Deconstructing Pinot Noir wine tasting results!

Under the Influence had the pleasure of hosting a Pinot Noir exploration yesterday evening at the Roundhouse tasting room. A selection of Cape Town’s beautiful people arrived to assist in this deconstructing of Pinot Noir. Now Pinot Noir is certainly not associated with the warmer climes of South Africa but because we have a talented bunch of winemakers and because Pinot Noir is seen as the most distinguished of wines, we are seeing more plantings of this fascinating grape. A thin skin, proclivity (never used that word before) to rot and sunburn make the grape very finicky but also a wonderful grape to reflect terroir.

When you think about it a grape that is more sensitive by nature will certainly then display differences in flavour due to the soil in which it is rooted and the climate in which it is grown. Hence our exploration of these wines:

• Robertson Winery Pinot Noir 2009 – Robertson
• Zorgvliet Pinot Noir 2008 – Stellenbosch
• Paul Cluver Pinot Noir 2008 – Elgin
• Oak Valley Pinot Noir 2008 – Elgin
• Shannon Vineyards Pinot Noir 2007 – Elgin
• Whalehaven Pinot Noir 2007 – Elgin
• Bouchard Finlayson Galpin Peak Pinot Noir 2008 – Hemel en Aarde Valley
• Hamilton Russell Pinot Noir 2008 – Hemel en Aarde Valley
• First Sighting 2007 – Elim

Diverse is the word. Flavour words captured by the entrepid tasters included: yum, fruity, meaty, earthy, barn, cherries, strawberries, earthiness, vegetal, parafin, amongst others including: I like, horse oats!

Some of the wines were very fruit driven, typically those from the warmer climes and slopes. Others planted on very mineral soils showed loads of complexity, like the Shannon Vineyards which was very popular. A lovely earthiness abounded from some of the clay complex soils in Elgin and the Hemel en Aarde. See a video of Anthony Hamilton Russell talking about his soils here.

What we loved about the tasting is that Pinot Noir in South Africa is so diverse in character, i.e. the grape and where it is grown comes to the fore, rather than a “Burgundy style” of wine. Whilst it is great to have those wines as the incredible benchmark that they are, we have some serious terroir in South Africa that needs expressing… no better red grape than Pinot Noir to express it’s roots!

This tasting is definitely to be repeated in the new year. This time we will taste wines on the lawns overlooking Camps Bay and the 12 Apostles, or was it 14, how many wines did we taste again?