On a very blustery October day, we were delighted to attend the fifth annual Pinot Palooza. A festival celebrating Pinot Noir from all the corners of Australia and New Zealand that have managed to conquer this fussy little red grape, first cultivated in Europe over 2000 years ago. More than 100 wineries were featured, and ready to pour you delicious snippets of over 250 different wines to suit all budgets. 14432 bottles of Pinot Noir have been popped in the years the festival has been running – hic!
Now I must admit that Pinot Noir has not typically featured amongst my favourite wines, for similar reasons as Dan Sims (Director of Bottle Shop Concepts) is quoted as saying in the pamphlet;
“- because when it is great it’s mind blowingly good. But when it is bad, it is just expensive!”
However, he also says:
“But it doesn’t stop you going back for more. ‘It’s like chasing the pinot dragon!’ But honestly, it tends to be a grape variety that you discover a little further along in your wine journey. And when you do, it is like ‘where has this been all this time?’”
This was the day that I turned this corner and actually ‘discovered’ Pinot Noir. Not just as the ‘light’ red you tasted in the build up to the Shiraz main event, but as a ‘mind blowing’ wine in its own right. That is not to say of course that all of the wines we tasted were exceptional, but when only tasting Pinot Noir it made the better wines really stand out. I highly recommend attending tastings of only one varietal for this very reason.
Unfortunately the popularity of the event made it impossible to sample every wine on offer so we made it our mission to visit a mix of familiar wineries and some new discoveries. Our highlights included: Willow Creek from the Mornington Peninsula, where we picked up a bottle of the 2013 vintage as a gift; meeting Adam McCallum, winemaker for Tarrawarra, Yarra Valley, and hearing his motivational journey; a sneaky bottle of Pinot Gris from Craggy Range, Martinborough NZ as a little respite from all of the reds; delicious tastings at Pegasus Bay, Waipara Valley NZ and Vinteloper, Adelaide Hills, at which point our purses were empty having spent the last of our pennies at our favourite winery of the day. Yarra Yering has been one of my husband, Phil’s favourites for years but until this event I hadn’t had the privilege. Not only did we get to try two delicious wines, we were also a little star struck as we got to meet Sarah Crowe, Halliday’s first female winemaker of the year, having recognised her from the magazine. We purchased two bottles of the exceptional 2015 vintage for our cellar – but both of us doubt our resolve to hold on to it for up to twenty years!
In conclusion, I would highly recommend this event, which was complemented by an array of quality food vendors, had plenty of free water and provided each ticket holder with a gorgeous Plumm Pinot Noir glass to keep. Look out for tickets next year, or if you can’t wait until then, head to Wellington, NZ for Pinot Noir 2017 from 31st January to 2nd February.