Rob Mann is one of a handful of Western Australian winemakers lucky enough to get his hands on some cuttings of pinot gris – a white wine style growing in popularity with wine drinkers in Europe and the US.
Rob Mann is one of a handful of Western Australian winemakers lucky enough to get his hands on some cuttings of pinot gris – a white wine style growing in popularity with wine drinkers in Europe and the US.
But while it’s a variety that many WA winemakers have been keen to produce, it has been difficult to source vines to grow pinot gris vineyards.
Any imported vine cuttings need to be placed in quarantine and can take up to two years to become available to the importer.
Pinot gris, or pinot grigio as it is known in Italy, is a white variant of pinot noir, the red wine variety that has been growing in popularity in Australia and the US.
Pinot gris is largely produced in Alsace, France, as well as Italy, the US, New Zealand and Germany, where it is called ruländer.
According to the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation, there were just 0.03 hectares of pinot gris vines in WA in 2005-06.
The variety is grown in extremely small quantities across Australia and accounts for just half a per cent of the nation’s total wine production.
But it’s a variety that’s poised to rapidly expand.
In 2006, the total area of pinot gris vines was 1,352 hectares, but just 659ha of these were fruit bearing.
That leaves about 51 per cent of Australia’s pinot gris vineyards to bear fruit, which means that production of the grape variety is set to double as the vines mature in the next few years.
Two winemakers looking to join in the growth of pinot gris variety are Mr Mann, senior winemaker at Cape Mentelle, and Robert Bowen, chief winemaker for Constellation Brands’ WA portfolio, which includes Houghton Wines, Goundrey Wines and Amberley Estate.
Mr Bowen and Mr Mann were involved in a “lucky dip” by the Western Australian Vine Improvement Association, which brought in a small sample of cuttings to undergo quarantine.
Cape Mentelle has been growing eight pinot gris vines in a micro nursery in an attempt to grow enough of the variety to plant a vineyard.
But the winery’s efforts were given a big boost this year when it was lucky enough to secure an additional 1,000 vines from the WAVIA.
WA Business News understands there are 5,000 vine cuttings, with five wineries being allocated 1,000 vine cuttings each.
Mr Mann will begin planting the variety later this year.
However, Cape Mentelle viticulturist Steve Meckiff said he and Mr Mann were unsure whether they would produce the wine under the Cape Mentelle label or sell pinot gris cuttings from its source block to other producers.
“We will certainly start playing around with it but we are not sure if we will develop it as a Cape Mentelle brand when we will have less than a hectare of it,” Mr Meckiff said.
He said he would plant the vines south of Witchcliffe because the variety was suited to cooler regions.
Grower Neil Delroy has also secured a small sample of pinot gris vines, about 1,500 in total.
Mr Delroy said he would begin planting the variety this year.
Mr Bowen said he had contracted a company to propagate his small sample of pinot gris vines in a bid to increase the number he had available to plant.
He said he hoped to start growing the variety at Constellation’s Pemberton vineyard in about 18 months’ time, which means he is about six years away from producing any reasonable amounts of pinot gris.
Mr Bowen said the conditions in WA’s South West were good for growing pinot gris, however he doubted it would enjoy similar growth to that enjoyed by the semillon sauvignon blanc blend.
Mr Bowen said it was likely he would develop the pinot gris under either the Houghton or Goundrey labels.
