Blue Pyrenees Joins the Elite

Into a world of locally made premium sparkling wine dominated by names like Domaine Chandon and Seppelt, enter stage right a not-so-new maker of Australian bubbles, but one recently re-christened as Blue Pyrenees Estate.

While it’s a well-known fact that Domaine Chandon is entirely owned by the largest Champagne maker of all, Moet et Chandon, very few people are actually aware that Blue Pyrenees’ owners, Remy Martin, are also the proprietors of Charles Heidsieck, Piper-Heidsieck and Krug. Against this spectacular background of common interest Blue Pyrenees has now released an excellent stable of sparkling wines comprising a Reserve Brut NV, a Reserve Brut Vintage 1991 and an imaginatively made and branded prestige label named ‘Midnight Cuvee’ 1991.

Remy Martin took a typically Gallic long-term view to the creation of its premium Australian brand. Firstly it sought to determine whether or not it wanted to retain the ‘estate’ or single vineyard concept at Chateau Remy, a vineyard initially established for the growing of grapes for distillation into brandy. Once it decided that the site was especially suited to sparkling wine it significantly extended its plantings, carefully matching grape variety with soil type and aspect. Its next task was to adapt its Champagne-bred winery production techniques to the fruit produced in Australian conditions. Only then – once the preceding variables were correctly in place – did it taken a cautious step onto the market sporting its new Blue Pyrenees brand. The whole process has taken a cool $20 million.

Vincent Gere, who arrived in Australia after the 1987 vintage and whose experience and qualifications far outweigh his thirty-three years, has overseen the dramatic changes at Chateau Remy/Blue Pyrenees. Now almost as Australian as he is French, Gere is closely connected with the family which owns Remy Martin, but has resisted all attempts made to date to lure him out of Victoria’s Pyrenees area and back to France.

Under his stewardship the company’s plantings at Avoca will have increased from 89 ha in 1987 to 207 ha by a decade later. Gere has classified very hectare of vineyard, altering grape variety and means of trellis design to maximise the potential of very square metre. Today the winery is totally unrecognisable from the very basic outdoor operation he found on arrival, complete with distillation tower for making brandy. Today it is entirely enclosed and wants for nothing in terms of equipment, space and functionality. Without the wines to generate sufficient consumer interest, Chateau Remy never bothered with a cellar door, but today its ‘visitor centre’ is a must-visit stop for those who travel to the Pyrenees wine region. Fuelled with plans to develop its site even further, Blue Pyrenees Estate is now a confident, assertive participant in the industry it once felt hesitant to rub shoulders with.

The highly identifiable and marketable Blue Pyrenees brand has now been adopted for all Remy Australie’s premium wines: white, red and sparkling. Furthermore, the exceptional qualities of the vineyards responsible since earliest days for the Blue Pyrenees red suggested that different soil types and aspects within the land owned by Remy Martin – as well as the land adjoining this – boasted individual characteristics well worth exploring. Since this was one of the very things Vincent Gere had been trained to do, it seemed like second nature. A complete soil classification was then undertaken.

Once it came the time to put Gere’s research into practical effort, instead of directing the new and improved plantings of chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier towards the old Chateau Remy label, he opted to retain it for the future premium brand.

The present day Blue Pyrenees Estate sparkling wines represent a fusion of several philosophies. Their forebears were the Chateau Remy methode champenoise wines, initially made using brandy varieties totally unsuited to this purpose. What the early wines lacked in finesse and sophistication they made up for in sheer effort – the vintage wines were frequently left to mature for up to five years on yeast lees, perhaps in the forlorn hope that yeast might be able to provide the wines with what their fruit failed to deliver. The wines were sound, meaty and chunky, but very, very yeasty.

The Blue Pyrenees name made its debut in 1985, with the release of a revolutionary red wine from the 1982 vintage, memorable as much for its brave introduction of a blue wine label as much for the sheer fruitiness and silky drinkability of the wine itself.

The Blue Pyrenees red 8 out of 10 has remained a successful blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, shiraz and cabernet franc. It has evolved into a finely-tuned claret style of length and elegance which occasionally flaunts its eucalypt-like regional origins. Vincent Gere isn’t quite sure why some vintages taste more of eucalypt while some hardly do, but offers the suggestion that each of the wines is more likely to do so in summer, in warmer serving temperatures. Just typical of the way he thinks outside the dots! Given the standard maintained since 1990, this wine is pointing towards a ‘9’ rating in the near future. The 1992 is particularly good, while the recently released 1993 is exceptional.

The success of the Blue Pyrenees red had everything to do with the careful marriage of different varieties, given further diversity by their soil types, into a finely crafted blend of the diversity created within a single vineyard. No varieties have ever been offered on the front or back labels of the Blue Pyrenees Estate red – it has simply been regarded by those who grow, make and sell it as the best red wine the estate could possibly produce from any given season. It was logical that the same approach would also do for the sparkling wine.

Dom Perignon’s major discovery connected with sparkling wine was that the synergy developed by blending together different parcels of sympathetic wines created a whole far greater than the individual sum of their parts. Already way down this track with the red, and having a good dose of Champagne culture and experience behind him, Vincent Gere went about creating Champagne-like diversity from his single vineyard, exploiting every possible permutation and combination of variety and soil type. Today he blends his premium sparkling wines from over fifty different bases – a Champagne-like bloodline if ever there was one.

The other side of Vincent Gere’s technical background focuses around his special interest in obtaining the maximum amount of ripe, explosive flavour and freshness from grapes, leaving behind the harsh phenols associated with vigorous pressing. Again the Blue Pyrenees Estate has given him opportunity to push his knowledge to the max – the company has installed a German press which operates with a Champagne-developed pressing cycle that has taken two years to adapt to the fruit taken from the Blue Pyrenees vineyard. It’s impossible to argue against the explosive nature of the sensation of fresh, pristine fruit which attacks the palate of his wines. Again, I presently rate the vintage Blue Pyrenees Estate Reserve Brut Vintage with 8 out of 10, but expect to take this score higher in the near future.

The 1991 vintage wine has a delicate floral nose with suggestions of lemongrass and toasty yeast. Fine, subtle and creamy, the palate is succulent in its richness, but finishes quite dry and fresh, finishing soft and clean. It amply illustrates the explosive fruit qualities sought after by its maker.

The Reserve Brut NV is more honeyed and nutty, with a creamy mouthfeel of sweet nectarine and peach flavours. It’s a subtle, stylish and genuinely more-ish fizz and represents some of the best value for money in Australian bubbles.

The high-flying and incredible scarce Midnight Cuvee 1991 was hand-harvested in the dead of night, as pickers detached the luminescent bunches of grapes under the glare of bright floodlights. Vincent Gere finds this fruit to be of exceptional quality, with even more delicacy of flavour and refreshing acidity. The wine packs remarkable intensity given its creamy delicacy on the palate. Elegant and very refined, it points to a stellar future for the Blue Pyrenees label. Give it a try. Please login to post comment