News
PINOSOPHY – Brian Croser’s Pinot Noir Manifesto
Brian Croser is a pivotal figure in the Australian Wine Industry. An academic as much as a visionary winemaker, he has done much to build the international reputation of fine Australian wine. He is best known as the founder of Petaluma, pioneer and proponent of distinguished vineyard sites. His work in the Clare Valley with Riesling, Adelaide Hills with Chardonnay and Coonawarra with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot established benchmark winemaking standards that still endure today. His winemaking influence goes beyond these shores, especially Oregon, where he has plied his craft for a quarter of a century.
Brian Croser’s new venture Tapanappa wines is very much a family concern steeped in longstanding kinsmanship with Champagne Bollinger and the Cazes Family of Chateau Lynch Bages fame. It is based on the ideal of utilising “the most expressive and unique terroirs of Australia to create Australian fine wine of distinction". With vineyards in Wrattonbully (Whalebone), Fleurieu (Foggy Hill) and Adelaide Hills (Tiers), Brian Croser continues to reinvent and refine his fine wine dream with considerable imagination and flair. With scientific scrutiny, a craftsman’s eye and intuitive feeling of place, he continues to lead from the front with incredible self-belief and trust in the lyrical beauty of the Australian landscape. He has just released his 2007 Tapanappa Foggy Hill Pinot Noir; an impressive and unexpected start to a new personal journey and family adventure. Here is his Pinot Noir manifesto entitled “Pinosophy” presented to 65 Victorian Pinot Noir winemakers at Hepburn Springs on the 25th November 2008. It is vintage Croser and a great read!
Andrew Caillard MW
PINOSOPHY
Brian Croser AO
Winemaker and “Terroirist”
25th of November 2008
APOLOGIA
This is a manifesto and it represents personal observations and views on Pinot Noir developed over 40 years of winemaking. I have not attempted to support these musings with references although if challenged they could be produced. I have finally decided to make an effort with Pinot Noir table wine. After 40 years of being awed and bewildered by Pinot’s complexities and vagaries, enough sign posts are pointing in the same direction for me to believe I might avoid mediocrity of result I always feared and which is so easy to achieve with this very particular variety.
THE EVOLVING PHILOSOPHY OF FINE WINE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION
The Beginning, Parents and Baby Boomers
Before tracking the path of the Pinot star in this decade, it is instructive to reflect on the evolution of the fine wine philosophy in the developed world over the past half century. What is it in the cultural milieu of developed countries in the late twentieth century and the early twenty-first century that has so embedded wine into mainstream consumption?
The answer of course is the increasing affluence and available leisure time for all people in developed countries after the Second World War, but especially for the large bubble of well-educated post war babies, “the baby boomers”, people like me.
The parents of “baby boomers” were far less wealthy and far busier trying to collect life’s essential material possessions, houses, cars, whitegoods and paying for the education of their children so that they could have a better life than their own generation. For most of their lives our parents had little access to or interest in wine except as a cheap sweet form of alcohol, port and sherry, or as a slightly sweet fizzy celebration drink sipped out of the inverted crystal cast of Marie Antoinette’s breast.
Then in the 1960s, houses replete with possessions and children well on the way to graduation, this selfless generation had sufficient time and money to discover restaurants and the food styles of post-war immigrant diasporas, they began to travel overseas and they discovered wine. Specifically in Australia and the USA they discovered their undervalued indigenous red table wines and in the UK, Scandinavia and Western Europe the red wines of France, Italy and Spain. As they reached car driving age in the 1960’s, their children, the “baby boomers” like all subsequent and probably all preceding generations leapt at alcohol, consuming vast excesses of beer and spirit mixed drinks but also wine from the emerging, flagon replacing cardboard box.
Prosperity, “Fine Wine”, and “Branded Commodity Wine”
“Baby boomers” matured and prospered like no previous generation. They indulged in rampant but informed leisure consumption, hobbies, personal trainers and gyms, luxury boat travel, trekking and eco tours and cuisine in the home and in the restaurants of the world. “Baby boomers” took over wine where their late developing parents left off, evolving preferences away from diminishing red wine quality in the 1970’s to white wine and then specifically to Chardonnay in the 1980’s. By the end of the 1980’s, wine was becoming an indispensable accompaniment to meals and social occasions for affluent and well educated families of the “baby boomers” of developed nations. Supermarkets recognised the trend and cashed in on the high unit value per quantum of shelf space that wine and specialty food represented. The era of the mass distributed, economical, predictable quality, “branded commodity” wine had arrived, and Australia’s pent up potential to supply leapt into the demand breach for everyday use wine. Jacobs Creek, Oxford Landing, Nottage Hill, Queen Adelaide and later Yellow Tail and many other Australian cross regional blends of hot irrigation region derived branded wines propelled Australia to the wine-export forefront from 1986 on. The same consumers in parallel with everyday consumption were developing their palates for and cellars of “fine wine”, reserved for special celebratory or food and wine occasions.
The Old Vine, Plump Red Wine Era
As the vines planted in the red wine boom of the 1960’s and early 70’s matured into vines capable of producing “fine wine” in the 1990’s, the “baby boomers” adopted plump red wine from “old vines” and new producers at prices previously contemplated only by wealthy connoisseurs for Cru wines from France.
The extraordinary growth of wealth from the mid 1990’s and the first years of the twenty first century supported the development of a global appetite for “fine wine”, in particular rich ripe red wine. The Parker et al influence, the mantra that super-concentration means low yield, high cost and quality and the collectibility and trophy status of small production wines ushered in an era of new “fine wine” producers and “fine wine” collectors.
The global wine industry responded as Adam Smith would have expected and planted red vines as though each producer was alone attempting to seize the perceived opportunity of the excess of demand over supply. The warmer regions and robust red wine producing varieties were planted in expectation that they could fill the demand gap.
Demographics and the Pinot Noir Era
The consumers of “fine wine” are constantly evolving their tastes and when there is too much of something or the quality doesn't match up to expectations they move on. The young vine fruit and over-extracted wines of the massive 1996 to 2003 plantings of red vines have disappointed “fine wine” consumers and they are voting with a change of purchasing patterns to satisfy their evolving tastes. New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc has led a both a “fine wine” and “branded commodity wine” global revolution in white wine consumption at the expense of Chardonnay. Riesling is experiencing a strong revival especially in the USA. Pinot Noir, the antithesis of the favoured red wine style of the last years of the twentieth century has developed cult status and massive sales momentum since the middle of this decade, aided and abetted by the unlikely messages of the movie Sideways. In spectacular fashion, imported wines from old world producers of much more complex flavours and restrained styles are taking over the wine lists of Australia,
reversing wine parochialism as old as the nation.
Pinot Noir, Lightning Rod of Consumer Expectations
Where is this amateur lesson in the demographics and history of wine consumption taking us?
Wine is an everyday product and is likely to remain so. It is now recognised that consumers of “branded commodity wine” are consuming a different product for different purposes and on different occasions than when they consume “fine wine”. Producers of “branded commodity wine” have specialised fruit sources, production, marketing and distribution methods that only corporate scale can deliver.
Long may the “branded commodity wine” sector flourish! Unfortunately, drought cycles, water policy change and climate change are conspiring to diminish Australia’s competitiveness in the “branded commodity” global wine market. It is an urgent priority of the Australian wine industry to shift its research and promotional focus to Australia’s diverse “fine wine” regions and their 3000 committed producers. In “fine wine” lies the emerging and massive opportunity of the future for Australia. While supermarkets bludgeon the profit margins away from the “branded commodity wine” suppliers, “baby boomers” remain the most important “fine wine” consumption cohort and through their influence on their maturing children, who will inherit their cellars, are shaping the future of “fine wine” consumption globally.
“Baby boomers” are looking for products that are
• Natural and pure
• Health and happiness promoting
• Unique and authentic
• Scarce and rare
• Intellectually challenging and interesting
• Subtle and complex
• New experiences but not just fashionable.
• Priced at a premium proportional to the quality of the experience
• Grown and made consistent with their ethical and environmental
expectations
• Not corporate
They have the time, money and powers of discrimination to seek out exactly what they want. The wants and mores of “baby boomers” and their successors are good news for the highly fragmented community of “fine wine” producers of the globe. “Fine wine” is agricultural, traditional, and historical, a natural melding of environment and man.
Vineyards are rarely in places where natural ecosystems are displaced or threatened.
Knowledgeable consumers increasingly perceive “fine wine” as an expression of the vineyard environment, a reflection of the place of origin, the “terroir”, the place it comes from.
Consumers are beginning to seek wines made with a regime of management restraint imposed in the vineyard by the rulebooks of “organic” or “biodynamic”, perceiving them as purer, more natural and more reflective of origins. The environmental credentials of “fine wine” producers are under gatekeeper and consumer scrutiny. The ethos of “fine wine” production is expected to be considerate of the natural environment, contribute to the maintenance of biodiversity and of soil health and limit the carbon footprint of production through green energy generation and carbon sequestration.
Gatekeepers and consumers are consistently reminded that viticulture and “fine wine” production are the canary in the coalmine of climate change. The noble varieties are nervous interpreters of the temperature regimes of their vineyards and implicit in climate change are changes in “fine wine” quality and viticultural and varietal distribution.
These gatekeeper and consumer expectations are largely consistent with the philosophy of “fine wine” production as it is expressed through the vignerons’ care for their distinguished sites and their commitment to the sustainability of their sites and wines.
The virtuous circle of consumer expectation and vigneron philosophy and action is firmly linked.
“Fine wine” is a natural refuge for discriminating consumers from the over-whelming presence on supermarket shelves of processed and mass marketed commodities under corporate brands. This evolving consumer philosophy informs and in turn feeds on the vigneron philosophy of producing what the vineyard environment will allow.
Astute vignerons are growing the varieties best suited to their site in a way that allows the production of wines that best express the site qualities without manipulation of wine composition.
Growing wine to the best quality the vineyard will naturally allow is in philosophical conflict with the concept of making wine of the highest hedonic quality by whatever winemaking processing techniques are available to manipulate wine composition. The “fine wine” consumer wants a wine that is true to its origins and although hedonic quality must be high, the story of the wine’s origin and the artisan who grew it are at least
equally important attributes.
The vigneron’s highest ideal is to grow grapes that allow wine to be made that requires no winemaking amelioration to fully express the quality potential and “terroir” of the vineyard. This achieved, the virtuous circle of consumer expectation and vigneron action remains firmly linked. For “fine wine” viticulture no effort is too much and for “fine wine” winemaking, less is better.
The contradictions that are quoted by the “terroir” sceptics are that many high pointed wines are heavily ameliorated to meet gatekeeper style preference and that many “fine wines” purporting to have “terroir typicity” have winemaking faults and vintage-derived imperfections that impact negatively on hedonic quality. Despite the skeptics, more and more consumers are looking for wines of character and authenticity reflecting their place of origin and story rather than just the hedonically highest pointed wine.
PINOT NOIR AND THE FINE WINE PHILOSOPHY
Pinot Noir renowned as the most fastidious of all of the noble grape varieties is also the most naturally transparent when the terroir is right. Pinot Noir only sings its siren song when it is grown in the right place and receives the right environmental triggers and signals. However even grown in the right place imperfect management can distort Pinot’s
melody to a discordant and unrecognisable noise.
Pinot Noir has an ephemeral and very variable varietal expression. True varietal aroma, flavour and structure have a high dependence on the right environmental inputs to the vine. The location, the “terroir” must be just right. The vigneron must exercise the most fastidious of viticultural management to allow the berries to receive the full benefits of the environmental inputs. The vigneron must also exercise a sensitive minimal influence role in wine elaboration to preserve the qualities imbued by the site and its synergy with the variety.
Pinot Noir’s demand for careful, attentive husbandry does not lend itself to large-scale vineyards, mechanisation or large batch processing. Pinot Noir is very often made by artisan vignerons operating in special secluded and pristine locations, producing tiny yields of grapes and wine with minimal technology and maximum care, sensitively integrating their activities into the local environment and making wines of exotic complexity.
This is a lightning rod for the expectations and aspirations of “baby boomer” “fine wine” consumers and their children.
“Fine wine” has arrived and evolved in the developed world cultural milieu from the 1960’s. The monotonous plump red wine phase of the last years of the twentieth century is now giving away to a much more fragmented consumer preference profile, at the pinnacle of which is Pinot Noir. “Fine wine” consumers are now more interested and inquisitive and less mesmerised. Power, high alcohol, concentration and maximum hedonic impact are giving way to finesse, complexity, savoury structure and interest that extends beyond the hedonic score card.
Pinot Noir’s time has arrived in the philosophical framework of “fine wine”consumers.
THE DRIVERS OF PINOT NOIR QUALITY
What turns Pinot on?
I have my own ideas and I am sure you have yours. Viticulture or winemaking, which is more important? It is too easy to say both!
Distinguished Sites
Pinot Noir first and foremost needs its “distinguished site”. It is not the effort of the vigneron in either vineyard or winery that creates the special flavour, aroma and structure of Pinot Noir. It is however the vigneron’s choice where Pinot is grown. Most Pinot Noir vineyards of the world, old and new aren’t distinguished and therefore don’t complete the circuit that makes Pinot really glow. Without the distinguished site all of the
subsequent efforts of the vigneron will only reflect a mediocre result.
Vine Genetics
If the pedigree of the site, the “terroir”, elevates it above its peers then it is also true that the pedigree, the genetics of the scion and the rootstock have the potential to support or diminish the results of all of the vigneron’s subsequent efforts. The choice of clone and rootstock is a critical decision and is site dependent.
Vineyard design
After site and clone the next most important stimulant of Pinot quality is the vineyard design. The most important decision of design is the choice of the number of buds/hectare that will bring Pinot vines into the naturally modest crop, low vigour balance, having in mind the soil water and evapo-transpiration status and the nutrition, sunshine and temperature inputs of the particular site. Achieving this balance allows Pinot grapes to ripen evenly and optimally.
The next step of design is to locate the chosen number of buds in the three dimensions of the vineyard by choice of vine spacing, fruiting wire height and pruning style. Finally management of the growing shoots and disposition of the mature canopy will be naturally effected by the bud locations and spacing. Canopy management is important to light and heat exposure and to ventilation.
All of the other vineyard management decisions are made much easier if the site and vineyard design are correct. Irrigation or not and how much when, sprays of what and when, fruit thinning, trimming, leaf stripping and lateral removal are all minimised in importance and effort if site and vineyard design are correct.
Winemaking
In the winery the permutations and combinations of decisions are myriad, stalks or not, crushed or whole berry, cold maceration or not, accidental or cultured yeast, co-inoculation with malo bacteria or not, length and style of cap management, temperature regime of fermentation, length of post fermentation maceration, pressing style and extent, type and age of oak, how much lees contact for how long, length of time to end of malo-lactic fermentation, length of time in oak, number of rackings, SO2 regime, fining or not and filtration or not. These choices tend to dominate the discussions of Pinot Noir quality and make the winemaker seem much more important to the outcome than the vineyard site, the “terroir”. The nuances introduced by these decisions should be enhancers of the essential grape derived, “terroir” qualities.
The winemaking choices should not mask or diminish the essential grape qualities derived from the site.
In the winery less is best for Pinot.
THE ATTRIBUTES OF A PINOT “DISTINGUISHED SITE”
Let’s revert to the true source of Pinot greatness, the site, the “terroir” or the place where it is grown. What are the environmental attributes of site that pull Pinot’s trigger?
Climate
Every Pinot student understands that Pinot Noir requires a cool climate to achieve its best expression. Sites with seven month growing season summations of between 1050 and 1250°C days are well suited or sites with a mean January (July) temperature of less than 20°C. Both methods of defining site temperature regime are flawed but of these two heat summation is in my belief the more effective.
Pinot Noir Legends
There are in our midst some who maintain that Pinot greatness can only be derived from “true cool climate”. Explore that assertion a little further and it seems that heat summation doesn’t count. Only high latitude sites (>45° N or S), where it is alleged that leaves are falling off as the grapes are harvested is a symptom of true cool climate. (Incredibly that also happens in cool climate sites at latitudes of 35 to 45° S although I am not sure what it contributes to Pinot quality.) Such a belief could only reasonably rest on the rapid rate of change of day-length and temperature at the end of the autumn in high latitude sites compared to lower latitude locations. This belief effectively disenfranchises mainland Australia from “true cool climate sites”. We shall explore this assertion a little further later.
Another assertion often quoted among Pinot musers is that Pinot requires a continental climate. In its truest sense continentality refers to the difference between summer and winter average temperatures and higher latitudes, especially in the northern hemisphere have high continentality. However what is generally being referred to as continentality is
the diurnal variation in temperature over the growing season and high latitudes do not have a monopoly on high diurnal temperature variation.
Neither is it clear that Pinot requires even moderate diurnal temperature variation to achieve its best expression and again more of that later. Another legend of the Pinot nirvana is that it must be humid and that only high latitude, “true cool climate” sites can achieve the right regime of humidity.
And finally turning from the atmospheric to the edaphic (relating to the soil), it is sometimes proposed that Pinot Noir can only achieve greatness on limestone-derived soils. The combination of these assertions is transparently based on the hypothesis that Pinot Noir can only be successfully grown and made in Burgundy or from a site that emulates Burgundy!
Mainland Australia and California would be disqualified in the Pinot stakes on both atmospheric and edaphic attributes and most of Tasmania, Oregon and New Zealand on the edaphic attributes. Of course these assertions are usually self-serving and fortunately Pinot Noir recognises and responds to other environments than the Burgundian copy and makes potentially great wine of different Pinot personalities to those of Burgundy.
Apart from the climate and day length attributes already discussed, wind and sunlight intensity are site attributes that affect Pinot expression. A moderation of both is probably
best for Pinot.
Pinot Noir Soils and Geology
Returning to the geology and soil contribution to Pinot quality, these site attributes are the fine tuning knob of Pinot Noir expression relative to climate attributes. However great Pinot cannot be made on deep alluvium or from over-fertile or water logged soils. The most important attribute of a great Pinot soil is the structure of the soil/parent rock system. This controls the water holding capacity of the soil and its dynamics over the growing season; super-sufficient at the beginning, drying out gradually through the season but capable of dealing with large rain events by allowing quick drainage or of drought events by having sufficient water binding clay of the right type.
Segregation of the loam, clay and decaying, cracking parent rock soil boundary establishes this hydrological system. The active biomass in the surface loam digests the organic matter content with important effects on soil structure and nutrition, nitrogen in particular. Minerals are derived from the ion exchanging clays and from the dissolution of parent rock materials.
Then there is the temperature response of the soil that effectively controls the phenology of the vine dictating bud burst and autumn close down. This attribute is very dependent on air temperature, night radiation of heat and the thermal mass of the soil that is in turn dependent on the water content of the soil. A moderate to high soil rock content facilitates drainage and at the surface stores and radiates heat at night back into the vine canopy but at depth diminishes the thermal mass of the soil.
Finally there is the albedo of the soil, its reflective capacity and the wavelengths that are reflected. Red and light coloured soils have the most effect in supporting direct sunlight incidence providing the right light wavelengths for photosynthesis.
For all of the legends about the importance of geology and soil in defining terroir, it is well recognised that many of the soils of the great Burgundy Crus are plaggen soils, they have been washed down and dragged back up the hill repeatedly and fortified with soils from other locations and with organic matter from diverse sources including Paris’s rubbish tips. Our site selection exercise finishes with the catena, the slope that has a big effect on soil depth and structure, skeletal at the top and deep alluvium at the bottom, perfect in the middle. Depending on its orientation the slope can increase or decrease incident sunlight by a factor of 50% and have a significant effect on site warmth.
The great viticultural paradox is epitomised by Pinot sites where the coolest region is sought out and within the region the warmest site sloping to the sun at the equator is planted.
Considering all of the above in your mind’s eye you should now be able to identify the perfect Pinot “distinguished site”.
CAN AUSTRALIA MAKE BEST IN CLASS PINOT NOIR?
The late Maynard Amerine one of my Professor’s at the University of California at Davis used to say, “There is no such thing as the best Cabernet (Pinot), just the best one from each particular site in the Napa Valley (Carneros)”.
What he was trying to teach us is that there are no absolutes of quality for “fine wine”, that comparing two wines from different sites was an apple and oranges comparison fraught with the same personal preference questions. In a way the concept of “terroir” supports this argument of the uniqueness of each wine and that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
Tell that to Robert Parker, James Halliday, Jancis Robinson et al, all of whom make a living out of ranking wines by their absolute quality and finding the best wine of a type.
Tell that to the consumers who slavishly believe the rankings of the gatekeepers and put their money and palates where the rankings point them.
For the purposes of the exercise we are about to do, we can accept that even though we are comparing Pinot Noirs from different countries and sites the comparison can lead to a valid ranking.
The wines we are comparing are wines from three regions in which I have had Pinot experience and a Burgundy.
They are:
• 2007 Tapanappa, Foggy Hill Pinot Noir, Fleurieu Peninsula
• 2007 Ashton Hills, Reserve Pinot Noir, Piccadilly Valley
• 2006 Cristom, Eileen Pinot Noir, Eola Hills, Oregon
• 2005 Armand Rousseau, Ruchottes-Chambertin.
There are many uninformed prejudices alive and well in the “fine wine” world and particularly among Pinot musers. I have already mentioned the “true cool climate” concept that I was exposed to at the last Cool Climate Viticulture Conference in Christchurch in 2007.
In this room it’s a fair bet there are some who would immediately rank these “distinguished vineyard” sites in terms of coolness in the reverse order of the tasting and with some distance between the higher latitude Burgundy and Oregon sites compared to the two South Australian sites. I am sure there are some here that would say South Australia does not have “true cool climate” sites like Victoria has, but then I may just be
suffering mild paranoia.
Perhaps a °C (temperature) at 35°S is warmer than a °C (temperature) at 45°N?
The climatic comparison of three of the four regions in which these sites are found is based on the Climatic Tables in John Gladstones’s Viticulture and Environment, Dijon for the Burgundy site, Portland for the Eola Hills site, Stirling for the Piccadilly Valley site. The data for the Fleurieu Peninsula site is from the BOM weather station at Parawa West at the same altitude and distance from the Great Southern Ocean as Foggy Hill Vineyard and about 2 kilometres west of the vineyard. Gladstones’s Australian data for all regions has been drawn from the same BOM weather station tables as has been used from Parawa. All proxy sites used here are reasonable climatic approximations of the actual vineyard sites.
For the heat summations I have used Gladstones’s adjustments for latitude the key effect of which is to increase the higher latitude, Northern Hemisphere site summations by about 20°C days for July and August because of the longer days and decrease the summations for January and February for the lower latitude Southern Hemisphere sites
by about 20°C days because of the relatively shorter days.
Dijon - Burgundy (D) Portland – Oregon (P)
Stirling – Piccadilly Valley, Adelaide Hills, SA (S) Parawa – Fleurieu, SA (Pa)
Raw Heat Summation (D) 1182 (P) 1191 (S) 1183 (Pa) 1224 °C days
Adjstd Heat Summation (D) 1209 (P) 1217 (S) 1160 (Pa) 1202 °C days
Mean Jan/July Temp. (D) 19.6 (P) 19.2 (S) 17.7 (Pa) 18.2 °C
Daily Mean (D) 15.4 1(P) 5.6 1(S) 5.6 (Pa) 15.8 ° C
Diurnal Variation (D) 11.4 (P) 10.4 (S) 11.8 (Pa) 8.5 °C
Afternoon Humidity (D) 59 (P) 52 (S) 52 (Pa) 64 %
Significantly Parawa has the lowest diurnal temperature variation and highest mid-afternoon humidity.
The daily means of the four sites are very similar and to give you some local
Comparisons; Geelong is 17°C, Mornington is 16.8°C, Healesville is 15.9°C and Melbourne is 17.6°C. The Bass Straight has a warmer effect than the Great Southern Ocean over the growing season.
Piccadilly Valley (Stirling) is significantly the coolest of the four sites. It is instructive to find out why by looking at the mean maximums (day) and mean minimums (night). I have done this for the 4 critical ripening months including veraison and post, January to April for the southern hemisphere and July to October for the northern hemisphere.
Dijon - Burgundy (D) Portland – Oregon (P)
Stirling – Piccadilly Valley, Adelaide Hills, SA (S) Parawa – Fleurieu, SA (Pa)
Mean Minimum Temperatures (°C)
January/July (D) 13.6 (P) 13.4 (S) 11.1 (Pa) 13.3
February/August (D) 12.8 (P) 13.4 (S) 11.8 (Pa) 13.7
March/September (D) 10.4 (P) 11.7 (S) 10.5 (Pa) 12.5
April/October (D) 6.2 (P) 8.1 (S) 8.4 (Pa) 10.7
The Piccadilly Valley (Stirling) has the coolest nights and for March and April the maritime Fleurieu site (Parawa) has the warmest March and April. Then there are the mean maximums to compare.
Dijon - Burgundy (D) Portland – Oregon (P)
Stirling – Piccadilly Valley, Adelaide Hills, SA (S) Parawa – Fleurieu, SA (Pa)
Mean Maximum Temperatures (°C)
January/July (D) 25.6 (P) 25 (S) 4.3 (Pa) 23
February/August (D) 25.7 (P) 25 (S) 25 (Pa) 23.2
March/September (D) 21.8 (P) 21.7 (S) 22.9 (Pa) 20.7
April/October (D) 15.6 (P) 16.7 1(S) 8 (Pa) 17.5
October temperatures dive for the high latitude northern hemisphere sites. The significance of this sudden drop is diminished by the fact that in both sites harvest dates cluster strongly around the last week of September and rarely go beyond the first week of October.
As will be explained later Piccadilly Valley Pinot table wine harvest clusters around the first week in April and the Fleurieu Peninsula site for its first two vintages has been in the middle of March but I expect increased vine maturity will retard this to the last week of March.
It is apparent that the Fleurieu Peninsula (Parawa) site has significantly cooler days than the other sites and because it is so maritime significantly less hot day events. It is also apparent that as well as having longer days in the critical early ripening months of July and August, Dijon and Portland have significantly more heat in those months. The mean July (January) temperatures for the two northern hemisphere sites are much higher than those for the southern hemisphere sites.
What do these growing season and diurnal heat distributions mean for Pinot Noir expression?
THE PICCADILLY VALLEY – Adelaide Hills, South Australia (LATITUDE, 35°S)
The Piccadilly Valley’s low night temperatures and relatively high diurnal temperature variation is caused by the altitude effect (450-550 metres) on night temperatures and as expected Pinot Noir from these sites have relatively high malic acid contents because malate respiration ceases at night. Harvest for table wine is delayed into early April because anabolism (the production of flavour and colour) can only operate during the day. Colours are higher because of the stimulation by the higher diurnal variation. Because there is no metabolism at night the sugars at harvest are higher. These Piccadilly Valley climatic influences on the composition and flavour profile of Pinot Noir absolutely suit it to the production of “fine sparkling wine”. High natural acid and adequate sugar before the colour and ripe table wine fruit flavours have developed allow Pinot to be harvested for “fine sparkling wine” in the second and third week of March to produce a slow ageing, savoury, aperitif style.
Most of Petaluma’s Pinot vineyards are on the duplex clay loam soils formed from the Cambrian era Woolshed Flat Shale that is of moderate fertility, generally on the best northern slopes and is highly suited to Chardonnay. On the much lighter, warmer, higher rock content sandy loams formed on the Basket Range Sandstone, Pinot Noir responds
better to the cold night regime for table wine production.
Stephen George’s Ashton Hills Vineyard is mainly on the Basket Range Sandstone and faces the hot afternoon sun in the west. The 2007 Reserve Ashton Hills is made from Martini 18 and D5V12 clones, planted on 3 metre by 2 metre spacing in 1982. The crop level was 6 tonnes/hectare.
(2007 Ashton Hills Reserve Pinot Noir; Medium colour. Intense perfumed roses/ gardinia/ meaty aromas. Palate is well concentrated with rose/ rhubarb/ meaty flavours and loose knit but muscular tannins. Finishes long and sweet. Lovely flavour development but needs a touch more time before optimum drinking. Andrew Caillard, MW)
THE FLEURIEU PENINSULA (LATITUDE 36° S)
The warm night, cool day regime of the Fleurieu Peninsula site has interesting implications for harvest time and final composition. The cool days and low incidence of heat spikes induce a refined and delicate Pinot expression. The lower diurnal temperature variation mandates lower colour intensity. The warm nights allow 24-hour metabolism
aided by radiation from the high ferricrete surface rock content of the northwest facing steep slope. Maturity is advanced by the night anabolism and sugars and malates are lower at harvest. Foggy Hill is at 350 metres on a slope 8 kilometres from the Great Southern Ocean. The soil is a moderate fertility sandy loam formed from the 27 million years-old plateau lateritic ironstone (ferricrete) that in turn was formed by the deep weathering of the Cambrian era Tapanappa Sandstone. The 2007 Foggy Hill Pinot is made from Dijon clones 114, 115 and 777 on Teleki 5C rootstock, planted in 2003 at 1.5 metre by 1.5 metre spacing with the fruiting wire at 0.5 metres. The crop level was 6 tonnes/hectare.
(2007 Tapanappa Foggy Hill Pinot Noir; Medium colour. Fragrant ginger/ red cherry/ aniseed aromas with some herb garden/ vanilla notes. The palate is fresh and buoyant with generous red cherry/ ginger/ herb garden flavours, underlying new oak complexity and a fine plume of slinky/chalky tannins. A flourishing long flavourful finish. Considering the age of vines and first vintage the wine shows remarkable limpidity and sapidity. Andrew Caillard, MW)
THE EOLA HILLS, OREGON (LATITUDE 45° N)
Cristom’s Eileen Vineyard was planted in 1996, the hill top parcel at 600 to 700 feet ASL of their 42 acre vineyard. The geology is volcanic basalt rubble over massive basalt formation formed 15 million years ago and the free draining soil is an iron rich Kraznozem called Jory. The Eileen vineyard slopes to the southeast towards the impressive peaks of Mt Hood and Mt Jefferson in the Cascades in the distance. A connection to the humid moderating air of the Pacific Ocean is formed through the Van Duzer Corridor passing through the Coastal Range and the Eola Hills just to the south of the site and arriving at Lincoln City to the west. That is why the site is more maritime in climate than even the statistics for Portland suggest. Tapanappa is planting Tunkalilla Vineyard to Riesling and Pinot Noir, west of and adjacent to Cristom’s Eileen and Jessie Vineyards. Eileen is planted with UCD5, and the Dijon clones 114,115 and 777 on close spacing of 1.75 metres by 1 metre.
(2005 Cristom Eileen Vineyard Pinot Noir; Medium deep colour. Intense hedge row/ dried roses/ liquorice/ herbal aromas. Quite a chunky wine with sweet fruit/ roses/ dark cherry flavours, stalky/ sappy tannins and underlying savoury oak. Finishes hot. Very distinctive in style. Andrew Caillard, MW)
RUCHOTTES-CHAMBERTIN (LATITUDE 47° N)
The word “Ruchottes may be derived from “roichot”, an area where there are rocks. Even today, the topsoil of Ruchottes is thin and the subsoil shallow and pebbly.” So says James E Wilson in his seminal text “Terroir”. Ruchottes is a 3.3 hectare Grand Cru, the highest on the hill above Mazis and Clos de Beze. Ruchottes is firmly on the middle Jurassic era, White Oolite limestone and less of the Premeaux limestone and Ostrea acuminata marl, at 300 metres ASL and facing southeast. Rousseau has 1.06 hectares of Ruchottes and average vine age is in excess of 50 years.
(2005 Ruchottes-Chambertin Armand Rousseau; Medium colour. Gentle red cherry/ meaty/ violet aromas with some fresh vanilla oak notes. The palate is understated but generous with red cherry/ meaty/ vanilla flavours, mid-palate richness and fine chalky loose knit tannins. Finishes long and sweet. Curiously subdued considering reputation of vintage. Andrew Caillard, MW)
WHAT IS LEFT TO SAY?
I conclude by making a few personal observations in summary.
• Australia and specifically the mainland (and South Australia) can make “best in class” Pinot Noir.
• The climates of Burgundy and Oregon are not as cool or “continental” as many believe.
• High latitude is an over-rated attribute for Pinot Noir best expression.
• Oregon, New Zealand and now Tasmania have received the perception benefit of the climate and latitude based legends of Pinot Noir expression and mainland Australia’s efforts are unfairly discounted by comparison.
• Great Pinot Noir of different expressions can be made on other than limestone soils.
• Australia will only make “best in class” Pinot Noir when vignerons focus more on site and, precise vineyard design and fastidious viticultural management and place less importance on winemaking manipulation.
Brian Croser AO
25th of November 2008
|
|
|
 |
News Archive
Penfolds Primary Reds Rise Above Stock Market Blues.
Langton’s Top 500 Australian Wine Prices 2007
The Great Wine Estates of Western Australia “2007 En-Primeur Campaign”
147 Vente Des Vins - Des Hospices de Beaune
LANGTON’S Classic PENFOLDS Wine Auction
Jasper Hill – The life and works of Ron and Elva Laughton
McWilliam’s Mount Pleasant Lovedale Semillon – Hunter Valley
Robert Parker Jr.’s top 180 Wines of the 2006 Vintage + Andrew Caillard's Bordeaux Impressions
Opening Gambit - Andrew Caillard MW en route to Bordeaux
Heritage & Evolution: A Tasting
Certainty! The Claret Drinker's Song
Wine Investment – Swim between the flags
Penfolds Classified Wines
Classic Penfolds Wine Auction
The Siren’s Song – Bass Phillip
Exchange Current Listings
Andrew Caillard MW reviews Bordeaux 2005
Bordeaux 2005 – Does it get any better than this? What the international reviewers are saying
Nicky Riemer – the new Head Chef at Langton’s Restaurant
Langton's Exchange in 2006
Langton’s 2005 Classification IV – International Reception, Predictions and Tastings
Langton’s 2005 Classification IV – International Reception, Predictions and Tastings
LANGTON’S EXCHANGE – BUY NOW and SAVE 15%
Great Wines Estates of WA Live Auction (V) – Open for Bidding Online October 21 to November 12
Langton’s 2005 Classification IV
2005 Classification in Gourmet Traveller WINE
Bordeaux 2004 – A Classic Vintage
Penfolds Grange Auction – Now Open
Yalumba Tasting – Aussie Rules
MCWILLIAMS Celebrity Blend-Off for Charity Wine Auction
Grange Auction Open for Bidding
LANGTON’S EXCHANGE – BUY NOW!
1998: Vintage of the Century
A Vertical Tasting of De Bortoli Noble One
The Story of Grange by Max Schubert (1915–1994)
Penfolds Grange Auction June 13 - July 14, 2003
A Lazy Eye on Pink Cliffs & One Eye
Henschke Hill of Grace and Mount Edelstone
Selling at Langton’s in 2003
Australian Wine Exchange offers Giaconda Chardonnay
Large Format Grange Sets Records
The Sensational 2002 Central Otago Pinot Noir Vintage
Central Otago Pinot Noir Celebration and Barrel Auction
The John (Jack) W Henderson Collection - Auction Closes February 3, 6pm
Shiraz Australia II Auction
Seppelt Para 100 Year Old Liqueur Vintage Tawny Barossa Valley - Vintages 1878-1903
|