Pinot the prize Pipers pick
Tasmanian Pinot Noir. It's become one of the success stories of the State's cool climate wine industry, and it's not hard to see why when you taste the trophy and gold medal winners at the recent Tasmanian Wine Show. Rich and vibrant, they bear the hallmarks of expressive aroma, fine texture, great balance and superb length of flavour.
Indeed, some pundits will tell you they can spot a good Tasmanian Pinot Noir at ten paces.
That wasn't always the case. Many of those being grown and made in the State in the early 1990s seemed overly fragile and delicate. And if they weren't being mistaken for young Rosé wines, they were often noticeably acidic and needed the companionship of a plate of good food for best enjoyment.
Just exactly what we'll see in the Pinot Noirs of 2020 is yet to be settled. But if there's anyone in Tasmania's north-east that's more informed about them than most it's Pipers Brook Vineyard's Luke Whittle.
A passionate Pinot-phile for as long as he's been drinking wine, he is the man with his name on the back of Pipers Brook Vineyard's 2018 Estate Pinot Noir. Last year, the wine turned in gold medal performances at two major capital city wine shows – the Sydney Royal Wine Show and Tasmania's Royal Hobart Show.
This year will see the New Zealand-trained chief winemaker working his way through his sixth vintage on Pipers Brook's hallowed red soils. He arrived to process the 2015 harvest and returned to a full-time company position the following season, determined to pursue his passion for cool climate wines while enhancing the reputation of one of Tasmania's most iconic wine labels.
Looking back over his past five years, Whittle says it was the perfect time for him to join the 45-year-old company. Purchased by Belgian-owned Kreglinger Wine Estates in 2003, Pipers Brook Vineyard was in need of an ambitious program of vineyard redevelopment to restore the company to its former glory. The man given the task was highly respected Victorian viticulturist and cool climate specialist, Ray Guerin.
"Working as our consultant, Ray has been really fundamental to ensuring Pipers Brook is set up for success into the future," Whittle explains.
"Back in 2016, we had quite a lot of vines that were under-performing due to old age or disease pressures. Each year, we were getting consistently low yields from them, and the quality of the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir that we were looking to use in our Estate-labelled wines often wasn't up to standard. If the quality had been better, we'd have been prepared to put up with low yields. That just wasn't possible on a handful of our vineyard blocks."
Whittle says the company's production base nowadays is somewhere between 170ha and 175ha of vines. Its handful of discrete vineyard sites are located in Tasmania's north-east and in the Tamar Valley. When Whittle signed on as senior winemaker in 2016, their total vineyard area was closer to 180ha.
"The majority of vineyard changes took place between the 2016 and 2017 vintages, and we've been reaping the benefits ever since," Whittle continues.
"While some vines were removed completely, others underwent changes to vineyard infrastructure and vine architecture. Spur-pruning on a number of blocks was replaced by cane-pruning. Our vineyard workforce has also devoted a lot of time and resources to improving leaf canopies. Previously some of our oldest Chardonnay had been prone to both sunburn and botrytis bunch rot in a single season. Those vines had to go."
Company viticulturists Fred Strachan and Kym Ayliffe have been charged with the responsibility of putting Guerin's bold rejuvenation plan into action, and they haven't let the team down. Among the highlights of the recent Tasmanian Wine Show was the Trophy for Best 2019 Vintage Wine awarded to Pipers Brook Vineyard's Ninth Island Riesling, an entry-level wine often retailing below $20 in the Tasmanian market.
"Since our vineyard rejuvenation program was put into effect, each vintage has given us better and better quality fruit," Whittle says.
"We're now seeing the fruit flavours we're looking for developing a little earlier and more consistently than we saw in the past. That's allowed us to pick exactly when we wanted to, rather than have seasonal conditions decide for us. Right now, we're on track for a pretty normal vintage, time-wise. It should also be another high quality one, due to plenty of summer sunshine and slightly lower than average vine yields."
First published 14 February 2020: tasmaniantimes.com