Pinot Palooza - A Touring Pinot Noir Festival
Sydney
Carriageworks
October 8, 2017
Looking for a near perfectly orchestrated and curated, traveling and rocking Pinot Noir experience without pretentious bullshit and a focus on taste?
Look no further.
The minds behind Revel / Bottle Shop Concepts plotted to "get you hip deep in the finest Pinot Noirs produced in the Southern hemisphere, crowd surf the mosh pit of the most enticing, enthralling, sexy, silky, suave and sophisticated grape variety on the planet."
Revel is an organization whose organisation whose purpose is to change the way people around the globe engage and connect with wine and food.
The credo the informs Revel’s activities it that it should be fun first, facts second, engaging and inspiring and never the tired old take on wine education and tastings, with a focus on creating experiences that people learn from.
Event juggernaut Pinot Palooza already operates in nine cities and brings world class Pinot Noir to more than 25k people in 2017 and in November this year, Singapore will be added to the event roster.
Some Pinots that tickled our palate in just the right places were grown in Western Australia, which is remarkable, as it is known to be a grape that does not tend to do so well in the heat.
Below & Above Wines are a contract grape grower; they produce small batches of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir under their own label. These wines are produced from low yield vines. Together with their viticulture practices and winemaking, they aim to produce the best expression of their unique vineyard.
The cool climate, high rainfall, high elevation and Karri Loam soils informs the character of the Pinot of their region.
As a guide the event and the wineries present at the Sydney incarnation were colour coded according to the wine regions and the colour determined whether the Pinot was either light, medium or fuller flavoured - a reference for the style of Pinot the region tends to produce.
The camouflage of the floor plan guided you from Light Red (generally more ethereal, lighter in colour, high-toned, perfumed. Sexy and seductive) via Dark Red (perhaps a little stand-offish at the start but once you get to know them, they’re full of character. Certainly some flesh on the bones) to Purple (more fully charged and fuller flavoured styles).
The Wine Selectors Pinot Sessions offered ample opportunity to get close with the Wine Selectors team as they shared tales of Pinot from across the vinous lands. Sessions included a Victoria versus Tasmania stand-off with two regions that showcase the rapidly climbing quality of Australian Pinot via
- Josef Chromy Pinot Noir 2015
- Devil’s Corner Resolution Pinot Noir 2016
- Giant Steps Pinot Noir 2016
- Yabby Lake Red Claw Pinot Noir 2016
A session on how Pinot travels across Australia and the influences it picks up from the people and personalities behind the respective leading wine regions.
- Howard Park Flint Rock Pinot Noir 2016
- Clyde Park Estate Pinot Noir 2016
- Yarra Yering Pinot Noir 2016
Offering a taste for the new and emerging regions rapidly climbing the charts with the
- Swinging Bridge M.A.W Pinot Noir 2016
- Patrick Estate Pinot Noir 2015
- Shadowfax Macedon Ranges Pinot Noir 2016
Giving Pinot’s sexy sister act of Rosé and Fizz a forum with the
- Hungerford Hill Blanc de Noir 2015
- Tarrawarra Pinot Noir Rose 2017
- Willow Creek Vineyard Rare Hare Rosé 2016
Summa summarum a wine fest that lives up to its alliterative name:
Not unlike a music festival, there were many different stages, styles and artists to check out and explore throughout the day with 250+ artists, i.e. wines, to sample.
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Photos by KAVV
