TN: Arranmore 2002 Adelaide Hills Black Pinot
Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2003 5:21 pm
I attended the public tasting for the Adelaide Hills wine awards the other weekend. An excellent array of wines. Some very nice Pinot's and Chardonnays. I decided to get some perspective on Pinots and after tasting all the Gold and silver winners (which were very nice) I decided to taste a few of the losers to see what was missing.
I was astounded to discover a teeny micro producer whose pinot really punched my buttons. It was similar in flavours and complexity to all the medal winners but was probably (and I am just guessing here) too different from the technical specifications of a medal winning pinot.
Concentrated cherries, strawberries, brambles and very pleasing white pepper on the palate was enhanced by a nice weight and a silky smoothness in the mouth with a solid tannin structure.
It was the white pepper and weight of the wine that did it for me, I can't recall it being like any other Pinot I have tasted, yet it really blew me away. I suspect I need more Pinot training though if I tend to like non-medal winners over medal winners
The sad thing about this wine (to me at least) is that there were only 50 cases produced.
I was astounded to discover a teeny micro producer whose pinot really punched my buttons. It was similar in flavours and complexity to all the medal winners but was probably (and I am just guessing here) too different from the technical specifications of a medal winning pinot.
Concentrated cherries, strawberries, brambles and very pleasing white pepper on the palate was enhanced by a nice weight and a silky smoothness in the mouth with a solid tannin structure.
It was the white pepper and weight of the wine that did it for me, I can't recall it being like any other Pinot I have tasted, yet it really blew me away. I suspect I need more Pinot training though if I tend to like non-medal winners over medal winners
The sad thing about this wine (to me at least) is that there were only 50 cases produced.