Sarah Ahmed – The Wine Detective

This week’s had a bit of an Aussie Pinot Noir focus and, as promised in Monday’s post (here) about the Stonier International Pinot Noir Tasting, today I’ve posted my in depth account of the Landmark Tutorial Pinot Noir Masterclass presented by Yabby Lake’s Tom Carson (pictured).

As I recall, my first experience of Australian Pinot Noir some 15 years ago was Plantagenet Pinot Noir from Great Southern.  Back then, when I was just starting out on my adventures in wine, its easy squishy fruit and smooth tannins appealed.  As I became increasingly interested in wine, I glimpsed flashes of brilliance but, all too often, found myself caught between the rock and a hard place of jammy New World expressions of Pinot Noir and charmless, lean and mean Burgundy. 

However, as last year’s 2010 Landmark Tutorial in the Yarra Valley reinforced, Australian Pinot Noir is coming of age and finding its sweet spot - just check out my tasting notes from the Pinot Noir masterclass here.  

You’ll see that our first flight comprised 2008 Pinot Noirs from some of Australia’s hippest young guns (Mac Forbes, William Downie, Nick farr et al).   Our second contrasting flight focused on older, pioneering Pinots, dating back to 1997 and I’ve also snuck in a tasting note for Coldstream Hills Pinot Noir 1992 which James Halliday (pictured opening it) brought to dinner.

As became abundantly clear, contemporary Australian Pinot Noir is not about fruit sweetness, nor is it about densely oaked high extract wines.  Rather it’s about shimmering fruit – perfumed and fresh with line and a fine spine of tannin.  Delicacy combined with the structure to age promises greater complexity down the track too. 

There’s much to look forward to as today’s wines mature in bottle and tomorrow’s wines benefit from increased vine age and, wed to that, a better understanding of terroir and clones.