MEDIA RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 2004
Aldgate Ridge Pinot Noir comes of age
Jill and Chris Whisson, the founders of Aldgate Ridge, believe that the exceptional 2002 vintage has produced the boutique Adelaide Hills vineyard’s best pinot noir yet.
“When we planted our first few hectares of vines in 1992 I think this is the sort of wine we aspired to,” said Jill Whisson.
“While we’ve been pleased with our earlier pinots, we see the ’02 as offering a greater depth of richness in terms of both bouquet and palate, and as having a much more solid palate structure.
“It starts with the simpler strawberry/raspberry pinot flavours, but quickly shows that there’s much more to it and opens up a tapestry of complex meaty, gamey, forest-floor characters.
“It’s quite soft and velvety in the mouth, with several layers of flavour, great length and a finish that seems to linger forever.”
The Whissons think there are a number of reasons for this wine to have emerged so strongly.
“The extraordinary quality of the 2002 vintage was obviously a huge boost, with mild, dry, sunny conditions providing the perfect environment to fully ripen fruit and develop intense, delicate varietal flavours,” said Jill.
“Indeed, having one of the coolest summers on record prompted some Hills locals to wonder if fruit would fully ripen, but well managed, well situated vineyards had no problems at all, especially with earlier ripening varieties such as pinot noir.”
The Whissons also point to the increasing maturity of their vines as a factor.
“When we planted Aldgate Ridge, we were among the first in Australia to have access to Burgundian pinot clones, which are characterised by smaller berries, deeper colour and more intense palate flavours than the more aromatic locally developed clones,” said Chris.
“A decade and a bit on, we think that that differences in flavour and structure that we get from our Burgundian-clone blocks and our Australian-clone blocks are becoming more significant and providing David Powell, who makes our pinot, with a real edge in building complexity.”
David, who has built his reputation on Barossan shiraz and grenache at Torbreck, sees making great pinot a much more formidable challenge and admits to having scaled a steep learning curve in crafting Aldgate Ridge’s pinot.
“With shiraz, the clonal differences seem quite minimal, whereas with pinot noir they’re quite immense,” he said.
“These differences have led me to treat the batches quite differently.
“The fruit from the Burgundian clones is a bit less easily oxidised than the local clones are, and I can afford to allow the wine to macerate on the skins for 10-12 days after fermentation has finished.
“This builds flavour and complexity, and provides the more meaty, gamey flavours that I really like in pinot.
“Because it’s more easily oxidised and because I want to capture its aromatics, I press the fruit from the local clones as soon as fermentation is complete and the wine is still protected by its own blanket of CO2.
“I use French oak exclusively with Aldgate’s pinot but I tend to give the Burgundian material more new oak and the local material older oak.
“New oak has more open pores and tends to be more oxidative, so what I’m trying to do is preserve the colour and aromatics of the Australian clonal material.”
Aldgate Ridge made a spectacular debut with its inaugural 2003 Sauvignon Blanc.
“We selected sauvignon blanc as our second variety because we were confident it was well suited to the Adelaide Hills and would make a distinctive wine, but we didn’t really know what to expect until we tasted the wine in tank,” said Jill Whisson.
“To put it mildly, we were blown away by the combination of intense, distinctive varietal aromas and generosity of mouthfeel.
“It was something we hadn’t seen in many Australian sauvignons and completely confirmed our faith in the variety as a natural one for our district.
“We regard this ’04 Sauvignon Blanc as an excellent successor and showing similar characters.
“There’s plenty of varietal herbaceousness in the bouquet, together with tropical-fruit aromas, which also continue on to the palate.
“The palate is zesty and crisp and refreshing, but there’s good weight of flavour there, too, making the wine really drinkable rather than just interesting as a varietal curiosity.”
