Sometimes releases from wine companies, particularly big wine companies are bad. This can be attributed to pressure to move wine in tanks (small and medium companies also have this problem), pressure to fill the bottles to meet the demands of a strong brand (medium size companies also have this problem), or shovelling out anything as long as the packaging and website looks OK (generally the domain only of the big companies). It is when the responsibility of the brand is handed over to Marketing without enough input from the winemakers that there is a problem. This is fine if the marketers know something about wine but if they don't it is a case of consumer beware. I bought a bottle of Crawford Farm Pinot Noir 2008 today. It was heavily discounted ($11.99 down from over $20). Cheap yes but there have been so many very good wine specials on recently that I thought this was another. I was particularly looking for a Pinot Noir and avoiding the other cheap offerings as I know how much it costs to make good Pinot Noir. I chose the Crawford Farm on price yes (discounted price) but also becuse I trusted the brand. Generally, Crawford Farm is made from selected fruit parcels like its cousin Kim Crawford 'spot label'. Foolishly I didn't check the back label. If I had done I would not have bought the wine.
Opening it this evening I was immediately struck by its pale colour and apparent lack of substance. This may be OK for a light Burgundy or a much older wine but this is a NZ 2008 Pinot Noir. The taste showed a great deal of winemaker 'working' to extract some flavours and to try and put a bit of body in. Confused I checked the back label and discovered that the fruit source is from Marlborough, Hawkes Bay and Gisborne. Now I usually drink Marlborough Pinot Noir as my fourth choice after Waipara, Martinborough and Central Otago and find it OK but rarely exciting. But..Hawkes Bay and...Gisborne! Man, no wonder the wine is overworked.
I looked up the Crawford Farm website (subset of Kim Crawford/subset of Constellation NZ website) and was informed:
"The grapes for this wine were selected from cool climate vineyards in New
Zealand's premier Viticultural regions of Marlborough, Central Otago and
Nelson."
Interesting.
The wine notes blurb on the Crawford Farm Pinot Noir 2008 on the website went on to tell me:
"The fruit was judiciously handled and cold soaked for four days to optimise
flavour and colour extraction and then fermented using selected yeast
strains to ensure maximum complexity (and a small portion of the ferment
was left to 'go wild' for added flavour and interest!). 100% Malolactic
fermentation together with partial French Oak maturation has resulted in a
full flavoured and well structured wine with instant appeal and a delightful,
lingering finish. "
I think that the marketers and the winemakers should get together over a glass of this concoction and get their story straight before releasing it to us the great unwashed.
2 comments:
You sound grumpier than me. What have you got against Crawford Farm?
I've got nothing against Crawford Farm the brand. I just thought this 2008 Pinot Noir was crap. I only had a glass and put the rest back in the fridge to re-evaluate tomorrow. I looked in the cellar for something else and remembered that I had another Crawford Farm wine - a 2008 Chardonnay. I opened this and its OK. Broad with a burnt taste but definitely good NZ Chardonnay. This is much better than the Pinot Noir but I think I'll stick to the big brother Kim Crawford SP series from now on.
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