Two Men and Three Ladies - Lunch with 10 Minutes By Tractor‏

Lunch with Martin Spedding and Jeremy Magyar of 10 Minutes By Tractor

 

Europe does terroir, the New World does varietalism, right?

 

As Martin Spedding of 10 Minutes By Tractor observes with a chuckle, terroir is something the French think does not exist outside of France. He also makes the point that Australia has 2,500 wineries and only about 20 from Mornington Peninsula export to the UK. 

 

It's as if the only French wine we knew in this country were generic vin de pays and we have yet to discover Bordeaux, Burgundy et al.

 

10 Minutes By Tractor is based in maritime Mornington Peninsula, which has "proper seasons" and a distinctly Burgundian climate, producing refined elegant Pinots and Chardonnays from 23-year old vines.

 

As if to prove that the New World can do terroir, in 2013 10X produced three Chardonnays from the same vine clones using identical regimes where the only differences are vineyard location, soil and aspect (i.e. terroir); all the soils are volcanic and high-altitude with hand-picked grapes and wild yeasts.

Judd - west-facing with afternoon suns; poised and toned like an athlete.

Chardonnay 2013 lean and tense, with a slender, elegant textured minerality.

Pinot 2014 ripe red fruits; focused and supple with an accomplished intensity

Wallis - lower-altitude and north-facing, but actually cooler due to airflows from the Southern Ocean; attractive and sophisticated yet muscular and slightly androgynous.

Chardonnay 2013 fresher and leaner

 

Pinot 2014 fresh, precise and linear with textural precision and firmness

McCutcheon - east-facing, the morning sun dominates here giving softly curvaceous and sensuous wines.

Chardonnay 2013 riper, plumper, fuller and more seductive

 

AOB

 

Over lunch, we also got to try a fizz - one of just two bottles brought to the UK, it is a traditional vintage Blanc de Blancs with 40 months' lees aging. Sharp, linear and precise with appley fruit, it feels barely ready to drink.

 

Coolart Road Pinot Noir 2013 whole-bunch pressed, meaty, more closed up but with a supple texture and extremely fine tannins; more textuer than fruit expression initially, but opens up in the glass with aeration, so will repay cellaring.

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Mornington Peninsula at #ADT2015