Low-slung Savaterre vines

The owner and winemaker of Savaterre, Keppell Smith, set up shop in 1996, spitting distance across the road from famed Beechworth producer Giaconda. This migrant from the financial world said “all I want is a wine with personality” and this ‘simple’ wish had seen him search high and low across Australia’s wine regions for the perfect spot he says he’s found on the south facing slopes of the Beechworth hills, with their decomposing granite and clay soils. Of  his now home-turf Beechworth’s wines he said “I couldn’t understand why one of the best wineries – Giaconda – was here.  His was the first [Australian] wine with a European bent that I’d tasted – there was so much perfume, elegance, structure.”

So Smith planted chardonnay and pinot noir at around 460m above sea level, “six rows alternately because I didn’t know which would do best.  But all do well” he said.  He added shiraz to the vineyard in 2005, bringing his plantings to five hectares.  The vines are trained low on cordons, because, Smith said “the humidity here in summer is very low, and there is twice the humidity closer to ground” which he says helps keep the aromas in the fruit. The vines are planted at a dense 8,000 vines per hectare, which he said “is important for pinot noir here, you get the best intensity, structure and aroma from close planting.”

In 2010 work was well underway on an imposing new winery, with cement fermentation vats.  “I was using stainless steel” he said, “but it let out too much heat, too fast.” In the winery Smith says he’s just babysitting “I leave it alone, no yeast, no bacteria, I add sulphur, occasionally a little acid.” But there is no complacency in this minimal approach. “The attention to detail” is crucial, he said “every 1% you muck up, it’s cumulative.”

He does leave wines on the lees for a long time, about a year, “not stirred or anything” to add a creaminess to the texture.  On the reds, he said “lees really help the wood marry with the wine. It’s the gravy between the peas and the roast, the juice that brings it all together.”

His first vintage was in 2000, just two barrels of chardonnay. It must have been an auspicious beginning, because, just a decade later, in the 2010 issue of Langton’s classification, the Savaterre chardonnay jumped into the distinguished category of emerging classics.

As to the Savaterre name, it is the name of Smith’s father’s property in Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, USA – “a piece of low-lying swamp land”, he said. There is no similarity.

Tasting notes, in situ, October 2010

Savaterre, Chardonnay 2008
50% new French oak. 13.5%
Deep lemon colour. Creamy, leesy/yeast, hint buttery – not a fruit-based aroma, though some dry lemon toast notes on the palate, smooth, linear texture. Sweet-savoury yeast flavour going on in a serious and sophisticated, multi-layered wine.

Savaterre, Pinot noir 2008
13.5%. Pale cherry colour. Smoked cherry, savoury, smooth texture, dry spice and dry-sweet texture, savoury-sweet combo, delightful texture. Dark cherry fruit emerging, dry baked and layered. Texture is fine and refined.

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

Owner Fred Pizzini emigrated from Alto Adige, with his parents, sister and brother in 1956. They very soon settled in the King Valley. Fred’s property is located at the higher altitude, southern end of this north-south orientated valley, where vineyards verge onto the foothills of the Southern Alps, the highest at around 860m, though many are around half that altitude, some 300 to 400m.

With encouragement and grape contracts from Brown Brothers, whose home is still at Milawa at the north end of the valley, near Wangaratta, the Pizzinis, who were quickly becoming ex-tobacco farmers as that market collapsed, planted their first commercial vines in 1978 – riesling and chardonnay, for Brown Brothers.  Stalwart grape varieties cabernet sauvignon, shiraz and sauvignon blanc soon followed, and over the next decade they also introduced Italian varieties, planting some of the first nebbiolo, along with sangiovese, pinot grigio and arneis.  Fred said it was in 1991 that they had their first barrel of nebbiolo.

Fred and wife Katrina now have 70 hectares of vineyards on their 280 hectare farm “and still quietly planting” said Fred, adding that while there are many micro-climates in the King Valley, the “climate is suited to medium bodied styles that are more delicate in style. While the north [of the valley] is warmer and dry, the south is cool at night in the growing season.” It’s just one and a half hour’s south to the snow, he added.  And while growing season temperatures may be in the mid 30s°C during the day, Fred said they can get down to 14-15°C at night, which helps keep the grapes’ natural acid.

Their wine business is a real family affair. Eldest daughter Natalie is in charge of marketing, wine events and the wine club, while son Joel is winemaker. He includes four vintages in Italy on his CV, including at top Chianti producer Isole e Olena. And Katrina runs a cookery school in an expansive kitchen area adjoining their smart cellar door tasting rooms.

The King river

In good Italian style, the family make more than a dozen different wines, and it’s the Italian varieties – pinot grigio, sangiovese and arneis, plus their nebbiolos, that make up a big chunk. Fred puts down part of the success of his wines from Italian grapes to “the drinkability of the grape varieties.”

Not that all the vineyards are the same, and Fred is clearly proud of one patch of sangiovese which he said “is particularly good – it has a slightly different gradient, the soils carry less rock, it’s tighter grained.  It’s more of a clay loam than volcanic soil and the wind is different.  It might see a bit more sun, and it produces consistently good fruit.” In contrast he said, the vineyard on his north-east facing slope has “deeper clay, more volcanic soil, which is more robust, more powerful.”  And his nebbiolo vineyard, which tops out at 400m above sea level, he said “is 2.5°C warmer at night than the valley floor, and 2.5° to 3°C cooler during the day than the valley floor.”

Such detail shows an admirable terroir-istic grasp of his vineyards.

Wine tasting, in situ, October 2010

Pizzini, Pinot Grigio 2010, King Valley
12%. Apple, pear, melon, intense fruit attack of sweet fruit. Dry wine, fresh, intense, thoroughly decent.

Pizzini, Arneis 2010, King Valley
13.5%. Apple skins and lime grass. Very clean, nicely fresh, more backbone than the pinot grigio. Really tasty.

Pizzini, Verduzzo 2010, King Valley
Whole bunch pressed, and a portion barrel fermented, rest in stainless steel on lees.
Lovely creaminess of texture, with the focus all on fresh white fruits, with tight structure and good backbone. Good.

Pizzini, Sangiovese 2009, King Valley
13%. Medium deep colour, brick rim. Bright cherry, cinnamon, bright sweet fruit, has chalky dry tannins, and with sweet fruit. Medium bodied, firm backbone, good ripe fruit, nicely balanced. Rich balance of good fruit weight. Good.

Pizzini, Nebbiolo 2005, King Valley
14.3%. medium deep, brick rim. Warm, spicy fruitcake, baked cherry pie, rich, sweet and fine-grainy attack. Quite full bodied, mouth-filling, dry, chalky fruit savour. Nicely structured with depth and fruit concentration. Vg.

Pizzini, Nebbiolo 2006, King Valley
Medium pale, brick rim, black tea leaves on nose. Dry baked cherry crumble. Sweet fruit core dissected by web of fine, structured tannins.  Savoury black olive notes. Vg.

Pizzini, Rubacuori Sangiovese 2004, King Valley
Meaning stealer of hearts. Deep colour, spicy, brambly and savoury in a gamey vein, followed by dense, sweet fruit, darkly spiced, and richly textured.

Pizzini, Il Barone 2006, King Valley
Cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, sangiovese, nebbiolo, a blend that was put together nearly a decade ago.  Dense colour, flavours of spice and dark fruits; dense, youthful, and with a big balance.

Pizzini, Coronamento Nebbiolo 2004, King Valley
Meaning crowing achievement. 14.5%. Medium deep with brick rim. Perfumed, smoothly structured, with sweet baked cherry notes, fine-knit tannins, warming feel and long, integrated, finely balanced palate. Vg.

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

Emily and Ron

Ron Laughton is one of the quiet, precise, conscientious men of wine, an ex-food scientist who is making his 30^th vintage in 2011, having put in the first plantings in 1975/’76.  His daughter Emily is fellow winemaker for the estate.

The estate, 120 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, in Heathcote, Victoria, is named after the semi-precious jasper, a quartzite pressure rock found in black and red forms on the edge of the fault lines that run north-south.

Though seven wines are made in total, Jasper Hill’s two more famed wines are named after Ron and Elva’s daughters, Emily and Georgia.  Emily’s Paddock (Australian for a fenced field) is a 95% shiraz/ 5% cabernet franc blend, while Georgia’s Paddock is pure shiraz.

Heathcote shiraz is all about the Cambrian (500 million years old) soils which lie over basalt bedrock. Both the paddocks are at 320 m ASL.  Emily’s has a north-east aspect; Georgia’s an easterly aspect, with deeper Cambrian soils.  Pretty much everything else is the same, so Laughton argues any significant differences in the two wines must be terroir effects.  He said they were “planted the same year, with the same clone, same planting density, same soil, same viticulture, same winemaking, same everything.  They have a slightly different exposure, and Emily’s paddock is about 50m higher, and they are a kilometre apart.”

With heat degree days of 1490 (Winkler region II), Laughton doesn’t suggest that Heathcote is cool, but he does say “shiraz needs some sun and warmth to ripen.  And it’s not only heat, it’s the quality of the sun.  Summer [in Heathcote] is radiant, with clear blue skies, no cloud and fog.  And not so much heat.”

Here, he said “we get ripe flavours and elegance. There is a sweet spot of shiraz here.  There are some cooler areas within Victoria where shiraz shows more elegance than mine, but less ripeness.”  And he added “the single biggest indicator that this area is great for shiraz is that in 30 years I haven’t adjusted the acidity.  [We get] full tannic ripeness, full flavour ripeness, and full acidity still.”

“Because we have low yields [Emily’s paddock is around 15 hl/ha], the canopy is open to the sun, and the malic acid in the grapes is low.  After malolactic, the pH [therefore] hasn’t changed much, the tartaric acidity is still high.”

Red Cambrian soils

The tortured geology is important.  Two parallel faults fun close together in Heathcote which lifted and exposed the volcanic rock which formed the Cambrian soils – decomposed basalt high in iron.  “Minerals are mixed in the Cambrian soils, and the building blocks for the molecules of colour and flavour come from the ground” Laughton said.

So place is important, though “we only talk of terroir where it’s good terroir. And to maximise terroir I try to do as little as possible.” With his previous career as a food scientist, Laughton said “food flavours are fragile. Ten second too much and flavour is changed irreparably. So as a winemaker, all I can do is remove or reduce flavour, except oak.”

Laughton has settled on a 20% new oak regime, though he’s “deliberately using older and now bigger barrels, with thicker staves, for grenache, because it oxidises easily, and I don’t want too much oak flavour in the wine.” The oak is always French because “it’s more subtle, American oak is more in your face. I like to make elegant wines.”

Laughton also chooses a long, up to six weeks cuvaison, from harvest to pressing. He said “in six weeks the tannins change structure.  It’s not about extracting tannins from pips and skins, this plateaus. To my taste, after it plateaus, then the structure of the tannins changes in the alcohol solution so that they become more supple.  Tannins then start dropping off so you need to press.”  The downside of this is that a lot of fermenter capacity is needed, as such a long cuvaison means it’s used just once a year.

Though not subscribing to any certification, the vineyards are dry grown, without synthetic chemicals, and Laughton makes his own organic compost and has been following biodynamic rhythms of agriculture since the late 1990s.  However he said “I want you to buy my wine because it’s bloody good, not because it’s biodynamic.” 

I can attest to the former. And the two paddocks’ wines do taste different. Are those differences attributable to terroir effects?

Georgia’s Paddock 2009
Juicy plum, sweet fruit, enticing and fresh. Smooth and silky attack, dark black berry fruits. Sensuous, fine silky tannin texture, youthful and primary, long, linear palate length, richness without fatness.  Well toned, with spicy black pepper finish. Unbelievably smooth texture, layers of fruit emerge mid palate. Sophisticated.

Emily’s Paddock 2009
Balsamic red fruits, redcurrants, with perky attack and bright, crunchy red fruits, and a more open-knit mid palate texture. Rounder shape in mouth to the Georgia’s linear. Tannins gently gripping as with velvet gloves to their youth and to the crunchy red fruits. 

Georgia’s Paddock 2004
Inky, dark smoky; hint of lifting VA, rich, fat, delineated dark and big, sub-porty in a delicious way. Long

Emily’s Paddock 2004
Sill redcurranty and perfumed, more delineated; full, sweet, medium bodied still, with warmth of alcohol. Seems a tad fresher than Georgia’s Paddock, and showing less evolution.  

Georgia’s Paddock 1994
Warm, lifting, aromatic VA, smooth farmyard. Dense and dark flavours.

Emily’s Paddock 1994
Mahogany, with herbal-iodine complex. Fresh farmyard, warm brick. A little lighter than the 1994 Georgia’s Paddock.

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

Savaterre's south-facing vineyard

A little bit of altitude has made all the difference for Beechworth. While Rutherglen sits around 170m above sea level, Beechworth varies from 300 to 700m.  This is enough of a difference, in just an hour’s drive, to move from the required heat of Rutherglen to the significantly cooler Beechworth, where the altitude of the Victorian Alps plays its part to the extent that slopes become an important feature to ameliorate the risk of frost.

It’s not to say that Beechworth is cool climate. Halliday’s Wine Atlas of Australia (2006) gives heat degree days of 1240 to 1687, which spans Winkler and Amerine’s regions I to III, though the mean January temperature of 19.9°C to 20.4°C is firmly ensconced in region II.  There is some diurnal temperature variation, which is important to preserve aroma in the fruit. Hot days of 35 to 40°C generally cool off during the night to around 20°C.  

More than two dozen growers work in Beechworth and vineyard holdings tend to be small, with the individual or family approach to viticulture being the dominant theme.

There were vineyards here in the 1800s with the gold rush. Indeed, the affluent Beechworth town is Australia’s oldest gold mining town and the centre retains much of that 19^th century provincial charm.  But the modern viticultural pioneer is Rick Kinzbrunner who set up Giaconda in 1980, and who has virtually single-handedly led the region to niche stardom.  It is only in the last decade that vineyards have started to expand as this delightful niche gains wider kudos. The acclaimed Langton’s classification acknowledged this with two new Beechworth entrants into their 2010 list.

Rick, and son Nathan, who joined the business full-time just two years ago, farm a total of 12 hectares, 4 ha on the Giaconda site, 4 ha on the Warner family vineyard where the Giaconda – Warner vineyard shiraz is made, and another 4 ha in a joint venture with Nathan’s cousin, Peter Graham (who is also the assistant winemaker at Giaconda), and Frenchman Michel Chapoutier, also planted to shiraz and a bit of nebbiolo, for the Ergo Sum label.  

Giaconda's maturation cave

The family is still excited about the cave recently dug under the hill below the winery, which has a steady 15.5°C temperature, and which now houses the wines maturing in cask.

The 2010 chardonnay was picked in several passages from the bottom of the cooler south-facing slope on February 19^th to the top of the slope on March 10th. A natural yeast fermentation followed in 40% new French oak, where, Nathan said, the wine will lay on its lees for about two years.  The chardonnay has long been among the top, exceptional, category of the Langton’s classification.

Immediately on the other side of the road, Giaconda acolyte Keppell Smith, set up Savaterre in the mid 1990s. An émigré from the financial world, Smith “couldn’t understand why one of the best wineries – Giaconda – was here, and no-one else was.”  He figured all that perfume, elegance and structure couldn’t all be due to the man, so the decomposed granite with clay soil must have something to add.  He planted 5 ha of pinot noir and chardonnay, along with some recently added shiraz, on a similarly south-facing slope. He said he’ll release his first vintage of shiraz, the 2010, if it’s up to scratch.

The idiosyncratic Smith uses some (non-certified) biodynamic techniques such as enriching the soil with bacteria. In the winery he insists he’s “just babysitting”, saying “I leave it alone, no yeast, not bacteria, I press in a basket press so I oxidise early, but I need a substantial piece of fruit if I’m going to sculpt” something remarkable.  But in leaving a wine alone, the attention to detail needs to be microscopic; he said “every 1% you muck up, it’s cumulative.”

Smith’s chardonnay jumped into the distinguished category of Langton’s emerging classics in 2010.

In both the Giaconda and Savaterre chardonnay, intense, multi-layered, sweet-savoury flavours from lengthy lees ageing give the wines added complexity and intrigue, with more of an ‘old world’ feel.  These are serious, sophisticated and sublime chardonnays.

Castagna

The Langton’s trilogy is completed by the second new entrant, Castagna, whose property neighbours Giaconda. Indeed, ex-film director and individualist, Julian Castagna worked vintages for Rick for several years as part of his winemaking training.

Castagna bought his land in 1997 and immediately planted vines, and shiraz is the tour de force here, and it is the Genesis Syrah which is also categorised as distinguished.  The vines are planted on north and east-west facing slopes, for greater warmth for the shiraz.

Castagna got his shiraz cuttings from original Aussie material – clones and selections from Barossa and McLaren Vale. He’s also planted sangiovese, viognier and nebbiolo, and the vineyards now take up 4 hectares.

Of his shiraz, Castagna said “I make shiraz the way most people make pinot noir, with great care. We only pick till 11 a.m. The fruit is always cold when it comes in. It gets a cold soak of up to six days pre-fermentation. And the fermentation uses whole bunches and whole berries.”

The Genesis has a couple of per cent of viognier in it. Sophistication and seriousness are the bywords again, along with fine, silky-smooth tannin structure, and savoury, graphite notes.

Giaconda, plus the Warner and Ergo Sum vineyards, and Castagna and Savaterre have sewn up the 400 to 500m altitude block on the approach road into Beechworth, like four proud corners of a box on either side of the road.

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

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.

Along with the continuing pinot grigio craze, the buzz around Italian varietals is extending to some rather serious reds, and it is Victoria, with its rich heritage of Italian migrants, that is leading the field on the Australo-Italian front.

Victoria is climatically and altitudinally diverse

Victoria may be smallest mainland state in Australia but it has the most different regions. Victoria is climatically and altitudinally diverse, with vineyards at almost sea level and heading up towards 1,000m above sea level.

Vineyard plantings are predictably dominated by the usual suspects: pinot noir, shiraz, chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and merlot. These big five take up more than three-quarters of the Victorian vineyard, which, in fact leaves plenty of room for manoeuvre for other grape varieties.

Many of these other grape varieties were planted by the numerous Italian post-war migrants who had moved to Victoria initially to work in the tobacco industry. But as this work declined, vineyards grew up from the 1970s. And the diverse King Valley, home to many of these families, is the heart and soul of Victoria’s production of Italian varieties.

Which means some King Valley vineyards have a goodly amount of vine age, some up to 30 years old. Michael Dal Zotto, winemaker at Dal Zotto Estate said: “My father, Otto is from Veneto, my mother Elena from Trento. After meeting over here, they planted vines from their home area in 1987 – sangiovese, barbera, pinot grigio, arneis.”

Sangiovese and barbera are among the main Italian varieties worthy of note, alongside nebbiolo and pinot grigio. More esoteric varieties include arneis, brachetto, marzemino, prosecco and verduzzo.

Australia’s 2025 strategy for the promotion of the country’s wines should be good news for Victoria. The Victorian Wine Industry Association’s chief executive, Joanne Butterworth-Gray, set a priority to promote Victoria as a “regional hero” (one of the threads of the strategy), as well as the individual regions within Victoria as regional heroes. She said, “for example Beechworth has six or seven wineries with an artisan sense of self, yet Giaconda is there. Bendigo is playing on its gold history, and producing rich, ripe reds. Mornington is pinot noir”, and not forgetting pinot grigio in the Italian varietal theme.

Pinot grigio: Mornington and beyond

Though pinot gris/grigio is grown pretty much throughout Victoria, the Mornington Peninsula has a quarter of all the state’s plantings, though this sum accounts for fewer than 10% of the peninsula’s total plantings.

Mornington Peninsula

The taxonomy is currently ad hoc, with some producers labelling pinot gris and others pinot grigio, and not always according to the styles anticipated in a European context. Generally, though, whole bunch pressing, solids and oak are often used during vinification in the ‘gris’ camp. For example, the 10X pinot gris from Ten Minutes by Tractor uses eight year old oak, wild yeast “for complexity and texture” said owner Martin Spedding, and has a hint of residual sugar on the spicy back palate.

The Kooyong pinot gris is whole bunch pressed to oak for a natural fermentation. Winemaker Sandro Mosele said: “there’s no battonage, but we ferment with solids. There’s no malolactic fermentation – whites need to be driven by acidity. “

King Valley Core

It is in the King Valley though, where Brown Brothers was one of the pioneers for Italian varieties, in the 1970s, working with growers, many of whom had moved from northern Italy. Ross Brown their CEO said: “There’s been a progressive shift. People want to try something different. Italian varietals offer such a different flavour profile than cabernet sauvignon and shiraz” adding, “there’s good demand, and we’re more likely be planting Italian varieties.”

The also family-owned, but larger company, De Bortoli has made significant investment in Italian, and other, varietals. Export director Victor De Bortoli said: “my father, Deen, planted some different things. You’ve got to try these things.” Five to ten years ago the company was planting the likes of pinot noir and pinot grigio.

Given their size, the company’s portfolio is geographically segmented. Steve Webber, their manager and winemaker, said: “The common brand is De Bortoli, with sub-brands, from the Yarra Valley, from King Valley, from the Hunter Valley.  People are interested in knowing where wines come from regionally.” Their Victorian-origin Windy Peak range has for several years had a sangiovese, and a pinot grigio is a recent addition to the UK portfolio, taking advantage of the seemingly infinite phenomenon that is pinot grigio.

But it is the Sero range, launched into the UK in 2006, which comes from King Valley. Webber said: “We liked the King Valley. It has excellent potential for Italian varietals, and we made a large commitment, of 500 acres (202 hectares). We’ve developed interesting wines around it [under the Sero label], which are medium bodied, with savoury rather than sweet oak. They might even go well with pizza!”

Among mainstream wine consumers there are not thought to be too many who realise sangiovese is the backbone of Chianti, or nebbiolo of Barolo, so De Bortoli is easing Italian varietals into consumers’ consciousness, by blending with more well-known varieties: syrah/dolcetto, chardonnay/pinot grigio; merlot/sangiovese. Webber said the Sero wines are “to quaff and enjoy. Don’t think about it. Drinkability and deliciousness.”

Pizzini Family

Fred Pizzini, director of Pizzini Wines, is one of those King Valley pioneers who used to provide fruit to Brown Brothers. He said “we started with a passion for sangiovese and nebbiolo, going back about 20 years. When we planted there was only us in Victoria. We set out from day one to let the variety express itself in King Valley.

On nebbiolo, Pizzini said: “the King Valley gives the ability for nebbiolo to be left on the vine into early April, for slow maturation. We get pure conditions from the Snowy Mountains directly behind us which allow the development of those fantastic aromatics that nebbiolo has to have. 1991 was our first vintage of nebbiolo; it’s only just starting for us in Australia.”

On sangiovese, Pizzini said “the [climatic] diversity of King Valley means we’ve selected warmer sites for it within our 200 acre (81 ha) site. We learnt from growing shiraz which looks for similar conditions. Both do very well.” About half their vineyard is now planted to Italian varietals, with more going into the ground.

The Aussies seem to favour barbera with some oak, especially old oak, as Pizzini explained: “The bugger’s too acidic, it needs a bit of oak to balance out the angles.” Mosele added their “Barbera is made with old oak. We wanted the extra level of complexity and suppleness in wine to soften the effect of the acidity.”

The Italian heritage has also spurred on Sam Miranda of King Valley. The King Valley winery was already in the Miranda family, before they sold the company to Simeon McGuigan [now Australian Vintage] in 2003, with the vineyard planted in the early 1980s. Miranda said: “The vineyard has different soils, heavier clay, red soils. You can match varieties to blocks. With 20 years history now we’re beginning to match variety with site. Sangiovese is one of the original varieties in the area; I’m looking to plant some next year.”

Esoterica

There’s also a lot of experimentation with (even) less well-known Italian varieties such as arneis, cortese, verduzzo and some bubblies. Pizzini said: “there’s lots of opportunity for white varieties, they work well in Australia. Aussies are looking for new things other cabernet and chardonnay, and for more food friendly styles of wine.”

It was Pizzini who made Australia’s first bracchetto, in the traditional style. With nearly 3 hectares of the Piemontese deliciously sweet, frothy, red wine style, the Pizzinis are happy it sells well, especially once people have tasted it. And dal Zotto said “we were the first in Australia to release a prosecco, in 2004, which has proven so popular we’re increasing plantings. We try to keep it true to style with a fine perlage, and fresh, crisp apple palate, and just a short time on lees.”

Why now?

The long, slow drip of education and trial seems to be reaching a critical mass. Pizzini said: “sommeliers played a big part in making things change – getting product into peoples’ mouths. Most people didn’t know that sangiovese is the basis of Chianti. So education, getting people to understand the styles are for food rather that everyday drinking, it’s a lot of little things that make up the picture of change.”

Miranda added “there’s a definite swing to wines with finesse, cool climate wines. There’s an undercurrent of people wanting to drink a bottle of wine and still be upright. Imports from Spain and Italy are really growing now. Up to 50% of some wine lists are European wines; people are a bit bored of Aussie fruit bombs.”

Further evidence for these winds of change was provided by the big boys in South Australia, when Jacob’s Creek dipped its toe in the Italian water with the inaugural 2006 vintage of Three-Vines rosé, which contains a little sangiovese.  Similarly Yalumba have a limited release sangiovese rosé, under the ‘Y’ series. That Italian niche looks like it might just grow quite fast.

Victorian wine industry at a glance

• Wine story started n 1838 in Yarra Valley
• 2800 growers
• 21 wine regions
• Over 600 wineries (30% of Australia’s total)
• Over 200 wineries produce Italian varieties, with half of them producing more than just pinot grigio.
• 80% of wineries crush fewer than 100 tonnes (~6,000 to 7,000 cases)
• 36,579 hectares, plus 2400 planted, not yet bearing.
• Has 23% of the total Australia vineyard
• Has more than 30% of Australia’s pinot gris/grigio plantings
• 354,796 tonne crush in 2006 (-10% on 2005)
• Has 22% of total Australia crush
• Climatically and mesoclimatically diverse

Sources:  www.winetitles.com.au; www.winesofvictoria.com.au

Victoria regions making a (small) impact with Italian varietals

Barbera:  Heathcote, King Valley, Pyrenees
Nebbiolo: Goulburn Valley, King Valley, Yarra Valley
Pinot gris/grigio:  Alpine Valley, Geelong, Heathcote, Henty, King Valley, Mornington, Strathbogie, Yarra Valley
Sangiovese: Alpine Valley, Goulburn Valley, King Valley, Pyrenees, Sunbury, Yarra Valley

• Excluding the pinot grigio phenomenon, red Italian grape varieties account for 1.2% of total Victoria plantings, a more than 70% increase since 2000-2001.
• In absolute terms the number of hectares dedicated to red Italian varieties has nearly doubled in five years.

Source:  Victorian Wine Industry Association

Guaiacol and 4-methylguaiacol are the main compounds involved.  But they also occur commonly in wines aged with toasted oak, so are, to a certain extent, desired in some wine styles – toasted, smoky flavours are deliberately sought, especially in red wines.

The smoking of certain foods is big business where smoky flavours are actively sought. And the specific smoky flavours differ according to the fuel origin – beechwood imparts different flavours to oakwood.  And where would the barbecue be without smoky flavours? 

Bush fire smoke over Simonsberg in South Africa, 2009

In 2003 in Australia, thousands of tonnes of grapes were downgraded or rejected, amounting to an estimated AUD$7m. Research carried out in the heat of those burns provides the basis of our understanding of the issue. 

What is smoke taint?

Smoke taint, though, suggests a presence of these compounds, and likely others too, that has not been deliberately sought by winemaking. They can be identified by an ‘excessively dry back palate character and a lingering retro-nasal ash character’ according to Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) research, and it is Australia where much research is being done.

Bush fires occurring near vineyards are known to cause contamination of the resulting wine.  It first came to serious attention after the 2003 Australian vintage, where industry services dealt with a lot of grapes and wines tainted by smoke flavours.  During January and February 2003 there had been a lot of bush fires in Victoria and southern New South Wales.

Smoke taint was observed in both grapes and wines. 

Given the number of incidences, trials by the AWRI examined the issue during the vintage period, the main findings of which were:

• samples exhibited characters of smoky, burnt, ash, ashtray, salami, smoked salmon, etc.
•  guaiacol and 4-methylguaiacol were the main compounds implicated in the taint.  Both these compounds are regularly found in wines matured with toasted oak. An additional back-palate drying and ash note was found in contaminated samples.
• These compounds are thought not to be the only ones contributing to the taint. When control samples were spiked with guaiacol and 4-methylguaiacol, the sensory effect was less marked than in smoke-affected samples. 

Possible ‘vineyard washing’ remedies were trialled to reduce guaiacol concentration in the grapes, but none of the options reduced the concentration in juice or crushed grapes.

Concentration of the compound increased with increasing time of maceration of juice with skins.  This was consistent with anecdotal evidence of taint being worse in machine-harvested fruit and in pressings.

These compounds were found to reside in the skins of grapes.

Tests were done to see if was possible to reduce the taint during winemaking, for example, by using fining agents to ‘scalp’ the flavour compounds. Only activated carbon removed any guaiacol.  

A sample of cabernet sauvignon grapes had been exposed to fire smoke for up to eight hours, 3-4 weeks before veraison. The concentration of guaiacol and 4-methyguaiacol fell only marginally in the subsequent to harvest, possibly as a result of dilution with berry growth. 

The AWRI report said: “The results of these investigations provide conclusive evidence that tainting of grapes and wine by bushfire smoke can occur, and potentially have a major economic impact. Many affected white juices, wines and especially sparkling base wines, were deemed to be ‘unfit for purpose’ and were consequently severely downgraded in terms of value.”

Western Australia

In Western Australia, prescribed burns are an important part of landscape management. Drew Haswell, policy and science advisor at Western Australia’s (WA) department of environment and conservation said they carry out “prescribed burning in forests to stop the impact of damaging wild fires. We can only burn wet Karri forests in a small window of opportunity in April/May [when they are at their driest].” The Pemberton wine region is nearby these burns.  

The department of environment and conservation has recently been working with the university and the wine industry association (WIAWA) to minimise the impact on the wine industry. In 2007, said Sue Vidovich, chief executive officer of WIAWA, they have “formed a Smoke Taint Working Group comprising representatives from WIAWA, the Department of Agriculture and Food and the Department of Environment and Conservation to learn more about the effect of smoke on vines and the resultant wines. We have one research project currently underway”.

Kristen Kennison, viticulture research and development officer at the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia had been carrying out research for the previous 18 months. She said: “We need to know more about how smoke ends up in grapes, and what part of the grape smoke ends up in. Over 4000 compounds have been detected in smoke alone. A whole range of compounds could contribute to taint. Research is looking at the compounds within smoke taint. We’re using guaiacol and 4-methylguaiacol as indicators. We’re looking at particular growth stages of the vine, when during the season is smoke a particular problem. Also the timing and duration of smoke events. How vines assimilate and translocate the smoke compounds. We’ve applied smoke to vines for different durations, and we’re currently making wine from that fruit. Once we have knowledge, then can work on amelioration.”

Victoria

In Victoria in 2007, over 1m hectares were affected by bushfire, with King Valley and Alpine Valleys the worst affected. Having already lost a big chunk of the crop to frost and drought that year, extensive bush fires left smoke palls over vineyards.  It was estimated the combined effect of the vintage’s natural conditions may cost the region AUD$70m. 

Joanne Butterworth-Gray, chief executive, Victorian Wine Industry Association said: “We had six weeks of bush fires, starting on December 3^rd, finishing in the third week of January ’07. About 50% of the state was covered in smoke haze for this time. Some companies in the north east are not using those grapes for their own brands. Some is left on the vines, some is blended out. What you can’t afford to have happen is the strength of ultra premium brands being affected”. Some producers have treated their wines with carbon.

Butterworth-Gray added: the Victorian government put forward a lot of funding for sustained research into the long term effects of smoke taint, and to assist businesses in getting over those effects. We don’t know if there is an accumulation effect in the vine itself, so part of the research will look at this.” 

In 2009, there were again catastrophic bushfires in Victoria – the Yarra Valley – some started deliberately, which this time killed nearly 200 people.  Tony Jordan, who heads up the Yarra Valley Winegrowers’ Association said after years of below average rainfall, and after “a four-day heatwave in south east Australia [at the end of January] flammable eucalypt forests were tinder dry. Strong, hot, northerly winds, with gusts over 100 kilometres per house created a recipe for bushfire disaster.”

About a quarter of the Yarra Valley vineyard was directly affected by grass and bush fires.  Jordan added: “Many vines will be pruned back severely and they’ll recover. Vines were already shooting green growth, 8-10 weeks after the fires.”

It is now known that the effect in a single season is cumulative. Jordan said their “experience of smoke in 2007 and 2009 indicates that exposure to several days of moderate smoke levels is required to produce an effect above threshold.” The intensity and duration of exposure are also implicated, with even short periods resulting in a small amount of smoke compound pick up, though often below organoleptic thresholds.

Aftermath of bushfires, Cederberg, South Africa, 2009

Treatment

A sporadic and individual problem it may be, but the commercial decisions can be harsh, especially without contaminant insurance. Some sort of treatment exists (see Memstar below). David Wollan, director of Wine Network said: “A number of wine producers have said they’re not prepared to take the risk and they rejected a lot of grapes.” But others, especially a larger producer who has more than one tier of brands, an option is to treat the wine and put it into a lower tier of wine brand.

Detection thresholds vary by style of wine, with fruit for sparkling base wine having the lowest threshold. One industry insider said: “a smoky, bacon flavour in a sparkling base might see a significant downgrade for example from AUD$3/litre to AUD$0.30/litre.” The threshold for reds is obviously more forgiving, but varies by grape variety. Blending away is one option, for larger wineries, but a guaiacol concentration above a certain level is likely to see the fruit left on the vine without commercial value. It’s clear that smoke taint is unpleasant. But the overall impact to the industry is not great.

Memstar – a treatment option (MEMbrane Separation, Treatment And Recombination)

This a group of reverse osmosis membrane processes. Wine is pumped under high pressure. Compounds of low molecular weight pass through a highly selective membrane. The liquid passing through the membrane is treated to remove some of the unwanted compounds, and the treated portion is returned – ‘recombined’ to the wine.

For smoke taint a ‘loose’ membrane is required. Guaiacol and 4-methylguaiacol have a higher molecular weight than, for example, ethanol and acetic acid.  Compounds are removed by passing the liquid through activated carbon filters, though this also removes some other wine components that passed through the filter with guaiacol.  The  treated portion is added back to the wine.

Depending on the level of taint, it costs about USD$0.30/litre to use the technology.

David Wollan, director of Wine Network, which runs the Memstar technology, said: “We can reduce the taint components. We can’t eliminate the smoke taint, but we can take out a portion of what’s there each time the wine passes. We estimate 8-10% of taint is removed each time.  Wine is processed until it’s at an acceptable level, which could be 3 to 10 times going round the loop.”

Smoke taint – not brettanomyces.

Smoke taint is not to be confused with brettanomyces, which is a taint cause by yeast. Wines made from smoke tainted fruit show an acrid, burnt, ‘morning after’ ashtray note.  Wines tainted by brettanomyces display horsey, medicinal, farmyard, ‘elastoplast’ notes.

The compounds responsible for these two taints are different, but they do all come from a group of volatile phenols

• Smoke taint culprits are guaiacol and 4-methylguaiacol.
• Brettanomyces culprits are  4-ethylphenol and 4-ethylguaiacol. 

With brettanomyces, many argue a little influence offers complexity to wine. With smoke, any detectable amount will be regarded as a fault in an aromatic white wine, but in a robust wine aged in new oak, the story is more complicated. A proportion of the two main compounds measured to identify taint, are often regarded as positive complexing influences, so the line between flavour enhancement and flavour fault in robust reds, as with brettanomyces, is a fine one. More research needs to be done on the other compounds that contribute to smoke taint.

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.

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