Australian Pinot

© Sean O'Sullivan 2005

 

It has become fashionable to knock Australian pinots. Just in case you want to try some, here's the form guide. You will get a few amazing glasses of pinot from this fickle grape variety, and once you understand that, the rest is just good fun.

So far this year, my favourites  in the under $25 price bracket have been the Diamond Valley 2003 Blue Label, Curlewis 2003 Bellarine Selection and the Giant 2003 Steps. The Diamond Valley has been unbelievably consistent, which can be seen as good or bad depending on your point of view.

After that it's a maze - lots of wrong turns, promising starts and disappointing choices. A lot of them look the same, which is disappointing. This is in spite of pinot noir being highly variable in the vineyard and from vintage to vintage. This sameness is confounding, because more than any other wine it expresses the talents and passion of individual winemakers.

I can only conclude this pack mentality is either a phase, or because of  uncertainty among many winemakers as to how to get the best results out of their own plot of land, as well as the learning curve associated with pinot.

When you pay around $30 for a standard label pinot, or more than $50 for some of these "Reserve" label pinots, I think you are looking for individuality, not just quality.

On the other hand though, last time I was at Mornington Peninsula I thought the 2003s generally looked pretty good.

The Port Phillip is very good; and you could look at Kooyong as well. Both are made now by Sandro Mosele, who could be described as having had a European influence in his methods. The Stonier Reserve 2003 I tried earlier this year was also very good. It's the kind of wine I'd like to try again in a couple of years as it reaches it peak. But the wine that really impressed me this year from Stonier was the Barrique One 2002- it's hard to go past.

Ten Minutes By Tractor can also come up with the goods. They have just released their 2003s, which will be worth checking out - 10X Pinot Noir (low $30s), Reserve Pinot Noir and Wallis Vineyard Pinot Noir. The pinots from Main Ridge (the Estate and the Half Acre) are from an established vineyard and made by Nat White, who is well regarded by the locals. I usually check out the Moorooduc wines every year and the current ones (especially the Estate and The Moorooduc) are very good.

Some of the other pinots that I've liked in the past have been from Hickinbotham (the Family Reserve), Paringa and Willow Creek. Main Ridge and Moorooduc are long-time favourites. Paringa gets criticised sometimes for being like a shiraz, but then the Paringa shiraz is a bit like a pinot. Mornington Peninsula pinots have been over-extracted in the past; I don't think they are anymore.

A few trendy (and very good) pinots are being made by very able contract winemakers - Merricks Creek (Nick Farr), Scorpo (Sandro Mosele) and Yabby Lake (Tod Dexter). Halliday has rated the current ones highly.

One of the biggest problems with Mornington Peninsula producers, is that you just don't get enough consistency. There are noticeable differences (vintage conditions excluded), possibly due to vineyard site selection, or vine age. Vineyard practices or different clones are often cited as the reason, but many are using the same practices and clones. Mornington pinots are often spicy, earthy and show too much oak, especially when young. Sometimes they're a bit stalky or feral depending on the winemaker.

There is not much from the Yarra Valley that I really like at the moment, except Diamond Valley, Giant Steps and sometimes Coldstream Hills standard label. The Reserves from Coldstream Hills and Yering Station impress some people, but I am not one of them. They have lots of oak and structure, but I find that while they taste like pinot, the winemaking makes them feel more like a cabernet. Last year I had a Hillcrest 2003 pinot that was made by Phillip Jones. It is not a typical Yarra Valley pinot, but intense and big hitting.

Giant Steps are doing interesting things with their pinots, including a Dijon Clone. De Bortoli and Rochford could be ones to watch in the future. Some of the older names like Mount Mary and Diamond Valley (the White Label and the Close Planted label) will be long-lived, but are hard to get.

Yarra Valley pinots are usually elegant, the best ones are ripe, with smoky oak and a velvety structure; typically flavours of dark cherry and plums are found. The Yarra tends to be warmer than the Peninsula, so the fruit is riper and more consistent. The 2002s are probably going to be better keepers than the 2003s, but that's an early impression. Even so, for sometime I've had a suspicion that Mornington will be the place where the most exciting pinots come from, not the Yarra Valley.

It's a mixed bag when you look around the rest of Victoria. Bannockburn is in front of the others in Geelong by a long, long way.

Their standard offering can have the highly defined cherry fruit one year and then a gamy, earthy style the next; it's typically silky and deeply flavoured. The Serre comes from a single vineyard and the winemaking is overtly Burgundian. It has lush fruit with excellent texture and structure. If you follow Gary Farr (ex Bannockburn), last years By Farr pinot and the Farr Rising pinots (the latter made by his son Nick) were both very good.

Rainer Breit is doing some interesting work at Curlewis, and his Reserve tends to be dark, very aromatic and big bodied. Early examples seemed a bit rustic; but not now.

Bindi makes beautiful pinots but it's hard to find their wines. Located in the Macedon Ranges, climatically it is an alarmingly marginal area for pinot. The Original Vineyard and Block 5 are must-have wines, and if you see them grab them; the latter is probably bigger in structure.

Interestingly, Domain Epis (another winery in the Macedon Ranges) had been making some very good pinots. A couple of bad vintages meant that they have not released a pinot for some time, so they are off the radar now. (This tells you something about the commitment to quality by the best producers, as well as the vagaries of growing pinot in marginal places.)

Giaconda has a long track record and cult status. The winemaker, Rick Kinzbrunner, seems to get something special out of each vintage. Intensity and complexity usually define this highly regarded pinot, but volumes are becoming even tinier. Unsurprisingly, Savaterre will succeed given the attention to the vineyard and the passion of Keppell Smith (the owner and winemaker); not because of the climate or because it's in Beechworth.

The big gun is probably Bass Phillip, not just because of the quality of wines, but because of the influence of them on how pinot is rated in this country. It's not about comparing other pinots with the wines of Phillip Jones (the winemaker), but seeing what a very talented, highly motivated and single-minded individual can achieve with some understanding of his vineyard and self-belief.

Halliday describes the pinots from Bass Phillip as "superlative" and which at their best "have no equal in Australia" - and while those who drink them will carry on with that old comparison with Burgundy or retell stories about their memorable dealings with the very blunt, straight-talking Phillip Jones, it goes without saying that until you have had a Bass Phillip pinot you just don't get pinot (well at least in this country).

His Village and Domaine Phillip pinots can be found in bottle shops if you hunt around for them. The latter is a blend of Gippsland and Mornington Peninsula fruit, which could be seen as sacrilegious by the purist. It is well made, and you get some typical pinosity at this introductory level to his wines. For that matter, Bass Phillip is nominally in the Gippsland region; this has only been pointed out to show it is a huge, diverse region stretching across the eastern half of Victoria.

The Bass Phillip wines, especially the Estate, Premium and Reserve, are more about his own vineyards and his own style. The winemaking is minimal in a sense - a natural balance, opulent flavours and texture are the aim. They tend to reach their best with some time in the bottle, and even then opinion will probably be divided over exactly what is in the bottle - a pinot from the dairy country near Leongatha or a burgundy look-alike?

As far as Tasmania is concerned, I last visited 4 or 5 years ago, so my idea of what's good could be out of date.

Around the low $20s I liked Moorilla Black Label, Tamar Ridge and the Stefano Lubiana Primavera. They are at the light-bodied end of the scale I suppose. I've seen them in the shops here in Melbourne, so I still try them occasionally.

The best Tassie that I've had was a Freycinet 2000, but that was a few years ago. Others that I've also really liked are Rosevears (in the Tamar River area), Panorama and Stefano Lubiana's Estate pinot is worth trying. Andrew Hood is a big name in Tasmania - it's surprising how many pinots have his name on the back label. Halliday seems to like his wines, particularly the Frogmore Creek pinots.

Various other producers around the country make noteworthy pinots.

Moss Wood's Margaret River and Pemberton label pinots were knockout wines in the 90s - maybe more at the dry red end of the spectrum. Much the same could be said of the Tyrrell's Vat 6 pinot which can be very good sometimes, but otherwise totally out of place in the Hunter Valley. However, these wines are far from representative of what pinots can be like.

Ashton Hills and Barratt in the Adelaide Hills have made some very good pinots in recent times, showing the elegance and finesse you look for in pinot, there's still hope for the pinots coming from that region.

New names keep emerging as the next best thing. This is probably how it will remain with pinot in this country for sometime. A producer will get it right one year, and then not again for quite sometime. Other than taking a regional view, you could just focus on individual producers and take a chance on them each time.

Some of the current wines that have been rated highly by Halliday are Paringa, Ashton Hills, Bannockburn, Tomboy Hill, Clyde Park, Dalrymple, Dromana, Eldridge, Kooyong, Moorooduc, Stonier, Yabby Lake, Yering Station (the Reserve) - all of them with pinots that scored 95 points or better in his 2006 Wine Companion. You will still get variability from year to year, which is a fact of life with pinot anyway, and I doubt this list will be the same in next year's book.

The good news is there is definitely a small and very elite group of producers that seem to defy the odds - at least in the minds of those who regularly buy their wines. You will probably want to try their wines (but you will be paying a premium for them) if you really want to get some kind of benchmark.

These wines tend to be compared with top end burgundy, and while the philosophy may be the same it is inaccurate to do it. Still they are unofficially our Grand Crus - Bannockburn, Bass Phillip, Bindi, Diamond Valley, Giaconda and Mount Mary.

What they have in common is a big step up in quality as well as a track record. Typically complex and structured, they all show subtlety that you only get from great vineyards and handcrafted winemaking.