jamie goode's wine blog: Pinot Noir 2010, day two

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Pinot Noir 2010, day two


The theme today? Sustainability, and all that goes with it.

I gave my talk, in a session that included Steve Smith, Doug Bell (Wholefoods), Andrew Jefford, Nick Mills and Max Allen. I thought it went OK, although I did have a little too much information for a 15 minute presentation, and to avoid over-running had to do some jettisoning of the later slides.

The star turn, however, was the tasting of 13 wines blind. These were all Pinot Noirs from New Zealand, and all from the 2007 vintage. They were a mix of sustainable, organic (although the organic ones were labelled 'organic canopy management', which meant under row growth was controlled with glyphosate, I assume) and biodynamic.

Aside from the cultivation method, I thought all 13 wines were excellent. My highest mark (94) went to Rippon and Palliser, with Dry River, Craggy Range Calvert Vineyard and Villa Maria Reserve coming in on 93. All wines scored over 90, which is some achievement. I'd like to drink any of them.

Pictured above: the scope of the conference; and John Belsham, strangely dressed, leading the tasting session.

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4 Comments:

At 8:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Does 'organic canopy management' have any certification standards?
Sounds like a cop-out to me!

 
At 7:53 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great blog James, check this interesting article about a journalist from the US on the brane-cantenac's website at http://www.brane-cantenac.com/blog-brane-cantenac/

 
At 9:52 PM, Blogger Paul Tudor said...

My highest mark went to the Pyramid Eaton, which confirms my view that Marlborough is now the most exciting Pinot Noir region in NZ. Yes, people, I HAVE changed my mind...

 
At 1:20 PM, Anonymous David Kelly said...

This goes to show my long said point that you have to go a long way to beat the Marlborough Pinots.
They almost seem to have a Terroir of their own and are decipherable from any other countries offerings.

Glad the talk went okay; I know only too well the scenario of a 30 minute presentation to be done in 15!

 

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