Who makes the best Pinot Noir?
Put that question to a winegrower in Tasmania’s Huon Valley, or to a Kiwi winemaker in Central Otago, or indeed to just about any Pinot Noir producer on the planet and the response is bound to be unanimous.
“Burgundy, of course!”
That’s hardly surprising. This part of central France had a significant head start on the rest of the world’s premium Pinot Noir production. Its greatest natural assets include the legendary red wine vineyards of Chambertin, Clos Vougeot and La Romanée Conti.
Right now, Burgundy is alive with pre-vintage activity. In another week or two, Tasmanian winemaker Jim Chatto would have taken up residence there, in readiness for another six weeks of harvest at a small, somewhat unremarkable winery located in the commune of Bligny-lès-Beaune.
But not this year, says the laid-back winemaker from Glaziers Bay, south of Hobart.
Chatto’s next Burgundy sojourn will have to wait until the global threat of COVID-19 retreats from its present status.
“Burgundy has been a lifelong interest,” says the 2019 Gourmet Traveller WINE Winemaker of the Year.
“It’s where I really developed my love for Pinot Noir.”
This is not the first false start Chatto has had to endure, he says. Travel restrictions imposed by state and federal governments stymied last year’s prospects. That limited his 2020 vintage experiences to those carried out on his own 1.5ha Pinot Noir vineyard in the Huon Valley.
Huon Valley winemaker Jim Chatto. Image courtesy Mark Smith.
“I was meant to have worked in Burgundy in 1996 but for various reasons the arrangements made fell through,” Chatto adds.
“I ended up working in Provence.
“I’ve visited Burgundy on and off over the decades and in 2019 I finally had the opportunity to go and do harvest there. My wife Daisy and I took the kids out of school for a term and made Beaune our home base.”
The location was near-perfect. Burgundy’s famous walled town is situated some six kilometres or so to the north of the winery then being used by Chatto’s friend and winemaking peer, Jane Eyre.
“Yep, that really is her name,” Chatto quickly inserts into any discussion of his vintage experiences with the former Melbourne hairdresser.
Back in mid-January, Maison Jane Eyre was named Négociant of the Year by the highly respected wine trade magazine La Revue du Vin de France.
Négociant is the French term used to describe any winemaker who buys grapes, fermenting or fermented wine in order to create wines that are then bottled and sold under that person’s own label.
Burgundy’s long history of grape growing and winemaking has brought about a proliferation of négociants in the industry. One of their key strengths is that they buy tiny quantities of wine grapes from individual growers in order to produce more commercially viable volumes of wine.
“In Australia, you buy fruit from a grower or winery by the tonne,” Chatto explains.
“In Burgundy, you’re not just buying grapes. You’re buying grapes in order to fill a barrel or a number of barrels with finished wine. There’s no set quantity for a single barrel.
“You might purchase 350kg from one grower and it might be 380kg from another. Some quite complex negotiations – typically French – are required in order to make those purchasing arrangements work.”
Chatto’s vintage plans had been to simply help an expat Aussie winemaker work her way through another Burgundy harvest. All that changed when prolonged bushfire activity south of Hobart during the summer of 2018-2019 resulted in vineyards throughout the Huon Valley and D’Entrecasteaux Channel having their entire 2019 vintage compromised by smoke-taint.
Chatto left around eight tonnes of estate-grown Pinot Noir hanging in the vineyard. It was a small, but potentially high-quality harvest.
“Daisy and I decided we’d like to try to make some wine while we were in Burgundy, if it could be done without too many issues getting in the way,” Chatto recalls.
Burgundy winemaker Jane Eyre. Image supplied.
“We saw it as a perfect opportunity to at least make some wine in 2019, even if it wasn’t from our own vines. Fortunately, Jane made it possible to get some really good Pinot Noir from one of her growers and we were able to make just a couple of barrels.
“I was able to do the fruit selection prior to harvest and I was there for picking as well. We managed to get the wine through fermentation and into barrel before it was time for us to return home to Tasmania.”
Periodic phone calls and emails during the past 20 months – together with ongoing assessments of wine samples sent via international courier – have enabled Chatto to keep close tabs on his pet Pinot project.
Now finished, packaged and labelled ready for sale, the resulting 545 bottles of Chatto’s 2019 Savigny-Les-Beaune ‘Aux Vergelesses’ Premier Cru await dispatch from the Tasmanian winemaker’s French outpost.
“COVID-19 got in the way of me being able to carry all of that out myself, but we’re really pleased with the result,” Chatto says.
“It was a genuinely collaborative effort. We’ve since helped Jane make a Tassie Pinot Noir from fruit sourced from three unique vineyard sites in northern Tasmania. It’s just being released, along with other 2020s from Geelong, Gippsland, Mornington Peninsula and the Yarra Valley.
“Jane was due to come to Tasmania when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Australia and she was forced to return to France ahead of the lockdown.
Maison Jane Eyre’s Tasmanian Pinot Noir.
Images supplied.
“We’ve carried out her intended program, more or less under instruction. But it’s been pretty straightforward really. Having worked with Jane in Burgundy, I’ve got a good understanding of how she moves her fruit from the vineyard through the winery.
“We’ve had to rely upon getting good service from our international courier DHL in order to carry out some very important decision-making. But things have turned out really well in the end. We’ve turned our long-distance collaboration into a fine art.”
Chatto’s own 2019 wine should be back in the country by the end of the year, he says.
But don’t expect to see bottles on the shelf of your local retailer. Much of it has already been allocated to buyers, including those that provided Chatto Wines with expressions of interest some months ago.
Set your sights instead on the 2020 vintage. That wine should arrive here sometime in 2022.
Featured image above courtesy Jess Coughlan.
Hobart’s Mark Smith wrote his first weekly wine column back in 1994. Now more than 1700 features and 25 years later, he continues to chart the successes of Tasmania’s small scale, cool climate wine industry with regular contributions to some of Australia’s leading industry publications.
PICK OF THE CROP
Mark gives you his honest opinions about the best wines available right now from Tasmania’s wine makers.
2020 Moores Hill Pinot Noir $40
The rain-affected 2020 vintage provided plenty of challenges to Pinot Noir producers across the state. This new release was sourced from Moores Hill’s home base in the West Tamar and its Swan Bay site on the other side of the river. It’s a good result, given the narrow picking window winemaker Julian Allport had to negotiate. Wonderfully vibrant in its crimson red hues, the wine offers some delightful rose petal and cherry fruit aromas before hitting the palate. Ripe fruit is light-bodied and attractive, and accompanied by some subtle savoury spice and sensitively handled oak. Neat work. www.mooreshill.com.au
2020 Invercarron Pinot Noir $39
Former travel company founder Andrew Jones has been flying high since entering the Tasmanian wine industry. His first Pinot Noir from young vines in the Jordan Valley was among seven gold medal winners in last November’s Royal Hobart Wine Show. This is a fine follow-up, with rich cherry/plummy fruit framed by gentle ripe tannins and carefully modulated French oak notes. The wine has greater intensity and depth than many of its peers from 2020, so medium-term cellaring looks a distinct possibility. Made under contract by Ghost Rock’s Justin Arnold, who’s become a dab hand with Pinot Noir. www.invercarron.com.au
2019 Pooley Pinot Noir $46
With new plantings coming on stream from the family’s Cooinda Vale and Butcher’s Hill sites, Pooley Wines in the Coal River Valley is able to luxuriate in its abundance of Pinot Noir riches. At face value, this label is the company’s entry level Pinot Noir. But set that idea aside right now. This is an excellent 2019, offering considerable cellaring potential. It displays the rich hues and depth of flavour that typifies this high-quality vintage in southern Tasmania. It was a joy to drink last week alongside rare Strelleyfield duck at the family’s Prospect House Restaurant. www.pooleywines.com.au
2019 Chatto Marion’s Pinot Noir $65
When Jim and Daisy Chatto’s Huon Valley vintage was ruined by smoke taint in 2019, Marion’s Vineyard in the Tamar Valley was one of a number of producers that stepped in to help out. This wine is an altogether bigger, more structured Pinot Noir than we see south of Hobart and it’s really one for the future. Right now, it’s dark berry accented, with lovely engaging savoury notes, fine ripe tannins and well-balanced acidity. One for pairing with hearty game dishes. Sold out ex-vineyard but a pleasing discovery to find among selected fine wine shops and retailers. www.chatto.com.au
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