2nd Annual Pinot Noir Challenge ("Terroir be damned!")

"It was strange that all ten wines seemed to be more similar than far apart in all their attributes, regardless of which continent they were from, so "terroir" be damned!"  Jim Bartee

OK. It was 13 months since our first Pinot Noir bash, so on a rainy Sunday the same gang plus my son Cohen gathered for the 2^nd Annual Pinot Noir Challenge. Everyone brought a bottle of Pinot. Jim Bartee from Finer Wines in Katikati brought an extra one and I couldn't decide what to put in so I added an extra one too. So that was eight of us and ten Pinot Noirs.

And it's obviously a punt, what exactly we end up with, but since everyone wants bragging rights for bringing the top wine there's not a lot of duds. This year it turned out to be a more international showing and the Kiwi wines all came from Central Otago. But since we were tasting everything blind we didn't know beforehand what particular treats we had in store... 

I'm not going to go into detailed tasting notes here, just general impressions, otherwise this would be a ridiculously lengthy post; it was a lovely afternoon and a fascinating tasting, and the wines - even those scoring fewest points - were all well worthwhile.

This is what we ended up tasting:

Burn Cottage Burn Cottage Vineyard Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017 (NZ)

Rockburn Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017 (NZ)

Archangel Central Otago Pinot Noir 2016 (NZ)

Lowburn Ferry Central Otago Pinot Noir 2016 (NZ)

Rippon Mature Vine Central Otago Pinot Noir 2010 (NZ)

Felton Road Central Otago Pinot Noir 2005 (NZ)

Mure Clos Saint Landelin Pinot Noir 2014 (FR)

Domaine Michelle & Patrice Rion Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Charmes 2005 (FR)

Beaux Freres Pinot Noir 2010 (US)

Masut Da Rive Pinot Nero Maurus 2012 (IT)

(Of course, I didn't know it at the time but Hot Damn!... An old Felton Rd Pinot! A Pinot - the Beaux Freres - made by legendary wine writer Robert Parker! A French 1er Cru! An Italian Pinot?! A Pinot from Alsace, a new thing for me. Two Pinots from the most excellent Central Otago 2017 vintage... oh, and that Rippon, which received a rare 100 points from James Suckling!)

The wines were divided into two flights of 5 wines each and after tasting each flight we collected scores and opinions and then retasted the top wine from each flight. As one flight had tied "winners" we ended up retasting three wines, to find an eventual Grand Champion.

These were the two flights and how we rated them...

FLIGHT 1

1. Rockburn Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017 (NZ)

2. Domaine Michelle & Patrice Rion Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Charmes 2005 (FR)

3. Masut Da Rive Pinot Nero Maurus 2012 (IT)

4. Lowburn Ferry Central Otago Pinot Noir 2016 (NZ)

5. Rippon Mature Vine Central Otago Pinot Noir 2010 (NZ)

What I found most unexpected about this flight was that the French and Italian wines did not especially stick out. 

Looking at my notes I'm slightly surprised that I judged the Rockburn the top wine of the flight, particularly since this is their $40 "entry level" Pinot, but it showed the best bouquet and most complex flavours (they do also make the cheaper Devil's Staircase Pinot Noir, but this is their entry level under the Rockburn name). It was ahead for me by some distance and obviously someone agreed given its top placement.

(I should point out that the "lowly" 2017 Rockburn actually won two gold and two trophies at the 2019 New Zealand International Wine Show - for Best Pinot and Best Red Wine. So it's not all that lowly...)

But it was overall a very close-run thing between the top two Pinots and it seems quite possible that the Rockburn made it through because it opened up more quickly than the Chambolle-Musigny (we did allow 15 minutes for the wines to open in glasses before tasting but, as became apparent from later changes in wines, that might not have been long enough for some of them...). 

In fact all the wines in this flight were judged to be very close together. In retrospect I'm surprised the Rippon didn't stand out more. It was beautifully balanced but slightly less weighty than the other wines, which might have caused it to be passed over.

FLIGHT 2

1.= Felton Road Central Otago Pinot Noir 2005 (NZ)

1.= Beaux Freres Pinot Noir 2010 (US)

3. Burn Cottage Burn Cottage Vineyard Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017 (NZ)

4. Archangel Central Otago Pinot Noir 2016 (NZ)

5. Mure Clos Saint Landelin Pinot Noir 2014 (FR)

And this was even closer, the top three wines all within a whisker of each other. At this point I personally ranked the Felton Road third. The Burn Cottage, which showed huge potential to grow over time, was very unlucky to miss out here.

I rated the Robert Parker Beaux Freres at the top - it was an absolutely lovely wine to drink, with great charm, still very fresh despite its age. If you told me it came from New Zealand I wouldn't have batted an eyelid. The same with the Alsace wine, amazingly enough, though that didn't find favour with anyone. I found it a little light and one-dimensional alongside the Central Otago wines.

And I placed the Burn Cottage second, just a little less welcoming on the nose than the Beaux Freres. Actually, it was the bouquet that sank the Felton Road for me at this point: it still seemed very closed and wasn't giving much away. 

THE TASTE-OFF

1. Felton Road Central Otago Pinot Noir 2005 (NZ)

2. Beaux Freres Pinot Noir 2010 (US)

3. Rockburn Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017 (NZ)

This is where the Felton Road really came into its own. It had opened up and was simply magnificent - rich, full, with endless layers of complex flavour. All of us rated it top with no disagreement. 

And the Parker came second. It was a much more interesting wine than the Rockburn which, lovely though it was, seemed a little simple in this company. Mind you, the fact that it probably cost a quarter of the amount and was several years younger than the other two - which were both indisputably great great wines - makes its showing more than creditable.

A big "thank you" to Jan and Debbie who poured the wines and kept everything running smoothly while we nattered on and on about tiny differences in bouquet and such minutiae. It was a brilliant day. 

I was also in touch with Jim and he had some thoughts, which echo mine but are much more well-informed and knowledgable!

It was lots of fun, with a full spectrum of wines young and old, French Pinot Noir from both Alsace and Burgundy, as well Robert Parker's own vineyard in Oregon, plus James Suckling's 100-pointer as well!

Can't say enough about the Felton Road, just superior in all ways to all the other wines. And for sure that Felton Road was radically different at the end compared to the beginning of the tasting. Of all the wines we tried, the one wine I think will continue to improve is the Beaux Freres. It just seemed so young, and it did garner second place. 

And I concur with you on the 2005 Patrick Rion Burgundy, but I think it will ultimately become a race between the fruit and the closed nature of that specific bottle, so don't really think we missed out. It seems to have structure, but not finesse. 2005 is known for its structure, akin to 1993, but just too "clunkish" for my preference.

BTW, I rated the Alsatian Pinot Noir at 92/100 as during the initial flight I thought it was quite elegant and expressive, though it diminished in breadth over the course of the day.

 

It was strange that all ten wines seemed to be more similar than far apart in all their attributes, regardless of which continent they were from, so "terroir" be damned!