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“Pinot Noir is the next wine fashion” declared Ross Brown, of Brown Brothers, speaking at the closing session of the 9th International Cool Climate Symposium in Hobart, Tasmania. In terms of trending fashions driven by technical changes and consumer tastes, the grape variety ticks all the boxes, he said. Suggesting that wine fashions go in approximately 15 year cycles, Brown argued that after Cabernet Sauvignon in the ‘70s, Chardonnay in the early ‘80s and Sauvignon Blanc in the late ‘90s, now is the time for another red cycle.

Being able to make Pinot Noir open, accessible and generous to consumers will help make it successful – the Pinot Noir category has now got some scope to it,” “Consumers can come in at a level that gives them great value and a great drink.”

Brown coupled this with the fact that consumer tastes are changing to “lighter and lower alcohol, and more savoury reds” into which Pinot Noir can tap.”

Pinot Noir is a demanding grape variety. Its flavours degrade when temperatures rise above 30C. In mainland Australia it ripens in January or February, the warmest months of the year. There is a tiny part of Victoria and Western Australia and a good part of Tasmania and New Zealand where success is possible.

We think that the southern extreme of Margaret River produces a distinctive and attractive Pinot Noir. Here is your chance to test that assertion. Compare our Pinot with others. Be prepared to outlay $50 to $70 for an Australian or New Zealand example and perhaps $300 for a renowned French Burgundy. As Ross brown says “Consumers can come in at a level that gives them great value and a great drink.”

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.