It’s a red grape, but Lars Jensen is planning a white wine from the bunches of pinot noir that are part of a great vintage being produced in the region.
The end result for at least some of the pinot noir will be a blanc de noir, which has to be hand-picked before removing the dark skins during the pressing process.
Then voila, a white wine! It takes a bit of time and effort, but he says the end result is worth it.
“It’s just doing something a bit different because we can. We treat it very much like champagne with a gentle process and add some wild yeast and ferment it as a white wine.”
Lars and his wife, Sam, have been producing wine from their organic vineyard on the edge of Richmond for more than 30 years and after as many vintages through the vagaries of the seasons, they know this is a good one.
“It’s been a great harvest so far, blessed with great weather, lovely sunny warm weather to ripen the grapes and a breeze to dry the canopy. So, we’ve been able to pick at optimal ripeness and that equals quality wine that has ripe fruit flavours with a good balance.”
While growing the grapes organically costs more and takes more effort, Lars says it has always been worth it. “It was very unusual when we started and people thought we were pretty weird, I suppose. People asked us why organic? The question now is, why wouldn’t you be? It costs more and takes more care, but we just think it’s the right thing to do.”
Pinot noir is just one of their grape varieties and it alone will produce three different wines this year, with a rosé and pinot noir alongside the blanc de noir. Ten points if you pronounce it without sounding the ‘c’.
