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.

L-R: Greiner, Fürst, Rebholz, Maurer

The recent emergence of German pinot noir (spätburgunder) on the world stage was revisited with this tasting seminar, held at Staatsdomäne Assmansshausen in Rüdesheim, Germany, in late September 2009, as part of a Master of Wine visit to the region.  

Panellists for the seminar were Dieter Greiner of Kloster Eberbach-Domäne Assmannshausen, Paul Fürst of Weingut Rudolf Fürst, and Hansjörg Rebholz of Rebholz estate. It was moderated by Caro Maurer, a journalist in Germany and Master of Wine student.

One might be forgiven for imagining Germany and riesling in the same breath, but a third of the German vineyard is planted to red grape varieties, with pinot noir accounting for a grand 12% of the total, a figure that’s tripled in the past 30 years, and which, if plantings for Champagne are excluded, is about the same as for France.

And it’s the past 30 years that has witnessed a revolution in red-winemaking in Germany.  It coincided with a change of generation, including Rebholz and Fürst, who took over the family estate and went travelling, especially to Burgundy. Prior to this red wine making was generally, though not always, as for white wine, so a short fermentation, no time on the skins, no malolactic fermentation, resulting in high acid wines that were sweetened to balance them.

These leading lights of the new generation started making their red wines as red wines. And the usual gamut of experimentation followed: pre-fermentation cold maceration, extended time on skins, the introduction of oak etc. Then moved into the vineyard with lower yield management: harder winter prunings, green harvest during the growing season, foliage management as well as the search for higher quality clones, such as Burgundy clones 113, 114, 115, 667 and 777, plus new ones from Geisenheim Research Centre, the type 20 clones, which give lower yields and smaller berries with more concentrated fruit. Even as the pinot noir vines age, new dimensions are developing in spätburgunder.

And as with such a ‘young’, experimenting industry, Maurer said: “There is no ‘German pinot noir’ [style]. We have so many different climates and soils, from slate to coloured sandstone. We have the most vivid acid, generally showing more fruit than other pinot noir producing areas, keeping the balance between fruit and acidity.”

She added: “For us, pinot noir is prestigious. Like riesling, it shows its climate and its soil:  pinot noir is as the red riesling. It’s our terroir variety.”

Given pinot noir’s propensity to reflect its local site, there is a reversion to vineyard site, which is how the German vineyards used to be organised hundreds of years ago. Maurer said: “we’re not using pradikats, such as spätlese or auslese, for pinot noir so much, we’re more concentrating on the [vineyard] sites, such at Centgrafenberg.” 

The wines

As part of this experimentation, a modernist approach was also discussed.  Fürst said: “I find some important things with these wines.  Slate soils are very different from the others. Then, Huber and Becker represent the modern German interpretation of spätburgunder, which is what we all want to do now. In winemaking it is very important to go to lower extraction, use gentle work with the grapes, to get more silkiness and more freshness.”  

Tasting notes, September 2009.

The main regions for pinot noir are Ahr, Württemberg, Baden, Franken and the Pfalz.

The tasting seminar was orientated around terroir:  slate soils, volcanic soils, limestone, and sandstone soils. 

The tasting comprised wines retailing between €30 and €100.

Wines 1 to 3 come from slate soils, which is said to give lower tannins, softer fruit, more red berries and redcurrant, less cherry fruit.
Wine 4 comes from volcanic soils, which is said to give richer, fuller bodied wines, with spices, more opulent.
Wine 5, plus 7 to 9 are from limestone soils.
Wines 10 to 12 are from variegated sandstones.  

Wine 1.  Kloster Eberbach, Domäne Assmannshausen,  Hollenberg Spätburgunder spatlese trocken 2004, Assmanshausen, Rheingau
Greiner “a classic late ripening vintage with good acidity, picked at the end of October. Cold winds at night keep the acidity level.”

Spicy, hint rumtopf on the nose, black berry, uplifting volatile acidity and slight green notes at back of nose; medium length.

Wine 2.  Weingut August Kesseler,  Berg Schlossberg Spätburgunder  2007, Assmanshausen, Rheingau
The top wine from the winery.  Greiner: “dense planted vineyards, 25-year-old vines. He’s using new Geisenheim clones with tiny berries. Barrique for 18 months, 50% new.”

Medium cherry colour, fresh and linear profile with very smooth texture, rich berry fruits of the forest.  Elegant, young, and lightly chewy tannins, with youthful intensity, concentration and balance. Very long finish. Excellent.

Wine 3.  J.J. Adeneuer, Garkammer Spätburgunder  Grosses Gewächs  2007, Ahrweiler, Ahr
Smoky, hint of lifting volatile acidity; medium weight. Red berry and cranberry background on the palate. Smooth light tannins, long palate and finish. Freshness throughout the palate. Good length.

Wine 4.  Weingut Salwey, Kirchberg Spätburgunder  Grosses Gewächs  2003, Oberrottweil, Baden
Hint tarry, warm, ’sweet’ fruit, higher glycerol. Not so much length, acid balance quite broad in comparison with further north. Full-fat, sweet, very ripe fruit.

Wine 5.  Bernhard Huber, Wildenstein Spätburgunder  R, 2007, Malterdingen, Baden
Maurer: “He cuts the shoulders of the bunches and tips to have round bunches. One week cold maceration; pigeage in wooden fermenters. On skins for 21 days in total.”

Crunchy red cherry fruit, perky, fresh, focused. Smooth texture, but more tannin, felt on mid palate. Youthful, ripe, grainy tannins at core for framework. Uplifting palate with freshening acidity. Great acid/fruit rapier edge, warm tannins add framework. Very good. Plenty of all the right things to age this one. Long finish.

Wine 6.  Friedrich Becker, Pinot Noir Schweigen, Pfalz 2007, Tafelwein trocken
This one has to be called a tafelwein, because the fruit is from France, along the Alsace/Pfalz border. The vines are considered German, though. Long, geopolitical history in this part of the world.
Maurer: “Fourteen day fermentation in wooden fermenters. No extended time on skins; 100% new barriques.”

Closed nose, warm spicy open knit fruit. Less focused than previous wine. This would have to be good value, but even €30 wouldn’t be. Hint hot on the finish.

Mini vertical of Rebholz estate

Rebholz:  “We are in the southern part of Pfalz, 1 km from the Becker estate. There is a group of five estates of the southern Pfalz, we travel to foreign wine regions. One of our goals is to find the perfect quality of pinot noir.  There is a long tradition of pinot noir in our region, with a French introduction in the Middle Ages. We have perfect soil with limestone, like in Burgundy, and similar weather conditions to Burgundy.“

Wine 7.  Rebholz Estate,  Im Sonnenschein Spätburgunder  Grosses Gewächs  2007, Sibeldingen, Pfalz
A sample, ready for bottling. Spicy new oak, still overt, with plenty of fresh red berry fruit alongside; very young, balanced.  Oak will integrate. Fruit is lovely and fresh, slightly masked currently by the oak.

Wine 8. Rebholz Estate,  Im Sonnenschein Spätburgunder  Grosses Gewächs, 2004
Creamy texture, hint of lifting volatile acidity with smooth texture, some savoury development, and with soft red berry fruit. Long finish. Going to a savoury, puréed fruit cake note.

Wine 9. Rebholz Estate, Spätburgunder gold 1997
Smoke and aromatic tar, developing softly and roundly, tannins softening but still have some grip, a bit more than pinot noir this old might normally have. Mellow for sure, warming finish.

Mini vertical of Weingut Rudolf Fürst

Wine 10.  Rudolf Fürst, Centgrafenberg Spätburgunder  R, 2006 Burgstadt, Franken
Fürst:  “We harvested before the rain around Oct 3. With warm nights, it was a medium year, but interesting for spätburgunder. This is what we want to produce in future, better and better wines.  We don’t have many old vineyards with good genetics; we planted vineyards with good genetics in last 15 to 20 years.  We have to wait for these to grow up.  The style and minerality of this wine are typical, a dancing on the tongue and in the mouth, with power.”

Aromatic strawberry nose, elegant and fruit-focused. Crunchy red cherry attack. Oak tannins in supportive background, fruit/acid balance to the fore.  Long palate and long finish. Some attractive purity of fruit definition, lightness, a moment of ethereality.

Wine 11.  Rudolf Fürst, Centgrafenberg Spätburgunder  R, 2003 Burgstadt, Franken
Warmest year, harvested three weeks earlier than normal.

Aromatic spicy strawberry fruit, medium weight,  red cherry. Some dry notes at back palate from heat of vintage. Red fruit still fighting forth.

Wine 12. Rudolf Fürst, Centgrafenberg Spätburgunder  R, 1997 Burgstadt, Franken
Fürst: “one of my best years with my grapes. It was a late harvest, Oct 20^th, but we were not so good at winemaking at this time: more extraction, dark colour, strong tannins. At the time people liked this style. Now my winemaking is gentler, with more silkiness.”

Smoky nose, most deeply coloured. Savoury development, even a hint of dried meat, smooth texture and framework are in place, weight and roundness exaggerated from more modern style now made by Fürst.

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.

Central Otago

Despite their very short history of production, there are some really classy pinot noirs from both islands, though as in Burgundy, it’s still a case of know-your-producer.  And the country is setting its sights high. David Cox, director – Europe, for New Zealand Winegrowers, the generic body that promotes NZ wine abroad, said “if anyone is going to turn die hard old world pinot noir lovers over to the new world, then New Zealand can do it.”

He added New Zealand pinot noir was getting an “increasing reputation around the world and in the UK. They’re getting better and better each year: the vines have been in the ground longer, and they’re getting confident about pushing regionality and stylistic differences in the five main regions” for pinot noir.

Pinot Noir Regionality?

Those top five regions account for 95% of plantings:

Source for both: NZ Winegrowers

For me, Central Otago stands out as having an aromatic and primary-fruited focus, with a sweet succulence of fruit density that’s not often matched elsewhere.  The Otagans are even sub-sub-dividing their styles, but let’s not go there just yet.

Some pinot noir from Martinborough does seem to have an earthy, forest floor/forest berry component, and can be a more full-bodied style, but still within the pure pinot noir genre.  I’ve also found notable earthiness and weight in some Canterbury/Waipara examples.

Marlborough may lead the plantings field, but it is also notably variable, and sometimes patchy, in style and quality. We’re told Marlborough has bright red fruits such as cherry and raspberry, and a lean core of acidity, and I do find these in some wines.

Whether regional styles are truly emerging or wines are still more a reflection of individual winemaker philosophy is still a subject for discussion. The New Zealand pinot noir industry is still too young to observe categorical differences.

For the new 2008 and 2007 pinot noir releases onto the market, tasting notes below, I wasn’t aware of particularly strong regional identities, more aware of good wines and less good wines.

General observations from the tasting include:

• the idea of perfume as a quality indicator – those wines with enticing aromatics also tended to show well on the palate.
• the fact you need to pay at least £15 to have the chance of getting something decent
• tasting lushness and sweetness of fruit does not contradict with a dry wine.
• the subtlety of tannin volume and texture is crucial to quality perception.

A selection of my tasting notes, November 11, 2009  

Escarpment, The Edge Pinot Noir 2008, Martinborough, £10.75
Bright cherry red; aromatic sweet allspice perfume and stewed raspberries; lush, sweet attack and mid palate with fresh acidity. Quite full body, but good fresh fruit with hints of cinnamon spice. Good flavour at this level, mid length finish.

Escarpment, Pinot Noir  2008, Martinborough, £17.25
Translucent cherry red; aromatic spice, long palate length; sweet, smooth texture, some good refinement of texture and volume of fruit. Medium to full-bodied, with hint of aromatic tar and marmalade-toast. Rich palate fruit and good length of finish. Very nicely balanced and wholesome.

Old Coach Road, Pinot Noir 2008, Nelson, £9.99 
Pale cherry red; lifted spiky redcurrant nose, some restrained fruit, with hints of allspice in the background; perky freshness without mid palate succulence, but with mid palate restraint. Gentle red fruits, nicely balanced with fresh acidity, medium-ish weight, and no great complexity.

Waimea Pinot Noir 2008, Nelson £11.99
Mid cherry colour, faintly confected red cherry nose, cheers up on the palate into straightforward red cherry fruit, nice fruit, though no great complexity.

Babich Winemakers Pinot Noir Reserve 2008, Marlborough, £ 11.99
Stewed forest berry fruit, but other than that and mid-pale cherry colour, difficult to recognise as pinot noir. Alcohol of 14% becomes too evident on the back palate.

Villa Maria Cellar Selection Pinot Noir 2008, Marlborough, £12.99
Medium translucent ruby; sweet blackberry on the nose, lacking a bit of perkiness mid palate which makes the fruit appear flabby; nice black cherry fruit comes through on the palate. OK, but doesn’t shine.

Hunter’s Pinot Noir 2008, Marlborough, £12.95
Medium translucent cherry; aromatic allspice and cinnamon nose with strawberry compote notes peeking through, fresh palate attack, red berry fruits to the fore, with attractive slippery texture, and rich intensity of primary fruit mid palate. Lifted medium palate, finishes a tad short, otherwise nicely balanced. Very decent.

Momo Pinot Noir 2008, Marlborough, £12.95
Medium pale cherry; nose is a bit weedy – leafy; palate attack has an edge which softens mid palate into a black cherry spectrum allowing sweetness of fruit to emerge. Medium-plus weight and sweet succulence comes out nicely. Warming 14% alcohol is noticeable but not dominant. Sweet finish.

Framingham Pinot Noir 2008, Marlborough, £12.99
Medium deep black cherry; spicy, almost mulled nose, which is not replicated on the palate. Palate is still dark berry fruited. Full bodied for a pinot noir. Rich, sweet density and volume of fruit. 13.5% seems a little warm on this wine. A bit rustic.

Jackson Estate, Vintage Widow Pinot Noir 2008, Marlborough, £14.99
Pretty deep ruby, not opaque by any standards, but dark. Nose a bit closed, hint grippy and oaky on the palate attack. This softens into sweet, glycerol-laden black berry and cherry fruit. Not subtle or delicate, in the bruising style of pinot noir, but not necessarily unattractive for that. Long finish.

Staete Landt, Pinot Noir 2008, Marlborough, £15.95
Medium translucent red cherry; perky freshness, attractive, fresh, crunchy red cherry, with some sandalwood complexity, medium weight. Lean rather than lush – a Marlborough thing?

Huia, Pinot Noir 2008, Marlborough, £16.00
Medium deep translucent black cherry; savoury and red cherry nose, lush red berry fruit, with freshening acid core; focus on primary fruit without too much complexing character; finish has the faintest hint of a bitter note.

Saint Clair, Pioneer Block 14, Pinot Noir 2008, Marlborough, £17.99
Medium translucent cherry red; perfume and wild strawberries on the nose; linear attack of sweet raspberries and redcurrants; enchanting slender and aromatic mid palate, fresh core with restraint and some magnetism. Decent palate length.

Saint Clair, Pioneer Block 4, Pinot Noir 2008, Marlborough, £17.99
Medium translucent dark cherry; hint leafy on the nose, palate attack also so, but also has slippery rich texture and dark berry fruits. Some savoury notes add a hint of complexity, but I’d like to see a little less leafiness.

Mt Difficulty, Roaring Meg Pinot Noir 2008, Central Otago, £13.99
Medium pale red cherry; smells a bit sharp; simple crunchy red cherry fruit on the palate; adequate, possibly even decent at the price, but not quite what the region or the variety can do well.

Quartz Reef Pinot Noir 2008, Central Otago £15.00
Medium translucent red cherry; dusky cherry nose; sandalwood and spicy wood notes overlay subtle sweet red fruits; hints of savouriness, with a core of refining acidity. Has lush, sweet, dark brooding cherry mid palate, spicy finish. Some nice notes of non-fruity complexity, which make it stand out. Alcohol of 14.5% is very well integrated but does just pop up on the finish.

Carrick Crown & Cross Pinot Noir 2008, Central Otago, £17.95
Medium pale red cherry; muted nose, bit lightweight on aromatics, and with a dusky mid palate note. Fresh acid core, but I’d expect it to show better. Alcohol of 14.5% is not best integrated.

Mt Difficulty Pinot Noir 2008, Central Otago, £19.99
Medium red cherry; soft spice red cherry compote; enthralling fruit attack, soft fruit mid palate, with fresh acid backbone, delicate and slender; attractive fresh finish of some elegance creates very good impression.

Felton Road, Block 5 Pinot Noir 2008, Central Otago, £29.00
Medium cherry red; dark cherry and graphite nose falling into sweet dark cherry palate, with the smooth depth of a black hole you can’t help but want to fall into. Refined and layered; integrated and beautifully balanced. Sublime.

Neudorf, Tom’s Block Pinot Noir 2007, Nelson, £16.00
Medium pale ruby; smoky red cherry lift; sweet/dry combo fruit attack, slippery texture, dark, brooding cherry palate, supremely smooth and enticing, dark chocolate and savoury back palate notes and very long; flinty notes tucked away in the layers.

Neudorf, Moutere Pinot Noir 2007, Nelson £26.00
Medium cherry red; graphite and cherry nose, sweet cherry and tamarind palate attack. Understated, refined palate, very smooth, long and textured with layers of complexity; savoury/umami sensation; supple, subtle texture and well-proportioned weight. Sweet fruit with dry core, acidity fresh yet swathed in richness of fruit and texture making it very good.

Clos Henri, Pinot Noir 2007, Marlborough, £18.00
Bit reductive nose which blows off; dark crunchy fruit but no great subtlety; dark, slatey notes among tangy dark chocolate, cherry and tamarillo; some good complexity and depth

Spy Valley, Envoy Pinot Noir 2007, Marlborough, £21.49
Medium translucent ruby; lifted stewed cherries; quite full bodied without elegance making it a little rustic.

Cloudy Bay Pinot Noir 2007, Marlborough, £25.00
Medium translucent ruby; dark spices on the nose, rich mixed berry compote palate, with sweet core and lush texture; could be a tad fresher on the core? Rich, fat style with supple texture.

Seresin, Rachel Pinot Noir 2007, Marlborough, £25.00
Medium deep cherry; sandalwood and allspice aromatic perfumed nose, enticing sweet red berry fruit palate, silky texture, succulent, complexing black pepper twist mid palate, lush and complex; more-ish in a simple, focused spectrum.

Seresin, Raupo Creek Pinot Noir 2007, Marlborough, £25.00         
Medium deep cherry; spicy, hints graphite, lush and savoury palate core. Full weighted palate, without being full bodied – the weight of lush sweet berry fruit;  palate fresh and complex, enticing, smooth and delicately spiced. Long finish.

Pegasus Bay, Pinot Noir 2007, Waipara, £22.50
Medium pale bright red cherry; toasted spice nose; full bodied dark berry fruit with smooth, succulent texture, dark chocolate and blueberries. Full, rich, alcohol on the finish but integrated mid palate. In the big, rich, not-quite-bruising style of pinot noir.

Mac Forbes

Australian pinot noir has evolved beyond recognition in the last five to ten years. Cooler sites are being exploited and greater varietal definition and purity are emerging as a result of this, and producers’ growing expertise at managing the fruit/acid paradigm of balance rather than the more typical, for red wine, fruit/tannin paradigm. Inevitably this means a lower perception, and reality, of new oak influence on the fruit from this delicate grape variety. And cooler sites do their part to help preserve more natural acidity in the fruit.

The regions of Australia currently producing some of the best expressions of pinot noir include Tasmania, plus Gippsland, Mornington Peninsula and the Yarra Valley, all in Victoria.

Mac Forbes of Mac Forbes Wines, in the Yarra Valley, led a blind-tasting seminar, in London this month, of Australian pinot noir from these regions. He said: “It’s terrific when there’s excitement in the local industry. From producers’ perspectives, we’re in the midst of an exciting time in history, certainly from a cool climate perspective.”

He emphasised that the Aussies are at the beginning of their learning curve for pinot noir, saying “the questions are far bigger than the answers. We’re asking questions on soils and clones and canopy management. And we’re coming to grips with our own frontier. I’ve never seen so much energy and focus with varieties like pinot noir, as well as pushing the boundaries with other varieties such as shiraz. We’re making a lot of trials, and having a lot of failures.”  Not to mention some enormous and encouraging successes to build on.

Another reason for pinot noir being at the beginning of the curve in Australia is that much of the existing planting material was planted in the wrong (warmer) place, with many of the wrong clones. And said Forbes: “a big chunk of pinot noir problems in the past is because they were situated in places where the night time temperatures are too warm. So there’s a loss of aromatics.”  In fact, Forbes reckons “the picking date is the most important thing. The acid is dropping, fruit vitality is dropping, so we have a pretty small window to pick.  We’re dealing with some fundamental differences in fruit behaviour compared to Europe.” This from a chap who also works in Austria, so he’s able to make direct comparisons with authority.

Victoria

Part of the ongoing challenge is for Australia to identify a style of pinot noir it can claim as its own.  New Zealand’s Central Otago has done a fantastic job in this regard. But Australia is so big it’s not going to have just one style.  Already Mornington Peninsula is talking about sub-regional styles, and Forbes is pushing Yarra Valley the same way. 

For the time being, it’ll be a good job for Australia just to be recognised for producing some proper pinot noir. 

Tasting notes

All the wines were from the 2008 vintage, some of which had not yet been released onto the market at the time of tasting. They would be expected to put on a bit of weight, and fatness, in bottle (a good thing in this context)!

Ten Minutes By Tractor, McCutcheon Vineyard Pinot Noir 2008, Mornington Peninsula
15 months in oak, 27% new.
Pale ruby garnet. Aromatic strawberry, heady perfume. Fresh, light elegant attack with piquancy of alcohol (13.8%) in mid palate, bit of dark plum mid palate. Could have a bit more mid-palate density, but very good varietal definition. Hint of the savoury, with long finish.

Kooyong Haven Pinot Noir 2008, Mornington Peninsula
18 months in oak, 30% new.
Medium deep ruby. Rich blueberry aroma, sandalwood spice of new oak peeking through the aroma, not obtrusive. Medium full body, lush sweet fruit (in a dry wine), good slug of slippery glycerol adding to palate texture, fruit slightly hollow mid-palate, and finish a little disappointing on first tasting, but fills out a bit in the glass and palate has lengthened after time in the glass.

Stoniers Windmill Vineyard Pinot Noir 2008, Mornington Peninsula
11 months in oak, 45% new
Medium ruby. Nose a bit closed, hint of blackberry stems/leaf, and a faint note of tannin grip early on palate. Quite full bodied with sweet texture and redcurrant fruit. Decent length. Quite crunchy (not wholly positive in this context).

Yabby Lake Pinot Noir 2008, Mornington Peninsula
12 months in oak, 33% new
Medium ruby. Wild strawberry nose, bit more warmth in comparison to the first three wines. Hints of savoury, earthy notes amid the soft red berries. The most structured of the first four wines, and attractive for that. Refreshing baked note to finish. Length could be longer. 14% alcohol completely balanced and integrated.

William Downie Gippsland Pinot Noir 2008, Gippsland
40% new barriques.
Medium ruby, with stewed red berries, and hints of tomato leaf and mint leaf. Bit stalky mid palate, with dark plum competing for attention on mid palate. Quite edgy just now. Might settle into itself.

Tamar Ridge Kayena Vineyard Pinot Noir 2008, Tasmania
12 months in 20% new oak.
Bright red cherry fruit, elusive perfume. Medium body with attractive acid balance and freshness of fruit. Softening crunchy fruit, decent length, piquant allspice note mid palate to complex the fruit a little; smoothly textured; wholesome.

Delamere Vineyard Pinot Noir 2008, Pipers River, Tasmania
15 months in 35% new oak.
Medium ruby; aromatic spice nose, not so much fruit aroma on the nose, seductive sweet red fruit undercurrent to the palate with noticeable tannin. Fruit wins out. Attractive slippery texture, sweet but dry fruit, nicely balanced fruit/acid spectrum with a bit of tannin muscle to soften in over the next couple of years.

Pirie Estate Pinot Noir 2008, Tasmania
12 months in barrel
Medium ruby with purple hint. Fresh purple fruit, crunchy, youthful, more simple at first nose. Almost blackberry/Ribena. Has gentle sensation of pinot noir with softer acid core; fruit opens up in warmth of mouth. Quite full bodied with youthful tannin frame, but  still succulent fruit. Nicely balanced; refreshing finish.

Stefano Lubiana Pinot Noir 2008, Tasmania
12 months in 30% new oak
Medium deep ruby; juicy dark plum nose and palate attack. Full sweet-fruited body, plum, dark cherry, good level of smoothening glycerol, very nicely balanced for longer evolution, and now. Seductive style with serious structure.

Shelmerdine Pinot Noir 2008, Yarra Valley
10 months in oak
Medium pale colour; wild strawberry, intense perfume nose, very aromatic. Light, sweet-fruited attack, strawberries and raspberries, definitely in the aromatic profile, still with slippery texture; elegantly structured; lightness of being with this wine. Tannins largely hidden; perfume persists through palate. Delicious now, not sure about keeping it for any length of time. Long fruity finish.

Mac Forbes Coldstream Pinot Noir 2008, Yarra Valley
11 months in 35% new oak.
Medium pale colour; crunchy cherry skins on the nose. Perceptive tart note to palate attack, quickly followed by youthful, primary fruit. No great complexity on first tasting; perkily balanced but not showing many personality traits, but does open up in the glass. Long finish though, so maybe understated. Light on tannins.

Yarra Yering Pinot Noir 2008, Yarra Valley
18 months in 40% new oak.
Medium ruby; smoky, almost mint note to the nose; warm, dry baked black cherry, medium full body, warm and warming on the palate, quite seductively textured with good intensity and volume of fruit. Richly balanced with expansive fruit, and sweet long fruit finish. Probably the most atypical of these wines. The 14% alcohol is integrated.

Mac Forbes Woori Yallock Pinot Noir 2008, Yarra Valley
11 months in 33% new oak.
Medium pale; toasted red cherry; medium bodied. Hint savoury mid palate; slightly subdued, but with focused acid core. Fragrant strawberry aroma mid palate; tight fruit; finish a bit shorter than I might have hoped.

L-R: Greiner, Näkel, Fürst, Viehhauser, Heger

Top German spätburgunder (pinot noir) producers from the Ahr to Baden came to London to present their wines at a Master of Wine Masterclass on Sept 11, 2009.

Presenting their wines (north to south) were:
Meike Näkel of Weingut Mayer-Näkel (Ahr)
Dieter Greiner of Kloster Eberbach (Rheingau)
Paul Fürst of Weingut Rudolf Fürst (Franken)
Yquem Viehhauser of Weingut Bernhard Huber (Baden)
Joachim Heger of Weingut Dr. Heger (Baden)

Germany has an historic heritage of spätburgunder (pinot noir) production, stretching back 700 years and more, when Cistercian monks first took their grapes with them from Burgundy.

But the country’s ascendency to emerging world class spätburgunders largely dates from the late 1980s, as Joachim Heger of Weingut Dr. Heger in Baden explained: “We had very good wines in the old days. Then there was a period of time that was not as strong. In the 1950s, most German reds came from heated must. The wine was drinkable in March after the harvest. People added sugar to the wines so they didn’t do the malolactic fermentation. That was style of pinot noir. Nobody kept wine in bottle.

“In the late 80s and early 90s Germans came back to fermenting skins with the must, to take colour from the skins by alcohol not by heat. Since then, there has been a big development.”

In this respect, German spätburgunder is ‘newer’ than parts of the new world, though many of the best sites are matched to spätburgunder, so those centuries served a significant purpose.

Germany has the third largest plantings of pinot noir in the world (after France, and post-Sideways USA), but the variety has always played second fiddle to riesling. Spätburgunder is the most widely planted black grape variety in Germany, with 11,820ha, slowly increasing over the past five years. It accounts for 12% of the country’s total vineyard area, and 1/3rd of the black grape plantings.

Dernauer Pfarrwingert, Ahr

Ahr is the northernmost region growing pinot noir, north of the 50° line latitude. The cycle of vine-growing here is two to three weeks behind the southern parts of Baden, some 400km further south. Meike Näkel, whose father started the Mayer-Näkel estate said: “the steep slopes give a high sun intensity. The slate soils conserve heat and reflect it back, so we have higher average temperatures than the surrounding areas.”

A persistent theme for the seminar was changing viticultural and winemaking practices in the last quarter of a century. Meike said: “Before 2002, we used a maximum 11 months’ barrique ageing, but since then, it’s up to 16 months to give the wine more tannin from the oak. We also changed the maceration time to about 21 days including a short pre-fermentation maceration, and cooling time at the end of fermentation. We started making everything longer to give our wines more substance and the ability to age a little longer as well.” In the northern Ahr, the fruit/acid razor edge exists, with the winery working on those other elements of structure.

At Rheingau’s Kloster Eberbach, not so distant from the Ahr, and also on slate soils, a theme of perfumed elegance persisted in the wines.  For this estate, said its managing director, Dieter Greiner “the intensity of how we work in the vineyard has changed dramatically in the last 20 years. Such as cutting grape bunches in half [to limit yield], and removing leaves.”

Assmannshausen Höllenberg, Rheingau

Some clones of spätburgunder, as in France, had been bred for quantity.  So Greiner added “it depends on the clones. Some were bred for high yields. Others, like clone 18 or 20 from Geisenheim, have intense aroma but very big berries. With these clones you have to do a green harvest, even in this year when we had a strong flowering period.”

For Weingut Bernhard Huber, in Baden, Yquem Viehhauser said such vineyard work is “much more intensive than harvest. It’s 120 to 130 hours per hectare, but it’s worth it.”

In addition to cutting the bunches, Meike added “what else helps us to keep the berries small is removing some leaves during or directly after flowering. The vines get a small shock and give energy to producing more leaves and not into giving energy to the grapes to get bigger.”

Over in Franken Paul Furst is a leading spätburgunder light.  Though his family have been making wine since 1638, his own expertise has changed dramatically.  “When I was studying, the knowledge to make pinot noir was the same as making riesling [i.e. essentially made as a white wine]. It was the late 80s when making good red wine in Germany came to involve long maceration and deep colour.” But now, he added “the main focus in the work of my son and I is the freshness in pinot noir, the silkiness, and a good acidity which is not sour. We’re working for elegance and a fine long aftertaste.”

Centgrafenberg, Franken

Tannin management has changed towards achieving this aim. A five-to-seven day pre-fermentation cold soak is now the order of the day before fermentation in old wooden cuves using a proportion of whole bunches, which Paul said bring freshness to the wine.  And for Paul “the barrel helps the wine to become balanced and round. It’s important for the wine to stay the whole 16 months on lees without rackings, and for the best wines we use 100% new French oak.”

It is Baden which has the most spätburgunder plantings, half of all of them. The southern parts of this region are 100km north of Burgundy, with more rain because of the foothills of the Black Forest. Here Weingut Bernhard Huber also use a proportion of whole clusters. Yquem said “for the 2005 Hecklinger Schlossberg we used nearly 70% whole clusters. We like the tannins of the stems working with the oak for complexity.”

A more recent change at this winery is to vinify and bottle vineyard sites separately. Yquem said: “until 2004 we had three different pinot noirs, a basic one, like a ‘villages’ then a ‘premier cru’ and a ‘grand cru’. Since 2004, we started to separate the sites. Now the Reserve [with vineyard site] at our winery is a synonym for grosses gewaches/grand cru.”

Weingut Dr. Heger is a bit further south than Huber, in the warmest part of Germany.  Owner Joachim Heger chose his wines specifically to encapsulate the changing attitudes to vinification over the past decades, from the ‘high tech’ 1993 in fermenter with long maceration to extract colour and tannin, to the  ‘low tech’ temperature-controlled, hand punch-down, earlier harvested fruit for greater elegance.

Ihringer Winklerberg, Baden

The 1993 had almost four weeks of maceration, with no pre-fermentation cold soak.  Joachim said: “You get a good colour and it seems to be fresh but there are green tannins in the wine.” He added “It was the way we vinified the wines in this period of time.”

By 1999, he said “we didn’t want the green tannins. We fermented the wine in wooden cuves, but there was no temperature control, and it got very hot.”  By 2005, temperature control is in place and grapes are harvested earlier to preserve the natural freshness of higher acidity.

As to future winemaking, Joachim said: “taking the 2005, 2006 and 2007 we have more complexity and more freshness; more silkiness, and not too much tannin but enough tannin that the wine has enough structure.”

The 2005 was looking great. I’m not convinced pinot noir can support long, dark extractions and keep its aromatic integrity.

Tasting notes

The temporal evolution on the evidence of this tasting is the aim for a more elegant, ethereal, perfumed style of pinot noir. Both vineyard work to limit yield and enhance acidity (further south)/adding structural oak (further north), as well as gentler extraction techniques in the winery are resulting in wine with a more classic paler colour, more perfume, and sufficient tannin to support, rather than constrict, the fruit-acid balancing act that is so crucial for pinot noir.

Weingut Meyer-Näkel, Ahr

Dernauer Pfarrwingert Spätburgunder Grosses Gewächs 2007
Cherry blossom perfume, elegant allspice attack. Silky texture with warm, fresh feel. Bright red fruits becoming more perfumed in the glass.

Dernauer Pfarrwingert Spätburgunder Grosses Gewächs 2007
A warmer vintage. Dry-baked cherry, lush fruit, with attractive balance. Harvested end October for that richer balance.  Still very youthful with long, warm finish of succulent fruit.

Dernauer Pfarrwingert Spätburgunder Grosses Gewächs 2004
Smoky, tar nose with black cherry.  Elegance and structure and fineness of acid core, with just the beginnings of a developing meaty note.  Perfumed red cherry, linear acidity with the flesh of fruit surrounding the core.

Dernauer Pfarrwingert Spätburgunder Grosses Gewächs 1999
Lifted earthy notes, with sweet base texture opening up.  I’m beamed up to creamy Portobello mushrooms tasting this wine. Before 2002, wines generally underwent 11 months barrel maturation, subsequently increased to nearer 16 months.

Kloster Eberbach, Rheingau

Assmannshäuser Höllenberg Spätburgunder, 2005
Gunflint smoke aroma, elegantly medium bodied with lush red cherry and strawberry fruit. Quite complete, balanced, perfumed.

Assmannshäuser Höllenberg Spätburgunder, 2003
Warmth, rumtoph fruit of the vintage, still with mouthfeel and profile of a fine wine.  Compare with 1959 and 1947, also hot vintages.

Assmannshäuser Höllenberg Spätburgunder, 1989
Bricking/orange rim with aromatic wild strawberry perfume, with a palate like being enveloped in a silk blanket. And with fruit that blossoms in the medium bodied palate.

Assmannshäuser Höllenberg Spätburgunder, 1959
Brick to orange rim. Barbecue sauce smokiness giving way to sweet fruit.  Remarkable to taste, balanced with expressive fruit blending with the aromatic smokiness.

Weingut Rudolf Fürst, Franken

Spätburgunder R Centgrafenberg, Grosses Gewächs 2007
Sweet spice from oak in a more modern expression of the style, with slightly grippier tannins than seen in earlier wines, above. Warm berry fruits with freshness and length.

Spätburgunder R Centgrafenberg, Grosses Gewächs 2005
Purple fruit, sweet redcurrants in spicily balanced, youthful wine of medium to full body.  This wine is beginning to come into its own, filling out its body.

Spätburgunder R Centgrafenberg, Grosses Gewächs 2003
Steeped red fruits with a minty note and spicy background. Feeling the warmth of the vintage.

Spätburgunder R Centgrafenberg, Grosses Gewächs 1997
Spicy, dark berries, becoming more muscular in style.

Weingut Bernhard Huber, Baden

Hecklinger Schlossberg Spätburgunder ‘Reserve’ Qba Trocken 2006
Warm, fragrant, red cherry nose with bright, sparky fruit on the palate.  Tight and focused. Very young.

Hecklinger Schlossberg Spätburgunder ‘Reserve’ Qba Trocken 2005
Bright cherry, fruit forward, beginning to open up into its quite full body.

Spätburgunder ‘Reserve’ Qba Trocken 2001
Dry-toast smoke on the nose; beautifully balanced full body with intense berry fruits. Complete and à point with all components integrated and harmonious.

Spätburgunder ‘Reserve’ Qba Trocken 1990
This was recently recorked and topped with sulphur dioxide.  Not showing at its reputed best.

Weingut Dr. Heger, Baden

Achkarrer Schlossberg Spätburgunder *** Qba Trocken, 2005
Intensely perfumed, aromatic wild strawberries. Elegant, lightly medium bodied, well balanced with lengthy finish.

Ihringer Winklerberg Spätburgunder *** QbA Trocken, 2001
Perfumed, sweet fruit, with sweetness of fruit detracting a little for me.

Ihringer Winklerberg Spätburgunder *** QbA Trocken, 1999
Lifted spicy warm fruit, almost rumtoph-like.

Ihringer Winklerberg Spätburgunder *** Spätlese Trocken, 1993
Deeper colour, quite grippy with lifted savoury notes.

Even in recession-hit 2009, wine exports from Germany are  holding steady as the trend to fresh, refreshing, fruity wines continues to grow.  It looks as though we are finally beginning to realise Germany offers fresh, unoaked styles of wine, without the massively high alcohols that can give heat to the palate rather than flavour.

Slopes are important in Germany

Germany’s heritage of producing the greatest rieslings in the world is undoubted. They used to command the highest prices in Europe. Rieslings are again going from strength to strength in the UK, and this includes the traditional styles with some residual sweetness, which are popular with the under 35s, who seem to love trying these wines without the hang-ups that some of the over 35s still seem to have.  With light alcohol, these styles are ideal for lunchtime wines and for the popular gastropub culture. It seems the UK is almost the last to catch on to these light, refreshing, fruity styles of riesling.

But what few realise is that Germany also has a long heritage of producing red wines, although until recently, these were rarely found on any of the export markets.  But that looks set to change.  The last quarter of a century has seen some dynamic changes in the entire approach to red wine making style and quality.

PRESSING THE CHANGES

Just 30 years ago red grape varieties accounted for a little over 10% of the vineyard.   Rainer Lingenfelder of his eponymous estate in the Pfalz explained: “Red wine is not new, however there was a renaissance in red wine starting in mid 1980s. I was one of the growers who wanted to revive the red wine tradition in Germany.” As he’d already worked in Australia and at Grand Puy Lacoste in Bordeaux, he was in a good position to see the potential for red German wines.

In the early 1980s, the way to make red wines was to make them like white wine. Lingenfelder said: “German reds were nothing but a coloured white. Tannins were considered undesirable; malolactic fermentation was a no-no, so a typical pinot noir had considerable acidity, a very, very light colour, and the fruit was nicely ripe for spätlese (late harvest).  It would have been made in sweet style.  So German reds were  pale, with high acidity, some sweetness and no tannin.”  To international markets these would certainly not have been a desirable option.

A handful of forward-thinking producers knew they had to make red wine differently from white. As well as colour, Lingenfelder said they needed “structure, tannin, a completely different body. The key changes were lower yields in the vineyard, a classical fermentation on skins, and a reasonably long fermentation. Malolactic fermentation to reduce the fruity acids (malic), because malic acid collides with tannic acid on palate.  You can’t have both malic and tannic acids. Thirdly oak ageing.”

Lingenfelder said: “It was not the suitability of soil or lack of warmth. Pinot noir ripens properly in Baden, the Pfalz etc.  It was in our minds.  Having gone abroad, we could see from a different angle.  So the time was just ready.”

A quarter of a century later the evidence for good quality red wines is in the bag. Within Germany, some of them are fetching Burgundy 1er cru prices. Initially the demand was so high at home there was no need to export, and there probably still isn’t, but cracking export markets add prestige and profile to a producer, especially such a hard nut to crack as the UK market, where wines from all over the world are present in abundance.

Pfalz

RED GRAPE VARIETIES

While riesling has 20% of the vineyard plantings, red grape varieties are grown on more than a third of Germany’s vineyard area. Pinot noir, called spätburgunder, is the main one, with 11% of plantings, and there has been a big increase in plantings of dornfelder, more than doubling in the last five years, to account for 8% of total plantings. Even the likes of merlot and cabernet sauvignon have appeared since the new millennium, in very small quantities, and restricted to the warmer, more southerly regions such as Baden and the Pfalz.   

Pinot noir/spätburgunder: The best examples are from the Ahr, Rheingau, Pfalz, and Baden regions. Like riesling, it is a variety that is influenced by the terroir. Paul Fürst comments: “pinot noir is always a hand crafted wine. You have to work with the soil and the vine. Good pinot noir is always expensive, when you want minerality and elegance. We are always looking for low yields and thick skins on the bunch.”

Dornfelder: This is a vine crossing from the 1950s, and is a household name in Germany.  It is a deeply coloured variety with good levels of acidity and an aromatic, cherry fruit profile with smooth-textured tannins. The best examples can benefit from barrel ageing which give more grip and structure.  It’s easy to grow and easy to drink, generally having about 12%-12.5% alcohol.

The best reds are found in pockets all over the country, notably the Ahr, Pfalz and Baden. And Rudolf Fürst in Franken deserves special mention. Owner Paul Fürst said: “the western part of Franken is traditionally a red wine area, on red sandstone soil. The only interesting places for red wines are where you find strong soils, e.g. Ahr, Assmannshuasen in the Rheingau, parts of Pfalz and Baden. They make very different types of pinot noir. My type is strong, elegant, with wonderful colour and minerality, very long. 20 years ago we started with small barrels, and now have between 30-100% new oak.”

The small Ahr valley is the renowned red wine region of Germany, with 90% of its vineyard planted to red grapes.  It is one of the most northerly regions in Europe, further north than the Mosel Valley, and it has a special microclimate that allows red grapes to ripen.  Unusually, pinot noir here is planted in slate, which adds a mineral quality, fruitiness and elegance to the wines.

At the Mayer-Näkel estate in the Ahr, 80% of the winery’s production is red. Meike Näkel, who has spent time working in South Africa, explains: “we are very much in the north, but we have a very good microclimate. Our valley is narrow, the vineyards are very steep and south facing. In the narrow valley summer is hot compared to a region beside the valley. Our  soil is dark slate and stone, which warms up easily. The soils conserve heat and give it back to the vines at night-time.”

They export just 5% of production which Näkel says it is a new challenge. “My father started wine in 1982, at this time German red wine was not well known. Not many producers were making good red wine and this was the challenge for him. Now export is my new challenge. ”

Part of the challenge for quality-orientated producers of red wine is that most of the best are small players. They are often run by individual families who work hard in the vineyards and cellars to make good and exciting wines.  This of course means they only occasionally get abroad to promote their wines and build up a following. The onus is on wine connoisseurs sniffing out the best wines and spreading the word.

Windy Peak Pinot Noir

Closure: screwcap
Abv: 13.5%
De Bortoli
£8 to £9 at Sainsburys, EH Booth, Frank Stainton Wines, RS Wines

This is just the fab-est and best value juicy pinot noir I’ve come across in ages.  Parcels of fruit come from across Victoria – Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula, Geelong and Beechworth – to make a fresh wine with gentle strawberry aromas, medium weight and a pretty, elegant, silky texture for its price. It’s not complicated which is part of its juicy charm, and it has good varietal definition. There’s not a jot of oak to interfere with the purity of fruit.

Three Choirs Vineyard

The UK wine-growing industry is evolving at a rapid and exciting rate and is struggling to keep up with demand for home grown wines, despite the fact that the vineyard area has been forecast to reach 3,000 hectares within a decade.

The planted vineyard area is about 1,000 hectares, with nearly a quarter of that figure not yet in production, as it takes three to four years from planting to get the first crop off vines.  Just five years ago, the total vineyard area was three quarters of its current size, giving an indication of the phenomenal rate of growth the industry has witnessed.

It is traditional method (wines made the same way as Champagne) sparklers that are leading the way, and while producers such as Nyetimber and Ridgeview already have an international reputation, others are chasing their tails. It is estimated that in five years’ time the UK will be producing about 3 million bottles of bubbly, which is ten times the current production.

Pinot noir is now the UK’s most widely planted grape variety, with chardonnay a close second.  Together, these two traditional Champagne varieties account for fully one quarter of the vineyard area.  

Such is the growing popularity for English wines, that upmarket supermarket Waitrose is planning next year to plant four to five hectares of vines on the 1,600 hectare farm it owns in Hampshire.  The aim is to make sparkling wines, and, given the lead-time for the production of sparklers made in the same way as Champagne, it will be at least 2014 before the un-named fizz lands on the market.   The farm already provides the supermarket with chickens eggs, milk, mushrooms, apples and pears, and is big enough to convert more hectares in the future, should the sparkling wine venture really take off.

At the risk of being heretical, for the UK home-grown wine industry, a little bit of global warming will be no bad thing.  England and Wales are at the very northerly extreme of cool climate viticulture, but, such is the changing pattern of the global climate, an extra degree of warmth each year would mean that fruit ripens regularly in this country.  English wines consultant Stephen Skelton MW said: “Ripening grapes in the UK terms is defined in terms of acidity, we have to get the acids ripe. And 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006 were great for this.  2007 was an anomaly, It was the second warmest year on record, but the summer was awful,” which meant some of the acids were too high. A few hot days over 29° to 30°C is what we need to ripen acidity, which is not such a hard thing to achieve in the current climate.

Ridgeview

The resulting wines, both still and sparkling, are fresh and lively, with fragrant fruit and only moderate alcohol levels, 11.5% to 12.5%. These can be ideal for lunchtime quaffing wines, and wines by the glass. Indeed, Christine Parkinson, the group wine buyer for Hakkasan and Yauatcha restaurants said “We try to have something English by the glass in both our restaurants, such as Camel Valley Bacchus dry in Yauatcha and Plumpton Estate Rosé in Hakkasan.”  Parkinson added: “I’d love to do more English wine, if I could taste more and find the right ones … English wines suit the cuisine at Hakkasan. We try every wine with the food, and generally speaking the aromatic wines with high acidity tend to go well with our cuisine.”

Chapel Down is one of the leading producers of English wines, and they make some of the best still wines from the third most planted variety, bacchus, especially in their single vineyard Lamberhurst and Tenterden labels.  Their managing director, Frazer Thompson said: “We’ve planted a lot because we believe in future of English wines, especially sparkling, but we think there’s an English equivalent of Cloudy Bay, which is bacchus.” In fact the company recently bought 45 hectares of prime North Downs chalklands, which will be planted to chardonnay and pinot noir.  

Thompson highlighted the growing trend for English wines to be on the wine list, saying places such as “Roast, Gary Rhodes, Ramsay and Conran restaurants have our wines on their lists”, adding “good modern sommeliers are looking for locally-sourced beef, vegetable from the gardens of England, and they’re also looking at wines. People shouldn’t be surprised to see [matches] such as bacchus with Whitstable oysters or Dover sole.”

The UK is also well placed to take advantage of the boom in pink wines. Plantings of red grapes are also on the increase, both for red wines and for pink wines. Chapel Down may have trademarked the ‘English Rose’ label for a still and sparkling pink wine, with a slightly more ruddy complexion than its human namesake, but there are plenty of ‘English Rosés’ (with accent) to be found, such as Stanlake Park’s pinot blush or a’Beckett’s Estate Rosé.

English wines will never be cheap. Production at the cool extreme of viticulture is more expensive than in warm sunny places where grapes ripen regularly, evenly, effortlessly.  Thompson sums this up, saying “technically [English wine] is an excellently tasting product. People’s expectations of anything English should not be cheap. It should be premium in taste and feel, so English fizz will make you feel better than if you’re drinking champagne.”

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