On a recent visit to Gibbston, I discover that you now have to book for tastings – a sign of the times I guess. Better to embrace this, and know that when you arrive (as we did at Kinross for 10am) someone is expecting you and a spot is set aside, than to arrive just as a coachload of daytrippers does and find there’s no room at the inn. We still live in post-COVID times (well, in Auckland we live in flooding-every-week-climate-change-apocalypse times…) and staffing is tight in hospitality across the country.
As Grant and Jen are both away from town this week, and I’m keen to have a sit down and go through the recent vintages of Valli; Thomas at Kinross suggests an hour-long tasting. In fact I’m also going to ask if they have the recent Wild Irishman and Coal Pit releases, since friends of mine were through here just recently and were raving about how good they were.
Grant Taylor once told me that his favourite Valli wine is the Chardonnay, so we start with that. The Valli Chardonnay 2020 is a generous drop, with brisk acidity but a soft texture. Lovely ripe fruit and incredible balance. One of those seamless wines where everything fits together so carefully.
Valli Waitaki Riesling 2020 is also very well balanced. Showing a medium-dry edge with that fruit sweetness, flavours and acidity in harmony. At 10% alcohol it also has a lightness of touch – quite focussed through the palate, and with a clean, precise finish.
I’m finding more and more really good Pinot Gris on my travels around. Valli Waitaki Pinot Gris 2022 is another one. Lemon rind, fuzzy peach skin and crushed herbs. Dry, pithy and with a nibble of astringent fruit tannin that just lifts this varietal from what is too often a slumbering mid-palate of texture and little else. I’ve been shot down for liking this in examples when judging before, but I’m persistent – like the finish on this little item.
In Gibbston, the focus will inevitable be on Pinot Noir – in a good year, it is often considered to be the best region of Central Otago. We start our Pinot journey through the rest of the tasting on home ground, with the Valli Gibbston Pinot Noir 2020. A lighter shade of ruby, with red cherry, thyme, orange peel and plum on the nose. Great tannin! Also quite savoury with black olive, cloves and mushroom. A bright and juicy finish.
The Valli Bannockburn Pinot Noir 2021 shows that classic sub-regional style of sour cherry, blue raspberry and damson, with floral, herbal notes of rosemary and lavender perfumes. Slinky through the mid-palate – just lovely tannins here. Again, I’m getting a savoury element underneath that juice. Bacon fat and cheese rind? A spicy, vivacious finish. Excellent.
We’d spent the morning at Bendigo just a couple of days ago, and the Valli Bendigo Pinot Noir 2020 presents a bolder, brighter pop of fruit. Plush and sweet-fruited – quite forward and ready to go. Alongside that immediacy there is good structure, with a tight balance of tannin, wispy oak and acidity at play. The finish is dry, robust and quite long.
When we had our Top 10 tasting of Pinot Noir, the Valli Waitaki Pinot Noir was the top-scoring wine of theirs. This 2020 vintage has all that wonderful blue fruit I expect from the region – blueberry and boysenberry, but packs in some peach and blood orange flavours too. Nicely spiced, with star anise and bay leaf. Quite glossy and generous, with a fair grip of tannin along the palate. Different, in a good way.
It’s ace to get something new in a tasting, and I’d heard about this 100% whole bunch wine when judging with Jen Parr at a wine show last year. Valli Zeffer Pinot Noir 2021 is one-off wine in aid of K9MD. Intensely aromatic, full of personality. The perfume also permeates the palate – a great example of balance between sweet and savoury. A powerful wine, bouncing between that supple tannin, the pop of fruit and breezy acidity. I bought some of this.
Kinross is a great place to stop on your Central Otago trip – they have accommodation, food, tastings and can easily occupy a few hours of your touring time. We moved on to two more of the labels that they represent as a Tasting Room for – first up Coal Pit, whose winery is close nearby in Gibbston. Coal Pit Tiwha Pinot Noir 2020 starts off with bright red fruits before smoky, mocha, peat and cocoa notes join in. Quite tight, edgy and power-packed. Chewy, dense tannin.
There’s also a Coal Pit Tiwha Pinot Noir 2013 to try, and get a sense of development. Aromatically darker and showing more age – earthy and savoury. Black plum, raspberry and cranberry. The tannin is softer here, but still showing taut structure, and that smoky, umami element is also consistent.
Moving on to the pioneer of Gibbston (and Central Otago) as a wine region, and a look at what Alan Brady is up to now. I’d seen some of his barrels on my travels, so I knew he still has skin in the game. The first wine is Wild Irishman Alexandra Pinot Noir 2021. Bold aromatics of sweet cherry, damson and satsuma mix with herbals notes of rosemary and sage, plus deeper, brown flavours of root beer, cola and sumac. Silky and smooth on the finish.
Wild Irishman Tuturi Pinot Noir 2021 is also a wine from Alexandra – an interesting sub-region I’m keen to explore. This one has some of the toastiest oak I’ve encountered on my whole trip. I can enjoy a good bit of oak in my Pinot, so this is fine with me! Succulent and ripe flavours, with some hedgerow herbs and rosehip, as well as a dose of ‘barnyard’ savouriness. Old school? You don’t see too many of these big full-throttle wines around these days.
Finishing with Wild Irishman Macushla Pinot Noir 2021 means we’ve gone full circle and returned to Gibbston. This, again is quite a statement, but in a different way. The bloody style could easily be Martinborough – savoury over fruit, with a herbal, balsam, eucalypt entry on the nose. There’s cassis, red berries and a redcurrant fruit jube sweetness that contrasts with and walks a fine line alongside that sour/savoury meatiness. Great character. I bought this too.
Make Kinross one of your stops when you’re driving along the Gibbston Highway. They have live music events as well as the great hospitality and wine experiences. I recommend it.
