with Clive Hartley

The pursuit of pinot
Pinot noir is a significant grape for the Macedon Ranges, along with chardonnay. Climatically, we are on the edge of being able to ripen the grape. However, that is not a bad thing as the grape responds well in a marginal climate. Grapes grown in a hot climate can lose their varietal identity and have ‘cooked’ fruit aromas if not carefully managed. If the bunches fail to ripen the resulting wine becomes weedy and herbaceous. You need a long summer and warmish autumn to get the right balance. It is a low yielding grape variety, losing its flavour if you crop too high. Vignerons walk a tight link between success and failure. You can see why I like to think of it as a ‘tightrope’ grape variety.
Pinot represented only 2.6 per cent of crushed grapes in Australia in 2022. The pursuit of pinot is often only the quest of smaller producers and not the big players in the industry. It’s a winemaker’s grape that brings out their artistry and skill. There are close to 50 clones available in Australia. MV6 is the most widely planted clone, and it produces more firmer, darker red fruit wines. Whilst other clones, such as D5V12, are light and aromatic with bright red fruits. Choosing the right clone for the vineyard site is critical and vineyards are often planted with a number of different ones.
In general, pinot should be light bodied, dry with soft tannins and aromas/flavours of red fruits and oak. You do get variations of this, and I divide the wines into three categories. First there is the soft, fresh cherry and strawberry fruit dominated style that is very light and acidic. Opposite to this is a more meaty, even tannic style that has savoury game, mushroom and oak derived aroma and flavours. In between you get a nicely balanced ripe red fruit style with some subtle oak.
Here is a top 10 of some local producers that I’ve recently tasted and recommend: Attwoods, Joshua Cooper, Curly Flat, Hanging Rock, Musk Lane, Lyons Will, Passing Clouds, Silent Way, J.P Trijsburg and Zig Zag Rd.

Clive Hartley is an award-winning wine writer. Want to learn more? Buy his 300+ page full colour Australian Wine Guide (7th ed) from Paradise Books in Daylesford or via his website – www.australianwineguide.com.au

Barringo Reserve
I am in Barringo Reserve, and in the waning sunlight, there is no path to organise
my footsteps or show me a clear, linear way of moving.
Instead, I am guided by the rise and fall of the land’s contours and the pull of the
plants which catch my eye. In this way, I break past the wall of long-leaved box trees
(Eucalyptus goniocalyx) and move from the grassy paddock into the reserve’s wooded
interior.
From above, my course of movement would look erratic and inefficient. I zigzag
between violet chocolate lilies (arthropodium strictum) and carnivorous sundews
(drosera hookeri). My eyes struggle to comprehend the latter, as the sundews have the
bronze of the evening light trapped brightly within each green stamen, making me
suddenly bent down and eye level with a small solar system.
With a field of these tiny suns blazing all around me, I follow a spur to the
back of the reserve. Here, in secrecy, lives a community of grass trees (xanthorrhoea
australis). Most are adorned in a brown skirt of expired leaves while some wear a
crooked black spire upon their head, a reminder of a season’s flowering.
The grass trees are here every day, slowly rising in the blindspot of our rushing
lives and hurried tasks. I contemplate their spindly leaves stretching for sunlight every
morning as I eat my breakfast and reaching for eternity in the evening as I brush my
teeth. This thought walks with me as I continue through the reserve.
I find my foot midway down a depression in the soil. Water has pooled at the
bottom making a dark puddle. Fallen gum leaves, in various states of decay, swim in
circles and the tannins steep like eucalyptus tea. All around me as I walk, I can see
life leaving the reserve. There is an abandonment in the browning kangaroo grasses
(themeda triandra) at this time of year. A goodbye in every ribbon of peeling bark.
I sit with my back sloped against a horse jump, legs straight out in front of me. I
tilt my head back and my gaze settles on the canopy of peppermint gums (eucalyptus
dives). Their dark, defined leaves fracture the blue dome of sky like a mosaic.
At present I’m inseparable from the droning of flies, the warm and drowsy sun.
I feel calm, and my body dissolves like a teaspoon of sugar on my tongue.
From: Joanna Beard, Macedon Ranges

Macedon Ranges Shire Council’s flagship storm waste facility near Romsey has been nominated as a finalist in the 2023 LGPro Awards for Excellence.

The awards recognise the outstanding work undertaken by individuals and teams working in local government in Victoria, with the facility nominated in the Special Projects category, recognising projects demonstrating best practice or the pursuit of excellence in service delivery.

The facility was established in partnership with Bushfire Recovery Victoria (now Emergency Recovery Victoria) in response to the severe 2021 storms.

The site has processed more than 65,000 tonnes of tree and storm debris from the Macedon Ranges and other storm-affected areas throughout Victoria.

Upcycled product has been returned back to impacted communities in the form offree timber, fence posts, sleepers, stakes, firewood, fish habitat, mulch, sawdust and more; totalling over $29million in market value so far.

Macedon Ranges Shire Council CEO Bernie O’Sullivan said the facility’s approach set a new, collaborative standard for the sustainable processing of trees and storm debris.

“The site allowed us to clear and process storm debris faster and on an enormous scale,” he said.

“By reimagining storm-damaged timber as an opportunity to provide value for the community rather than simply as waste to be cleared, we assisted residents’ practical, environmental and social recovery.”

Winners of the 2023LGPro Awards for Excellence will be announced at the LGPro Conference event in Melbourne on May 25.