Australia’s Top Twenty Pinot Noirs

Can we really do it properly?

Contentious grape, pinot noir, and never more so than early in 1998. To start with, few Australian growers can agree on how or where to plant it. And although we hear mutterings from makers about ‘Burgundian techniques’, the precise meaning of this term appears to vary considerably from cellar to cellar. Yet other winemakers, of course, proclaim the virtues of modern technology with its temperature control, rotary fermenters and sterile filtration.

This grape knows how to polarise opinions. In bottle it is uniquely capable of inciting flame and disagreement amongst those passionate for it. One man’s mystical, emotional, exotically scented elixir is so often but a sorrowful, decaying source of misery and despair to another. Even the wine touted around in Sydney, mainly as Australia’s first serious pinot noir, the Tyrrells 1976 Vat 6, is today considered by most pinot noir enthusiasts as nothing more than a fine, worthy but indeed interesting old Hunter Valley red. Surely, if pinot noir was secreted onto Planet Earth by an alien force eager to divide and conquer, it could hardly be more effective.

Cognisant of these matters, it has fallen to this terrestrial to summarise, describe and present in balanced detail the outcome of two days of tasting current and matured examples of Australia’s finest, most prestigious and rarest examples of what has been appropriately dubbed ‘The Heartbreak Grape’. Those breaking hearts with me included at various times Peter Forrestal, Huon Hooke, Andrew Caillard, Peter Bourne, Lindy Milan, Tamara Grischy, and Steve Smith.

While we were perfectly happy to maintain contrasting views on certain pinot noirs, especially those made in more adventurous and ‘way out’ styles, it was comparatively easy to arrive at a broadly agreed top ten. Thereafter, it must be said, it became a challenge just to fill the numbers for the second ten.

This tasting amply underlined that although a large number have tried, there haven’t been that many success stories with pinot in Australia. It’s not been for so long that any Australian makers have achieved any real consistency and quality. It’s not enough just to make a single good wine, irrespective of the immediate press a dashing new pinot noir can achieve. Just as the music industry has its one-hit wonders so, it would appear, does the Australian wine industry with respect to pinot noir. So for this tasting, irrespective of how persuasive a case it might have presented, one top vintage was not enough to sway the balanced and even minds of my fellow panel members. Track record, as it should be, is everything.

The candidates for the selection were derived after each of the eight panel members nominated their list of the ten best Australian pinot noirs. Although this list was pruned to around thirty wines for the tasting, some notable wines such as Moorooduc Estate, Yeringberg, Coldstream Hills ‘standard issue’ and Wantirna Estate were not nominated. Perhaps they would have appeared in one of our ‘second tens’. Current vintages were required, plus a number of back vintages in case a wine’s track record was put to question. It was felt that the panel’s experience should more than compensate when back vintages were simply not available.

Of course we can!

It’s been said over the years that if you put all Australia’s top pinot noirs on the luncheon table you’d better not invite too many guests. Surely, by 1998 things have improved? Not so, according this tasting. While the top ten all but selected themselves, the business of simply finding a second ten was a significant challenge. With only a few exceptions, Giaconda and Lenswood Vineyards particularly, neither of whose wines performed as well as some of us anticipated, the top ten appear to be entirely safe from challenge from below. So, to call the shots the way the wines tasted, while a list of top Australian ten pinot noirs can be selected with some credibility, we’re somewhat uneasy about presenting a top twenty in case we give the impression there are that many.

The best performed current vintage Australian pinot noirs were Bass Phillip Premium 1996, Bass Phillip Reserve 1996, Coldstream Hills Reserve 1996, De Bortoli 1996, Diamond Valley Estate Pinot Noir 1996, Freycinet Pinot Noir 1996, Grosset Piccadilly Pinot Noir 1996 and Paringa Estate 1997. No real surprises here, with the possible exception of the De Bortoli wine which represented a considerable step forward for this Yarra Valley winery.

On the other hand, several wines performed at levels well below their reputation might have suggested, including the Giaconda Pinot Noir 1996, Yarra Yering Pinot Noir 1996, Bannockburn Serre 1993, Wignalls Pinot Noir 1996, Karriview Pinot Noir 1996, Stonier’s Reserve Pinot Noir 1996 and Devil’s Lair Pinot Noir 1996.

The Top Ten Australian Pinot Noirs

Bannockburn

Heavily influenced by the whole bunch fermentation techniques of Domaine Dujac, where winemaker Gary Farr habitually passes the vendage, Bannockburn’s pinot noirs were amongst the first to show Australians that real pinot noir is actually a full-bodied red wine. Complex, perfumed, thickly textured and spicy, the 1996 vintage matches sweet fruit with high-quality oak and fully-ripened tannins. Caillard found the wine oaky and awkward and Smith thought the oak too dominant. I was only concerned by a stemmy greenness. Irrespective of that, the wine polled well and nobody dreamt of disputing Bannockburn’s place in the top ten, although the 1992 wine later tasted was still excessively vegetal and hard-edged. The two vintages of the very expensive Serre label, 1991 and 1993, were considered over-worked, dank and vegetal and almost entirely deficient in charm and sweetness, particularly the ’91.

Bass Phillip Premium

The low-cropped, hand-crafted pinot noirs from Gippsland maker Phillip Jones had a field day at this tasting. Sure, they’ve a cult following, but they’re not often put up to this sort of scrutiny. They were and did not disappoint. The 1996 Bass Phillip Premium, second tier in the vineyard’s quality pyramind, is an exotically spiced, musky wine with pure dark cherry fruit, a refined, supple palate and a long, tight, savoury finish. Grischy enjoyed its elegance, focus and oak handling, while Bourne spoke admired its longevity. Utterly distinctive, expressive, a true example of the French philosophy of terroir transplanted in Australia. And also for the record: very pinot noir! The 1994 vintage tasted is a richly textured, powerful wine already evolving with wild, almost feral complexity.

Bass Philip Reserve

Phillip Jones’ premier red, Bass Phillip Reserve is a genuinely scarce, deep, concentrated and highly complex pinot whose long and proven cellaring performance contrasts with the minuteness of its label. Tighter, better integrated and more harmonious at this early stage than any previous release, the 1996 vintage bursts with dark cherries and plums, finishing long with velvet-smooth tannins. In my experience, this is clearly Australia’s leading pinot noir. Its ability to develop a spectrum of classically evolved pinot noir flavours and textures over an extended period is frequently evocative of high-quality Burgundy.

Bindi

Nurtured in a heat-trap site high in one of Victoria’s cooler regions, Bindi is an exciting newcomer to the premium pinot noir scene. Since 1993 its pinot noirs have displayed a rare degree of concentration and character, coupled with a classically fleshy, supple texture. Made under the supervision of Stuart Anderson, these are distinctive, highly spiced wines with that all-too-rare quality of Australian pinot noir: ripe, fine-grained fruit tannins and a genuine ability to age. Like the 1996 wine, they commence life as tight, lean wines before fleshing out later, as the sumptuous, superbly fleshy 1994 vintage amply illustrates.

Coldstream Hills Reserve

James Halliday’s flagship, the Coldstream Hills Reserve is principally sourced from the property’s spectacularly steep ‘amphitheatre’ block. Its hallmark barrel fermentation gives the wine its distinctive smoky, mocha signature, described by Caillard in the 1996 wine as ‘over-worked’, although Smith, Bourne and self felt differently. Perhaps the best release yet from this highly-publicised label, this wine is deeply scented with rose petals and cherries, with a palate structure described by Forrestal as ‘seamless, subtle and intense, with vibrant, multi-layered fruit influence’. It was disappointing to see that the bottle tested of the fondly-remembered 1991 vintage had simply become too old and tired.

Diamond Valley Estate

One of the front-runners amid the 1970s generation of Yarra Valley pinot noir makers, Diamond Valley boasts an unrivalled show record for its Estate Pinot Noir, a wine which has traditionally been made with very subdued oak. While older vintages have not perhaps cellared as they were expected to, the 1996 wine represents a very smart refinement towards a more traditional incorporation of new oak. Grischy appreciated this wine’s multi-layered complexity, Forrestal its perfume and vibrant, mouthfilling flavours of strawberries, cherries and raspberries, while Bourne found it an attractive cooler climate style. It was one of the best-performed wines in the two days of tasting.

Freycinet

The only Tasmanian wines to make this tasting were Freycinet and its near neighbour, Spring Vale. Freycinet’s pinot noir is a distinctive, intensely-flavoured fruit-driven wine whose makers are far less interested in attempting to replicate Burgundy than in capturing the fruit qualities which their warm, sun-bathed vineyard regularly achieves. From a cooler season than ideal, the 1996 wine displays some vegetal influence, but sports highly spiced, wild berry flavours and fine tannins. Caillard expects it to cellar well, while Smith commented on its baked stalky background and lifted black fruit and creamy aromas.

Grosset

The only South Australian wine to make the top ten, Jeffrey Grosset’s pinot noir is sourced from the Piccadilly Valley. If perhaps a little vegetal, the 1993 wine was one of the better older Australian pinots examined, with a silky, fleshy palate and gamey evolution of flavour. Lightly vegetal, the 1996 wine presents a deep, musky and almost leathery fragrance of spicy red cherries and plums, with an opulent palate of pure, pristine pinot fruit, forest floor complexity and a powerful, yet balanced extract of tannin. However not all the panel agreed; Smith describing the wine as faulty and riddled with the taste of geraniums, Hooke finding it excessively suggestive of capsicum and Milan finding over-cooked greens. Caillard, however, appreciated its ‘immensity’, Bourne its flavours of liqueur chocolates and cinnamon spice, while Grischy liked its tightness and finesse. You might have to make up your own mind.

Mount Mary

For some years the benchmark Yarra Valley pinot noir, Mount Mary has a long and distinguished history of providing genuine pinot noir complexity and character in wines young and old. While 1995 was not a stand-out year, it has an unusual and attractive viscosity and a rose garden fragrance. Smith was charmed by its sweet strawberry fruit, and fine, supple tannins, while Hooke thought the oak a little old. Certainly it lacked the occasionally confronting new oak stamp of newer fashion labels. By no means from its best vintage, the 1990 wine is still a delightfully supple, sweet expression of earthy, barnyard and leathery complexity.

Tarrawarra

Tarrawarra has certainly refined its approach to pinot noir since its early extractive releases, without compromising its intentions to fashion fuller-bodied, more astringent wines suited to longer term cellaring. Caillard thought the 1996 vintage a delightful example of pinot noir, while Grischy was attracted to its ‘sexy, intense perfume of roses, cherry and earthy cedar oak’ and its tight structure, persistence and layers of flavours. The 1992 wine is rich, deeply-flavoured and generally in superb nick.

The Ten Next Best Australian Pinot Noirs

Coldstream Hills

Not tasted here, but with a deserved track record for delivery of varietal flavours and textures for short to early drinking.

De Bortoli

Clearly improving if the stunning 1996 vintage – easily one of the most popular of the tasting – is anything to go by. Concentration, weight, velvet tannins and superb balance, it has the lot. The ‘classic silk glove in an iron fist, or something like that’, said Smith.

Diamond Valley Blue Label

Diamond Valley’s second tier pinot noir and sourced from other Yarra Valley growers, the Blue Label has for some time been a reliable source of pleasure with sweet, pure pinot noir flavours.

Giaconda

Its pinot noirs tend to require time to flesh out and express the intensity of which they are capable so, perhaps a little predictably, the 1996 vintage looked very backward and green. I’m quite prepared however to back the wines I have purchased from this vineyard over the years, especially the 1992 vintage, even though the bottle tasted on the day failed to measure up to recent experience.

Lenswood

A maker of profound, richly flavoured and firmly structured pinot noirs, Lenswood Vineyards failed to progress into the top ten because the 1996 vintage was broadly found to be too oaky and over-ripe, while the 1994 vintage, always a sleeper, has yet to open up sufficiently beyond its vegetal stage. Personally, I have high regard and expectations for this vineyard.

Paringa Estate

The most outstanding small producer in the Mornington Peninsula, Paringa Estate’s pinot noirs are usually laden with regional cinnamon flavours, piercing ripe fruit and somewhat assertive oak. Although Caillard called it a ‘show pony style’, the 1997 vintage attracted uniformly high marks.

Pattersons

While the ‘bigger names’ in WA pinot failed to perform at this tasting, the Pattersons 1996 displayed richness, flesh and fruit sweetness. Forrestal rose to its texture, length and silky feel. A very promising vineyard near Mount Barker, with some runs on the pinot scoresheet.

Plantagenet

Plantagenet made a fine pinot noir in 1994, although the bottled we tasted was very, very tired, and has since followed up with attractive cherry-like wines in 1995 and 1996. Clearly one of the best makers in WA, but perhaps fortunate to be included in this group.

Scotchmans Hill

A fashionable Bellarine Peninsula maker of rich, chunky, plummy and early-drinking pinot noirs, Scotchman’s Hill earned its place on the strength of its popularity with the panel at large.

Yarra Ridge Reserve

Darling of the show circuit, this opulent, jammy and confection-like pinot noir is given thick lashings of smoky, chocolate oak and is popular with press and public alike. It’s no serious new world pinot, but quite frankly happens to be a darned nice drink.

At the end of the day, pinot noir cannot lie. The self-same reasons why the top makers of pinot noir in New Zealand have now put clear daylight between their wines and all but the very rarest of Australia’s pinots, the true imperatives of geography, are holding true. Most of Australia’s best pinot noir comes still from Victoria’s cooler climates, with only one successful entrant from each of South Australia’s Adelaide Hills and another from Tasmania making our top ten wines.

All too often it would appear that Australian pinot noirs stumble at the same hurdle. Like their Burgundian counterparts, the top bracket of New Zealand pinot noirs are able to depend more and more on fruit richness and fine-grained grape tannin for their structure, while Australian growers are struggling to achieve a similar grade and quality of fruit tannin. The consistent outcome is that our makers of would-be premium pinot noir are given little alternative but an over-dependence on the extraction of tannins from stalks and oak casks instead. The near-inevitable outcome is that they are overtly expressive of greenish and vegetal stalk-derived characters, an entirely different phenomenon to the greenness derived from under-ripe fruit.

Surely the solution lies in the vineyard. But are Australia’s pinot noir vineyards really in the right places? Sure they might seem cool to us, but perhaps not to a New Zealander.

Inevitably, perhaps, the French are proven right again. You cannot talk about pinot noir without talking about terroir. With no other variety on earth are such minuscule differences of terroir able to make such profound differences with wine, as we see from day to day with pinot noir. Please login to post comment