Winemakers generally dislike Pinot Gris: it’s not that aromatic, normally has low acidity and let’s face it, it doesn’t set anyone’s world on fire in the same way as Riesling or Pinot Noir.
But it sells. And that means it’s a money spinner which keeps the wine business in business. Last week I ended up in a bit of a debate with a Master of Wine and a few other journalists about Pinot Gris. It ain’t my grape of choice but if people like drinking it, who am I to argue?
My friends love it: they’re successful, smart women in their late ‘20s and early ‘30s and Pinot Gris or Grigio is an easy-drinking wine that doesn’t cause any major issues to their palates. It’s great with food, makes some fabulous late harvest wines and I’m happy to drink it. I admit I’m not the biggest fan and this trend may be a passing phase before we move on to the next grape du jour but getting snobby about it makes the wine industry seem very far-removed from reality.
What’s more, in Alsace Pinot Gris is considered one of the four noble varieties. When I was speaking to Paul Pujol, winemaker at Prophet’s Rock (see blog 15 March 2010), and former winemaker at Alsace producer Kuentz Bas, he said: “The big discovery in going to Alsace was tasting older Pinot Gris. I was surprised by how it tastes if it’s grown in the right sites.”
We may try to sell Riesling and Pinot Noir to wine drinkers but we’re fighting an uphill battle. Let’s educate the consumer, says the wine industry, but most people have more pressing things to do with their time than learn about grape varieties. If people are drinking Pinot Gris then at least they are drinking wine and not beer or bourbon. They can then move on to the delights of other varieties in time.
I haven’t met many Kiwis who can hold a decent conversation in French but Paul Pujol is one of them.
The winemaker at Prophet’s Rock has a French father and became the first non-family winemaker at Kuentz Bas in Alsace since it was established in the late eighteenth century. He’s now brought a little piece of Alsace to Central Otago, producing pure Riesling and Pinot Gris, as well as the signature grape of Central - Pinot Noir - from low cropped vines and wild ferments.
Allowing the ferments to occur naturally does not sit easy with many New (and Old) World winemakers. It takes about 10 days for the fermentation to start and is likely to take three months to complete. If I were a winemaker, I’d be too scared of it all going pear-shaped.
The winery’s distributor in New Zealand, Ryan Quinn of Merchant Wines, also thinks it’s brave winemaking. “Having a bunch of wild ferments on the go requires big balls,” he said.
He claims that New Zealand has been lacking enough winemakers with the balls to really do some crazy stuff. I’ve met a few along the way already: Andrew Hedley at Framingham and Mike Weersing at Pyramid Valley are just two of many. Perhaps there needs to be a few more of them but wineries need to make money and taking risks isn’t always a great commercial strategy.
Quinn added: “It has been imperative that the New Zealand wine industry throws out some wineries that push boundaries a bit further.
“Missing from the equation is a new generation of fanatics. What I recognise in Prophet’s Rock is some of that fanaticism.” Of course he would say that - he’s trying to promote these wines but I take his point.
The recent releases: the ‘09 Dry Riesling has a lovely purity and perfume with lime, lavender and minerality. It is light and nimble on the palate with lively acidity and a refreshingly low 11.2% alcohol. Clean as a whistle. 18.5/20
The ‘09 Pinot Gris was only bottled three weeks ago but no signs of bottle shock. Attractive pear and apple puree notes on the nose with some white rose in the mouth. This is really lean for a Pinot Gris – it’s not broad or fat at all – likely due to a lower pH than you’d normally see from a Gris (pH 3.25 for you MW geeks). While there’s 14g/l of residual sugar it only seems just off-dry thanks to that refreshing acidity. 18.5/20.
And the winner of the 2009 New Zealand export championship is…Sauvignon Blanc.
Yes, a whopping eight out of 10 bottles of wine leaving Kiwi ports are Sauvignon Blanc. Not altogether surprising you might think but its dominance is pretty worrying if an ‘Anything But Chardonnay’ backlash shifts to Sauvignon.
According to the latest figures from New Zealand Winegrowers, overall exports were up 34% to 130 million litres. It’s difficult to know how much of that increase can be attributed to bulk Sauvignon shipped out in flexitanks to be bottled as an anonymous supermarket brand but there would certainly be plenty of it. Unfortunately, there’s no value figures available yet so I’ll just have to speculate that value rises will be nowhere near the 30% mark. It’ll be interesting to see the year-on-year price per litre too.
On a more positive note, it appears the Kiwis have invaded China in the past 12 months. China didn’t even feature in the 2008 top ten export destinations and it is now sitting pretty in position number 5 with more than 1.2m litres shipped. With the Far East’s penchant for reds, Hawkes Bay and Central Otago are ideally positioned to take advantage of this market.
A Gris day
The other major mover in the export charts is Pinot Gris. Anyone visiting the country’s wine regions can’t fail to notice that most producers now have a Gris in their range. A surge in plantings has been followed by a 63% rise in exports in the past year to 2.4m litres. Winemakers tell you they hate making this rather neutral, low acid, high alcohol variety but people sure do like drinking it. It’s a pretty startling rise when you consider that as late as 2006 only 400,000 litres of Gris were exported. My GCSE maths tells me that’s a sixfold increase - Carol Vorderman has nothing on my numeracy skills.
It’s sad to see that Riesling hasn’t shared in the success of Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris. Exports have remained pretty stagnant and it’s had to watch a lesser variety (in my opinion) leapfrog over it. Booooooooo.
Anyway that’s enough numbers from me. I’m off to the much-anticipated Cabernet/Merlot forum and Syrah Symposium on Friday and Saturday. I’ll be posting blogs on the hot topics plus keeping you updated everyday at Pinot Noir 2010 in Wellington next week.
Many doctors give up their career to concentrate on improving their golf swing and playing with the grandchildren but Jim Jerram is not your average medicine man.
After 29 years as a GP in New Zealand and as far afield as Kunde hospital, on the trail to Everest Base Camp, Jerram moved to grape growing in 2001 in a venture with his brother-in-law, Jeff Sinnott (Amisfield’s winemaker).
You wouldn’t get me setting up a vineyard in a million years – it’s way too much like hard work and drains your coffers before you can even get a grape off the vines. To make things even more difficult, they planted in an area where no-one had planted vines before.
In a previous blog, I have written about Waitaki – a new and upcoming region on the edge of viticultural possibility. Jerram set up shop here with eight hectares of Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir on limestone soils.
“Our mission was to do Pinot Noir on limestone,” said Jerram, who sells his wine under the label Ostler. “We saw the site and thought it was a mini Cote d’Or. It’s on an escarpment too above the main valley floor so we get away from frost pockets.”
Some of the big companies have checked the area out and decided it is too marginal, Jerram revealed, and in 2007 there was barely a berry harvested in the valley thanks to rain ruining flowering.
Jerram clearly has exacting standards and this is an area that really needs attention to detail with cool weather, frosts, powerful winds and bronze beetles ready to pounce every day. Touring the region’s vineyards, it’s evident that absentee owners are not going to succeed: vines are looking very sorry for themselves and growth is slow.
The proof is in the glass with those who care most reaping the rewards. Ostler’s ‘06 Caroline Pinot Noir and ‘08 Audrey Pinot Gris getting a 18-18.5 out of 20 while; the 08 Valli Pinot Noir also getting an 18+. Pasquale also scored highly with its whites, particularly the 08 Alma Mater – a blend of Riesling, Gewurz and Pinot Gris - but its reds were a bit heavy on the oak (great fruit but 40% new French is too toasty for me). Craggy Range also makes some good wines here.
Hot on the heels of its first winery and cellar door opening in November, Jerram has set up a Regional Tasting centre in Kurow. The Vintners Drop opened at the end of December and you can taste wines from every producer in one place for the first time. I hope all the producers support it, as the region needs to improve its profile.
Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc was the fizz of choice for many Kiwis this Christmas and following Montana’s UK launch at the recent New Zealand annual wine trade tasting, it is probably coming to a shelf near you.
Of course, it’s smart marketing. Still Sauvignon sales are booming with exports up 37% last year and no sign of that stopping: the latest figures from retailer Majestic show Oyster Bay was its biggest seller at Christmas. Sparkling is a natural brand extension and you can’t blame them for it. It doesn’t taste that bad - if you like those green pea and capsicum flavours combined with bubbles. I won’t be buying it but the supermarkets have been piling it high and putting it on offer at NZD $8.99 (£4-ish). Consumers have lapped it up.
It’s also a genius way to empty the tanks and mop up some of that oversupply that is still hanging round like a bad smell. Many think the supply-demand situation will be back in balance within 12-18 months and if you can sell off excess stock by putting a few bubbles in it, why wouldn’t you?
I’ll be interested to see how it gets on in the UK. Montana is the biggest selling brand by volume in the UK (Nielsen, MAT 03/10/09) so it has plenty of traction with consumers but is up against a hell of a lot more competition in the sparkling market: Cava, Aussie sparklers, Prosecco, and great Champagne deals. Will it hit the right price point and suit the UK consumers’ palate or is this a step too far?
Another extension of Sauvignon comes from Southbank Estate – with its rosé Sauvignon Blanc. I rolled my eyes when I saw an advert for it recently but that’s probably because I’m a cynical journalist. The Italians are doing the same with Pinot Grigio and having plenty of success with it so why can’t the Kiwis do it with their most successful grape variety?