Central Otago Pinot Noir suddenly got better with the first release of a new wine by a well financed American enthusiast who is detemined to make truly great wine at any cost.

Marquis Sauvage (a name that made me think of sado-masochism, but hey, I’m getting counselling) is from a Chicago-based wine importing and distributing family. On a trip to Australia to visit Pinot Noir producer, Gary Farr, Marquis stopped off in New Zealand for a quick tour of our wine regions. He liked what he saw. In fact he liked Central Otago so much that he bought 11-hectares of bare land on a north-east facing site that formed a natural ampitheatre. The vineyard is in the Cromwell basin above Lake Dunstan.

Enlisting the help of heavy-weight consultant winemaker, Ted Lemon (owner of Littorai winery, the first American to run a burgundy vineyard and a man who’s CV looks like a Who’s Who of great Pinot producers), and began planting at the rate of 2-3ha in the first three years and around half-a-hectare each year after that. They now have a total vineyard area of around 11-hectares mostly in Pinot Noir but also with a little Riesling and Gruner Veltliner. The vineyard was established according to biodynamic principles right from the start – possibly the earliest biodynamic vineyard in Central Otago.

Marquis and Ted are “dedicated to going slowly”. They produced 250 cases of Pinot Noir from the 2008 vintage but sold it under a second label “Cashburn” in the US only (where Marquis claims it has earned almost a cult following). 550 cases were made in 2009 and bottled under the main label.

They use fairly traditional winemaking techniques. Grapes are hand-picked and sorted twice in the winery before fermentation using wild yeasts. The fermenting wine  is punched down four times a day by hand. Press wines are separated from free-run and reserved for the second label (making 250 cases in 2009). The wine is not fined or filtered in most years and no sugar or acid adjustment is made.

I learned about the rigorous and expensive winemaking process only after I’d tasted the wine. It helped to explain why the wine was so absolutely delicious. My comments read:

“Dense, powerful wine that’s loaded with flavour. Layers of red and dark fruits, spice and an interesting savoury edge that’s hard to define but easy to appreciate. Long and seamless. A very impressive first effort. This is clearly a winery with a great future. Price is $55. I scored the wine 95 points.

This is a “must buy” for all lovers of Central Otago Pinot Noir. I’d go even further and say “for all lovers of Pinot Noir”. Tasted alongside top Californian Pinot Noir, Martinborough Vineyard’s $170 Marie Zelie Reserve Pinot Noir and Domaine Michel Lafarge Volnay Clos du Chateau de Ducs 1990 it more than held its own.

Marquis Sauvage owner of Burn Cottage Vineyard

Aurum vineyard in Central Otago

UK wine writer Tim Atkin MW is a definite inclusion in my list of the world’s top five wine writers. He’s extremely bright, very competitive and is a tireless traveller in the world’s wine regions. He’s a great wine taster with an ability to communicate his impressions clearly and effectively.

When Tim took me to task for describing Central Otago as the world’s most southerly wine region I didn’t argue. Patagonia in southern Chile, he explained, was further south. It’s been two years since we had that conversation and I’ve made no claim of Otago’s southerly status since.

Today I downloaded the latest version of Google Earth and was messing around with the new features when it occured to me that I could easily check how much further south Patagonia was than Central Otago. It was a simple matter to find a list of Patagonian wineries and select the one, Vina Canata, that claimed to be the world’s most southerly winery. It’s located to the north of the Bio Bio Valley. Google Earth pinpointed it’s southerly latitude at 36 degrees 47 minutes. I then found Black Ridge winery in Alexandra, the most southerly district of Central Otago. Its southerly latitude is 45 degrees 16 minutes – significantly further south than Vina Canata which, according to my calculations using Google, is on about the same latitude as Auckland.

That’s it then, Central Otago is the world’s most southerly wine producing region and is likely to remain that way unless someone in Chile figures out how to grow grapevines in permafrost … or someone pinpoints a flaw in my calculations.

They say it will age ... but will it?

A chance remark resulted in an extensive tasting of 41 examples of Central Otago Pinot Noir from 2003 or earlier. The objective of the tasting … to determine whether we should drink Central Otago Pinot Noir now or later.

When the question of ageworthiness was raised, Ruenell Rapoza, marketing and events co-ordinator of Central Otago Pinot Noir Ltd (COPL), swung into action. Member wineries were contacted and invited to send Pinot Noir from 2003 or earlier to me for a tasting that might determine just how well these wines age.

Wineries that sent samples were: Akarua, Amisfield, Carrick, Chard Farm, Desert Heart, Felton Road, Mount Edward, Mt Difficulty, Olssens, Peregrine, Pisa Range Estate, Quartz Reef, Rippon and Two Paddocks. 13 wineries sounds like a good turnout although my database reveals a further 20 wineries made wine from 2003 or before. They may not have had stocks to share or perhaps they were not members of COPL (two no longer exist).

Why is ageability an issue? Central Otago Pinot Noir is often so drop-dead delicious when it’s released why not just drink it? Ageing is an issue because it ADDS VALUE. Central Otago is already a probationary member of the Pinot Noir Big Boys Club. To gain full membership it must demonstrate that its wines improve with age. Not just hang-on-in-there with age, but improve.

Check out the president of the Pinot Noir Big Boys Club – Burgundy. Grand Cru burgundy of stature is parctically undrinkable when first released. It’s expected to be cellared for at least 10-15 years by when it will be mellow and (with luck) very complex. Would anyone shell out $1000 for a bottle of La Tache if it was best enjoyed two years after vintage? Even Premier Cru burgundy undergoes a metamorphosis from ugly egg to beautiful butterfly. Village burgundy is best enjoyed within a few years of release – but most of it cowers well under the $50 price point.

The tasting was complicated by vintage variation, a transition to screwcaps in 2001 or 2002 and, I guess, vine age plus the expected evolution in vineyard and winery that tends to create a lumpy playing field. Cutting to the chase, here are my conclusions from the tasting:

• 2002 was such a good vintage generally that it frequently emerged as the best wine in a single winery vertical. In general terms Pinot from the 2002 vintage are ageing well depite predictions that they would become over-blown and be short-lived.
• 14 out of the 41 wines were sealed with a cork. None were corked although two wines had a noticable woody cork flavour that did them no good. The two oldest wines in the tasting, both from 1999 and under cork, looked very good. I believe that both had improved significantly since they were released.
• Many wines that had seductive fruit flavours and were deliciously drinkable on release (Akarua 2002 is an example) still looked good although they hadn’t gained much benefit from bottle age.
• Felton Road “Block” wines that are (in my opinion) often over-shaddowed by the winery’s regular label upon first release seem to have outstripped the less expensive wine with bottle age. They showed very good bottle development. Conversely, I regard the recently tasted Felton Road 2007 Block 5 Pinot Noir as the best New Zealand Pinot Noir I have ever tasted. Will it get even better. You bet!

Finally … not all Central Otago Pinots are equal. Some deliciously fruity wines will never be much more than that – deliciously fruity and seem destined to decline in quality (quality = fruit) with bottle age. Others did seem to improve markedly with bottle age (Felton Block 3 & 5 are examples). I wonder whether the increasing use of stems during fermentation, in vintages that allow it, will add an extra dimension of complexity? More work needs to be done and winemakers who wish to build ageing potential into their wines need to keep a close eye on those who are already able to build wines with a future.

Tasting notes, with scores, are on my website database.

Winemaker Matt Dicey talks about vintage conditions

I have never been a great fan of Mt Difficulty’s standard Pinot Noir. On the other hand I’m a huge fan of their single vineyard wines. So when I receieved an invite to taste a decade of Mt Difficulty Pinot Noir it was an opportunity to see whether I’d judged their wines too harshly simply because they were young.

It was an informal tasting at Auckland’s Grove restaurant followed by lunch. I destest people who hog spittoons. Tasting etiquette demands that you taste, step forward, spit, then step backwards to leave room for others. My technique for getting the message across to spittoon hogs is to spit from a great height, splashing those within a 250ml radius. They soon get the message, especially if they’re wearing white.

Here are my scores and brief comments for each vintage with previous scores in parenthesis:

2007 Pinot Noir 93 (no earlier tasting records) – Totally charming wine with attractive floral, spice and ripe cherry flavours.

2006 Pinot Noir 88 (90) – lifted cherry aromas, tighter and more savoury than the 07 with good length. A suspicion of sulphide (not noted when tasted at an earlier date). A wine for the future perhaps?

2005 Pinot Noir 89 (93) – Similar in style to the 06 but showing more development (naturally). Once again a rather tight and slightly bony wine with a suspicion of sulphide that forces me to reduce my previous score.

2004 Pinot Noir 78 (80) – Light aroma, slightly floral but with green tannins and some herbal flavours. Lacks ripeness. Too austere.

2003 Pinot Noir 86 (85) – Tight wine with weight and power. This is a sleeper that should strut its stuff in another year or two. Quite complex, drying tannins.

2002 Pinot Noir 93 (93) – Plump, fleshy wine – an elegant fruit bomb. Sleek Pinot Noir that’s in great drinking form right now.

2001 Pinot Noir 79 (no earlier tasting records) – First year under screwcap. Austere, savoury, slightly green and a tad hard.

2000 Pinot Noir 90 (no earlier tasting records) – Lovely lifted cherry flavours with an appealing savoury influence. Supple and in good form now. Light but elegant wine with very attractive flavours.

1999 Pinot Noir 75 (85) – Well past its best. Bitter, oxidised.

1998 Pinot Noir 88 (85) – Quite developed but in lovely condition. The texture is beginning to dry out but the wine is still a lovely drink.

Conclusion: Mt Difficulty Pinot Noir ages well (the 99 excepted) and is on an exciting growth path in quality terms. The 07 is a terrific wine. I expect the 08 to be even better (If Matt Dicey’s comments can be relied upon).