Last year I visited the Pompallier Mission House in the Bay of Islands and spent a fascinating hour listening to a talk on the French Marist Bishop Pompallier.
Pompallier established a small workshop to print leather bound editions of the Teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Whilst the main house contained the actual printing presses, at the rear of the house were the tanning pits. Here animal hides were tanned ie. turned into leather by scraping off any flesh and fat, soaking them in a urine solution and then drying the hides in the sun. The overpowering smell, swarms of flies and summer heat must have made the tanners' task a grim one.
Pinot Noir is a variety for which some people can and will pay thousands of dollars for a bottle from parts of the hallowed turf of Burgundy.
But despite such high prices for those Burgundian Pinots with the greatest reputation and expectation, there are many more which still cut in at a good few dollars. Even forty-five dollars can seem expensive as a regular tipple in New Zealand, and that probably equates to $70-$90 in a restaurant.
Thankfully, there are some very nice drops with true Pinot Noir characters for less than half that amount; sometimes second labels but with all the flavours of the variety. It's a little like the paperback edition of a book at half the price of the hard-cover; same story-line, just a less formal presentation. And how many times are we going to read the book anyway? With wine we know it will only be enjoyed once!
I n February I joined a panel tasting at Pinot Noir 2010 titled "New Zealand Pinot Noir - seven years on". I guess the subtitle might have been does NZ Pinot Noir age well? The wines were all from the generally excellent 2003 vintage. They were Ata Rangi, Craggy Range Te Muna, Te Kairanga Reserve, Staete Landt, Wither Hills, Pegasus Bay, Pegasus Bay Prima Donna, Felton Road Block 5, Mt Difficulty, Target Gully and Rippon. They were served blind.
My joint favourites were the Pegasus Bay 2003 Prima Donna Pinot Noir and Felton Road 2003 Block 5 Pinot Noir although the overall standard was predictably high.
