Larry McKenna – Agrarian Iconoclast
By Anto Coates
Whoever dubbed
Larry McKenna the ‘prince of pinot’ surely must have realised the irony of the moniker.
While his vinous
achievements are obviously regal – see his Romanee-Conti-slaying 1998 MV pinot
if you doubt it – Larry is certainly no fan of sanguine diplomacy and the royal "we", in fact he's particularly fond of attacking sacred cows and his favourite word must nearly be 'bullshit'. Larry looks much more like a farmer than an aesthete (he tells me he has
vacuumed his ute once…to pick up Jancis Robinson), but yet he makes and drinks some
of the world’s most exquisite wines. It’s the essential Burgundian
contradiction – hard-working and uncomplicated farmers tending the exalted vines of Morey-St-Denis
or Musigny. Larry, like the Burgundians, above all knows the land – and fittingly
he uses the best wines of Burgundy
as touchstones for the single vineyard wines he creates.
But this is not
some prosaic piece on Larry McKenna (he wouldn’t have any of that) – it’s a look at
how his 2009 Escarpment ‘Insight’ wines performed in our formal tasting. But
first a bit of quick background:
Escarpment Single Vineyard Wines
After many years
making wine for Martinborough Vineyards (including the recently-vaunted 1998,
which was a blend from what is now the Pahi, Te Rehua and Kiwa vineyards),
Larry decided to have a go at creating single vineyard wines from within the
same region – the true French version of terroir.
Along with his business partners who had been born with a potentially fatal
excess of the marketing gene, they set about creating Escarpment, named after
the precipitous drop formed by the ancient rumblings of the Huangarua River
that runs parallel to Te Muna Road.
It was on this Te Muna escarpment that they planted the high-density Kupe
Vineyard and built their underground winery. The Kupe vineyard looks across at
the Aorangi mountains, which Maori legend says
are the three upturned canoes of Kupe, abandoned after he and his wife
discovered Aotearoa. It will be a major upheaval for the local terroir if he
ever decides to come back for them.
To start the
evening, guests were welcomed with a glass of the Escarpment Riesling 2009, a
variety Larry says he is developing a new-found appreciation for. Great as an
aperitif, the 2009 Riesling (18.5-/20) is made in a textural off-dry style that
has the minerality I would expect from the Escarpment sight and would also find
favour with a nice fillet of fish. It’s already starting to show some nice
toasty secondary development and should drink very nicely over the next 5 or so
years.
The first flight of
wines was the Escarpment Chardonnay 2009 and the Kupe Chardonnay 2009. The
Escarpment Chardonnay (17.5/20) was a very pretty wine, with attractive pink
stonefruits and talcum powder on the nose. The palate was quite grippy at
first, with some nicely integrated oak on the mid palate, but the mealiness was
not really a feature, leading it to taste more old world than new. A very
attractive Chardonnay for those who prefer a more subtle style. The Kupe
Chardonnay (19.0-/20) was a light pink gold colour, with licorice and nougat on
the nose, and satisfying mealiness on the palate, giving way to fresh acidity
of mandarin and orange zest. There was even a hint of umami, making this I
think one of the most food-friendly chardonnays I’ve tasted in a while. (Having
tried a reasonable example of Carillon Puligny-Montrachet Les Referts 2006 two
days prior, the image was fresh in my mind and Kupe compares very favourably to
that – better really.)
The Escarpment
Pinot Noir 2009 was tasted next along with the three single vineyard wines
Kiwa, Pahi and Te Rehua. The Escarpment Pinot Noir (18.5/20) was a pale ruby
with a red centre, showing darker fruit and plums on the nose. The palate was
sweet and very approachable with the right amount of line and length to promise
good medium-term cellaring. This will be an excellent foil for herb-encrusted
lamb while you wait for your single vineyards to get into their work.
With the three
single vineyard wines, the treatment in the winery is exactly the same, the
only difference being the fermentation time (which is unavoidable when using
indigenous yeasts). The thinking goes that everything else being equal, the
terroir should be the only discernable difference.
Kiwa (19.5-/20) was
perhaps the classical savoury Martinborough pinot noir and it’s easy to see why
Larry says it is the easiest to identify when he’s tasting blind components.
The nose suggests cold cuts, ham and beef, with roses, some herbaceousness from
the 30% whole bunch press but balanced against succulent vanillin oak (30% new,
12 months). Pahi (19.0+/20) was the most delicate of the three and perhaps the
real pinot-lovers pinot. It was all finesse and delicacy, with ultra-fine
tannins but sneaky power too. The complexities of Eastern spices made me
think/lust after some food to accompany it. It too had the herbal/paspallum
note from the 30% whole bunches and was very popular with buyers on the night.
Te Rehua (19/20) was for me the earthiest of the three, showing truffles and
rich red fruit. It also seemed the oakiest of the wines, and seemed to be the crowd-pleaser.
But yet it had excellent complexity too and was a bit of a shapeshifter,
continually changing in the glass as I tried to write definitive notes on it.
Strangely, although I rated it a narrow third of the wines, I think this might
actually just get up and surprise given some bottle time.
The final flight
was Kupe: the 09 and then the 05. The Kupe 2009 (19.5+/20) was quite simply the
most distinctive pinot noir I have ever tried. I commented that if I was in a
spice bazaar in downtown Istanbul
with a blindfold on and I smelled it again I would say: "Kupe” (quite why I would
be blindfolded in a Turkish spice bazaar requires some mental agility but there
you go…). On the night Kupe 2009 was showing a nose that included spearmint,
dental surgery, wild flowers and dark red cherries and plums. The oak influence
was intriguing too, lending a spicy, biscuity character to the wine. Kupe has
excellent acid, supple tannins and length – all things that bode well for a
great future. But do try a bottle now; it’s an exciting wine that should be
viewed right from the start. The final wine of the evening was Kupe 2005
(19.5/20) which looked stunning as well, shrugging off what I’m told was its
early awkwardness to develop into a very nice red wine. The colour was a deeper
ruby/brown, and the nose was all marmite, licorice, silage and fruits of the
forest. The palate showed a beautiful tension between youth and development and
I would say for those who have this in their cellar that it will be entering a
really good drinking window between now and the next 4-5 years.
Thanks to Larry
McKenna for joining us for the evening and sharing his wine and his wisdom, and
also to all our customers for packing out our little tasting room. We’re
certain the wines didn’t disappoint.