A Letter to the Epicure Editor It was neither charitable nor accurate of Jane Faulkner last week to suggest that neither I nor Matthew Jukes were capable of detecting the very obvious presence of brettanomyces in a South African pinot noir at the recent Mornington Peninsula Pinot Celebration. Had she taken the trouble to contact either of us before submitting her column, we could have told her that its presence was indeed recorded in both of our sets of comprehensive tasting notes. As I was responsible for showing the wine in question through my friendship with the winemaker and its many accolades in the South African wine show circuit, I took the view (as indeed did Matthew) that I would not initiate a conversation about the presence of brettanomyces (and accompanying maladies – leaf roll virus in some of the vineyards and a fair amount of funk besides) but would acknowledge its effect if the audience made a point of it. As it turned out, that is exactly what happened. The brief for those of us who arranged the event was to display six leading expressions of pinot noir from around the world. This we achieved, and we were very happy to feature the most feted pinot yet made in South Africa. Ms Faulkner might have realised that it was the wines, not the presenters, who were under scrutiny and subject to discussion. As indeed they were on the day! Finally, again for the sake of accuracy, brettanomyces is actually a spoilage yeast and not a bacterium.* Jeremy Oliver, wine writer. This letter was written in response to an article in the Epicure section of The Melbourne Age this Tuesday (February 20) by Jane Faulkner. Epicure’s editor, Veronica Ridge, agreed with me today to print this letter in an edited format on Tuesday March 6. In case you are wondering what this is all about, Jane Faulkner had this to say about a tasting I staged with noted UK wine writer and personality, Matthew Jukes: ‘Brettanomyces (bacterial spoilage) reared its ugly head – and nose and palate – at the pinot noir celebration and none more obviously than in a South African wine (name withheld by me). Showed in the first bracket as an award-winning wine from the region and thus, apparently fitting for the heading An Exploration of International Pinot Noir Styles. It should have been removed from the flight as a faulty wine. It did nothing to highlight an international perspective of the variety. More astonishing was how facilitators Jeremy Oliver and Matthew Jukes didn’t mention the fault until it was pointed out immediately during question time. Didn’t they recognise it? Both discussed the wine’s character but most of us didn’t think it had one as a result. Perhaps they were being polite. I greatly appreciate the opportunity given me by Veronica Ridge to put my and Matthew’s side of the story. It has been no pleasure to have been on the receiving end of this article and the consequent fuss it has created. Hopefully, this will close the issue. * For those still confused about the spoilage yeast Brettanomyces, click here.
