and wide enough for the turning circle of an ox and cart, which means parking is usually no problem.

Wine is the newcomer to Orange … the region used to be one of the biggest apple producing centres in Australia, and it still ranks nearly up there. The region is also a big pear and cherry producer, among the more familiar livestock and cereal production.

But no citrus.  Orange was named by New South Wales’ surveyor general, Thomas Mitchell, in honour of his friend, Willem (William), Prince of Orange. They had fought together in the Peninsular War (1808 to 1814) against Napoleon. Willem went on to become king of the Netherlands.

For wine, the Orange region, lying on the elevated central tablelands west of the Great Dividing Range is the only geographical indication (GI) in Australia to be defined by altitude – contiguous land above 600m around the extinct volcano that dominates the skyline, Mount Canobolas, at 1,396m. Vineyards below 600m fall into the Central Ranges zone.

Mount Canobolas is to the south west of nearby Orange town, and just 20 kilometres west of the mountain, elevation drops away quite rapidly.

Cool climate

Orange falls into a cool climate classification. Halliday’s Wine Atlas of Australia (2006) cites heat degree days (HDD) as 1200 to 1309, with an MJT (mean January temperature) of 19.9°C. The HDD put Orange in Winkler and Amerine’s Region I, though the MJT just squeezes the boundary into region II, by as small a margin as is possible.

However, with vineyard altitudes ranging from 600m to 1050m, a wide range of meso-climates exist in the region. Official Orange literature cites MJT as ranging from 20.9°C at 600m to 19°C above 1,000m, so the upper reaches of the GI are pretty cool.

Mayfield Vineyard

It’s a tiny region with around 1,500 hectares (ha) of vines – less than 1% of the national total, and mostly planted to the usual suspects: shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, pinot noir, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and riesling, along with some tempranillo and viognier. Production is currently about 60% red, 40% white, and this looks set to reverse as this young region realises its potential for aromatic and semi-aromatic whites. It’s already beginning to produce some really interesting and notably classy wines.

There are around 50 vineyards, and mostly producers are small, with the notably exception of Cumulus, mostly owned by a Portuguese investment company with several wine investments. Cumulus has 500 ha , making it the 7^th largest contiguous vineyard in Australia.

Pioneers include Bloodwood, who first planted in 1983, and now have 8 ha of vineyard, and Canobolas-Smith, both of whom make wine on site.

Philip Shaw, while he was working for Rosemount, bought his Koomooloo site in 1989, some 900m above sea level.  He’d spent a handful of years looking for somewhere to plant pinot noir and chardonnay, and he now has 47 ha in total. The apple orchard status helped Shaw make up his mind about the vineyard, as he said “to get good colour in apple skins, you need a certain cold period,” which he explained was also important for grape growing.

Along with a couple of others, that was pretty much it for a while, until a relatively huge amount of vineyard started going in from the mid 1990s.

Altitude

Altitude is worn like a badge of honour in Orange, and Mayfield Vineyard, at 860 to 930m, claims status of ‘one of the highest and coolest vineyards in Australia’. Owners Richard and Kathy Thomas commissioned a thorough study before investing in the property, and planting it in 1998. Thomas said “there are not many days over 30°C in summer.” Even higher, with vineyards up to 1,000m, is Brangayne, where owner David Hoskins said “the January average is 26°C, and it can go below 10°C at night.”

Thomas said this high diurnal temperature variation “maintains the natural acid backbone. I think it enhances flavour through gradual flavour development.” Hoskins added “Fruit is on the vine longer. Post veraison flavour development is not rushed by heat. And sugar accumulation here is slower.“

Brangayne

Another consideration of such a wide variance in altitude over a short distance is that it rather dictates plantings. Pinot noir on the lower slopes struggles (too warm), as does sauvignon blanc, as does cabernet sauvignon on the upper slopes (too cool).

Phil Kerney makes some of the Mayfield wines at the Wallace Lane Wine Company, which was established in 2009 by Ross Hill wines, as a contract winemaking facility. An old apple storage shed was converted into a winery in an attempt to keep more Orange fruit in the region, rather than see it exported to contract winemakers further afield, which is the common current practice, as many growers are just that.

Kerney is also the winemaker for Ross Hill Wines, which was started in 1994 by Peter and Terri Robson, who originally sold fruit to the big boys. They bought the Wallace Lane property in 1998, and, as well as converting the apple shed, have planted pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc, and pinot noir here, at over a 1,000m.

Neighbouring Wallace Lane and the higher altitude Ross Hill vineyard, at 970m, is Brangayne, named after the handmaiden of Isolde in Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde, which had been a favourite opera of Hoskins’ grandmother, who had founded the property in the 1930s.

Brangayne’s vineyards lie on the north-east slopes of Mount Canobolas. It was not until 1994 that fruit orchards were replaced by vines. As befitting the altitude, the 26 ha are planted to chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, riesling, pinot grigio, pinot noir, pinot meunier, as well as cabernet sauvignon, shiraz and merlot on their lower vineyard, at 870m. Hoskins said “we’re still a young region, and we’ve been grappling with an ‘Orange style’.” For example, he said “it’s only in the last five years that people have cottoned to shiraz and cabernet sauvignon. We do them better than people thought”

Borrodell is another of the high altitude properties at 1,100m. It’s all basalt country on the top slopes, where aromatic whites do best. Hail is an issue, so the property’s cherry and apple orchards are netted for protection.

Apart from such smaller family holdings, and Cumulus at the opposite end of the spectrum, there are one or two medium sized operations, for example Angullong, owned by the Crossing family, where 220 hectares were planted between 1998 and 2000, on their much larger sheep and cattle farm. The vines occupy altitudes of 580m to 620m, so only those vineyards above 600m supply fruit for Orange-labelled wines. The same applies for Cumulus.

There is a lightness and elegance of style to many of the wines here, which sets them apart from warmer regions in Australia. And though, said Shaw, “it’s in the last three years that quality has increased tremendously, if we do get challenged it’s because our wines are not over-expressive at an early age.“ And more potential will be released as producers invest in their own wineries and winemakers, taking full control of not just grape growing, but also winemaking.

My research visit to Australia in October 2010 was sponsored by Wine Australia.

Minerality in wine is one of the trendiest tasting terms of our times. Science is establishing that it does exist, at least sensorially, but identifying potential responsible compounds or complex of compounds working in combination, and that can be chemically analysed, remains elusive at best.

No minerality directly from rock

Professor Alex Maltman of the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth explained: firstly “there is a whole series of complicated ways in which the parent geological minerals decay to yield nutrient minerals”, and “for roots to pick up nutrient minerals, such as potassium and calcium, these elements have to get into solution. Then there is a whole series of complicated ways of those elements getting into the vine roots – a complicated series of distancing reactions between geological minerals and getting nutrients into the vine.

No route from root to wine

“When you start making wine, yeast takes some of those nutrients from the fermenting must, making the connection between mineral nutrients and geological minerals even more remote and complicated.”  He added “whatever minerality is, it is not these elements that ultimately came from the vineyard. They’re last in all the things that give wine its flavour.”

With minerals comprising just 0.2% of wine, Maltman said you cannot taste the minerals, especially with all the organic compounds that do give wine its flavour.  

Semantic confusion

Though, Maltman explained, “I’m not saying the taste attribute doesn’t exist in wine. But it’s given the label that gives a connotation of origin, of coming from vineyard. People used to talk of austere, lean, steely, even. As soon as people say minerality, people assume minerals are in the wine.“

To geologists minerals are complex compounds – collections of minerals/elements bonded together, such as feldspar. To nutritionists minerals are single elements – zinc, calcium, potassium.  To wine people minerality seems to elicit a direct causal link with vineyard rocks despite this being an untenable thesis.  All of which creates confusion: of description, of accuracy, of communication.  This is not to say that soil, geology, drainage and water holding capacity are not important influences on the flavour of wine.

Mosel slate

Which leads us back to minerality by association: this is Mosel riesling therefore I’m tasting slate’ or ‘this is Sancerre therefore I’m tasting gunflint’.  Minerality has relatively quickly become a literal and emotive ‘beam-me-up Scotty’ of rocky allusions which create vinous illusions.

Winemakers’ words

Even winemakers worry for words when trying to explain the ‘minerality’ in their own wines. The ‘reductive’ sulphide connection is often mentioned, as well as other perceptions – a palate texture, tension, tautness, a tingle on the tongue, a cleanness, purity and freshness, an integrative feeling.

Dr. Tony Jordan, of global consultancy Oenotec, said minerality is a “taste sensation. People have talked the talk in the last ten years. It’s one of the buzz words, everything has to have minerality. I tend to associate it with wines that have a finer, tighter, long flavour spine, good spice,  that have a distinct play of acid in the balance; occasionally an effect of sulphide, and may even be other chemistry in the wine, both organic and inorganic components.”  

This relationship with acidity is a common thread. Martin Aurich, general manager of Weingut Unterortl in Italy’s Alto Adige said: “minerality is a certain amount of acid, acid which is not sour; a positive acid which requires another sip. It’s like a game in your mouth – acid, tannin, sugar.”

Bevan Johnson, managing director of family winery Newton Johnson in South Africa described minerality as “the poise of the finish. It brings a freshness from the mid palate to the finish; a freshness that’s not just acidity. A harmonious finish that’s fresh.”

Pfalz basalt

And Ernie Loosen, of the Mosel’s Dr. Loosen, was emphatic, saying “minerality always has something to do with acidity. Acidity expresses minerality, just as sweetness brings out aroma structure in our wines; as alcohol carries the aroma. A wine without acidity doesn’t show minerality as strongly as wine with the right amount of acidity.”  

At Loosen’s JL Wolf estate in the Pfalz, when they taste the wines blind “with its black basalt soil the Pechstein is the most mineral driven. It is more grippy, with a stony edge.  The Ungeheuer, with its loamy, weathered sandstone soil, is softer even with the same analytical acidity. Minerality is the acidity and soil together. At the end of the day you can only describe minerality by tasting it.”

Cooler climate

If the acidity thesis gains ground, must minerality be a cooler climate phenomenon?  Loosen said he saw less minerality in the hot 2003 than the classic 2007 German vintage.

Climate change specialist Professor Gregory Jones, of the geography department at Southern Oregon University, agreed, saying “grapes grown in cool climates tend to express themselves differently than those grown in warmer climates. Also, cool climate wines are much more likely to be single variety wines than the blends we find in warmer climates. Single variety wines grown at or near their cool climate margin will always show more finesse and character than those grown in warmer climates. A good example is chardonnay, which is grown in cool to fairly warm climates. In a warmer climate there is less finesse and more need for oak to bring out other characteristics. Also a good test is to try the chardonnays grown in the same region in a cool versus a warm vintage … the warm vintage will lack the supposed ‘minerality’ and finesse. So climate does play a role.”

Priorat schist

But what about places such as Priorat, where notes of minerality/graphite are commonly reported in the wines?  This is a warm to hot Mediterranean climate where big, alcoholic, blended reds are made. In his inimitable style, Alvaro Palacios of his eponymous Priorat property said “minerality is exactly as you see in the slate or granite soils. There are huge levels of minerals and metals. When you lick them you can feel that. Vegetal tannins are normally very fat, and mild, gentle, soft. Minerality is different; something tiny and vertical that dries out, micro particles.”

Over at Celler de Capçanes, in neighbouring Montsant, winemaker Jürgen Wagner upheld the acidity paradigm, saying “minerality adds some astringency. It gives a feeling of a higher level of acidity. It is a certain saltiness, the graphite of lead pencil for me means nerviness, liveliness, even astringency.”  

Scientific speculation

All of which means we are left with supposition and suggestion.  Jones suspects “there are chemical pathways via fruit to wine transformation that create aroma/flavour components that spark sensual characteristics that lead us to our cues of certain, remembered qualities.”

Maltman makes it clear he doesn’t know “what minerality is actually due to. I think acidity in wine is relatively well understood so I’m not sure it’s primarily that; my guess would be some combination of organic compounds (secondary metabolites), possibly, as has been suggested, involving sulphur” adding “complex organic molecules could be influencing minerals, promoting some, and buffering others. The effect could be important. I’m saying you cannot taste vineyard minerals. But these tiny amounts could have a chemical role. “

But we are left with more than poetic allegory. Jean Trimbach, of Maison Trimbach in the Alsace, said: “It is there. It exists. It’s the philosophical part of the wine; the most intellectual part of the wine, which has yet to be better analysed, and quantified.”  

Wine needs the scientists to get a hurry-on, so we can use the term correctly and consistently as a meaningful communicator of wine quality, composition and style.

The Tasmania wine industry is very much in its infancy, despite the oldest bottles of Tasmania-made bubbly being recently discovered in Hobart, reputedly dating from the 1840s. But Tasmania has already become the source du force for Aussie traditional method sparkling wine production. About 25% of Tassie’s entire grape production goes into bubblies.

East coast Tasmania

Of ‘native’ producers it’s people like Claudio Radenti of Freycinet and Stefano Lubiana who have lead the way for Tassie sparklers. By all accounts the extremely modest Radenti took some persuading to put his name to the Freycinet sparkler.  He said:  “Tas is a great place for sparkling, it’s so similar to the champagne climate it’s not funny. The temperature, humidity and sunshine of Champagne and Tassie line up pretty well.  There’s lots of potential to make the best nationally.”

Dr Andrew Pirie is another long-time talent who has arguably done more than anyone to plough the furrow for all Tasmanian wine. Now heading up Tamar Ridge, as well producing his own wines under the Pirie label, he said: “Tas sparkling pinot has a natural mid-palate fruit sweetness and richness which seems lost in warmer areas and seems to be one of the features of true cool climate sparkling fruit.”

The new Pirie NV sparkler will be released later in 2008, the aim for which he said is to be a “complex, soft and rich 50/50 chardonnay/pinot noir, with mid-palate fullness from good Tas pinot noir, and taut, but not aggressive, acidity from the chardonnay.”

The big boys on the mainland were not slow to realise the potential of Tasmania’s ‘true cool climate’. Domaine Chandon ’s winemaker, Matt Steel, said: “We have been sourcing from Tasmania since 1992 to use in our vintage-tier sparkling wines. It is part of our philosophy of building wines of complexity through regional diversity of fruit supply. We source base wines from regions such as Macedon, the Whitlands plateau, Strathbogie and Tasmania. The Tasmanian base wines generally exhibit a flinty aromatic, fine structure and very long length of flavour.”

Sparkling fruit

Hardy’s bought the Bay of Fires winery in 2001 having sourced fruit from Tas for several years prior to this.  Bay of Fires sources fruit from all over Tasmania for their three labels of sparkler: Arras, Bay of Fires and Tigress. Ed Carr, Hardy’s group sparkling winemaker, said: “Tasmanian grapes have a greater level of minerality than the mainland. The wines exhibit a structural elegance, suppleness and longevity which is essential for the production of premium sparkling wine. These characteristics allow the wines to be aged to a high level of flavour maturity and complexity and yet retain a freshness and brightness that is only seen in world class sparkling.”

Whilst Jansz was one of the first sparkling wines from Tasmania, it’s fortunes have been blooming since the purchase, in 1998, by the Hill Smiths of Yalumba. Robert Hill Smith said “while Australia is seen as the home of robust big reds, sparkling winemakers in Tasmania are quietly producing wines that give most genuine Champagnes a run for their money in quality and price.”

That most of the big producers have already invested in Tasmania fruit illustrates the excitement generated for the quality of its bubblies. Hill Smith said: “Jansz has a single-minded focus to be among the best in the world.”

Panellists for the seminar were:
Rod Berglund, owner and winemaker at Joseph Swan Winery.
Tom Hinde, president and director of winemaking at Flowers Vineyard and Winery.
Jeff Stewart, winemaker at Buena Vista.

Sonoma County Wine Regions

The definition of cool climate mentioned was Winkler’s Region I, and Stewart said: “we’re cool climate guys so we’ll always reference Burgundy.”

Honore Comfort, executive director of Sonoma County Vintners, the organisation that promotes Sonoma County wines, introduced the session. “Sixty miles of Pacific Ocean front influence the daily climate of Sonoma County.”

It is this oceanic influence that provides the defining model for Sonoma viticulture. Deep, cold ocean currents offshore provide a regular supply of cold air above the ocean.  On a daily basis, during the afternoon, this chill air is drawn inland, as fog, by the hot Sacramento Valley. Comfort said: “the cool maritime fog defines the region: how it filters in through the Petaluma Gap, up the Russian River, and into Carneros from the bay to blanket the county,” adding the fog blanket stays in Sonoma, blocked by the Mayacamas ranges on the eastern edge of the county. 

Sonoma fog blanket

The major effect of these daily fogs, which come in practically like clockwork, is cooling.  Hinde said: “on the coast during the day it’s 85°F [30°C], at night it’s 35°F [2°C]. At Healdsburg [in the middle of the county], it’s 95°F [35°C] in the day and 60°F [16°C] at night.  Typically there’s a 25 to 30°F [14 to 17°C] diurnal shift.”

As well as a cool overall climate, vintage variation is a parameter for cooler climate, and whilst it’s not a big issue for Sonoma, it clearly exists. Hinde said “nine years out of ten we have a consistent climate, a Mediterranean climate, with a long wet winter, and an arid summer. And within this we have the influence of the Pacific Ocean.”  

However, in Russian River Valley, Berglund said “I see different personalities, different expressions [in the wines]. We do see vintage variation in Russian River Valley, some are more fruit forward, some have more structure and backbone, such as the ’07s.  But we don’t see the wide variations, for example in Oregon.”   

L-R: Comfort, Stewart, Hinde, Berglund

Stewart added “2004 was a very early bud-break and season. It was forward, giving wines that were beautiful straight out of the gate. 2005 was later, cooler, giving wines with more structure; not the structured wines of the ‘07s which were built for the long haul.”

The moderating influence of this coastal phenomenon is evidently the main influence enabling grape varieties such as pinot noir and chardonnay to be grown, though more than 60 varieties are grown in the county, including hot-climate loving zinfandel. 

Alongside coolness, soil is often considered another primary factor for quality, but the panellists could come up with few acceptable generalisations about the area. It is, after all, an active fault zone, so topography and soils are by definition enormously complex, with the gamut of volcanic, sedimentary and alluvial deposits closely intermingled. Aspect and slope are similarly something of a patchwork effect. 

The wines tasted originated from three of the coolest AVAs in Sonoma County:  Carneros, Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast.

Tasting Notes, March 2010, London

The contradiction of high alcohol and so-called cooler climate is a hard one for a European to overcome.

La Crema Chardonnay 2008, Sonoma Coast (13.9%)
Hinde: “not an estate but a Sonoma Coast blended wine. It’s representative of the potential for chardonnay here. Eight to nine months in oak, around 20% new, including some American oak.” 

Ripe, peachy and mealy nose, spicy aromatic oak, vanilla and charcoal, heat of alcohol a little too evident, heating the back of the palate. Sweet praline nuttiness, quite full bodied, very warming palate with some attractive typical flavour characters, but back palate is too hot for me and wine broadens in the glass.

Ramey Wine Cellars, Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay 2006, Russian River Valley (14.5%)
Sweet smoke, high glycerol, slippery texture, with almost overt honeyed sweetness at the fore of the palate. Full bodied, with overt alcohol reasonably well integrated. Almond-toasted lemon cake, with allspice and star anise aromatic spices.  Length not massive. Full-fat, lush fruit, good concentration of fruit, heat coming through on the end.

Stewart:  “the first two pinot noirs both come from Carneros AVA (American Viticultural Area), which is fruit driven, with cherry, berry, and always an earthiness, a forest floor, more than in Russian River Valley.”

Gloria Ferrer Caves and Vineyards, Pinot Noir 2007, Carneros (13.9%)
Translucent ruby colour with bright red-cherry nose and smoked charcoal note. Oak a little raw on the palate attack, black and tarry without redeeming elegance. Spicy, smoked forest berry fruits, with alcohol present but not dominant and wood tannins a little edgy. Tarry note blows off in time, but leaves the finish a bit dry and talc-like.  

Buena Vista Carneros Pinot Noir 2007, Carneros (13.5%)
Stewart: “we hand harvest at night, then have a 5 to 10 day cold soak. Average 17 days on the skins; 30-35% new French oak with a 10 to 11 months’ ageing regime.”

Translucent ruby, aromatic strawberry and raspberry nose. Smooth, sweet palate attack, sweet fruit, attractive varietal definition, with balance of fruit and acid core, and tannins held neatly at bay for aromatic focus. Balanced and integrated. Very nice; with long finish.  Crunchy freshness emphasises aromatic fruitiness well. Nicely balanced.

Flowers Vineyard and Winery, Andreen Gale Pinot Noir 2007, Sonoma Coast (13.5%)
Hinde “we’re still discovering where pinot noir and chardonnay will do their best.  We believe we’re challenging the outer [cooler] margin for pinot noir and chardonnay.”  The winery is 1 mile from the Pacific at 500 to 700m ASL.

Medium translucent ruby. Nose a bit elusive, but simple crunchy red cherries are there. Palate has appropriate grip of supporting oak tannin, beginning to soften.  In crunchy rather than soft style, perky acid freshness keeps the palate linear, with enough fruit flesh to comfortably balance the structure. Not a fleshy wine, hint tomato leaf? Medium full body, alcohol integrated, unnoticed. Decent finish.

Patz and Hall Pinot Noir 2007, Sonoma Coast (14.2%)
Medium translucent red cherry. Lifted red cherry and red apple notes on the nose. Fresh palate attack, soft aromatic tar supporting very ripe sweet black and red cherries. Some lushness to palate with good acid frame. Good varietal definition. Alcohol integrated. Oak just enough to soften in.  Balanced, full and sweet. Good, with lengthy finish.

Berglund: “the final two: textural element. RRV has wonderful texture and mouthfeel. We have more red fruit characters with hints of cola. Carneros wines tend to me more linear, while RRV is broader on the palate. Sonoma Coast wines have darker fruits than RRV.  The Hobbs wine has more dark fruits. Our wine comes from one of oldest pinot noir vineyards, planted in 1969.”  

Joseph Swan Vineyards, Trenton Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir 2007, Russian River Valley (14.5%)
Medium cherry red. Lifted cherry, with fine-grainy spicy oak and gently mulled fruit to the fore; texture of stewed fruit, with sandalwood, and cinnamon oak notes, not (yet?) melding together.  A bit disjointed at the moment, with dry sandy sides to palate. Feels like a ‘cooler’ expression, but the alcohol is evident.  Alcohol expressed as those warm stewed fruits, but it doesn’t burn. Fruit is fresh and dense, with good concentration.  I’m sure it’ll come through, there’s nice fruit underneath. It’s rich and dense and not over-ripe.

Paul Hobbs Pinot Noir 2007, Russian River Valley (14.7%)
Medium ruby colour. Bright dark cherry fruit, sweet, full-fleshed and lush. With good pinot noir character: firm acid core supporting fleshy cherry fruit. Sweet balance, with alcohol unnoticed and integrated. Lush and delicious. More-ish.

What makes cool climate Australia so trendy all of a sudden? If you believe much of the marketing blurb it seems that any region other than the Murray Valley is suddenly ‘cool climate’. It’s time to and pin down cool climate to some identifiable locations, whose wines attributes that differentiate them from wines from warmer areas.  

The temperature map of Australia in the new edition of the World Atlas of Wine shows only a few spots of potentially cool climate, and they are south of the Great Dividing Range, where January (July in the northern hemisphere) surface temperature is below 20°C. The theory goes that cooling Southern Ocean winds creep into part of the south-facing slopes of the mountains, helping moderate temperature. As soon as you’re over the top of the mountains, things warm up considerably – you’re on your way to the interior.

Macedon Ranges

This is perfectly exemplified by the Macedon Ranges/Heathcote boundary in Victoria. The Macedon Ranges, about an hour northwest of Melbourne, are acknowledged as the mainland’s coolest wine-growing region. It sits atop the south facing slopes of the Great Dividing Range. It is gaining reputation for its sparkling-wine fruit, chardonnay, and cool climate talisman pinot noir. Acclaimed Michael Dhillon, of Bindi, makes his wine in the Macedon Ranges, as does Phillip Moraghan at Curly Flat. Moraghan spent 18 months searching cool-er climate Australia before settling in the Macedon Ranges, having become empassioned about ‘pinot grief’ as he says, in Switzerland.

Immediately north of Macedon is reputed shiraz-territory, Heathcote, which is already atop the north-facing slopes of the Great Dividing Range, and considerably warmer.

Temperature is generally acknowledged as being the primary determinant of climatic suitability for viticulture. See below for the nitty-gritty.  But cool defining climate is much trickier as so may other parameters come into play: exposition, proximity to bodies of water, wind (speed, direction, temperature, humidity, timing), evapotranspiration, cloud cover, annual rainfall patterns, ripening-season rainfall, altitude. Vintage variation is a given.

Why is it important? 

Cool climate has become shorthand for high quality. There’s an anecdotal association with longevity in bottle. Though, if Bordeaux is deemed cool climate, it’s only too well known there’s poor quality there, but there’s also the best.

North Tasmania

Scale is factor. No cool climate region is large and homogenous.  As Chris Smith, viticultural manager at Tasmania’s Cloverhill, said:  “when in a cool climate, vineyard practices have to be very precise”.

Claudio Radenti, of Freycinet Vineyard in Tasmania, said: “go a few kilometres and things change. For us site selection is very important, shelter from the westerly winds” and for pinot noir keeping the yield down to grand cru levels. Though yield and attention to detail are commercial considerations, benefits include individuality of expression, complexity, finesse, and a higher return per bottle through a necessarily higher price.

Even the new Aussie industry strategy, Directions 2025, pays attention to the status of wines of place.  Having ruled the roost for a decade and more with inter-regional blends, the industry wants to exploit the points of difference offered by cooler climate: different flavour profiles, higher price points, a focus on cool-fruit sparkling wines, grape varieties more expressive of the terroir, though heaven forfend the Aussies would use such a word.

Cool climate from the wine up

A warmer climate seems pretty easy to identify: lower acidity, higher alcohol, fuller body, sweeter, jammier fruit, overt alcohol, high extract easily achieved.  

Too cold is pretty easy too: the grapes don’t ripen.  Which makes cool climate ‘just warm enough’ to ripen fruit before the cold of autumn sets in.

Pirie Tasmania’s Dr Andrew Pirie, a cool climate specialist, postulates true cool climate  as “regions with a mean January [or July] temperature equal or less than 19.0°C or 1150 day degrees (see below). It corresponds with the ability to ripen pinot noir, pinot gris, traminer, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc, but not semillon, merlot  or cabernet franc except in exceptional locations.”  This would include Tasmania, Macedon, parts of Mornington and parts of the Yarra Valley.

Tasmania is undoubtedly Australia’s coolest climate, and it is reclaiming its main defining characteristic under the banner ‘true cool climate wines’.  A look at Tassie’s key grape varieties – chardonnay, riesling, gewürztraminer, pinot gris, sauvignon blanc, and pinot noir – pretty much confirm Pirie’s thesis. Sparkling wines are a forte.  

East Coast Tasmania

Francine Austin, winemaker at Hardy’s Tasmanian Bay of Fires winery is very clear: “cool climate is a combination of two things: finesse and elegance. A tightness of wine combined with power from a high concentration of aromatic flavour compounds.” For this, she said “high sunshine hours and lower temperatures are needed which retain delicate aromatic compounds. Acid degradation is slow, and ripening season day time temperature does not exceed 25°C.”

The science stuff

Drs. Amerine and Winkler (1944) defined five regions of California using a temperature index. Using a seven month growing season, they calculated the ‘degree days’ above 10°C (at which temperature vines generally start growing). Mean monthly temperature less 10 (degrees) multiplied by the number of days in the month, and totalled for the seven months.

They came up with five regions, which still form the bedrock of viticultural climatic data. Their system has been variously refined, amended and critiqued, but not abandoned.

Region I is the coolest.  Each region can be matched to the mean temperature of the warmest month (MJT) – January or July. From the regions that fit into the model, typical grape varieties can be identified.

Source: paper by Dr. Andrew Pirie – ‘Defining Cool Climate’. Stratford’s Brave New World seminar, London, September 2007

Dr. John Gladstones developed the model for Australia. Drs. Peter Dry and Richard Smart developed a homoclime approach, using a range of climatic measures including radiation, rainfall and relative humidity. Pirie brought in growing-season rainfall and humidity to the blooming algebraic calculation, to account for low vine-moisture stress during growing time.

Selection of locations to show MJT and degree days

Sources:
Wine Atlas of the World, sixth edition. eds. Hugh Johnson, Jancis Robinson
Wine Atlas of Australia.  James Halliday
Viticulture and Environment. John Gladstones
NB: values from different sources may not be directly comparable.

Drs. Amerine and Winkler (1944) defined five regions of California using a temperature index. Using a seven month growing season, they calculated the ‘degree days’ above 10°C (at which temperature vines generally start growing). Mean monthly temperature less 10 (degrees) multiplied by the number of days in the month, and totalled for the seven months.

They came up with five regions, which still form the bedrock of viticultural climatic data. Their system has been variously refined, amended and critiqued, but not abandoned.

Region I is the coolest.  Each region can be matched to the mean temperature of the warmest month (MJT) – January or July. From the regions that fit into the model, typical grape varieties can be identified.

Source: paper by Dr. Andrew Pirie – ‘Defining Cool Climate’. Stratford’s Brave New World seminar, London, September 2007

Dr. John Gladstones developed the model for Australia. Drs. Peter Dry and Richard Smart developed a homoclime approach, using a range of climatic measures including radiation, rainfall and relative humidity. Pirie brought in growing-season rainfall and humidity to the blooming algebraic calculation, to account for low vine-moisture stress during growing time.

Present were:

• Jean-Christophe Mau, owner of Château Brown in Pessac-Léognan.
• Bruno Eynard, general manager of third growth Chateau Lagrange in Saint-Julien.
• Eric Perrin, owner of Chateau Carbonnieux in Pessac-Léognan, classified for red and white.
• Francois Despagne, owner of Chateau Grand-Corbin-Despagne in Saint Emilion, promoted to St. Emilion Grand Cru Classé in 2006.

Of these four, Château Brown and Carbonnieux produce white wine.

White wine

The issues for white wine are far more imminent and pressing, than for red wines, for these top Graves producers. Both Mau and Perrin are concerned for their white production in the immediate term with Mau saying “the problem for whites is more important. We want to keep acidity and freshness, and it will be complicated to keep the freshness.”

Jean-Christophe Mau

And as with the reds, 2003 was a watershed, with the issue being more important for sauvignon blanc, whose racy acidity is part of proposition of the blend, to balance the softer maturity of fleshier semillon.

Mau explained their changing behaviour of the sauvignon blanc, saying “2003 was a complex vintage for whites, it was not a classic balance, and we lost some acidity and flavour [though Mau was not the owner in 2003].  In 2009, to avoid having so much maturity, we harvested in early September.”

Perrin may have caught an earlier boat on this one, saying “in 2003 we finished the harvest of whites on 2^nd August. It was never so early.  I have the impression of being in South Africa yet we have white 2003s that are fresh, with fruit.”

At Carbonnieux, Perrin is also fortunate to create his wines from a much larger white vineyard than at Château Brown, saying his large and varied vineyard still offered some good climate buffering capability.  He said of his white “I have a complex problem. My white vineyard is huge, 45 hectares, all on different soils, with sauvignon blanc on gravel, on limetone, on sand, on limestone-clay.  Usually at the end of harvest there are 35 to 40 different styles [lots] of white wine.  All these are very different, and after winter we blend together to make the best wines – we have a very large palette of flavours.” So actually Perrin has less of a problem than for small vineyards on one soil type.  For the moment…

And it is the vineyard that is the last battleground for quality.  Most quality improvements throughout the 1980s and 1990s were in the winery, with improved hygiene and high-tech kit. Perrin, who employs white wine guru Denis Dubourdieu as consultant, said “he first consulted on the winemaking, now most of his work is in the vineyard.” Preservation of terroir character is high up the agenda, so for whites, in the first instance, there are more leaves in the vineyard to protect against sun exposure.  Bringing forward harvest date, especially on the zesty sauvignon blanc is another option, though this means burrowing into August, the sacrosanct holiday month for the French, so there are some deep cultural challenges.

Challenging culture is one thing. It was even mooted, heretically though tongue-in-cheek, to swap sauvignon blanc with chardonnay, which tolerates more warmth than sauvignon blanc.

Understanding the cooler aspects of the South African climate is complicated. South Africa’s climate is undoubtedly warm Mediterranean and hot continental.  But that’s only part of the story. There are a number of cooling influences, most notably those from both proximitous oceans, giving some validity to the old adage that if a vineyard can see the sea, it’s a good vineyard.

Lambert's Bay, Atlantic Coast

When the various cooling influences are combined with precise viticultural techniques and pristine winemaking, a sometimes quite remarkable new world expression of coolness appears in the wines.

In the search for cool climate, some have tried to come up with sound bite definitions and Charles Back of Fairview was succinct with his “cool climate is where grapes take a month longer to ripen than traditional areas such as Stellenbosch and Paarl … in Darling they’re harvesting chardonnay at the end of February, and they were finished in Paarl a month before.”

Andrew Gunn at Iona in Elgin agreed, saying “to me the proof of the pudding is in the grapes, and picking date. You can’t claim to be cool climate if you’re picking sauvignon blanc in Jan or February” before moving onto a stylistic element “cool climate wines are more elegant, more restrained.”

Winds and coastal proximity

Constantia and Walker Bay are the traditionally-regarded ‘cooler’ climate regions in the South African paradigm. Both are close to the cooling effect of the oceans, so as the land heats up during the day, air rises, sucking in cooler ocean air, the effect of which can be felt up to 15km inland.

Dr. Victoria Carey, at the department of viticulture and oenology, University of Stellenbosch, said: “the sea breezes cool on two levels:  humid air, and air movement which prevents a build-up of heat. Closer to the coast, the cooling effect is by way of the humid air, even to the Bottelary Hills. By Stellenbosch, [about 20km from the coast] the breeze has lost most of its humidity, but there is still air movement.” 

Over Elim vineyards, Indian Ocean coast

There is also differential cooling according to the current of influence.  Pioneer vineyards are popping up along the west coast, north of Cape Town. The Antarctic-origin Benguela current that sweeps up the west coast is said by locals to be icy (though ‘quite warm’ to a northern European perception), varying between about 10°C and 15°C, and is cited as bringing about a 5 to 7°C cooling. This is cooler than the Agulhas current that sweeps southwards from equatorial parts down the east coast of Africa then westwards around False Bay. The temperature of Agulhas varies from 14°C to 26°C, with a suggested 3 to 5°C cooling for areas within its breath.

Then there is the renowned south-easterly Cape Doctor, more prevalent during spring and summer, which both cools the vineyards, and inhibits disease development.

Even though the South African vineyards are at similar latitudes to those in Australia, Argentina and Chile, Dawid Saayman, a soil specialist for Distell, said: “we’re cooler because of the oceans. In South Africa we’re a pimple sticking out in the ocean.” Carey cited Valérie Bonnardot’s study of South African sea breezes which found the maximum temperature of coastal areas is lower than inland, and the maximum temperature happens earlier in the day, adding that temperatures can drop by as much as 6 or 7°C within two hours.   

The wind theme is well worked by Cape Point Vineyards, on the south west facing slopes below Constantiaberg. Winemaker Duncan Savage admitted “cool is a relative word. You can never have a vintage and not expect a heatwave.” But, he added “where we have not done bunch exposure, we’ve got green flavours” highlighting the need to manage the effects of the regular south-easterly winds from False Bay which are persistent enough to damage the ends of the vine rows facing head-on into the wind so it blows down the whole row.

Aspect, altitude and attitude

Proximity to the oceans is evidently a big part of this, and in the post-quota era vineyards have been vying to be closest, with Fryer’s Cove, just 800m from and 20m above the Atlantic Ocean pretty well-placed for the nearest. 

Cederberg, 1,000m up

The topography of the Cape is as complex as the mesoclimatic picture.  In Elgin, for example, which is surrounded by mountains, the winds bring welcome cloud cover. Anthony Rawbone-Viljoen, owner of Oak Valley, said: “the cooling south easterly prevailing wind in summer brings cloud cover in the valley.  The cloud cover gets trapped against the mountains and it can be 10°C cooler than Somerset West.  This is a regular occurrence and a major contributor to our climatic opportunity.”   

Over on the west coast, one hour north of Cape Town, fogs come rolling in 5 to 10km towards Darling, the new darling region of sauvignon blanc. Back said they are “seaward facing vineyards, with breezes off the coast. We get 5-6° C lower than [Paarl], and the temperature drops dramatically overnight.”

Bruce Jack of Constellation’s Flagstone said: “In South Africa we have more wind than any other grape growing country, both speed and volume. At our farm in Overberg, the farm’s hottest time of day is abut 11.30am.  We’re at 400m, up against a mountain. The wind goes up the mountain, cools and comes down again. The farm is at 24°C instead of 30°+ if there was no wind chill.”

At 1,000m above sea level, Cederberg exemplifies the cooling effect of altitude, where high altitude also gives high diurnals.  It became wholly a wine farm just in 1997.  Owner David Nieuwoudt said: “there are no heatwaves up here.  We don’t have to spray for downy mildew [as coastal vineyards need to do].  Our normal night time temperature is below 10°C even in summer, and the day time temperature can reach 30°C, giving a 20 to 25°C difference between day and night” which enables the grapes to retain natural acidity.

In Constantia, it’s the mountains again that provide relief, both in terms of aspect and shade. Constantiaberg itself is over 900m. Its height means the sun has gone over top of mountain, shrouding the east-facing vineyards in shade, while vineyards further east such as in Stellenbosch, and Simonsberg continue to receive another 1-2 hours sunshine.

Combine this with an afternoon breeze for extra cooling, as Lowell Jooste of Klein Constantia said: “we’re 7 km from the sea [at False Bay]. The afternoon breezes cool the south-facing slope by 4 to 5°C. And at 300m the altitude is also significant, as we’re exposed to the south-east wind at higher altitude.”  He added “sunlight hours are another thing here. We have significantly less sunlight at end of day as sun sets over the hill [Constantiaberg], but we still have day light for photosynthesis to continue.” 

Steenberg to False Bay

It’s a similar story at Steenberg, a couple of kilometres closer to False Bay, where wind and aspect are again important factors.  John Loubser, their winemaker and general manager, said: “we face east for the morning sun. But by 5.30pm the sun is ducking behind the mountain. We can see Stellenbosch getting another 1.5 hours of sun.”  

It’s not all about being high altitude or sitting in the shadow of altitude. In more coastal areas, closeness to sea level to maximise the winds. In Elim, which is, according to Nieuwoudt, “by far the coolest spot in South Africa, where you don’t buy land you buy wind.”   Dirk Human, Black Oystercatcher’s owner confirmed this, saying “We get wind 400 [exaggeration intended] days a year. We have ocean on three sides. If we didn’t have wind we’d be a hot climate. Wind puts the characters in the grapes.”

Whatever the aspect and altitude, attention to detail in the field can moderate a warm climate, or take advantage of cooling winds, as at Cape Point Vineyard. “With successfully manipulated viticulture” said Chris Keet of Christopher Keet Wines, “you can sidestep the issue of cool climate.” Greater shading to protect fruit, row orientation to maximise the benefit of breezes or minimise exposure to the sun are all warmer climate techniques to offset the warmth. Gyles Webb at Thelema agreed that “canopy is the single most important thing in the vineyard.”

Pocketing the difference

Given the complex topography, there are plenty of cooler south (poleward)-facing slopes in all locations which are becoming more popular. Eben Archer the viticulturist at Lusan Premium Wines said: “we’re looking for the cool situations. The best we can do is talk about cool pockets.”

Charles Back supported this, saying “you can find enclaves within both Stellenbosch and Paarl where fruit ripens a month later, for example in the Bottelary Hills, also in Helderberg near where Vergelegen is.” And at Delheim winemaker Brenda van Niekerk said “our coolest slope is at Klapmutskop, directly south facing at 320m above sea level. There’s always a slight breeze. The sauvignon blanc has more green flavours, a little grassy, so I leave it hanging. In Stellenbosch it’s not easy to find these spots.”

Viticultural pockets may be the new South African mantra.  Nieuwoudt summed it up: “we’re a hot climate wine producing region and we must concentrate on what we do best. But there are great pockets, for example 5km from [his Cederberg property] it’s 5°C warmer. If we can explore these pockets, if places such as Elim can fine tune their wines, they’ll make phenomenal wines. It will take a while to get to this point.”

Topography: the basis for terroir

The Cape’s ancient geomorphology underwrites its terroir. A complex geological history with several periods of sea flooding and tectonic mountain-building activity ended about 550 million years ago, with further uplifting and folding 250 million years ago. This has given rise to three main bedrock ‘foundations’, underlying diverse soils, topography and geology over short distances.

Dr Victoria Carey, at the University of Stellenbosch, said: “the basement is of Malmesbury shales – sedimentary rocks.  There was a period of granite intrusions. After an orogenic period, the sandstones were laid down.  Since the Pre-Cambrian, mountains have a sandstone cap, and granite, shale at the bottom.”

• Remnants of Malmesbury shales and schists (1bn to 600m years) are hills of 20m to 200m such as in Swartland.  Shales often surround granite instrusions and undulating hills.
• Granite intrusions (600 and 500m years) include Paarl and Paardeberg mountains, Bottelary Malmesbury and Darling Hills, as well as granitic foothills of sandstone mountains e.g. Table mountain, Stellenbosch mountain, Hottentots Holland, Helderberg, Simonsberg.
• Deposition of the Cape Supergroup, including the Table Mountain sandstones (400 to 300m years) were originally overlain on eroded shales and granite intrusions, and has itself been eroded to leave e.g. Table Mountain and Simonsberg on granite foothills.  

Though soils are derived from these three main rock types, different climates over geological time have complicated the picture further: tropical soils developed just past the Cambrian resulting in stable, weathered, acidic soils with few nutrients. And a Mediterranean climate developed after the Benguela current formed, with a different rainfall and weathering pattern.

South African wine regions showing traditional climate data, with European comparisons

There’s no Winkler region I in South Africa, which emphasises Winkler is useful only as a start point from which refinements and modifications need to be made to explore viticultural climate. Flagstone’s Bruce Jack said: “the Winkler definition of cool climate doesn’t work here, because it’s a sum of averages.” He’s got a point: take two examples from Winkler IV: Springfield (Robertson) has long made one of the zestiest and steeliest sauvignon blancs from South Africa, and Cederberg (Cederberg) makes pristine wines from varieties not traditionally associated with Winkler IV.  

Sources:                  Wines of South Africa                                        
                                Viticulture and Environment by John Gladstones                                         
                                NB: values from different sources may not be directly comparable.

This article was researched during a visit to South Africa in March 2009, sponsored by Wines of South Africa.

Mazon

Pinot noir is one of those grape varieties with an abundance of names.  In Italian, it’s called pinot nero, in German it’s spätburgunder. But it’s also called blauburgunder in German, and in Alto Adige this is often how it’s referred locally, though not necessarily on the label, especially for an international audience.

Mazon

One of the most highly regarded sites for pinot noir is the Mazon (Italian: Mazzon) plateau. This is in the relatively warmer southern part of the region to the east of the river Adige, on west and south facing slopes, with some cooling elevation from 350 to 450m. 

Weingut J. Hofstätter, in Tramin/Termeno is well-known for it pinot noir, which now accounts for about 20% of their production. Markus Heinel, winemaker since 2001, said the Mazon side of the valley “is cooler, you get the soft sun in the afternoon. There is a layer of porphyry and sandstone which is very good for the minerality of the wine. The altitude keeps the acidity on that cooler side of valley, ripening is slower and later than our side of the valley [at Tramin]. We have pinot noir and pinot blanc.”

The top Hofstätter pinot noir is named after Ludwig Ritter Barth von Barthenau who brought pinot noir to Alto Adige from Burgundy and planted it around Mazon in the late 19^th century. The estate was acquired by Foradori- Hofstätter family which has given them access to old vine fruit.  The fruit from 60 year old plus vines is reserved for the Barthenau Vigna San Michele pinot noir.

Hofstätter

Even the basic Hofstätter pinot noir uses some fruit from the Mazon plateau, and is labelled after the historic name of the Mazon hamlet – Meczan.

Mason

Just up from Tramin/Termeno is another producer aiming to make pinot noir one of their specialties. Tenuta Manincor is located in Kaltern/Caldaro, and owner Michael Goëss-Enzenberg said: “our pinot noir comes from Mason at 400m altitude. In our country pinot noir needs high elevation because we have a warm Mediterranean climate on south-inclined vineyards.”

Manincor’s Mason is named after their vineyard on the Kaltern side of the valley, the opposite side from the Mazon plateau.  In particularly good vintages they make a Mason di Mason. Goëss-Enzenberg said the aim for his pinot noir is ”deepness and delicacy and elegance.  We want to have elegant pinot noir fruit, very pure and persistent fruit that draws you back in.” And, he added, “we replanted 15 years ago to newer clones and trellising” as part of his quality drive. 

Thirty years ago the property sold its wines in bulk and Goëss-Enzenberg has been turning the estate around, having trained at Geisenheim in Germany, and Babcock Winery in California. 

Vinschgau/Val Venosta

In the far northwest of the region lies Val Venosta, an upstream extension of the Adige river as it flows in an east-north-easterly direction, before turning south-east towards Merano and on to Bolzano.  Here vineyards are on the south-east facing slopes, with a bit more altitude, from 500 to 800m. And here, pinot noir has recently been becoming something of a specialty. 

Unterortl

This is something of an extreme viticultural environment. The vineyards of Weingut Unterortl lie on steep south facing vineyards, 600 to 850m above sea level, amid rocky outcrops.  Their general manager, Martin Aurich, said the area is “high and open to the valley, it’s open to glaciers and open to cold climate,” adding “the wines have a mineral character because of their high content of acid.”  Harvest here is two weeks later than the main Adige valley.

Pinot noir is grown with pinot blanc and riesling.  Aurich said: “the quality is regular, but the weather and the wind can dry out the grapes. If the sugar became much higher it would become bitter.  We have the elegant point for pinot noir. Pinot noir is not a tannin monster, we have a sweet tannin that can be aged.”

Whilst pinot noir undoubtedly specifies a cool climate for its best expression, the winemaking approach is important not to lose the potential. All three producers here use a varying dose of 225 litre barrique, with up to a third mentioned as being new. They also use big oak, from 500 to 5,000 litres, which imparts only a little, if any, oak flavour and tannin. All of them are aiming for long-aged pinot noir.

Tasting notes, in situ, November 2009

Hofstätter, Crozzol Pinot Nero 2007
Pale ruby colour, bright and attractive, with aromatic smoke and toasty oak. Sweet attack, falling into fruitiness. Bright, crunchy fruit, neatly focused and elegant.  

Hofstätter Mazon Pinot Nero 2007
Translucent ruby; savoury, tar nose, with toast and spice. Phenols a little bit chewy in youth, with plenty of vibrant fruit mid palate. Nicely balanced mid palate, with a purity of redcurrant fruit running through the whole. 

Hofstätter Barthenau Pinot Nero 2007
Not yet on the market. Translucent medium ruby colour. Deep, pipe-tobacco smoke nose, full bodied and a hint balsamic still as the rich fruit is still absorbing the oak.

Hofstätter Barthenau Pinot Nero 2004 
Rim just turning away from youthful cherry. Sweet stewed berry attack leads into a lush-textured mid palate of lovely balance and dimension. Youthful.

Hofstätter Barthenau Pinot Nero 1998   
Garnet rim with a nose of mature undergrowth. Palate shows stewed cherry fruit with a savoury/sweet combo undergrowth finish. Elegant, silkily textured; really very classy.

Manincor Mason Pinot Noir 2007  
Pale ruby, fruit focused palate, clean and define. Fresh cherry with new oak peeking over the youthful fruit.

Manincor Mason di Mason 2007   
This comes from the heart of the vineyard, oldest vines now 15 years. Only made in the best vintages.  
Medium translucent cherry colour. Violet perfume; fruit a bit subdued due to recent bottling, but texture, weight and density are all refined, with lovely balance.  

Unterortl Castel Juval Blauburgunder/Pinot Nero 2007,
Medium pale translucent cherry colour. Aromatic strawberry nose, both spicy and lightly toasty, with a complexing tar note. Strawberry and redcurrant fruit is putting on a bit of weight in bottle, with poise to come.

Loacker Pinot nero 2007 Norital
Medium translucent ruby colour. Vibrant black cherry nose, with hint of tar at beginning of the quite full-bodied palate. Attractive varietal definition of warm cherry fruit, currently a little subdued by still-integrating toastiness.

This piece was inspired by a visit to the region in November 2009 sponsored by the Italian Trade Commission (ICE) and EOS, the export organisation of South Tyrol.

Alto Adige

Nestled into the early foothills of the Alps, lies Italy’s most northerly wine region, with the Dolomites as dramatic backdrop.  The region is culturally (and historically) more Germanic than Italian, and signage is bi-lingual, which seems to satisfy the three official languages of this autonomous region, though Südtirol makes for a less alliterative headline. Its architecture, topography, cuisine and punctual habit lay claim to a leading Teutonic disposition.

The region’s wines also reflect the cooler, northern, more aromatic paradigm, being some 1,000 miles distant from Italy’s toes tripping through the warmly lush Mediterranean Sea.

Micro-scale

Reflective of the cooler location, and necessary site-selection that it requires, volumes of wine are not large, indeed microscopy is the order of the game in Alto Adige/Südtirol.  The region produces just 0.7% of Italy’s total wine output, less than 3.5 million cases in total (smaller volumes than several single wine brands such as Australia’s Yellow Tail or Jacob’s Creek). Yet there are no fewer than eight DOCs, named for the various hills and valleys in the Y-shaped incision that is the pre-Alpine Alto Adige, which follows the Isarco river as it flows into the Adige on its way south, then east to the Adriatic. 

The Y of Alto Adige

These eight DOCs cover just 5,100 hectares (ha). This makes the average vineyard holding just 0.65 ha, so no-one is making much of anything. Added into the micro-scale are the more than 20 different grape varieties grown in the region. Small wonder the 15 co-operatives are so important here, accounting for 70% of the harvest. What makes this region different is that several of the co-ops are highly regarded for the quality of wine they produce. Outside of the co-ops nearly 150 producers account for the remainder, making and marketing their own wines.  

Wines with altitude

Altitude has a significant influence here. Vineyards range from 200m to 1,000 metres above sea level. Only 15% of the region’s land surface area is below 1,000 metres. Above this lie meadows and pastures for livestock before seriously mountainous territory intervenes. Cooling Alpine winds are clearly an influence, as is warming Mediterranean influence. Bozen/Bolzano is often the warmest city in Italy.  

Given its Alpine heritage, soil and bedrock composition are massively variable, though the region lays claim to the largest porphyry plate in the Alps. Porphyry is a group of igneous rocks with large grained crystals in a finer-grained mass, and the Alto Adige variety is red.  

Vineyard slopes

Interestingly, given the topographical and pedological complexity of the region, several producers cited altitude as a more important influence on a single grape variety than soil/bedrock, as there is a huge difference in average temperatures over the 800m spread of vineyard altitudes. Michael Goëss-Enzenberg, the owner of Tenuta Manincor said: “for a type of grape variety the altitude is more important. I couldn’t plant pinot noir at 200 metres, it would be overripe and jammy.”

Pinot noir needs a cool and cooler climate to perform at its aromatic best, and there is a tiny amount produced in Alto Adige/Süd Tyrol. But it is local red grape varieties schiava and lagrein that account for a third of the vineyard area, and some of these are interesting.  Overall, though, white wines edge out the reds, made from aromatic and semi-aromatic varieties, including pinot grigio, pinot bianco (weissburgunder/pinot blanc), sauvignon blanc and Müller Thurgau. Gewürztraminer is something of a speciality in the region.

The best are very good indeed. Here’s a small selection (more to follow) from the short visit I made in November. Fruity purity, focus, definition and flavour concentration are the watchwords.

Cantina Tramin, Pinot Grigio Unterebner 2007, Alto Adige DOC
Coming from a high vineyard 450 to 600 metres altitude.
Lush, slippery glycerol showing off a full body; linear profile, rich white stone fruit, focused.

Cantina Terlano, Weissburgunder classico 2008, Terlano DOC
This had stainless steel fermentation and 5 months on lees.
Creamy, white flowers, white nuts, pure linear profile, medium-full body, has faint salty tang (some might argue this is minerality?) that tingles on the tongue. Long palate and finish. Rich, almost white peachy. Really very nice.

Cantina Terlano, Quarz 2007, Terlano DOC
This has spent a year in 500 litre casks.
100% sauvignon blanc, showing a crystallised pineapple nose, with ginger notes. Full, rich, lush fruit, yet dry. Smooth, glycerol-like feeling with rich, full texture. Focus of fruit, clear definition, and some significant concentration, it demands attention. Long; long.

Tenuta Manincor, Sophie 2008, Vigneti della Dolomiti IGT
A blend of chardonnay, viognier, sauvignon blanc, “like salt and pepper in food” said the owner.
Fresh, with flavours of melon, white peach and stoniness; there’s an attractive chalky character to the mid palate creating a wine of elegance, and with dimension.

Weingut Unterortl, Castel Juval Riesling 2008.
Limey intensity, with a mountain-fresh purity of focus.  Medium bodied, with massive concentration, great elegance and a long palate profile. And a very long finish. Outstanding.

Tenute Loacker, Gewurztraminer 2008 Atagis, Alto Adige DOC
Atagis is an old name for river Isarco.
Aromatic rose petal, with a freshness of attack and attractive medium weight; the tasting balance is dry, with concentration and dry lusciousness. There are even some hints of green apple in the wine’s core. The (14%) alcohol is seamlessly integrated, giving a remarkably light yet intense whole.

My research visit to the region in November 2009 was sponsored by the Italian Trade Commission (ICE) and EOS, the export organisation of South Tyrol.

Like the old Opal Fruits (Starburst for younger readers), acidity is ‘made to make your mouth water’.  It’s responsible for the refreshing sensation of wine, think zesty, grapefruit, guava and grassy New Zealand sauvignon blanc.

Getting the acidity level right in wine is serious business, but it is not something that can be considered in isolation, it needs to be balanced with other components, fruit, sugar, tannin and alcohol.

Riesling and cabernet sauvignon are ‘high acid’ varieties, whereas gewürztraminer and grenache are ‘low acid’

Individual grape varieties have their own inherent acidity levels, for example, riesling and cabernet sauvignon are ‘high acid’ varieties, whereas gewürztraminer and grenache are ‘low acid’. In an ideal climate, which varies for each grape variety (plus other factors such as yield, vine age etc), all components will be in balance in the grape and subsequently in the wine.

From a peak at the beginning of grape ripening, acidity decreases in a heat-related process.  In  hot climates, acidity levels can fall quickly, and in cool climates, without sufficient heat, acidity levels can remain searingly high. A challenge is that sugars and fruit flavours accumulate during ripening, so harvest is always a tightrope walk between falling acidity and increasing sugars and fruit flavour, as well as ripening tannins.   The Bordeaux right bank trend among some Châteaux is to leave the grapes on the vine longer, picking later for fuller, sweeter fruit, with the inevitable consequence of lower acidity.  But if acidity becomes too low a wine tastes flabby, fat and forlorn.

Winemakers can adjust acidity during winemaking to try to reach the perfect point of balance.  Adding acidity is common in hot climates such as the Central Valley in Chile or the USA, and inland regions of Australia. Much less widespread is the process of de-acidification which can be done in cool climates such as UK, northern Germany or Tasmania. An alternative here is to add sugar before fermentation as a potential balance-restorative process.

As well as imparting freshness and fruitiness to wines, high acidity protects wine against attack from bacteria.  For these anti-microbial properties, and because the acidity becomes better integrated, it is best practice to add acid before fermentation, firstly by dissolving the acid crystals it in a little grape juice. It is usual to add tartaric acid, which is the most common naturally-occurring one in grapes, in amounts ranging from 1 to 4 grams per litre.

Can you taste added acidity? If the wine is balanced, without any of its component parts sticking out, and if the integrity of a grape variety’s natural acidity levels and varietal expression are not compromised, does it really matter?

Australia has been long derided on the international stage for the poor quality and varietal typicity of its pinot noir wines, and little wonder when Australian imagery has been vast, spectacular, beautiful, panoramic scenery, all of which is the antithesis of the capricious, site-specific, agoraphobic pinot noir. But the last decade has seen a step change in focus as passionate winemakers have been pandering to the variety’s prima donna needs, with some particularly sweet success.

East Coast Tasmania

It’s arguably not even as niche a product as pinot noir is in France. Perhaps it’s one of those weird statistical comparisons, but Australia, with 2.5% of its vineyard area dedicated to pinot noir, has nearly twice the proportion of pinot noir than Burgundy, which has a meagre 1.3% of France’s vineyard area. For the purists, the absolute hectarage is 4,400 hectares (ha) in Australia versus 10,700 ha in Burgundy.

A quick scan of auction house Langton’s latest classication reveals eight pinot noirs, up from two in the first edition. Langtons’ Andrew Caillard MW, said there had been “a genuine improvement of absolute quality over the last ten years … the top regions are really the Melbourne Dress Circle (e.g. Geelong, Macedon, Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula) and Tasmania.”  

Pinot noir plantings may be up only 6% since 2001, but it was also around this time that serious pinot noir producers were getting serious.  Noel Young, proprietor of Noel Young Wines, International Wine Challenge (IWC) Australia Specialist merchant of the year in 2008, which lists 23 Aussie pinot noirs said “progress has been rapid in the last four or five years with the right clones in the right locations, but it’s been happening in Tasmania and Mornington Peninsula since the mid-to-late 1990s as growers have done vintages in France” and experimented with different clones in different soils.

Cool Climate Chic

There’s no getting away from the fact that pinot noir performs to its most precise and perfumed best in cooler climates, and this factor oversees the recent themes of new clonal material, vines coming of age at about a decade old, the trend to site-specific and single vineyard plots, as well as the growing band of producers rocking and rolling with the pinot noir drum.  See table at the end for key areas.

Tasmania certainly has the edge here. “The major natural advantage for Tassie is the wonderful cool climate” said Claudio Radenti of Freycinet Vineyard, “Around the world all the great pinot noirs hail from cool climates. Pinot noirs from warmer climates can be a little heavy and jammy lacking finesse and the gorgeous velvety pinot noir texture.

“The quality potential in Tassie is enormous and exciting. Longer slower ripening conditions favours retention of delicate fruit aromas and flavours” and coolness of climate enables some of those classic, ethereal attributes to thrive.  According to the chief winemaker of Kreglinger Wine Estates (Pipers Brook, Ninth Island and Kreglinger sparkling) René Bezemer, “we retain more of our fruit-derivative components. I look for floral attributes, delicate perfume and distinctive fruit aromas – violets, darker berry fruit, dark cherry.  If I see blackcurrant it’s shrivelled fruit from too much sun. If see strawberry, it’s been picked too early.”    

Pinot Noir

Exploiting the trend to cool climate chic, Tasmania’s vineyard area has nearly trebled since the turn of the millennium, with in 2008, 45% of the yield coming from pinot noir.  In 2000, it accounted for less than one-third.   

Over on the ‘big island’, Mornington Peninsula is oft-cited as producing some really good pinot noir. And internally, Mornington Peninsula winemakers have been talking about sub-regions for some time already: three of them.  Pinot noirs from the north are bigger, more muscular, darker style.  The hill – Main Ridge – show delicate perfumes, floral, elegant notes. 

Ten Minutes by Tractor is one Mornington Peninsula producer doing very well, especially with their single vineyard wines, which can all be reached in ten minutes when travelling by tractor. Neil McAndrew, managing director of their UK importer H&H Bancroft, said: “For us Ten Minutes by Tractor have been the best pinot noirs we’ve ever found in Australia.  They are the bridge between Burgundy and Australia. They have some classic pinot noir characters, but they’re not trying to be Burgundy; they have a savoury character which I haven’t seen in the past from Australia. “The volumes are also Burgundian, and what Bancroft get flies out of the door, according to McAndrew, who also said Ten Minutes By Tractor is the sort of premium Australian wines the restaurant sector is looking for.  It sells in places such as The Square, Home House, Fortnum and Chez Bruce.

Kooyong is another highly respected producer in the Mornington Peninsula, planted as recently as 1996.. The managing director of their UK agent, Great Western Wines, said: “He’s producing great quality in terms of acceptance in the market.  The wines that really tell the story of Kooyong are the wines made from individual parcels, retailing at £25 to £30. But Kooyong also makes two other levels retailing at £15-£16 and about £11, and the acceptance for these has been very good, and remains so, with good success in the independent sector and in the on trade.”  The commercial groundswell is certainly beginning in the UK.

Climbing, Climbing

Both Mornington Peninsula, and Geelong, noted for the likes of Bannockburn and By Farr – on the other side of Port Philip are low-lying coastal zones which garner cooling winds from the Bass Strait. Yet planting at cooler, higher altitudes is also beginning to reap rewards in places such as the Adelaide Hills, though the Macedon Ranges are arguably more successful.  It was in the Macedon Ranges, at 560m elevation, that Phillip Moraghan of Curly Flat settled, having eliminated both Geelong and Mornington Peninsula.  He explained his search was “all about pinot ‘grief’, looking for soil, cool climate, water” all issues for this fastidious grape variety.

But is arguably Bindi, 500m up at the southern end of Macedon that leads the field. The vines, which require straw buttressing in winter, have some age, having been planted in 1988, with 1991 the first vintage.  Owner Michael Dhillon said: “We see about 7-9 years as a real turning point for complexity and structure.”  

Yarra Valley

Steve Webber, winemaker at De Bortoli in the Yarra Valley, also cites vine age, as well as continuously improving quality practices, saying : “I think that with more care and attention to the manual practices [hand picking, hand sorting, whole berry fermenting], we have seen a huge shift in our own quality … I think pinot noir is a vine age thing. Generally our quality is improving with vine age. But poor quality old vine material is not good. I am just starting to make a single vineyard wine from a property that has pinot noir planted in 1990 and 1997″, adding that single vineyard is an important way forward for pinot noir.

A criticism of the Yarra Valley, making as it does, everything from sparkling to fortified, is that its pinot noirs don’t do so well in the warmer years, or indeed the warmer areas, so you need to be in the higher altitude, more southerly, reaches of the valley. But not everyone thinks like that. Rob Hall, winemaker at Mount Mary, just about 30m above the valley floor said: “you can still make very good pinot noir in warmer years, but may not be in the style you’d choose.  Normally we’d like a more delicate style of pinot noir, we’re not keen on tannin or wood. So you might get more tannin in a warmer year. But you can do something with the canopy to keep the fruit cooler.” He added “we’re purchasing south facing slopes for pinot noir and chardonnay to counter some of the warmer years. ”

Champion Clones

Along with site and vine age, newer, trendier clones such as 667, 777, 114 and 115 have been in Australia, also for about a decade. Pirie said there had been a “big impact of new clones and new sites leading to more refined pinot noir expression. At Tamar Ridge, up to 2006, wines were dominated by ‘old’ clones, plus MV6, an old introduction into Australia. These are robust clones but are lacking some of the high notes of true Burgundy.  In the last few years the Pommard clone and the ‘Bernard’ clones from Morey St Denis were introduced. A blend of Pommard and MV6 will be one of the Tamar Ridge reserve wines in 2008.  The Dijon clones, grown on the right soils, have the classic perfume of cherries and summer pudding berries.”

Creature Champions

But above all, human champions are at the vanguard of Aussie pinot noir’s lifting reputation.  Dhillon said: “15 years ago it was young vines, often in poor locations, little experience in the vineyard and winery.  Most [winemakers] did not have a philosophy based on understanding the international benchmarks.  Today, the vines are older, vine management better, yields lower, winemaking more appropriate and the best sites are proving themselves capable of expressing unique qualities.”

“We have inspired growers and winemakers who have a passion and a thorough understanding of benchmarking, using the correct clones and the right sites to grow this unique and challenging grape variety” said Dalwhinnie Wines’ winemaker David Jones, adding “the Mornington Penisnsula Pinot Noir Celebration [a bi-annual pinot noir fest with international flavour, which started in 2003] has been an iconic event and a great inspiration to reach even higher quality levels.”

Another such event is the Victorian Pinot noir workshop, a winemaker-only event, now in its 6th year, where more than 60 winemakers come together to discuss the grape and how to get better and more from it.  Having witnessed “a growing ‘collegiality’ amongst Victorian winemakers who venture down the love-struck path of growing and making pinot noir, more so in this state than I have observed elsewhere” the Victorian Wine Industry Association’s chief executive Joanne Butterworth-Gray thinks this co-operation has been “critical to the success of Victorian pinot noir on the world stage.”

The scale may necessarily be small for the best results, as indeed it is in Burgundy, and as Radenti said, “there are considerably more serious producers of pinot noir in the current decade than in the previous one. There is better understanding by these young professionals of what it takes viticulturally and in the winery to come up with the goods.”

Pinot noir plantings in Australia

A lot of areas are experimenting but a few core regions dominate higher quality production

Adelaide Hills                       391 ha

Geelong                                   170

Macedon Ranges                    58

Mornington Peninsula       252

Tasmania                                 625

Yarra Valley                          706

Sub total                              2,202   50% of total pinot noir plantings

Llamas in Patagonia

Viticultural Chile is moving at a pace that would pride a troop of triffids. In a country where more than 40% of the vineyard area is less than 10 years old, new valleys, outside the preserve of the Central Valley, are being explored in the quest for cooler climate Chile.

But ‘normal’ climatic rules no longer apply. Chile may be that long, skinny country 4,200km from north to south and only 100km west to east, but Diego Benavente, winemaker at Matetic Vineyards, in San Antonio valley said “people say Chile is wider than it is long because the climate changes more dramatically east to west than it does north to south.” Marcelo Papa, Concha y Toro’s head winemaker drummed home the point: “In Chile 10 to 15km east to west can make the equivalent change of 400km north to south.”

So while Elqui to Bio-Bio is more than 1,000 km distant, it’s time to forget the north-south divide, and rethink Chile in terms of east and west, as well as low and high altitude.   

Fogs and ocean breezes

In many parts of the world, MJTs (mean January (southern hemisphere)/July (northern) temperatures) and degree days remain a useful starting block from which modifications and refinements can be made to identify climate zones. But the indefatigable Marcelo Retamal, climate and soil expert as well as De Martino’s chief winemaker, said “For me it’s most important to recognise the warm areas in the world using the average of the maximum temperature.” The mean temperature works, he said, but the high diurnal temperature variation in all parts of Chile is important.

The Humboldt current drives part of this, coming up from the Antarctic, bringing chilly winds.  Ocean influence is crucial and is often a combination of fog, near the coast, and ocean breezes, which can reach quite far inland, where transverse valley topography allows.  

Much of San Antonio Valley, on the west side of the coastal ranges, is open to direct ocean influences. Viviana Navarrete, the winemaker at Viña Leyda, 13km from the coast, said they have “mist and fog the whole year which stays till noon. Then breezes push the clouds away and we get sun in the afternoon, which allows us to ripen with freshness.”  

Freshness is an important issue for these producers. Francisco Ponce, winemaker at Viña Garcés Silva, which produces the Amayna brand, said they feel the “cool climate in the acidity of grapes. Here we don’t lose the acidity, it’s still at a good level.”

San Antonio is colder, windier and foggier than Casablanca. As well as general coolness, we return to the diurnals. Benavente said: “the difference between day and night is sometimes more than 20°C. Polyphenols evolve slower with high diurnals, we have to wait for them to ripen. There’s not much metabolism at night.” Even though viticulture is less than 10 years’ old, the valley’s suitability for sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, pinot noir and some interesting early examples of cooler climate syrah have become evident.

Casablanca Valley

At just over 20 years old, the grand old dame of Casablanca, also on the ocean side of the coastal ranges, is these days regarded as a rather large and diverse region, erring towards 50km across, which is in fact notably warmer at its east end than its west end, given the latter’s greater proximity to those cold Humboldt breezes. Additionally the fogs, which provide temporary respite from the sun, do not reach the east end of the valley, and a temperature gradient of up to 4°C has been observed between the west and east of Casablanca, with the east end harvesting up to three weeks before the west end.

Luminosity

One thing the fog does is to reduce the level of luminosity. Benavente, in foggy San Antonio, said: “there’s less luminosity here. We’ve planted mostly north facing slopes to get more sun. In the ripening season say we get 3 to 4 foggy days a week.” The downside, he added, was that “too strong an ocean influence is detrimental to flowering and yields.”

Luminosity is all about the amount and intensity of light, independent of temperature. It’s great for photosynthesis. According to self-declared non-expert on the subject, Aurelio Montes, chairman, founding partner and winemaker of Viña Montes, “most grape varieties would love some luminosity for colour, phenols and tannins. It’s found more in high level altitude, where humidity is low.”

He added “luminosity is not temperature – mountains can be freezing, but with high luminosity.” (sunburn on the ski-slopes?). Retamal addresses this apparent paradox of sunburnt grapes and cooler climate:  “UV is part of luminosity. Limarí is cool climate in terms of temperature, but we have light, and the grape skins can get sunburn. We’re changing rows to east-west.  If rows are north-south, both sides of bunches burn.  If they’re east-west, the idea is the sun crosses over the row. We need to cover fruit with leaves.”  At De Martino’s Quebrada Estate, which is 24km from the ocean, he said “this year we decided not to use wires with VSP [vertical shoot positioning]. We let the shoots fall down [for shade], and we had no burn problem.  We picked three weeks later, the wine had 13.6% alcohol, the acidity was very good, the pH was good, the wine is outstanding.”

The Limarí valley is making a name for both chardonnay and syrah. Concha y Toro’s Papa explained their Maycas del Limarí  project: “Limarí is affected by the ocean. The coastal ranges do not exist [so plenty of wind]. But Limarí is quite extensive, there are some warm parts. In the area we’re growing, the maximum average January temperature is 25°C, the minimum average 12°C.”  He said this roughly compares to Puligny Montrachet, but the length of time over which the peak of temperature extends is longer in Limarí, which is important. Chile’s high alcohols are partly explained where the average maximum extends for several months. Compare this to Bordeaux for example, where it extends for just one month.

Parked just outside the winery

Further north still, despite a little closer proximity to the equator, Elqui Valley still has cool bits. De Martino own Chile’s highest vineyard at 2,000m ASL in Elqui, a region probably more famous for having some of the best quality light on the planet, to which several observatories attest. They’re using a new-to-winemaking training system, the parrón Elquino, a variant of the pergola, where a single long branch, angled at something approaching 45°, is trained at height to provide shade against sunburn. The system was originally created for local people who produce grapes for Pisco, and who know a thing or two about grape growing in the region.

Andean altitude

Moving over to eastern influences, the Andes also play their part in moderating temperature, in the foothills, offering a slightly cooler spot in an otherwise warmer area. As such it’s better suited to later ripening varieties, so while cabernet sauvignon is frozen out of the ocean coast, it finds succour in the Andean foothills. Cabernet sauvignon ripens late. It needs warmth to avoid herbal notes, so cool for cabs is more likely to be a cooler spot in a warmer clime. Andes and altitude rather than ocean and aeolian influences.

On the subject of cool climate cab, Montes said: “it doesn’t work in Casablanca, Leyda, and Limarí. There’s too much minty, eucalyptus and pyrazine flavours. But cool climate cabernet sauvignon is found in the Upper Maipo and foothills of Colchagua at 500 to 650m altitude. Over 700m is too cold. ”

Pérez Cruz takes advantage of just such a foothill spot, being 50km south east of Santiago in Maipo Alto, at altitudes of 480 to 520m. Their winemaker, Germán Lyon said: “it’s not a cool area, it’s warmer than Bordeaux, but it’s not too warm. The south east spot of Maipo is cooler than Colchagua for example. The vineyards are the first to be cooled by the Andes at night, and the last to be warmed during the day by ocean breezes. The day-night temperature variation is 18-20°C.” For late ripeners such as cabernet sauvignon, the trajectory continues to be finding cooler spots in the general warmth.

Antarctic latitude

Way down south towards the cooling Antarctic, Bio Bio valley is recently oft-touted for aromatic grape varieties such as riesling, gewürztraminer, even pinot noir. But disease pressure becomes more of an issue.  Rainfall increases as you go further south, more than 1,000mm in the Bio Bio to over 2,000mm at Puente Montt, south of Malleco Valley (which isn’t as far south as Marlborough in New Zealand).

But there’s that east-west effect again. Retamal explains: “It is the proximity to the ocean that will determine whether the climate is cool or not.  If you are close to the ocean or next to the canyon of a river where you can sometimes experience cooler breezes, you will be in a ‘cool climate’.  However, if you are close to Los Angeles, the main town in the region, the likelihood is that you will be in a warmer climate, since this middle area of Bio Bio generally records peak summer temperatures that push 33°C – warmer than Santiago.”

So, with apologies to Germany: thought you knew Chile – think again.