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On 19 July, Wine Australia hosted a tasting seminar in London of “benchmark” Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. Tom Carson, winemaker at Yabby Lake, Chairman of judges at the National Wine Show in Canberra and presenter of the Landmark Tutorials Pinot Noir class, led the tasting.
The seminar was held to showcase high quality examples of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and the regional differences between them, as well as the lighter touch of Australian winemaking in recent years.
Ten Aussie Chardonnays and ten Pinot Noirs were tasted blind, mostly from the Melbourne “dress circle” regions of Geelong, Macedon Ranges, Mornington Peninsula, Sunbury and Yarra Valley, and mostly of the challenging 2009 vintage, when bush fires raged across Victoria in February. A couple of ringers from New Zealand and France were sneaked into each flight to ensure that tasters were paying attention.
The first three whites came from Mornington Peninsula. Eldridge Estate’s Chardonnay wasn’t ponderous but nor was it light on its feet. Nonetheless, it was a good drink. The single vineyard Kooyong Faultline was brisker and more mineral but the blistering acidity of Yabby Lake’s Tuerong Chardonnay was too much for me.
I have fond memories of going to Shadowfax on my one and only visit to Geelong in November 2004. Matt Harrap, a Kiwi-born larrikin whose brother Steve I had befriended when I was in New Zealand earlier that year, hosted me. He looks and sounds the part – scruffy, dirty and extremely potty-mouthed. But he knows what he’s doing. The pan-Victorian 2009 Shadowfax Chardonnay was lively up front and then presented a soft landing on the finish.
The Chardonnay ringer was Kumeu River’s Hunting Hill Chardonnay from northwest of Auckland. I don’t think that anybody spotted it – I certainly didn’t – but it did have less of the stone fruit seen in the Mornington wines.
De Bortoli Estate Grown Chardonnay 2008 was monochrome, though it had good depth. Maybe it needs a bit longer. The nicely textured Yering Station Estate Chardonnay was very well made, as one would expect of the Rathbone family’s impeccable portfolio.
Giant Steps’ Chardonnay from the Sexton Vineyard was wearing plenty of new oak makeup, as was the Yabby Lake Block 1 Chardonnay, which had also clearly enjoyed some time with its lees.
The second ringer was Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru Les Chenevottes 2009 from Philippe Colin, which was more sullen and brooding than any of the previous wines. Its earnest richness of flavour marked it out as being un-Australian. No sunshine in a bottle here.
By comparison the Oakridge Chardonnay was dazzling. Tom Carson pointed out that wines like this from the Upper Yarra are often fresher and more mineral than wines from the Lower Yarra such as De Bortoli’s. The final Chardonnay was the 2010 from Coldstream Hills, as elegant as always.
The first of the Pinot Noirs was orange-hued like a mature Barolo – or Burgundy. It couldn’t be Australian – could it? But it turned out to be the 2008 Estate Grown Pinot Noir from De Bortoli. It was much fresher than its colour suggested – a good wine.
By Farr’s Tout Pres is a densely-planted (9,000 vines per hectare) and potent take on Aussie Pinot. Herbal rather than fruity, Carson described it as “a pulverising wine, with lots of character in the bottle.”
Coming after two such distinctive wines, the neon-red of the Eldridge Estate Pinot Noir was a shock to the eyes. Its distinctly minty flavours were tasty but far from typical of Pinot Noir. There was also a hint of mint with the Stonier Reserve Pinot Noir – perhaps it is typical of Mornington wines, if not of Stonier’s general style. Mint was also detected in The Moorooduc Pinot Noir.
McCutcheon Vineyard Pinot Noir from Ten Minutes By Tractor wasn’t quite as glossily smooth as the Eldridge Estate but its herbal, chocolaty flavours were very appealing.
The next wine was a bit funky. It must be Burgundy. No… It was Yabby Lake’s Pinot Noir. This had some tannin too, which wasn’t noticeable with the others. After this came something with an austere finish. Burgundy again, surely… It was Yabby Lake’s Block 2 Pinot Noir.
The woody flavours of the eighth red wine were charmless. It improved a bit with aeration but Domaine de l’Arlot’s Vosne-Romanée Premier Cru Les Suchots 2009’s self-conscious hauteur was not for me.
By Farr’s Tout Pres was probably the biggest wine overall but the Felton Road was a sizeable mouthful of Pinot Noir, too. It stood out from the others for its dark rather than red fruit aromas and for its concentrated elegance. The deep ruby of the Kooyong single vineyard Ferrous is not really correct for Pinot.
As with the whites we finished at Coldstream Hills, whose Pinot Noir 2010 was not quite as sweet and juicy as the Moorooduc but still very pleasant. Like the Tout Pres, there was some noticeable grip on the finish.
The overall standard was very high, then, though regional differences were not easy to ascertain. The use of oak with Chardonnay has been reined in and there is less use of malolactic and lees stirring these days, with more natural ferments. Tannins were skilfully managed, though some of the flavours were rather offbeat and distinctly minty for Pinot Noir.
Tom Carson concluded, with a nod towards the greater knowledge and promotion of regionality, “to understand Australian wine you need to place it in the context of where and when it was grown – the terroir, its sense of time and place.” For him, the best Australian wines are “uncluttered by winemaking.” The finest examples in this excellent tasting proved his point.
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