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WHISSON LAKE:
THE PINOT PIONEERS
Pinot
Noir’s reputation today is so absolutely established in the minds
of Australian wine fanatics that you have to use your imagination
to understand how radical a step it was when Mark Whisson and Bruce
Lake decided to plant five hectares of Pinot Noir in the Adelaide
Hills back in 1985.
While the
great wines of Burgundy had always been famous, there were few who
recognised that if Pinot Noir was to flourish in Australia then it
would have to be planted in regions that were very different to the
hot, dry and flat lowlands that had been traditionally considered
suitable for vines.
For Pinot
Noir to succeed, it would require the planting of a site that was
not just extreme but, by the industrial logic of the 1980s,
foolhardy and even downright
dangerous!
At over 600m
above sea level, the vertigo-inducing, east-facing slopes of Mount
Carey dominate the Piccadilly Valley just as the hill at Corton
dominates the vineyards of Burgundy. Westerly winds consistently
blow in off the Southern Ocean and up to a metre of rain may fall
here in a typical year. Snow is not unknown in winter in this
frigid part of South Australia. While Adelaideans swelter on hot
summer nights, just 10kms away at Mt Carey a jumper and jacket may
be a strict necessity!
In short,
Mark and Bruce saw that this was just the kind of site where Pinot
Noir could – and would–
prosper.
The vines
were planted and over the next twenty years, as their roots
searched ever further into the profoundly deep and rocky soil,
attitudes also changed. Winemakers realised that Pinot Noir was
indeed a possibility in Australia and that the Mt Carey site gave
wine of aromatic intensity and robust tannin structure. Grapes from
the Whisson Lake Vineyard have been highly sought after and a
couple of South Australia’s most famous wineries purchase the
majority of the crop to lend power to their own
blends.
But while
the world has changed, Mark Whisson is still looking after the
vines he planted in 1985 and Bruce Lake is still directing the
business. In 2003, Mark and Bruce were joined in ownership of the
vineyard by Bill Bissett and in 2008 Tom Munro joined the team to
oversee a winemaking process in which the outstanding natural
qualities of the Whisson Lake vineyard are clearly expressed by the
Pinot Noir grape.
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