Australian Pinot Noir: Panel tasting results

Roger Jones, Justin Knock MW and Anthony Rose tasted 91 Australian Pinot Noirs with one Exceptional, three Outstanding and 35 highly Recommended…

Entry criteria: Producers and UK agents were invited to submit their latest release Australian Pinot Noir priced £15 and above

The verdict

By and large, this tasting more than met the expectations of the judges. We were both surprised and impressed by the quality of wines that often achieved a degree of elegance, despite some warm vintage conditions. We all agreed that the highlight of the tasting was Victoria, which accounted for 31 of the 39 top-scoring wines. Within Victoria, 13 were from Yarra Valley and 11 from Mornington Peninsula.

Scroll down to see the tasting notes & scores

Mornington Peninsula in particular is fulfilling its potential as a cool- climate maritime region producing Pinot Noir of world-class structure, with styles ranging from the clean, relatively light and fruit-driven to more complex reds of truffley, sometimes herbal undertones. With a helping hand from the Great Southern Ocean, Mornington Pinot Noir has now gone beyond wine of relatively simple red fruit to greater consistency and diversity of style with fine acid structures, moderate tannins increasing sophistication in the use of high-quality oak and balanced alcohol.

Yarra Valley Pinot was also highly regarded, showing styles which (with Geelong) often featured the aromatic complexity of whole bunch in the winemaking. Beyond these major two Pinot regions, there were also pockets of excellence from Beechworth, with its wild berry fruits and savoury spice, Henty, Geelong and Orange as well as potential in Western Australia.

Tasmania, sadly, was a conundrum because, with only five wines of more than 90 entered – a real surprise – it was difficult for us to make an informed judgment on a state with so many unquestionably fine Pinot Noirs not featured here. If there was a disappointment, it was Adelaide Hills, often displaying almost overripe fruit.

Quick link: See all 91 wines in the panel tasting

The average alcohol content of all the wines was between 13% and 13.5% (assuming labelling accuracy), with just a handful coming in at 14% or above. Overall we felt that there was an understanding of gentle handling in the winemaking, leading to the production of delicate, textured wines that retained their freshness.

In terms of vintage, the trio of 2015, 2016 and 2017 showed their potential as good to excellent years overall, with 2017 – responsible for 12 of the wines that scored 91 points or above – just shading it. The 2018s are by and large wines made for early release and consumption. Most of the wines don’t need long ageing, but the structure of some of the Geelong, Mornington and Yarra examples suggests that they will continue to improve in bottle and be looking attractive after five years, or even longer.

Value and Pinot Noir are uncomfortable bedfellows at the best of times, but compared to red Burgundy, it’s fair to say that Australian Pinot Noir generally represents good value – all the more so the high-scoring wines here that are around £25 a bottle. These align well in price terms with the best Pinot Noirs that are now coming out of Germany, New Zealand and South Africa. Reflecting to an extent the strong demand for and interest in top-quality Pinot Noir in Australia itself, the best wines in this tasting – retailing at between £30 to £60 – are not overpriced.

The scores

91 wines tasted

Exceptional 1

Outstanding 3

Highly Recommended 35

Recommended 50

Commended 2

Fair 0

Poor 0

Faulty 0

See all 91 wines from this panel tasting

About Australian Pinot Noir

Risk-taking winemakers in cool climates have been the secret of Australia’s success with this most fickle but adored grape. Anthony Rose highlights the key regions and increasingly varied styles.

Oz Clarke wrote in his seminal book, New Classic Wines, published 28 years ago: ‘The buzz about the Yarra Valley – as about so many cool areas in Australia – is that at last, Pinot Noir will finally do its thing and produce great wine’. Prophetic? In a sense yes, because while Pinot in Australia got no more than an ‘also ran’ mention back then, today it is grown in no fewer than 75 regions and to world-class standards in several sites in Victoria, as well as Tasmania and the Adelaide Hills.

Key to this success has been its development in regions whose cool climates and soils have been particularly well-suited to what is one of the most demanding of grape varieties. The vagaries of Pinot Noir production require an extra level of commitment, belief and passion, which is why most Pinot Noir vineyards in Australia are owned and managed by risk-taking individuals or families prepared to brave the fickleness of ‘the heartbreak grape’.

The regions

Victoria is Pinot Noir Central, by virtue of the fact that it has the lion’s share of both maritime regions in Mornington Peninsula, Yarra Valley, Gippsland and Geelong and the more elevated regions of Macedon Ranges and Beechworth. Mornington in particular derives its cool climate from the maritime influence of the weather patterns of the Great Southern Ocean, whose cooling breezes from south, east and west provide a temperature regime that’s ideal for both the dark-fruited, spicy style and the more perfumed, red fruit styles of Pinot.

Australian Pinot Noir: The facts

Australia is the world’s fourth biggest producer of Pinot Noir after France, the US and Germany

Pinot Noir is Australia’s fourth most crushed red variety after Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot

Premium Australian Pinot Noir is dominated by the following cool-climate regions*: Tasmania (654ha); Mornington Peninsula (384ha), Yarra Valley (662ha) and Geelong (129ha) in Victoria; Adelaide Hills (513ha) in South Australia.

*2015, AWRI

Australian Pinot Noir: Know your vintages

This guide focuses on Mornington Peninsula, Geelong and Tasmania. Note that a good vintage in one Australian Pinot region doesn’t always correlate to other regions

2017 Mornington & Geelong: Excellent. Long, cool growing season, low yields, elegant, perfumed reds. Tasmania: Good to excellent. Producing Pinots of good colour and intensity.

2016 M&G: Warm, dry season, early ripening. Wines of structure, balance and ageing potential. T: Hot and dry, yields up with light Pinots of average to good quality.

2015 M&G: Perfect growing season, one of the vintages of the decade; classic, ageworthy reds. T: Good to excellent. Mild summer for fragrant, delicately structured and savoury Pinots.

2014 M&G: Cold spring, poor fruit set, low yields, stemmy flavours, some high-quality wines. T: Significant crop reduction but good, concentrated reds.

2013 M&G: Warm summer, wines of perfume, ripe flavours and ageability. T: A challenging dry, warm year producing above average yields and good wines.

2012 M&G: A good vintage following a disastrous 2011, with wines of flavour, structure and good quality. T: A cooler than average spring followed by a mild, warmish summer; good to excellent Pinot Noirs.

Another factor benefiting Yarra Valley as much as anywhere else is vine age. With mature vineyards that are 30 years old or more, vines give significant tannin structure and balance to the wines.

Tasmania has finally begun to fulfil its great potential as one of Australia’s principal regions for fine, precise Pinot. Again, a cool climate is its key asset, yet its plethora of distinctly different sub-regions is also an advantage. The diversity across these sub-regions is likely to become more marked in the way that New Zealand has set out its Pinot stall.

As for style itself, while climate and soils are significant factors, vintage variation blurs the picture to an extent. That picture becomes even more hazy thanks to house style based on trends such as more gentle handling of fruit in the wineries, time in oak, skin maceration (or not) and more whole-bunch pressing.

Similarly, while some wineries deliberately showcase single vineyards, others believe that blending across regions brings greater quality and complexity. Taking all these factors into account, the permutation of climate and vintage variation combined with the diversity in style means that Australian Pinot Noir is better and more fascinating today than ever before.

Top 39 Australian Pinot Noir wines from the panel tasting:

See all the wines tasted here

The judges

Roger Jones

Jones and his wife Sue own The Harrow at Little Bedwyn restaurant. He combines his kitchen duties with a love of wine and often visits Australia to promote food and wine matching. He set up Restaurant Australia in the UK and The Tri Nations Challenges for South African, New Zealand and Australian wines.

Justin Knock MW

Knock has worked across all sectors of the wine business including winemaking, buying, marketing and education, working directly with brands from Australia, South Africa, Chile, Italy and California. He has been a Master of Wine since 2010 and holds degrees in Industrial Chemistry and Food Science.

Anthony Rose

Rose is a wine and sake critic, who writes for The Independent, i and FT: How To Spend It. He has won a number of awards, including three Glenfiddich Wine Writer of the Year Awards and a Louis Roederer International Wine Columnist of the Year Award. Rose is also a founding member of The Wine Gang.