Regionality of Tasmanian Pinot Noir

Restaurant Arris, Cleveland Street, Sydney
Tasted Wednesday, August 29, 2012 by chatters with 243 views

Introduction

Hosted by Joe Holyman (stoney rise), Peter Dredge (Bay of Fires), Nick Glaetzer (Glaetzer-Dixon)

This was an educational tasting looking at clones of Pinot Noir that are currently used in Tasmania. We tried 115 & 114 clones from Stoney Rise and Bay of Fires which were grown in different regions (Derwent, Tamar and East coast), and treated different ways (oak etc) then MV6 from all over Tasmania, again with different vinicultural approaches…the Pipers River from Delamere showed well. Of course, all of these grapes are still not long in barrel/bottle and the Bay of Fires had a fair whack of sulphur still perceivable. We then did a final bracket of finished wines from various producers, which is where these tasting notes come in.

Flight 1 (6 Notes)

  • 2010 Spring Vale Pinot Noir

    Australia, Tasmania, Freycinet Coast

    Colour: Pale ruby
    Nose: Raspberry, perfumed, elegant, slight earth notes…touches of ‘that’ pinot nose
    Mouth: Alcohol heat over red fruit and spice, short finish. How annoying.

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  • 2010 Sinapius Pinot Noir Pipers Brook

    Australia, Tasmania, Pipers River

    Colour: pale ruby
    Nose: Concentrated red fruit, perfume, cedar, slight chocolate, leather and herbal notes – almost tobacco leaf
    Mouth: concentrated red fruit, vanilla, spice, herbal, slightly astringent and green on the finish that also has alcohol heat.
    Nah.

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  • 2010 Josef Chromy Pinot Noir

    Australia, Tasmania, Northern Tasmania

    Colour: medium ruby
    Nose: Farmyard funk, red currant, strawberry, savoury back bone, meaty and spicy
    Mouth: spiced rich red currant over strawberry notes…fruit carries on finish but then hot bitter note intrude.
    Perhaps needs more time?

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  • 2010 Glaetzer Dixon Family Winemakers Pinot Noir Reveur

    Australia, Tasmania, Coal River

    Colour deep ruby
    Nose: raspberry, earth, savoury then slight biscuit, toast and perfumed notes…quite elegant…
    Mouth Medium plus acid, front of mouth phenolic grip, structured – plenty of tannic backbone – a little simple/generic red fruit in the mouth. Promising nose but the mouth is all a bit too much at this stage…come back in two or three years.

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  • 2010 Stoney Rise Pinot Noir Holyman

    Australia, Tasmania, Tamar Valley

    Colour: deep ruby
    Nose: perfumed red fruit that is slightly candied
    Mouth: Red currants and front of mouth tannin that seems to dominate the fruit. The finish warm…perhaps a little flabby as well?

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  • 2010 Bay of Fires Pinot Noir

    Australia, Tasmania

    Colour: medium ruby
    Nose Farmyard funk, jooby red fruit, slight candy floss (partial carbonic maceration?), oaky spice and earth
    Mouth: Chocolate, oak, spice, bit warm…disappointing

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Closing

I’ve never been super-impressed by Tasmanian Pinots in general and this session didn’t alter that. I asked about Abel, 667, 828 and 777 and the wine makers looked at me as if I’m asked them whether their respective mothers put out on the first date! Apparently Stoney Rise has a few rows of Abel but not enough to vinify (according to the winemaker, at least).

None the less, this was an interesting tasting.

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