I was a special guest of the Central Otago Pinot Noir Celebration from January 27 to 29, and was asked to give a speech during the gala dinner about my thoughts on the event and on pinot noir. There was much to say about this biannual celebration on New Zealand's South Island, which puts pinot noir on a pedestal and analyses it from as many perspectives as three days will allow.
We had verticals of pinot noir from some of the oldest wineries in Central Otago - Mt Difficulty, Felton Road and Quartz Reef. We had horizontals of Burgundy's 2007 vintage wines expressed over many different appellations from the Cote de Beaune to the Cote de Nuits. We had a grand tasting that involved 40 Central Otago wineries that showed a recent and an older vintage for tasting. We tasted pinot noir from all the major regions in New Zealand to discover its mosaic expressions from the North Island coast to the cool southern tip of South Island.
I could have spoken in depth about any of these tastings and social events, which were very well organised by the Central Otago Pinot Noir Celebration committee. However, I chose to take a more philosophical approach, to question why we were all gathered together to spend three days questioning, attempting to understand and come to terms with this grape variety affectionately known as 'the heartbreak variety'.
True pinot noir lovers know when they are afflicted with this lifelong pinot bug, which plagues them for the rest of their lives. We start to ask questions which we know can never be answered in our lifetime: What is terroir? How is pinot noir best expressed from a certain site?
We start to define wine quality in a very different way: we look at palate shape, texture and balance. Intensity and power in wine starts to jar our sensitive palates. We start to use terms like 'compact svelteness', 'stillness in the mid palate', 'luminosity', 'clarity of expression', 'purity of flavours' and 'delicate hedonism'. These are words inappropriate for a full-bodied red wine; they are for a gentler soul - a wine imbued with a spirituality, a delicacy in its delivery and approach. It becomes the appreciation of a woman's scent as much as her embrace; the possibilities as much as the present; the unspoken as well as the spoken.
Why do pinot noir lovers and producers embark on this heartbreaking journey? Sometimes it is unintentional - the bug grabs you unaware and it pulls you in. You start to live with uncertainty, listen more intently and embody Descartes' philosophy, 'I think, therefore I am.'
Loving pinot is about maturing as a human being: being able to listen as well as you speak. Because you know that the best pinot always whispers, never shouts. If you don't listen carefully, you may miss its very essence. You learn to become more sensitive to what the land has to tell you, to the stories that pinot has to share, because you know that these soft melodies are exclusive to those who have really learned to listen.