For its 12th year, Pinot Palooza is dialling things up, with more than 100 wineries and a huge New Zealand contingent.
It’s pinot noir as far as the eye can see – more than 100 wineries from around Australia and New Zealand pouring hundreds of different pinots, and showing off the unique regional and winemaking expressions that make pinot noir arguably the world’s greatest wine. That, friends, is Pinot Palooza, the festival that, for more than a decade, has put pinot noir up in lights. And she’s back.
Swinging through Sydney (October 4-5), Brisbane (November 15-16) and Melbourne (November 22-23), Pinot Palooza is essentially an excuse to drink great pinot noir, discover new players – or revisit old favourites – and party. This year’s line-up (if it feels like we’re talking about a music festival, it’s because this is our Big Day Out) is heavy on the local legends, with headliners and past award-winners like Meadowbank from Tasmania and Oakdene from the Bellarine Peninsula.
Plus, this year it’s expanding to include our pinot-loving friends from across the Tasman – the first time in these numbers for five years. And New Zealand producers like Burn Cottage and Mt Difficulty are bringing the Kiwi goods. Sign us up for that.
Talk to a winemaker, sommelier or Wine Merchant at Dan’s, and pinot noir is going to come up eventually – the obsession is real and justified. Maybe it’s the way pinot noir can swing from deep and earthy to bright and juicy, or how it shapeshifts so remarkably from Macedon to Mornington, Martinborough to Marlborough.
Whatever the reason, pinot noir inspires real devotion, and one fan who has taken the love up a few levels is our friend Dan Sims, sommelier, chair of Wine Victoria and Pinot Palooza founder. Dan (we sure have a type, don’t we?) is understandably excited by his approaching festival, rattling off some highlights for us at Dan’s Daily.
“The big one is that our Kiwi mates are back this year,” Dan says. “Plus, we’re leaning back into our sommelier roots, offering hints and tips from many of the best local somms. Then we have some awesome wine chats hosted by Samantha Payne [Sydney] and Shanteh Wale [Brisbane and Melbourne].”
Tickets – on sale now, FYI – include unlimited wine tastings, which is all well and good until you try to figure out how to structure your day around 100 wineries. If you don’t fancy winging it, Dan reckons it’s a good idea to head to the Pinot Palooza website or socials for some insider tips.
“We’ve asked some local sommeliers about their top five wineries to check out around a theme,” he says. “It might be NZ, women in wine, Victoria. Then we asked them to think about it in terms of occasions like date night, picnic party, hump day, baller and emerging talent.”
Besides the wine, expect plenty of cheese, salumi and nibbles, with a more substantial food program also being served up.
With local faves and a delegation of New Zealand’s best producers heading to Pinot Palooza this year, highlights will be everywhere you look. For our part, though, a few particular pinot producers have caught our eye. If you’re heading along to Pinot Palooza this year, make a beeline for any of these guys and you won’t be sorry.
Although historically playing second fiddle to its headline-grabbing Yarra Valley neighbour, the Mornington Peninsula has been steadily gaining a reputation for some of Victoria’s very best pinot noir, thanks in no small part to wineries like Red Hill Estate. Their pinot noir is everything that’s great about the Mornington style – vibrant, textural, complex and obscenely easy-drinking. Expect a few special bottles at Pinot Palooza, but the real winner is the estate's Cool Climate Pinot Noir, which puts up high quality at an accessible price.
Pinot noir loves a cooler climate and it really doesn’t do well otherwise – part of the reason for the grape’s finicky reputation. Tasmania, it turns out, has some pinot-perfect growing conditions and it’s helping producers like Josef Chromy take the challenge right up to the mainlanders. The winery is all about representing the region (which is just outside of Launceston in northern Tasmania), with a minimal intervention approach helping bring rich fruit flavours and Burgundy-like aromas to wines like the Josef Chromy Pinot Noir. If you see the stall at Pinot Palooza, pop your head in.
The first winery in Victoria (with the original vineyard planted way back in 1838), Yering Station should be a go-to Pinot Palooza stop for anyone looking to taste a bit of winemaking history. Yering Station wines provide an interesting insight into the chameleon-like behaviour of pinot noir, with vineyards across five Yarra Valley subregions all offering unique flavours, aromas and styles – something to keep in mind as you sip and sample at the festival. Wines like the flagship Yering Station Pinot Noir are loaded with ripe cherry and earthy notes, and are a good place to start exploring.
We’re so happy that New Zealand is back on the menu this year because the country is doing some of the best pinot noir found anywhere in the world. If you don’t believe us, go see our friends Burn Cottage at Pinot Palooza. Located in the lush, mountainous Central Otago region, Burn Cottage is a biodynamic winery that, like so many of the best, only seeks to produce wines that are identifiably of their place. The winery’s deep, silky and often rich wines – like the Midnight Racer Pinot – might well become favourites, so don’t miss out.
There really can be a case of too much of a good thing – just ask Marlborough. The region at the top of NZ’s South Island has become synonymous with a very identifiable style of sauvignon blanc (and it’s absolutely worthy of the rep), but it means some killer pinot noir has been sitting under the radar. Well, let’s right that wrong. Producers like the organic Dog Point are well worth your time and, even though there’s only one Dog Point Pinot Noir being made, it’ll change your tune on Marlborough pretty quick.
Another Central Otago favourite, Mt Difficulty wines come from the Bannockburn subregion (not the same as Australia’s Bannockburn, which also produces extremely good pinot noir) and are typically excellent. In the unique soils and continental climate of the former gold rush region and its surrounds, Mt Difficulty produces wines like Roaring Meg Pinot Noir, a plushly-textured wine brimming with dark fruit flavours and spice.
