Alanna Estate

This tasting started pretty much the same as the majority of the tastings I have been doing. True there was a Christmas office party going on on the patio with the participants dressed up as toffs from a century or more ago. They eventually went in to their lunch in the winery restaurant and I got going on my tasting, the sole punter in the tasting room which is how I prefer it.

The first tasting was a Riesling which was sweet, like a dessert wine, but was being promoted as an aperitif wine. True it is made differently to a dessert wine but in the end is is a sweet Riesling and I am afraid I just did not get it. I then went trough the standard whites which were just a little bit different from everybody else’s, particularly when you smelt them. Then we came to the first Pinot Noir. It had been made more like a white wine and had never seen oak. It was being promoted as a light quaffable wine served cool. It was OK but hey there are enough wines covering that slot in the market why add to it, Oh yes, that would be because every one wants to drink Pinot Noir. It is fashionable.

What was going through my mind right now was that Alanna was a very commercial winery which was interested only in the drink now market. This didn’t make much sense though given their 2006 standard Pinot Noir wine. That had to have been made for the cellaring market, it was a few years from being at its best. I was beginning to try and understand what was going on and then the young lady, Victoria I think was her name, who was doing the tasting and who was very knowledgeable shot out and came back carrying a 2007 Pinot Noir (standard) hot of the bottling line and not for sale for some time. Again another serious wine. I was trying to get to the bottom of this when a guy with purple hands walked in to the tasting room. After a short while of me asking questions Victoria introduced purple hands to me, Alan Parker, the wine maker.

The next 20 or so minutes were another of the magic moments of the trip. He was able to explain exactly what he was up to and why. There is no way I can repeat what Alan told me, I would be here for ages and I would probably get the detail wrong. The reasons for both the aperitif Riesling and the Pinot Noir light were much the same so briefly for the Pinot Noir the winery has a big block of a particular Pinot Noir clone but they have too much of it. He needs it to make the serious Pinot Noirs but not too much so he has an over supply. Today’s market place is all about fashion and drink now. Pinot Noir is fashionable but not normally drink now. Alan has discovered that his over supply of that Pinot Noir can be used to make a highly competitive drink now quaffable wine. Every body is a winner with this approach. Alan gets to make the serious wines he wants to and the winery gets increased cash flow and the majority of buyers can get a Pinot Noir which drinks easily and they do not have to wait.

It really is great when you can talk to the wine makers and understand the problems and opportunities as they see them. Oh and by the way the reference earlier to purple hands. It is remarkable how many wine makers have purple hands. There is even a childrens book entitled “My Dads Got Purple Hands“.