The gentle giant of pinot noir
Friday, 30 September 2011 00:00
The first time I met Bouchard Finlayson’s Peter Finlayson, was at the 2009 Cape Winemakers Guild (CWG) auction public tasting. It was just before the 9pm closing time, and a colleague had urged me to try Peter’s 2007 Galpin Peak Unfiltered Pinot Noir.
Hastening across the exhibition venue at the CTICC, I approached him with tasting glass hopefully extended, with the words: “I hear that your Galpin Peak Unfiltered Pinot Noir is...” to which he laconically added “finished”, fixing me with a piercing gaze from his Arctic blue eyes.
To be sure, it was the end of a long evening, preceded by the lengthy tutored tasting (that I’d not attended), which perhaps added to his forbidding demeanour. I mumbled an apology and beat a hasty retreat, mollifying myself with the prospect of tasting the wine at the CWG Auction two months later. I did, and it was well worth the wait, so meeting Peter last month at Franck Dangereux’s iconic Noordhoek eatery, The Foodbarn, was a pleasure not to be foresworn.
As we settle down to lunch, I remind Peter of that exchange, and his response once more belied the message that his rather forbidding exterior – he is giant of a man, with a physiognomy remarkably reminiscent of Eugene Terre’blanche – can communicate. He grinned apologetically, and those ice-blue eyes that can so easily intimidate, softened. “It had been a long day,” he said.
Peter can be as messianic of gaze as ET, but rather than intoning angry misery over the plight of the volk and predicting imminent civil war, he would be talking about the varietal which he is widely acknowledged for putting onto the local wine-making map, and the wine for which he is perhaps best known: pinot noir.
Franck Dangereux has crafted a five course menu especially for the occasion. It is designed to showcase Peter’s wines, and as we work our way through each course, accompanied by a carefully selected wine, it is evident that significant thought went into the pairing of the wines with each course.
We start with his 2010 Sans Barrique, an impressive unwooded chardonnay in the classic Chablis-style, which accompanies yellow lentil and coriander spring rolls.
The selection of three starters (I settled for poached green asparagus, smoked Norwegian salmon with cream of artichoke and white truffle) is served with the sumptuous Kaaimansgat Limited Edition and Crocodile’s Lair Chardonnay’s (2009 and 2010), made from fruit that grows at 700 metres in the mountains above Villiersdorp, where incredibly, it often snows in winter. The altitude ensures long, late ripening which is evident in crisp layered fruit and edgy minerality, a clear expression of terroir.
The three mains easily complemented his fine 2009 and 2010 Galpin Peak Pinot Noir, which I particularly enjoyed with my choice – grilled free range beef fillet, with cognac and black pepper jus and a potato fritter.
A delicate taleggio fritter on rocket with sweet herb vinaigrette accompanied his impressive 2008, 2009 and 2010 Hannibal (50% Sangiovese) blends, the “super tusker blend” play on words a reference to the role of African elephants in Hannibal’s defeat of the Romans. The analogy is not lost on the wine. It is big in so many respects: deep of colour, powerful of aroma, and authoritative of palate, but never overpowering.
Just before the dessert arrives, Peter hauls out a bottle of his 2010 Tete de Cuvèe Galpin Peak Pinot Noir, complete with handwritten label. “In my experience pinot noir needs wood,” he says as we contemplate a soupcon of what is arguably the pinnacle of his pinot noir achievements.
The colour is a dense Burgundy, darker than I’ve come to expect in a pinot noir. Crisp cranberry fruit overlaid by black cherry aromas tease the nose, with a characteristically pervasive moist black earth undertone.
The palate is lively with cherries and blackberries, a note of vanilla, all underpinned by a gentle earthiness. The fruit is counterpointed by a balancing acidity that gives great symmetry to the wine.
The tannins are already velvety, complex (I am reminded of Peter’s comment about wood and pinot noir), and they lead effortlessly into a finish of ethereal fruit.
And as we come down to earth with a delicate bump – mine cushioned by strawberry and basil pannacota with crème Anglaise and homemade vanilla ice cream – I am struck by the consistent stature, the symmetry of the wines we have tasted (each a tribute to the winemaker’s art) and the manner in which they worked with Franck’s elegant culinary creations.
Written by Norman McFarlane You are reading The gentle giant of pinot noir articles
