Decanter World Wine AwardsAs it turned out (though we didn’t know this at the time) there was also one Australian Pinot in each flight (two Bass Phillip Premiums and a Reserve), as well as an Oregon wine in each flight (Domaine Serene Monogram), an Austrian wine (Markowitsch Reserve) and a New Zealander (Felton Road Block 3 from Central Otago).
The three flights were broadly grouped by vintage, though there wasn’t much in it: the oldest wines came from 2002.
The DRC wines we scrutinised were the 2007 La Tâche (dense and perfumed, though the acid balance suggested a tricky vintage), the 2006 Romanée-St Vivant (disarmingly aerial: flowers and soaring fruit) and the 2002 Échezeaux (a sweeter, warmer wine, though elegant and refined).
Everyone was invited to note and score the wines using the 100-point scale, though Curtis Marsh, the jovial organiser of this Singapore event, stressed that the aim was simply to have fun tracking down the ‘most preferred’ wines (and wine) of the evening, without any vulgar implication that the winner might be the greatest.
It was great fun: I saw few furrowed brows and felt none of the deathly seriousness and falsetto reverence which can attend such events.
On the popular vote, the 2003 Bass Phillip was the most preferred wine of the night and took the final flight, with 2007 Felton Road Block 3 2007 being most preferred in the first flight and 2006 Markowitsch Reserve in the second flight.
Aggregating my own scores (and they were all audited by a beaming accountant let loose for the afternoon from the shackles of Ernst & Young) put DRC in first place with 287 points ahead of Felton Road on 283, Markowitsch on 282, Bass Phillip on 266 and Domaine Serene on 263.
But then I like tannin: the most easily discernable difference between the Europeans and their competitors (I had, in fact, assumed that the highly impressive Markowitsch was a second Burgundian). If I’d been scoring for beguiling fruit, then Felton Road would have romped home.
I’d found the same ‘tannin difference’ at previous events of this sort (including the most recent Stonier International Pinot Noir tasting and Pinot Noir New Zealand 2010).
And what’s true for the sculpted contours of Pinot Noir is no less true for other varieties and blends, notably GSMs and Cab-Merlot reds: ambitious European wines tend to be coated with tannins in a way that their counterparts from the Southern Hemisphere or North America (with some Californian exceptions) simply aren’t.
Why is this? True, DRC generally retains stems for fermentation, but Pinots made according to Jayerist, destemming principles (like Markowitsch and most red burgundies) are often no less tannin-laden in Europe.
No ambitious producer anywhere ever hurries a maceration.
Is it something about European wine-growing environments (perhaps humidity) which delivers a bigger spectrum of more easily extractable tannins?
Is it the market, and in particular the sense that consumers outside Europe find too much palpable tannin off-putting? Or is it something else altogether?
Any suggestions welcome: I’m puzzled.
Have your say!
emmental
May 10 10:46
Terroir?
The amount of tannin in a wine is one thing - the taster's perception for that matter another one, the first depending of the growing conditions and the vineyard management (e.g. low yields lead to more tannin-building in the grapes - compare yields of highend-productions of Old World vs. New World!),the latter being influenced by the other taste-influencing components, particularly by the alcohol-content of a wine (New-World-wines tend to have a higher level, notably the Pinots!). If you'd like to call these effects "terroir", feel free to do so...
Oliviero
May 08 18:09
I don't know about the technique much, but is it a question of consumers ? European wines tend to be drunk much later than their new world counterparts, and tannins often require years before they soften.
Curtis
May 05 23:43
Is it perhaps the ultimate evidence of Terroir.
I think you will find artisan new world pinot noir producers are largely using old world techniques and there's really not a lot you could say is radically different in the winery.
I would suggest it has more to do with vine age, clones, and most significantly, sunlight. As proprietor of Two Paddocks, Sam Neill, says, "We have a special kind of sunlight down in Central Otago"... to which one could hypothesize results in a different type of tannin.
That said, in a recent blind-tasting competition between alumni of some of the world's top business school, Jancis Robinson MW comments, "The best-performing wine in a way was Sam Neill's Two Paddocks Pinot Noir 2008 Central Otago, which most tasters guessed as French and therefore presumably burgundy rather than New Zealand".
I sometimes think that the Burgundians could do with a little of that "special sunlight", nothing like a bit of vitamin D to bring a wine (and one's personality) to life, although maybe climate change is already doing that in Europe.
Gavin
May 05 08:03
I’m not sure either. I think market preferences might have something to do with it, but then I think market preferences are shaped by what people are used to drinking, which is shaped by what's available for (e.g.) less than £5 or local equivalent. These sort of wines tend to be made in a style that the larger wine companies think will appeal to market preferences. Somewhat of a closed loop?
I think maceration times have a lot to do with it. I can only go on what I've read, but I think maceration times tend to be longer in Europe than in (e.g.) Australia.
Australian red wines tend to be pressed slightly before ferment is finished. If the use of an efficient, vigorous cultured yeast is assumed, this would normally give a maceration time of about two weeks. The reason given is that as pressing is quite oxidative (even using an airbag press), it’s better to do this whilst the wine still has some protection from the carbon dioxide generated by ferment. I gather European wineries will often continue maceration for several weeks after this... and if they’re using indigenous yeasts, the ferment is likely to take longer too.