Deciding you like the grape variety of pinot noir is to introduce yourself to the most dangerous of all viticultural minefields. To start with, make sure you don’t lose your job: you are going to need all the money you can muster. For the truth about pinot noir is this: being the most expensive and risky grape to grow and the most hands-on and time-consuming to make, it’s a fair call that while there are good pinots and cheap pinots, there are no good cheap pinots. Tim Knappstein, maker of the very fine Lenswood Vineyards Pinot Noir, takes credit for that clear-headed piece of logic. Pinot noir is the red grape of Burgundy whose wine, when on form, is simply without compare. I don’t care whether you think you do or not, but I’ll bet if I presented you with a glass of 1993 Chambertin from a maker like Armand Rousseau you’d instantly agree that you like the stuff. Very much. The best Australian pinots aren’t exactly in that league, but can deliver something approaching that level of sublime satisfaction. Pinot noir is also the most contentious grape of all. 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. But there are some hard and fast rules: low-cropping vineyards in cooler regions have an enormous headstart. There haven’t been that many ongoing success stories with pinot in Australia. 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, what should you look for in top-notch Australian pinot noir? A fruit profile which begins in young wine with spicy dark cherries and plums, a fragrance that might suggest rose petals, freshly turned earth and musk. As it ages, don’t be afraid of the gamey aromas that may develop that remind you of hung venison or hare – welcome them! Most of all, pinot noir should be a full-flavoured, intense, concentrated and explosive wine but with fineness and restraint, an effect often described as an ‘iron fist in a velvet glove’. Top pinot noir is contradictory, elusive, controversial and utterly seductive. And as I warned earlier, expensive! Jeremy Oliver’s Top Ten Australian Pinot Noirs Ashton Hills, Adelaide Hills, South Australia Bannockburn, Geelong, Victoria Bass Phillip, South Gippsland, Victoria Bindi, Macedon Ranges, Victoria Coldstream Hills Reserve, Yarra Valley, Victoria Giaconda, Beechworth, Victoria Main Ridge Half Acre, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria Mount Mary, Yarra Valley, Victoria Paringa Estate, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria Tarrawarra, Yarra Valley, Victoria
