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.

Two members of the newly-formed Australia’s First Families of Wine (AFFW) have been in the UK creating awareness for the new group of family-owned Aussie wine producers.  There has been a decent amount of interest among the press, and I took my slot and had a chat with Bruce Tyrell, of Tyrell’s Wines. Robert Hill-Smith of Yalumba was off elsewhere.

Tyrrell Family

Bruce hit the nail on the head when he said the world has been waiting for some good news to come out of Australia. It’s been doom and gloom for Australia for a while: glut and prolonged drought at the same time, exports dropping in key markets, the big companies offloading Aussie assets, other companies going to the wall etc. 

The new AFFW project has a touchy-feely aspect where members of the owning families will be on the road to promote their wines, to promote Aussie regionality and wines with personality. Tyrell said: “After the last twelve months, a lot of people don’t trust the big organisations, but a family operation is easier for consumers to get hold of, to hang onto, and trust what they say.” 

One of the criteria for membership of this family of families is having two generations working the farm.  Tyrell said: “the younger generation will be getting into marketplace and doing what we did 25 years ago.” And he added “If we bring the next generation together we’ll have been successful“.  Many members of the senior generation are evidently good friends as well as competitors.

The organisation has been a while in the making, with the first discussions taking place in 2005.  And after their first formal meeting at the back end of 2006, Tyrell said: “the wineries sort of fell into place, though not everyone who was invited wanted to join.” Twelve would seem to be the perfect vinous number, but he said it’s not locked into, so there could be more members. Given the positive reception the group has had, one can imagine the odd winery regretting their decision to decline the invitation.

The national organisation that promotes Australian wine – Wine Australia – already has a strategy to promote what it calls ‘regional heroes’. This is exactly the place where some of the wines of the AFFW fit.  Tyrell was keen to emphasise that the families are committed to Wine Australia, but “wanted to add to it; to do more things at the better end of Australian wine. We want to expand the coverage, especially of regional heroes, so we can get a better share of that market.”

So, while some of wineries are really quite sizeable, indeed five of them are in the top 20 biggest wineries in Australia, Tyrell iterated the focus will be on regional styles of wine, as well as each family’s icon wines.  These latter he loosely defined as “wines that have a long term show record, they’re on the Langton’s list; wines that are recognised in the trade and market as icon wines.

“It either is or it isn’t.”  he said.  Which makes sense in a way – standout examples include his own Tyrell’s Vat 1 Hunter Semillon, as well as Henschke’s Hill of Grace, McWilliams’ Mount Pleasant Lovedale Semillon and De Bortoli’s Noble One. And a joining criterion is having 20 years of icon wines available for tasting.

The group is next meeting at the end of November to finalise plans for 2010, with the first big splash likely to be at the London Wine Trade Fair (trade only) in May.  As part of the campaign, Tyrell said to expect some long verticals, though he didn’t say if trade, consumers or both would benefit.

But in recession-hit times the love affair is beginning to wear thin, so it wouldn’t necessarily seem like the best time for a group of wine producers to start a campaign focusing on posh Aussie wines from different parts of Australia, when most of what we’ve been used to is stuff from that ubiquitous catch-all location ‘South Eastern Australia’.

Australia's First Families of Wine group

Nonetheless, this is exactly what a dozen family-owned companies have done.  It’s true to say that Australia doesn’t just produce consistent, entry level wines for everyday drinking. Among the 7,000 or so growers there are plenty more than a handful making sometimes exquisite expressions of site and variety – though at a cost that most Brits have so far been rarely willing to pay.

This ‘bevvy’ of twelve families (twelve being the magic number in wine – one each in a case?) have come together to jointly market their wines, and show us exactly what makes them distinct from the modern-day versions of 70s fashion clinks ‘kanga rouge’ and ‘wallaby white’.

Proudly calling themselves Australia’s First Families of Wine (AFFW), these guys plan to spend at least AUD$500 million to show that Aussie wines can have real character and individuality, can express the place where they’re grown and made, and the varieties from which they’re made.

The French might have called this terroir, the Aussies call it ‘regionality’.

The aim is to create a whole new image on the global stage for the section of the Aussie wine industry for which such regionality provides a key marker in their winemaking ethos.

Together the twelve own over 5,000 hectares of Australian vineyard, which is about 3% of the country’s total vineyard area. Between them they have over 1,200 years of winemaking experience.

The UK is the initial target market for First Families’ activities, starting in 2010, and I was interviewed about the UK market as part of an ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Radio package about the first families’ initiative.

Listen to the ABC Radio package (3 mins 45 secs):

A draft plan of action to increase awareness based on consumer sampling and education opportunities is due to be finalised in early November 2009.

The founding members of the AFFW are:
Brown Brothers (Victoria)
Campbells (Victoria)
d’Arenberg (South Australia)
De Bortoli (New South Wales)
Henschke (South Australia)
Howard Park (Western Australia)
Jim Barry (South Australia)
McWilliam’s (New South Wales)
Tahbilk (Victoria)
Taylors (South Australia) – called Wakefield in the UK, something to do with a Port company…
Tyrrell’s (New South Wales)
Yalumba (South Australia)

The Australians are not the first to create high profile joint marketing groups.  Primum Familiae Vini has been around for a number of years. More recently a group from New Zealand have joined together, as well as some key producers from Italy who make Amarone.  I’ll publish something about these other groups soon.

Clare Valley, South Australia

After 200 years of viticulture are Australians beginning to find, or to want to find, a sense of place, an identification of terroir, in some of their wines?

The European model of terroir has evolved over centuries of experiential learning. Indeed that most famous of wine regions, of red wine regions, Bordeaux, was in a large part a white-wine growing region in the 16th century, when the Dutch wanted base material for eau-de-vie. Now it is 90% red, an evolution that began its turnaround in the 17th century, before Australia was even a twinkle in any European’s eye.

If terroir, or regionality, as the Aussies might call anything approaching it, has a recognisable taste-DNA in the glass, even the most hardened anti-terroirists would probably agree that wines such as Barossa shiraz, Hunter semillon, Clare riesling or Rutherglen muscat have a unique and identifiable flavour profile.  These  wines can’t really be from anywhere else. But what about Heathcote shiraz, Hunter shiraz, Hilltops shiraz? Is it just too early for the world to appreciate nuance and stylistic variety from Australia? 

“Most of the wine drunk on a daily basis necessarily drops below the requirement for terroir” said Andrew Pirie, CEO and chief winemaker at Tamar Ridge Estates “because consumers are not looking at complexity or individuality of flavour but rather the basics of flavour, balance and freshness. Australia has been prodigious in this category.”

But, he adds “that is not to say that your average daily wine drinker would turn up his nose at complexity and individuality- it is just a fact that wines with terroir influence are rarely affordable for the mass consumer because large brands and large blends that occupy the terrain of the everyday drinker normally need by nature the steadiness of a large inter-regional blend to be repeatable.”

Directions to 2025

A key thrust of Directions to 2025, the latest strategy document for the Australian industry, is to increase this awareness that there is no one style and price of Australian wine.

And one of the strategy’s strands – ‘regional heroes’ – feeds neatly into the concept of terroir. Wines that focus on regional diversity, wines with ‘a clear association between region and variety and/or style’. This opens up opportunities for the Australian market to expand price points and add complexity to their offering by associating  ’region with style’ rather than grape variety with many styles, which, as Chile saw, can create a narrow perception of a country’s vinous offering.

‘Brand champions’ are still there as an integral core of the strategy which, at the high volume end of production, play to Australia’s original strength of inter-regional blending to produce sufficient volumes of consistently styled wine to meet any amount of demand. 

Macedon Ranges, Victoria

This ’sunshine in a bottle’ label has worked supremely well for two decades.  But in an increasingly competitive global market, playing at the high volume end all the time makes one vulnerable to predation from other countries. Also, Mike Rogers of Aussie retail specialists Philglas and Swiggot said “I see what has made Australia really strong up to now — loads of fruit, low acidity, sweet tannin — is becoming less seductive to consumers. I think many people have got into drinking wine because Aussie wines are so accessible. But I think they’ve got more confidence to say they want something a little less obvious, less powerful, more quirky, more subtle, with more individuality and character rather than something that’s consistently good.”

Directions to 2025 details exactly this.  The stated positioning challenge is to move from the ‘reliable, accessible, everyday’ to the high marking ’super-premium, diverse, individual’.

And none of this is touchy-feely stuff. The stated aim is to deliver an additional AUD$4 billion of wine over the next five years, taking total turnover up to AUD$30bn by 2011.  If only the French laid out some clear strategic marketing aims and put in place mechanisms for producers to plug into…

Paul Henry, general manager market development for the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation has some experience straddling the new versus old world divide. He said: “the concept or philosophy of an Australian sense of terroir has never been absent, just much overlooked. Indeed, many of our now internationally recognised fine wines are ‘built’ along this European paradigm that place, rather then process, is all: ‘distinguished sites’ was a preferred phrase that still endures today.”

GI blues

Like appellations in Europe, the Geographical Indication system is one that delimits geographical boundaries according to agreed criteria. But the long contested boundary disputes of Coonawarra, in South Australia, and, more recently, King Valley in Victoria, illustrate that GI has little to do with terroir, or a consistent, single regional identity.

Tasmania

Brian Lynn, director of Majella Wines in Coonawarra, said: “we’ve always known the very best grapes from Coonawarra come from the terra rossa soils.  The soil is very much the heart of the matter, so it behoves any consumer of Coonawarra wine to ask the provenance of any purchases – where were the grapes grown?  Who made the wine etc.”

In Victoria, producers in the upland Whitlands plateau of the King Valley wanted their own GI, but to no avail, despite a decade of legal wranglings. At up to 900m above sea level, Whitlands is garnering its reputation for cool climate sparkling wine fruit, and aromatic varieties for still wine such as sauvignon blanc.  They’ve argued that other areas of the King Valley are climatically distinct, allowing for example, the growth of fruit for fortified wines from much lower down the valley. 

The Victorian microcosm

 In the wider context Victoria looks hunky-dory to benefit from the regionality/terroir thing. With 21 different, diverse regions, the state of Victoria has some just claim to be Australia’s regional hero de force, and has adopted the “Wines from somewhere rather than wines from anywhere” strap-line.  

The state’s wine industry association is busy preparing a marketing document telling the stories of each region, for example the Alpine Valleys promote ‘wine and food in cool mountain air’ with Mt Buffalo and Mt Feathertop providing rugged sporting opportunities such as paragliding, microlight flying, bush walking, trail riding and mountain biking. Après-ski Aussie-style perhaps?

As you’d expect, pinot noir dominates the Mornington Peninsula theme.  Yarra Valley’s ‘love it all’ message sums up the sparkling base wine to fortified wine breadth of climatic diversity that exists in the valley. Trendy Heathcote focuses on shiraz and Cambrian soils.

The chief executive of the Victorian wine industry association, Joanne Butterworth-Gray said:  “If we accept the definition that terroir is an aggregated effect of soil, topography, climate and possibly geology, then we have a fascinating story to tell – one that is unique within Australia.”

It would be a hard person indeed who disputed the unique attributes of Victoria’s Rutherglen muscats, but durif, brought to this small region exactly 100 years ago, is making a small name for itself. Colin Campbell, winemaker at Campbells in Rutherglen, said “While durif is grown in other parts of Australia, they’re different from ours. It’s more earthy and spicy than the newer clones that have come in over last 30 years.”  It seems some of that old world experiential learning is rubbing off in double-quick time.

Henry’s earned the last word: “the latest marketing efforts of Wine Australia should be seen as seeking to introduce an additional level of detail in our category evolution – regionally distinct wine that has a credible and discernable sense of place. These aspects have always been here, they just haven’t always enjoyed an appropriate focus.” It’ll all help push up the average FOB price too.

Delimiting terroir

Terroir is oft-defined as a confluence of a myriad of factors in a specific geographical location, including climate, soil and vines. Within this, water relations, topography and man’s influence strongly feature.

For great terroir there have to be elements of taste-DNA in the glass that enable the taster to pin-point that greater or lesser geographical location.

Beyond the individual characteristics of grape varieties, some elements of place and climate are taken for granted: low versus high acidity; medium versus high alcohol; jammy, baked, stewed fruit versus crunchy, fresh, aromatic fruit.  All these funnel into largely cooler or warmer climes.

Viticultural guru, Richard Smart said: “any place that grows wine has terroir, it goes without saying. Wine has a signature of the place where it was grown. But in the new world we talk about regional styles. Different regions have different attributes: Margaret River and Coonawara produce great cabernet sauvignon, the Barossa produces great shiraz, Tasmania  sauvignon blanc, riesling and sparkling wine. Varietal suitability, the interaction of grape variety and climate it at the crux.” 

 ”Those who have drunk wines from great terroir never doubt the superiority of a site over the creation of a wine blender” said Andrew Pirie, adding “the uncopy-able nature of terroir is what makes it unique, exciting and a step above wine which is just good. What is also attractive is that the character of wine created by terroir is irreproducible.”

In the words of Jeff Grosset, of Grosset Wines in Clare Valley: “The quality and purity of expression of variety is about the site and the making; eg the Grosset Springvale Watervale Riesling and the Grosset Polish Hill Riesling – both are considered of similar high quality, yet they are distinctly different. Given they are made in an almost identical fashion this difference is essentially due to site.”