Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir: a study in six wines
The Mornington Peninsula wine region. This region has established itself as Australia’s most important for Pinot Noir, and it also makes some serious Chardonnay.
The peninsula is a narrow strip of land, south of Melbourne, jutting out into the Bass Strait, and the maritime influence is probably the key factor in the success of this region. No vineyard is further than 7 km from the coast, and the sea moderates temperatures, keeping the afternoons cool and the nights warmer than they might otherwise be. ‘The cool maritime climate is the key to our wines,’ says Mike Aylward of Ocean Eight. ‘It makes pure wines with really amazing acidity. That’s our strength, and I think we are all playing with our strengths pretty well.’
The history of a wine region is often difficult to trace, because many people tend to start at a similar time, on a small scale, and early wines are often non-commercial releases. The first vineyard of the modern era planted here was in 1972, by Baillieu Myer at Elgee Park. But widely cited as the pioneer is Main Ridge, planted by Nat and Rosalie White in 1975. The Whites had been inspired by a trip overseas in the mid-1960s, when they visited Burgundy. Nat was a civil engineer and Rosalie a teacher, and they bought a 3 hectare block on the peninsula which they planted with Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. They got lucky, choosing the site because of its easy access to the city, rather than having access to detailed climatic information. They ended up building a winery and in 1980 released their first commercial wine.
One of the main figures in the early days of the region was Gary Crittenden, of Crittended Estate and for a long time Dromana Estate. ‘In September 1982, in one weekend we planted 5 acres of vines on this property,’ says Crittenden. ‘This doubled the entire Mornington Peninsula plantings. If you added Nat White at Main Ridge, Brian Stonier at Stoniers, George Kefford at Merricks and Baillieu Myer at Elgee Park their plantings came up to 5 acres.’ Crittenden had initially been attracted to Tasmania, because of its cool climate, but realised that the peninsula offered similar possibilities.
The short-hand of heat summation isn’t a great way to assess a region’s climate, but the range for Mornington is cited as 1080-1570, which is quite a wide one. Somewhere in the middle of this is pretty much ideal for Pinot and Chardonnay. This is a cool climate region. There is vintage variation here, and it’s quite significant. The other key detail about this region is that it is small scale. There are 792 hectares of vines, spread out around 200 vineyards, with just over 50 cellar doors (roughly equating to wineries or labels). Nothing is very big here, and the micro nature of operations is good for Pinot Noir. There are no big companies operating in the area.
There’s an interesting influence of terroir in the peninsula, and the Pinot Noir vineyards can be split into two broad categories, up the hill and down the hill. The hill in question is the the red area on the map, around Red Hill and including Main Ridge. Here there’s the influence of altitude (up to 250 m) and soil: the soils here are a distinctive, deep layer of decomposed red basalt-derived clays of volcanic origin. Down the hill refers to the lower regions to the north, and also east and west, which include Dromana, Merricks, Tuerong and Moorooduc. Down the hill, at lower altitude, the soils transition to more of a sedimentary brown/grey loam that’s free draining. These sites are a little warmer. Up the hill Pinots tend to be more aromatic and have higher acidity, with bright, floral red cherry flavours, with the vines much more vigorous because of the water-retaining properties of the red clay soils. Down the hill the wines are often more structured with darker fruit characters, and irrigation is necessary here in most cases.
What are the challenges working here? Surprisingly, one of the main problems is birds. They are voracious grape eaters, and so every vineyard has to be netted, just after veraison starts. Nets are expensive, adding around A$1000 to the cost of vineyard management each year: they have to be purchased ($14 000 for a 7 ha vineyard, for example), stored, and applied. They last 10-15 years. Related to this, viticulture is expensive here, with management costs of $16-20 000 per hectare per hear, and $25-30 000 if the lyre split canopy system is used.
Weather is a problem, too. Poor conditions during flowering can really decimate yields, as occurred in 2014 and to a lesser extent in 2017. Then there’s also the threat of harvest rain. Yields are rarely high. ‘Back in the 1980s some thought we’d make heaps of amazing Cabernet, Chardonnay and Pinot from 5 ton/acre crops,’ says Geraldine McFaul, winemaker at Willow Creek. ‘This was the theory: we could have a trellis system that was sufficiently bountiful and somehow get enough sunshine into that canopy that you could have amazing fruit and lots of it.’ Now, though, pretty much everyone realises that crops need to be limited to achieve any quality. And most of the Cabernet has gone.
This was a tasting of eight different Pinot Noirs showing what Mornington can do. All of these have UK availability.
Kooyong Single Vineyard Estate Pinot Noir 2023 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
13.5% alcohol. So supple and fragrant with sappy red cherry fruit and some wild strawberry. The palate is elegant with a fine green hint to the sappy cherry fruit. Fragrant, light and expressive with beautifully nuanced fruit. There’s some sweetness to it, but also some savoury, sappy detail. Juicy finish with some orange peel bitterness. There’s a nice negroni hint, and a touch of mulchy green. Stylish and fine, and really nuanced. 95/100
Paringa Estate Pinot Noir 2022 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
13.5% alcohol. Sappy, taut and slightly reductive with tarry, spice-laden fruit on the nose. The palate has lovely freshness and density, with sweet strawberry and raspberry fruit with some spicy notes and then some herby hints. Really expressive with a savoury, spicy, iron-rich edge to the fruit. Dried herbs and iodine on the finish. This has some richness to the fruit, but also nice spicy framing, with some orange peel. The Paringa style is often a bold one, but this shows real finesse, too. 94/100
Ocean Eight Pinot Noir 2023 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
13.5% alcohol. Beautiful aromatics here with perfumed floral cherry fruit and some sappy green hints. Quite primary. The palate is textured with red and black cherries and lovely silkiness, with nice green hints and a touch of stewed strawberry sweetness. This is just a baby, but it shows such lovely fruit and finesse. It will be interesting to follow this over the next few years: I think it’s really good. Joyful and easy now. 94/100
Handpicked Capella Vineyard Pinot Noir 2022 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
12.6% alcohol. Fresh, sappy nose with some redcurrant notes and a touch of spice. The palate has lovely precise red cherry fruit with fine-grained tannin and good acidity. I really like the texture of this wine, with such elegance and a sweet core of cherry and strawberry fruit, with a nice acid line. It’s on the cusp of ripeness, and this works really well. 94/100
Crittenden Cri de Couer Pinot Noir 2022 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
13% alcohol. This is cork-sealed. Deep and beautifully aromatic with some five spice character as well as a touch of pepper, alongside sweet cherry and plum fruit. Concentrated on the palate with good structure under the bold but fine cherry and raspberry with lovely texture, and a peppery frill to the deep fruit. This is a rich Pinot Noir with lovely depth, and potential for development. Rich but full of interest. 95/100
Ten Minutes By Tractor Up The Hill Pinot Noir 2021 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
13% alcohol. This is a delicate but full-flavoured Pinot Noir with some leafy green hints fringing a core of cherry and raspberry fruit, with hints of iodine and aniseed. This is a low-extraction infusion-style Pinot with a beautiful core of sweet fruit, and significant tannin hiding underneath, so that you are drawn in by the fruit, but then the finish is long and mineral, and I reckon this has a long life ahead of it. Fragrant and stylish, and speaking beautifully of its place. 95/100
