Steels Gate Pinot Noir 2012 (Yarra Valley, Vic)
13.5%, Screwcap, $28
With just a few more subjects to go until my Masters (in Wine Technology and Viticulture) is finished, I’ve been considering getting into grapegrowing.
Actually, I’ve been thinking about not grapegrowing because, as wines like this show, it is very fucking hard.
Sure that sounds like a defeatist attitude, but how would you feel if 75% of your precious Pinot Noir crop was lost to birds? How do you get up in the morning after the realisation that you have but a hatful of a very good wine, while the birds enjoy the rest, flying away with bunches of dollars in their beaks?
Such is the context for this Pinot Noir, a new release from the fledgling Steels Gate operation of Steels Creek in the Yarra Valley. Produced from a mature vineyard with most of the fruit sold off to other wineries, this Pinot demonstrates just how much heartbreak this grapegrowing can entail…
As mentioned, whilst the majority of the grapes did go off with the birds, what was left was clearly very high quality, resulting in what is a perfectly proportioned, medium weight Pinot Noir, with lovely clear ripe fruit on nose and palate, lifted up by just enough creamy oak richness.
Fresh, vibrant, acid reinforced, yet still gentle, it is a fragrant and pretty wine that is missing only a little more power and complexity to really compete at the top tier. For $28/bottle, however, I wouldn’t complain too much.
As for grapegrowing? I think I’ll stick to writing about the stuff…
Source: Sample
www.steelsgate.com.au
Tasted: Feb 2014
Drink: 2014-2018+
Would I buy it? Yes.
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6 Comments
I think Serrat lost most of the 2007 Pinot crop to birds; all 2009 to the fires and all 2012 to the Christmas Day hail. How dispiriting that must be. Still, the 2010 is very good…
Simon
The most brutal part about bird issues is how late season it happens – just before you're about to pick…
The issue in 2012 was predominantly associated with silver eyes, or at least it was in my part of the Yarra Valley. Something about weather being conducive to a second hatching during their breeding season. So the bird numbers were extremely high and due to the birds size, nets were almost useless as they invariably found a small hole or gap through which they gained access to the grapes. To add to the frustration, their methiod is to work from the inside of the canopy and puncture berry by berry. So whilst from the outside the bunch often looked fine, turning it around revealed a very different picture. Has happened to us twice in 25 years so the odds aren't all that bad but it is certainly no fun when it happens. Most other birds are controllable.
Tricky. Gas guns work? Annoying regardless…
Gas guns limited short term benefit, shooting unacceptable to many and nets very effective against most species, particularly the flocking ones – starlings et al.
For us, you nailed it on the head! However, the love of making good wine pushes us forward. Being a dry grown vineyard is hard enough… 2010 fruit was destroyed by a wasp infestation (after the bushfires), 2011 was the remainder wasps and silver eyes, 2012 silver eyes (we are completely surrounded by natural bush, 2013 low yield….(being dry grown this can happen, although the quality is VERY high), 2014 was our hardest year. Early Frost and hail. As for gas guns… We have found that initially they work, but the birds catch on to the point it is useless. Despite these challenges, we look forward to making the next vintage even better. 🙂