I’m so glad I had a chance to taste this before going to a big showing of New Zealand Pinots at New Zealand House in London last week which was less than inspiring.
Pyramid Valley, Eaton Family Pinot Noir 2005 Marlborough, on the other hand, is truly inspiring. Far more than simply sweet and sour, this is a truly complex wine with real interest and integrity of fruit that spreads its way all across the palate in the middle of the tasting experience. There is none of the sweetness that can be used to disguise a lack of character in Pinot – this is truly sophisticated fruit and winemaking.
Mike Weersing of Pyramid Valley in Canterbury, who supplies the latter, believes that all this class is due to the former, grown by the Eaton Family many miles to the north in the Omaka Valley in Marlborough: “I think clay soils (as opposed to the ubiquitous river gravels) and a low yield per vine create more texture and density than is perhaps typical in a Marlborough Pinot”. These particular vines are harvested at just 1.8 tonnes/acre – very much lower than the Marlborough average – on a steep, close-planted, north-facing vineyard which of course directs the vines towards the sun in the southern hemisphere. Apparently in 2005 there was very uneven fruit set, which yielded a high proportion of tiny berries so that the skin and seed to juice ratio was particularly high. That said, there is no dryness on the palate.
These are the winemaking details: “Hand picked, 100% destemmed, transferred by gravity to tank. Ambient soak of 5-7 days, warm indigenous yeast fermentation, 27-28 day cuvaison. Natural, spring malolactic. Twenty months on original lees in French barriques (33% new); bottled unfined and unfiltered on the summer equinox, December 2006. Alcohol 13.6%, pH 3.60. Production: 200 cases.”
These are the winemaking details: “Hand picked, 100% destemmed, transferred by gravity to tank. Ambient soak of 5-7 days, warm indigenous yeast fermentation, 27-28 day cuvaison. Natural, spring malolactic. Twenty months on original lees in French barriques (33% new); bottled unfined and unfiltered on the summer equinox, December 2006. Alcohol 13.6%, pH 3.60. Production: 200 cases.”
Perhaps it was that equinox bottling what did it but here is a wine that grows in the glass and mouth, which makes me very optimistic about its likely evolution in bottle. Real grace but no shortage of oomph.
The Weersings have planted their own organically cultivated vineyard on isolated slopes well inland on propitious soils well inland of Christchurch – not so far from their friends Marcel Giesen and Sherwyn Veldhuizen of Bell Hill, another truly outstanding New Zealand producer of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay (tiny quantities of Bell Hill wines are imported by Lay & Wheeler, who take a special interest in New Zealand).
Having tasted some of the early juice grown at Pyramid Valley, I’m looking forward to their first two Pinots from the home farm, 2006s, to be bottled shortly and released early next year.
Having tasted some of the early juice grown at Pyramid Valley, I’m looking forward to their first two Pinots from the home farm, 2006s, to be bottled shortly and released early next year.
This week's wine of the week is available from Swig in the UK at £30 and also in Denmark, Japan, and of course New Zealand, although quantities are tiny.