Pinot Noir: Rest of the New World
2015: Gold 2 Silver 17 Bronze 9 Commended 16
2014: Gold 5 Silver 9 Bronze 7 Commended 6
Expectations for Pinot in the New World aren’t so high once you get outside New Zealand, which is probably just as well. There were far fewer Gold-Listed wines here this year than in 2014.
Australia made a decent fist of things, but Chile (and stop me if you’ve heard this before) was somewhat disappointing. Plenty of positive noises in the early stages about value for money and so on, but just not quite enough to push the final-round tasters into nominating Golds – even for the cheaper versions.
Not much cheap from the US, and the lack of Golds here was arguably more of a surprise, given some of the quality available. And how about a few more entries from South Africa next year?
FOOTNOTE: Excludes Pinot Noir from New Zealand.
From the Tasting Teams
‘The Chilean Pinots are great value. A great introduction to what the mystery of Pinot is all about.’ Mirco Giannoccaro, Luton Hoo Hotel Golf & Spa
‘Oregon has never been cheap, but the wines can be immense value for the quality of winemaking. Oregon deserves people’s attention.’ Martin Lam, team leader
‘When you step up from entry level you hope for terroir, complexity and interesting characters, and again there wasn’t much of that on show [in the Australian flight].’ Christine Parkinson, Hakkasan Group
‘Leyda was an excellent flight. Very good wines and the prices were good for Pinot.’ Roger Jones, The Harrow at Little Bedwyn
‘South African Pinot is a work in progress, with the more established producers in Hemel-en-Aarde really showing through.’ Michael Harrison, consultant
‘The Australian wines showed pleasant varietal character at the lower level and got exciting when you got to mid-range and beyond. Overall some really good perfume, texture and seductive styles – as good Pinot should be.’ Athila Roos, The Arts Club