Curly Flat Pinot Noir 2007

Curly Flat Pinot Noir 2007 (Macedon Ranges, Vic)

It's the 07. Not the 06.
PS 06 I love you

13.5%, Screwcap, $47
Source: Retail
www.curlyflat.com

I love Macedon Ranges Pinot.

In fact, I'd put Macedon number one on my 'best places for Pinot in mainland Australia', closely followed by the Mornington Peninsula and the Yarra Valley. What's more, Philip Moraghan's Curly Flat Pinots might be my pick of a very talented lot - the sort of wines that even a spoilt wine freeloader like myself will actually pay for (wine writers pay for wine too, at least sometimes), such is their poise, style and relative value.

As a result, I approach ye olde Curly Flat wines with a sense of anticipation. A sense of excitement in the 'oow I wonder what this ones like then' positivity that only comes from a wine/winery/vineyard etc. that you admire. Or at least I admire.

The challenge with this wine though is the wine before it. For the 06 Curly Flat Pinot is, to put it simply, a Pinot demigod. That Good. A reference point. A wine to serves to reminds why you work for wine and free dinners instead of money. A wine that you want to drink/babble about when asked what makes good Aussie Pinot. The shizzle.

Yet this 07. Well, it's not the 06. It isn't even slightly the 06. It's clearly from the same house, the same family, the same vineyard, but it looks like an oddity. Even the colour is odd actually, with an almost brownish hue that I found mildly perplexing. That off key sensation is mirrored on the nose, which is herbal, hard and severe, lifted by wild, plummy fruit generosity that fights desperately against the stemmy heaviness. It was a hard vintage down there (apparently) so perhaps the stems were not quite ripe enough this year? Or the fruit just not that sweet this year? Were the skins a little thicker perhaps? All I know is it's just not quite welcoming.

All is not lost however, as the palate is unquestionably classy. It's meaty, smoky and rich, with sappy, just rich red fruit that offers a brief lilt of fun before closing up tight on the astringent, stalky finish. All structure, no love. It's the sort of palate that you want to love, that you swirl and swirl and swirl hoping that it will show you the goodies, yet never does. Still, you just can't dismiss it, for it just looks so serious, so stern and so damn grown up that you expect some greatness to pop out at you.

Ultimately the question remains - will the good come out or will this always be a wine that belongs to the dark side? 17/90

(At this point I feel like I need to channel Dave Brookes and insert a picture of an adolescent Anakin Skywalker. That's his bag though :))