2021 Greenhill Wines Pinot Meunier Blanc de Noir Brut Piccadilly Valley (Adelaide Hills)
Sparkling wines made only from pinot meunier are a relative rarity here in Australia – but this elegant, detailed, and delicious wine makes a compelling argument that they should be more common. Roll over, pinot noir – and tell chardonnay the news.

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Pinot meunier – a fascinating variant of pinot noir – is a bit of an underdog variety. It’s actually the most widely-planted variety in Champagne, but what it has in hectares there it lacks in prestige, often being dismissed by the Champenois as a mere ‘filler’ blending variety for adding fruitiness and softness to the region’s wines. That perception is slowly changing in Champagne, thanks to the success of some high-profile 100% pinot meunier sparkling wines such as Jérôme Prévost’s ‘Les Beguines’. Of course, we Australians love an underdog – and if you need any proof that this variety can work its magic here in Australia, look no further than Greenhill Wines’ 2021 Blanc de Noir, which has spent twenty-one months on lees before disgorgement.

Tasting Note

A nose of crisp red apples, pithy apple skin, lemon curd, pastry crust, and bright fresh raspberry, backed by savoury and earthy tones of spent coffee grounds and bone broth. Beautifully fresh and detailed on the palate – driven by bright acidity, with a delicate mousse and lots of high-toned fruit flavour. A gentle nutty depth and intriguing hint of earthy bitterness from the lees ageing emerges on the finish, adding a complexity that makes the wine feel gastronomic. There’s a charming balance here between the fruity generosity of pinot meunier and the layered complexity that time on lees during secondary fermentation brings. This isn’t an imposingly serious wine – you could happily serve it as an apéritif – but it’s not lacking in depth or interest if you want to go looking for it. This is quietly virtuosic winemaking at its best.

Themes of this wine

Adelaide Hills

The Adelaide Hills is a young winegrowing region by South Australian standards, but it is a richly fertile one. The push to plant vines in the Hills was led by some of Australia’s most established and famous names – Croser, Henschke, Shaw and Smith, Knappstein, Weaver – and while they are all still very much major players, the Hills has also been a hotbed for the avant-garde, being the cradle of the natural wine movement in this country. Today, that lo-fi, organic-centric movement – with Basket Range as its spiritual home – has flourished, and it happily shares space with the established order. There are now over 50 cellar doors in the Hills, and it is also well served with restaurants.

Piccadilly Valley

The Adelaide Hills has two official subregions, Lenswood and Piccadilly Valley, with the former to the north and the latter extending south. The midpoint, where they share a small border, has Basket Range to the west, with the larger region extending around and beyond both subregions. Both Piccadilly Valley and Lenswood have the highest and coolest sites in the Hills, with chardonnay, pinot noir and sauvignon blanc the key varieties.

Pinot meunier

Pinot meunier is a variety mainly consigned to sparkling wine production, with still red wines relatively rare. But in Australia, though the output is modest, the grape has a meaningful place as a quality grape for red wine production – alongside sparkling wine – and a noble history that stretches back to the 1830s.

Blanc de noir(s)

Literally ‘white from black’, this French phrase usually refers to a style of white sparkling wine made from dark-skinned grapes such as pinot noir. As all of the colour in these grapes resides in the skins, a winemaker can press them gently to create a mostly-clear juice that will then become wine. A small number of still white wines made from dark-skinned varieties can be found in Australia – but the vast majority of Australian wines labelled with this très français term will be sparkling.