2010 SQUITCHY LANE PINOT NOIR

It's been a long time between drinks, as they say, but our new Pinot Noir is just about ready for release. Our last release, the 2008, caused a sensation and sold out in record time. There was no 2009 under the Squitchy Lane label thanks to bushfires and heat waves. If I remember correctly, the 2008 was last on sale in December 2009 so we have endured eighteen months without our most popular wine.
Making Pinot Noir is an elusive and mysterious thing. Making good Pinot Noir is even more so. I have quite definite views on what's good and what's not in the world of Pinot Noir. Not for me the dark-coloured, over-extracted wines that confuse power with quality. On the other hand, I am not keen on the herbal-influenced wines that make a virtue out of being grown in very cool places where the grapes struggle to ripen properly.
What I do like is elegance. Silkiness is also necessary, as is a good percentage of new oak. It's quite remarkable how good Pinot Noir can integrate new barrels without being dominated by oak flavours. Our winemaking style is, in many ways, quite straightforward. We don't use stalks or whole bunches--instead, we crush very gently so a good proportion of whole berries pass into the fermenter. We then ferment on skins for about seven days and press to tank for overnight settling before racking to barrel after twenty-four hours. Pressings are kept separate. The wine is quite cloudy when it goes to barrel and these lees are an important part of the style. They add a certain body and texture to the finished wine.
And I like low alcohol. This is achieved in the vineyard by getting vines in balance and ripening evenly. Flavours should accumulate quickly so harvest can take place before sugars rise too high. Our 2010 is a shade under 13.0% but shows full ripeness.
I am very happy with this wine--I think it is the best ever under the Squitchy Lane label. 
The colour is bright garnet, not too deep. The bouquet shows plenty of the MV6 clone influence--this clone is probably the most "fruity" and you can see the jubey, plum and berry characters quite clearly. The palate is silky, seductive and long with harmony the key word. It's still young and only just coming around after bottling but I like what I see. Whether it's best enjoyed soon or with a few year's bottle age is a good question--I can't give a definitive answer except to say that I will be enjoying it over the next twelve months. There is so much that is attractive about the wine now that I find it hard to resist.
The last few years have been difficult in the Yarra Valley--2008 was bountiful but often excessively so and some wines could be criticised for lacking true concentration, ripeness and depth, 2009 was the terrifying bushfire and heatwave season where many wineries produced nothing at all and those that did often declassified the wines to a lower quality level, 2010 was benign (thank goodness) and as for 2011, it's the most difficult vintage I have seen in over twenty years of making wine. Not the worst, but the most difficult.
When you sum all that up, a wine such as the 2010 Pinot Noir seems like a gift from the heavens. Whoever it was that said "wine is proof that God wants us to be happy" must have had wines like this in mind.
Keep an eye on the Squitchy Lane website for release details.

VINTAGE UPDATE

Here'a quick snapshot of how the new vintage wines are progressing:
Fume Blanc--has finished fermenting in older oak barrels (although I have introduced one new barrel, specially selected for its low oak impact) and has a small amount of sulphur dioxide added to prevent oxidation. It is now resting on its lees in the barrels where it will remain for at least a few months longer. In style, there is a definite connection with the 2010 but there also some interesting vintage differences. This year there are perhaps more gooseberry and lantana flavours with slightly less passionfruit depth. It's a little lower in alcohol with a touch more acidity. I am very pleased with this wine and I feel it could be the wine of the vintage.
Chardonnay--has just completed its fermentation in a mix of new and old barrels. We will stir the barrels weekly for a month or so and then decide the next steps. We are encouraging malo-lactic fermentation in a few barrels to give a richer, fuller mouthfeel to the final blend. The cool weather this year has kept acidity levels higher than we have seen for some time and I want to make sure the wine is not too "tight". Our two different clones have produced quite different wines--the P58 as usual is the richer and more effusive, while the 95/96 blend shows the typical citrus and grapefruit pith flavours with an elegant reserve that we don't see in the other wine.
Pinot Noir--was fermented on skins in small vats for 8 days then pressed to barrel. The secondary, malo-lactic fermentation is just about complete. We have assessed the vats and made an early decision to include all parcels in the blend. The hard selection work took place in the vineyard where any fruit that we thought not up to standard was left behind.
Merlot--picked last Friday so it's very early to comment. I like the ripe, fleshy flavours so far but we need to make sure the extraction is correct for the wine's ultimate balance. The acid/tannin ratio this year is quite different from previous harvests so a gentle hand is required while the wine remains on skins.
Cabernet Sauvignon--to be picked next week. The fruit looks in great condition and we are hoping the next few days of warmer weather will complete the ripening process. No matter what, this will be a year of lower alcohols in our reds. It's a return to the Yarra wines of last century. Just recently I have had the good fortune to taste a couple of these (Yeringberg 1996 Cabernet Sauvignon and Seville Estate 1988 Cabernet Sauvignon) and the immediate impression was how well these wines had survived and how fresh they looked. They were beautiful examples of the medium-bodied claret style. And that's how I see the 2011 wines.

A TALE OF TWO VINEYARDS

I was in Western Australia last week and the winemakers there were all commenting on how dry it was. Many of them said it was the driest vintage in living memory. Here's a shot of a vineyard in the Frankland River region...

 Now that's dry! And here we are in the Yarra Valley, with the wettest January to March period on record in Victoria and the coldest March since 1995, wondering how long it will take to get the grapes ripe. Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon look great but are ripening very slowly. Here's a shot taken in our vineyard this morning....