Originally published on February 23, 2008.
Someone in the store today mentioned off-hand they were making a port / fig sauce for an upcoming dinner. The sauce sounded amazing, so I couldn’t help but throw out a recommendation for a wine I had only just priced earlier today – Punt Road Pinot Noir.
I’d never heard of the producer until Romain, one of my sales guys, brought it in for me to try, but it had a high yumminess factor and was different from the other Pinot Noirs I have in the shop. It’s from Yarra Valley, a region in the Australian’s state of Victoria. The Yarra Valley is about an hour or so from Melbourne and is one of the cooler regions in Australia – so not surprisingly, it’s one of the few regions that does well with Pinot Noir. I’ve had a number of Pinots from there and frankly, haven’t been terribly impressed with the mid-priced stuff. A lot of them tend to be just too similar to the California candied red-fruit style, and if that’s what you want, no reason to pay the additional shipping, handling and taxes for the Aussie version.
But the Punt Road was something different – nice red berry fruits, a bit of sweet spice, like Christmas cookie spices, and a touch of this figgy richness that I found really appealing. The wine no doubt spent some time in oak, but it didn’t come off as this big oaky monster – it was still definitely Pinot, but with this little extra kick. Not California, not Burgundy, definitely it’s own personality. And it will go wonderfully with that port / fig sauce. I’ll have to get the recipe for that one (so I can have my husband make it for me.)