Saint Clair Pioneer's Block 14: 'Doctor's Creek'

I mentioned in my first review that I love Saint Clair as a vinyard. In many ways Saint Clair was the first wine that I really thought about and one that got me hooked on the idea of Pinot Noir and the versatility of grapes in general. Matt Thomson has won a host of awards, including the prestigious for his work at Saint Clair and the Pioneer Block series always deliver - even their Gewürztraminer was excellent, and I am no fan of Gewürztraminer.

I tried PB 15 (as it was in its previous iteration) at approximately this time last year and have since tried several of Saint Clair's Pinot Noirs. The current vintage is 2011's Doctor's Creek, or PB 14 for short. I have now tried it on 4 occasions, 3 of which were tastings, and I feel that I'm on to a real winner with it. I would describe it as an excellent example of  how a New World beast can be tamed.

Nose: SC PB 14 has a lovely intense nose of all the great parts of Pinot Noir - it's a jammy raspberry blast with a hint of mushroom earthiness to back it up. Nutmeg dances around the aroma to give it a hint of depth. An almost ferric hint slips in there somewhere, but is elusive if you look for it. As with Pioneer Block 3, intensity is the buzzword regarding Saint Clair's wines, but don't imagine that it is just intensity. There's also great complexity and this is not a wine to be dismissed as a New World 'fruit bomb'.

Palate: Sweet with the slight sourness that characterises top Pinot Noir. The fruit is held in place and structured with this, combined with pepper and spice backing up the juiciness. This is most certainly not Burgundy - it's juicy and fruity and lacks the savoury 'barnyard' gaminess of top Burgundy, but has much to interest nevertheless. In time (approx 1.5 hours) the spice becomes more pronounced - becoming more Burgundian. Interesting. Excellent.

Body: As an inexperienced taster, this is somewhat hard to describe. In terms of flavour, this is a full-bodied mouth-filling wine but it isn't heavy in the slightest. It is in fact exceptionally smooth, suggesting it's light of body. Whatever the correct description is, it's lovely.

Finish: Is that a hint of menthol, clearing my palate for another glass? Only one way to find out...

Conclusion: With cellaring potential of 5 years from vintage (i.e. up to 2016) it is well worth buying a case or two. It is an easy-going crowd pleaser and will never fail to impress. Serve with slow-cooked paprika chicken or prawns with squid-ink linguine (contact me for a recipe if you want). I have a photo of it somewhere that I should upload... 

Points: Excellent. 91, especially after a little time exposed to the air.

Saint Clair Pioneer Block 3

Hello all and sundry. While this is my first entry on my first blog, I am glad to say that this is not the first time I've had the privilege of trying Saint Clair's fantastic Pioneer Block 3 sauvignon blanc.

Since I started organising wine tastings (although to give them such a formal name belies the casual and amateur approach we have!), one vineyard and one wine in particular has caught everyone's attention: Saint Clair. Saint Clair Pioneer Block 3 (SC PB 3, for short) is a magnificent expression of the excitement of New World wine. It captures the new, modern approaches to wine-making alongside the sense of excitement and freshness increasingly associated with the New World, especially New Zealand.

Nose: Zing! Straight away there’s a great deal of passionfruit, citrus – lime and perhaps some mandarin?, gooseberry and redcurrant. Make no mistake, this is Kiwi SB at its most zesty. While this is most certainly not for the faint-hearted or those that love the subtle minerality of a Sancerre, my goodness does it have character, taste and accessibility in spades!

Palate: The palate follows mostly from the above. The wine tasting group was interestingly somewhat divided on their opinions. All agreed that it was a great wine for a tasting, purely because of the ‘shock’ factor it carries, but is it perhaps too bold for some? It was described as ‘magnificent’, ‘wow’ and ‘extraordinarily intense’, but others were less effusive in their praise, teasingly describing it as ‘unsubtle’ and ‘up front’.

Conclusion: While the lack of subtlety may be a deal-breaker for some, I believe it is SC PB 3’s key asset. Each glass packs some serious punch and it develops nicely in the glass, somehow growing more intense, but never cloying, oversweet or unpleasantly acidic. To me, it is a real mark of Saint Clair’s quality that they have produced such an intense wine with none of the negatives usually associated with New Zealand SB.
While I have matched this with an excellent crab linguine before, one guest suggested it was perhaps too intense. In future I will try it with a heavy creamy pasta. Images will follow at some point!

I usually rate out of 10 – this got 7.5+ and moved to 8.5 after an hour in the glass. If I had to rate out of 100, I would suggest 90+. It costs anything from £14-18.

Image courtesy of Saint Clair Wines.