Merry Christmas with William Downie Cathedral Pinot Noir 2020, Gippsland

Time for a quick Christmas Pinot Sip from Victoria! Ultra transparent sundrenched rubiness with a mildly murky veil around the shoulders of its temporary Zalto Burg body. In the nose a certain flintiness – not sure why, radiant violets, perhaps a clove or two, some traces of pickled gherkins and of course tons of ripe strawberries – later stronger on the raspberry side - and lush plums on the rocks. Very vital, lively and welcoming nose indeed! On the palate quite lean, acid driven and packed with cool aromas of strawberries as well as spicy plums. On the second day much more dominated by raspberries. All in all a little bit warmer fruit on the tongue than in the conk. Super sappy throughout the entire tasting! Very well adjusted touch of assorted spices including shy cinnamon, definitely much more juniper, black pepper and an almost nonexistent whiff of nutmeg paired with few dried roses and a little bit of fresh blood. There might be one or two roasted peanuts as well! Not sure though – doesn't sound all too appealing to me anyway - I hope not! Very convincing structure with decent tannin'ish ruggedness thanks to it's undeniable youth. Just the perfect entry level Pinot Noir with plenty of statement potential. Not really: in the face natural style - which was absolutely fine for my tongue! It presented its qualities in a more refined manner! Downright very decent***** Pinot fun! Drink now or over the next one or two Christmas'es! Speaking of which: Merry Christmas Everybody!

Ten Minutes by Tractor Pinot Noir 10X 2012, Mornington Peninsula

Back to Straya! Of course not to one of those massive Fatty Finn kind'ish regions like Barossa, McLaren or Coonawarra (by the way, why was this kid-movie character called Fatty Finn? Can't remember! He wasn't fat, wasn't he? Maybe some local reader has an answer …). Well, what would the tongue of a despicable Burgundy wine snob – like mine – do in such places after all?! There are far too many interesting, and perhaps still not so extremely well know, cooler climate wine regions in Australia. So, this time it had to be Mornington Peninsula a bit south-east of Melbourne – again. This time without ridiculous anecdotes from my student travels in Victoria. Promise! With the Aylward Pinot Noir some months ago I was a bit too chatty ... I am afraid. I don't want you to get a wrong impression of me. I didn't (constantly) fill myself up with cheap local fizz etc. (but no evil Rosé, even I had to keep a trace of self esteem). I also enjoyed some really nice and mostly cooler appearing Shiraz based wines from the north-west of Melbourne and the Yarra Valley. Something I really got to get back to! It is just so tricky to get these wines in Europe. Perhaps early next year I will give it a try! 

Anyway, now to today's Pinot Noir! It was produced by a rather well know local wineproducer called: Ten Minutes by Tractor – referring to the distance between the three original vineyards of the winery. In 1982 Richard McIntyre purchased land "that was to become Moorooduc Estate and began his own wine voyage of discovery, a voyage that was to intersect with Ten Minutes By Tractor when, already with over a decade of winemaking experience, he made our first experimental wines in 1999 and the first commercial release the following year“. In the early 1990s the McCutcheon and Wallis families joined in. But until 1999 all of them sold most of their grapes and did only some experimenting for themselves. So, it took a while to establish the now quite successful business. Today's 10X Pinot Noir was pretty much produced right from the start. Its first vintage was 2000. The grapes for my 2012 10X Pinot Noir were cultivated on the vineyards: Coolart Road (76%), Northway (10%), Wallis (8%) and McCutcheon (6%). The used clones were: MV6 (46%), 115 (30%), 777 (16%), Pommard (5%) and G5V15 (3%). Have I mentioned that Ten Minutes by Tractor has a magnificently detailed webpage? Check it if you are into details. I better won't overdo it with the specifics here! Back to the wine. The grapes were handpicked between March 1^st and 23^rd and fully destemmed. A subsequent 4-6 day pre-ferment maceration preceded a 100% wild yeast fermentation with manual plunging throughout and followed by a short post-ferment maceration of 17-22 days on skins. The ageing in 18% new medium toasted French oak took place for about 10 months. So, let's just see what I've tasted in this one ...

Ocean Eight Pinot Noir 2010, Mornington Peninsula

It's been quite a drought around here, right?! What an outrageously lazy period without Pinots from distant places or other mildly extraordinary wines from regions somewhere around the globe. More than a months?! Really!? I hardly can look in the mirror! For the future I do vow not to give in such to sluggishness again … I hope ...
To make up for this ignominy I'd like to send my tongue all the way down to Australia onto the beautifully scenic Mornington Peninsula south east of Melbourne. Well, at least I think it was scenic. I've only been there once. Then, well intoxicated with a horrific hangover induced by cheap Shiraz based fizz and shaken by a bumpy and awkwardly chatty minibus ride down a coastal road. Both of which might have blured my memory a bit. In short, I wasn't well … at all. Not to mention the subsequent ferry ride across the bay ... Anyway, I digress! As always! The frequent reader probably got used to my constantly deviating thought processes. Back to the matter on tongue! Today's Pinot from the vintage 2010 was produced by Michael Aylward from Ocean Eight vineyard & winery in Shorehame on the south-east coast of the peninsula. Michael started his winery in 2004 were he and his team cultivate varieties such as Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and even some Pinot Gris. Mornington Peninsula. The vines for today's Pinot were palanted in 1999 and standing on up to 65 meter high sandy loam vineyards facing north-west. The grapes were picked by hand and underwent fermentaion froid for a respectable long period of four to six weeks. Useing natural yeasts ... of course. After that it was aged for about 12 months in 15% new barriques and three to four year old 500 litre barrels. So let's give it a go ...