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Great Pinot Noir is rare. It is produced in environments where the grape matures in ultra cool conditions. The average maximum temperature in the month of ripening in Dijon, Burgundy, France is 22°C. The grape is thin skinned and ultra sensitive to heat. It raisins unmercifully with dry air and puffs up like a balloon in the rain, in the process detaching itself from the stalk.

Depending on the season and the clone Pinot is picked in Karridale between the first and the third week of March. The vine needs to crop lightly and preferably find its way through the season without water if the seeds and pulp are to mature properly. It needs to be close to senescing its leaves at harvest due to drought or cool overnight temperatures. Ripening is too fast in warmer climates and there is insufficient time for the ripe flavour to develop and the astringent green flavours that are always present in immature grapes to fade away.

In Karridale Pinot does better in some years than others. It always makes an interesting wine and sometimes promises greatness. Above all we look for lightness, sweetness and suppleness to a degree unobtainable with other red grape varieties except perhaps Grenache or Sangiovese. Pinot Noir is the fragile ballerina of red grape varieties.

Unfortunately there is a general perception in show judging circles that WA is incapable of making good Pinot. We are resolved to change this perception and have topped the pinot classes on a couple of occasions, raising eyebrows in the process.

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Pinot Noir is one of the world’s most ancient grape vine varieties. Pinot Noir has less colour and tannin than other red varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.

At its best this grape produces a light to medium bodied dry red wine, distinctively aromatic following through with a soft agreeable finish. Pinot is extremely sensitive to climate tending to produce generic hot black dry red in warmer ripening regimes. It needs cool ripening conditions to avoid deleterious raisining.

Making a good Pinot is therefore first a question of selecting the right environment in which to grow the grape.

At Three Hills the bulk of the planting is the old Western Australian selection that is simply known as 'droopy pinot'. We have added three other more recent selections, in terms of our preference, clone 2325 followed by 0013 and 2222. We are very fond of pinot noir and on the basis of our experience fancy our chances of doing better with this variety than other producers who have tried it, and in many cases given up the quest.

The flavours we get from pinot have authentic substance, the wine can stand extended maceration and extended barrel maturation. After experimenting for some years with cold soak techniques and whole bunch ferments we have opted for a simple de-stem and pump operation with irrigation of the cap several times a day via a circulation pump. It is all very pedestrian. The critical thing is to limit the crop by thinning, be lucky with the weather, avoid heat in February through till mid March, get the crop properly ripe so as to avoid any late palate sappy greenness while avoiding the tendency for too much raisining.

Mark Warren has also decided on the basis of trials performed back in 2003-4 that Pinot and wine pumps are not good friends. So, we siphon direct from barrel to tank and handle as little as possible.

The wine we hope to create is complex and interesting, displaying typical primary fruit characters, be soft and approachable and yet have the structure and power to cellar well for many years. This wine is a contrast to cabernet, shiraz or merlot because of its 'take me now' aromatics and friendly palate structure. If there is a fault with many Australian Pinots it is related to green and immature flavours that spoil the finish of the wine. So, we like to see the grapes hang a little.