Tasmanian wine industry legend Andrew Pirie flexes his muscles with this impressive pinot noir. Bright and supple, with a surprising amount of ripe fruit on the palate, this wine shows the potential of Burgundian savoir-faire applied to Tasmanian terroir.
‘Alto’ effortlessly juxtaposes bright acidity with fruit ripeness – a trademark of Tasmanian pinot in general, where long hang times build flavour while cool nights keep things fresh. There’s an impressive complexity of cherry fruit character here – a mélange of flavours from bright fresh Bing to syrupy-sour Morello and intoxicating kirschwasser. There’s a little nutmeg and kola nut on the finish from the ageing in French oak barrique, and subtle phenolic bitterness that lingers pleasantly in the finish. An unusually large proportion of Burgundian pinot clone 777, sourced from Morey-St-Denis, speaks to Pirie’s influences here: this is Tasmanian terroir with a French accent. Un autre, s’il vous plaît!
Pinot noir is one of the wine world’s most revered grapes. Notoriously fickle to grown and make, it makes what many see as the pinnacle of red wine in France’s Burgundy, but it’s also found many happy homes around the world, and none more so than in Australia across our cooler viticultural regions.
Tasmania is the only state that is also a wine region, one rather vast region, and, naturally, only a fraction of it is under vine. In truth, Tasmania can be more helpfully divided into its seven subregions, with three in the north around and either side of Launceston, the fourth stretching down the length of the east coast, and with the last three clustered around the southern centres of Richmond, Hobart and Cygnet. Tasmania’s wine industry may have been founded on Bordeaux varieties, but it has been the grapes of Burgundy that have emerged triumphant, and by quite a margin. Towering over all is pinot noir, with chardonnay easily the next most planted variety, with it comfortably filling more sparkling bottles than pinot noir does. Aromatic white grapes complete the general picture, with riesling, sauvignon blanc and pinot gris all well represented.
As if there aren’t enough grape varieties in the world, clones only complicate things further. You might hear people talking about 777, 114, 115 or MV6, which are all clones of pinot noir. In fact, there are over 1000 known clones of pinot noir, which is dizzying to think about. Pinot noir mutates easily, so some of the plants that show a particularly useful trait are isolated and cultivated, thus making a clone. Nurseries propagate these clones and they are sold to suit certain climates and conditions, or to give certain flavours.
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