Sterling Wine Auctions Australia

All the fuss about Pinot Noir has, over the years, left me a bit cold. Grown men frothing at the mouth and falling down dumb after drinking some weird old Burgundy is hard to understand.

When you think about obsession in wine, Pinot is always nearby. Its hard to grow, hard to handle, hard to make into wine and then it seems that only one percent of wine drinkers care. I always thought there must be a good reason why so many really smart wine people were obsessed with Pinot.

Yes, I confess to being nasty and calling Pinot a girl’s lunch wine and making fun of pinophiles.

Really, when New Zealand got on the bandwagon charging mad money for Pinots with funny names that came in bottles heavy enough to double as a doorstop, it was hard to take the whole thing seriously. Not too mention the fact that NZ Pinots were out-gunning Barossa Shiraz on the alcohol front. Who wants to drink a 16.5% Pinot Noir for lunch?

That was before. Now I have changed. All thanks to the good Dr Pannell and his team of fanatics from Picardy.

One of the things that separate the big boys from those in shorts is the aging of the palate and the shift from appreciating sweet fleshy flavours to dryer more savoury flavours in maturity. Ever wondered why woman in their late thirties suddenly become red wine demons? I have it on reliable authority that men mature in the palate before woman. (Yes girls, that’s right, the only thing that matures ahead of women)

Dr Bill Pannell, who started Margaret River’s iconic Moss Wood way back when, is a self-confessed Pinot nut who has done the hard yards as a producer in Burgundy. The amount of research and field trials done by Bill, Mrs Pannell the winemaker sons and the rest of the extended family would buy about three PhD’s. Yes, they take Pinot Noir very seriously.

My “revelation” experience with the Picardy Tete de Cuvee was described by Bill as an epiphany, well it was on a dark and stormy arvo down by the Swan River, safely installed at the Flying Squadron.

I am tempted to share this deep spiritual experience, running the risk of breaking the charm. Better, would be to tell you that this is amazing Pinot Noir that demands to be taken seriously. If you are a sceptic give it a try and talk to Bill if you are not convinced.

By the way as with so many great journeys my “discovery” of Pinot was by accident. On that dark and stormy day I was looking at a 5 vintage vertical of Bill's Picardy Chardonnay. The 2005 is amazing. Grape clones imported by Bill from France and then made to a standard that the most jaded White Burgundy fan would warm to.

Why the name Picardy? Bill and the Pannell's didn’t like the idea of the French telling them what French names they could use so they chose the only province in France that does not grow wine. On a more sombre note Picardy is home to more Aussie war dead than any other place in the world.

September 2006