Wine Australia Independence Day highlights part 2: Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir masterclass

Last week I reported (here) on the Yarra Valley Chardonnay masterclass presented by Phil Sexton (Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander) at Wine Australia’s Independence Day tasting.  This week, the focus is on the Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir masterclass, presented by Martin Spedding, pictured, of Ten Minutes by Tractor.

Like the Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula is a so-called “dress circle” region – a phrase coined by leading Australian wine writer James Halliday to describe the cool climate regions surrounding Melbourne (and which also include Geelong, Gippsland and Macedon Ranges).

I’d recently interviewed Spedding for a feature about regional specialisation and the growth of site specific wines in Australia.  While Mornington Peninsula makes terrific Chardonnays (with a few notable exceptions, usually richer than the Yarra) and probably the country’s best Pinot Gris, in terms of promoting the region, its Vigneron Association has hung its hat on Pinot Noir, which it describes as “Mornington Peninsula’s signature wine.”

Loud and proud about Pinot, the Peninsula’s biennial International Pinot Noir Celebration pits leading examples against the world’s best Pinots and attracts a high level panel (this year’s keynote speaker was Jasper Morris MW), as does pioneering winery Stonier’s International Pinot Noir Tasting.  October Pinot Week sees the variety celebrated at a series of dinners, tastings and cellar door events on the Peninsula and in Melbourne.  There’s no shortage of Pinot passion on the peninsula!

And where passion is wed to collective endeavour, says Spedding, “[T]he specialisation has allowed us to enter the next dimension in the development of our winemaking. That is, exploring our terroir and better understanding it via the subtle and nuanced view of a single variety.”   Spedding contrasts “up the hill’s” red fruited, elegant styles (which lead each flight) with “down the hill’s” riper, darker fruit spectrum. Wind (either from the north and west across Port Phillip Bay or from the south and east across Bass Strait) and soil differences (from deep, volcanic and water retentive clay to sandy) can cut across this rule of thumb (winemaking philosophy too, especially for this most sensitive of grapes). Click here for a video which illustrates shows the topographical and climatic influences which impact on the region’s wine styles.

Digging soil pits at Stonier

Spedding makes no less than five different Pinot Noirs, three of which hail from single vineyards (Judd, McCutcheon and Wallis).   He’s not alone.  The first six wines of the masterclass comprised 2010 vintage single vineyard wines, all of which were selected for this year’s International Pinot Noir Celebration, which took place at the weekend.  The final four represented the hotter 2008 vintage.  Here’s the line up:

1. Ten Minutes by Tractor Judd Pinot Noir 2010
2. Paringa Estate The Paringa Pinot Noir 2010
3. Stonier Windmill Pinot Noir 2010
4. Kooyong Ferrous Pinot Noir 2010
5. Crittenden The Zumma Pinot Noir 2010
6. Yabby Lake Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2010
7. Ten Minutes by Tractor McCutcheon Pinot Noir 2008
8. Eldridge Estate Pinot Noir 2008
9. Dexter Pinot Noir 2008
10. Moorooduc Estate The Mooruduc Pinot Noir 2008

Bright-fruited and precise, the youthful 2010s showed plenty of promise; with the 2004 vintage, Spedding reckons it’s the Peninsula’s best yet.  Much to his gratification, the highly expressive, perfumed and silky Ten Minutes by Tractor Judd Pinot Noir 2010 was, for most (including yours truly), the wine of the tasting.  It also prompted a jealous outburst from the Yarra Valley-based Sexton about Peninsula’s Pinot’s signature perfume! Crittenden The Zumma was similarly expressive, but possessed riper, richer fruit and more suede-like tannins.  The other four were relatively tight lipped and firm of tannin (The Paringa in less loquacious form than when I last tasted it – see here).  All of which bodes well for the future development of these well-defined, structured wines.

As for the 2008s, perhaps because this warmer vintage (with a heat spike in the tail) produced more fruit-driven wines, perhaps because they were older, the four wines showcased the up the hill (red fruits focus) and down the hill (darker fruit spectrum) more obviously.  Weightier and warmer (vis a vis alcohol), I thought these expansive wines lacked the sheer finesse of the lacier 2010s, which are a testimony to the benefits of good winter rainfall. And they’re not the only ones to enjoy a drought-free year – I am tasting some excellent 2010 reds from Australia’s south east generally.

Click here, here and here for earlier Mornington Peninsula reports.