Interview – Bass Phillip’s Phillip Jones

He makes one of Australia’s rarest and most sought-after wines, yet Phillip Jones would have to be one of the best-known of all our winemakers. It says much about the elemental joy of wine to observe wine enthusiasts five and six deep as they patiently mill around the Bass Phillip stand at wine shows like Wine Australia and The Exhibition of Victorian Winemakers. Hidden by the throng will be Australia’s pre-eminent maker of pinot noir, splashing round tiny but pre-sold samples of musky, ethereal pinot essence, whose scarcity and innate quality shine out in the crowded hall like a rare trace nutrient in a Big Mac.

Phillip Jones, his Bass Phillip winery and non-irrigated vineyards manage themselves using traditional and time-honoured techniques near the town of Leongatha in Gippsland, Victoria.

What are your favourite wines?

I don’t have the time to drink much wine, so I’m not interested in commercial wine at all. I haven’t had a drop for five days prior to this interview. There’s so much work to do – even at night – so I just keel over if I drink wine. It all sounds terribly focused, but we do have fun. I’ll say!! ed.

I don’t have the opportunity to drink much diverse Australian wine, but tend to drink from Burgundy, Chablis, the Rhone, Alsace and reds from Coonawarra. I have a lot of time for Zema Estate. If somebody bought me a nice bottle of red a month I could just live on Alsatian wine; they’re some of the most friendly wines on earth.

Looking at wines that are typical of their place of origin, I used to get fired up by semillons from Elliotts and Tyrrell’s, Seppelt Great Western shiraz, Brand’s Laira and Wynns Coonawarra reds, McWilliams individual vineyard Hunter reds – they got me exceited about wine. Today I appreciate the wines of Mount Langi Ghiran, Jasper Hill, Craiglee, Mount Mary, Yeringberg and Yarra Yering.

We originally planted the vineyard because we wanted to make Ducru-Beaucaillou. Only then we found that pinot grew better…

People today talk about styles of pinot noir. What do you think of this question?

All style is valid in this free and lucky country as far as pinot noir is concerned. The fact is there are more than a dozen distinct styles of pinot noir. Rose is a style of wine that is highly suited to the variety. We shouldn’t all be trying to make La Tache, however nice that would be. The issue that producers in Australasia haven’t come to grips with is that we all have to feel comfortable with the style appropriate to our own place. Instead, we determine the style we want to make and trot down the road to do that. Before you die, if you’re really lucky, you might achieve it once.

Which grape varieties best express their sites and terroirs?

Way ahead of the others is pinot, secondly shiraz, and 100 miles further off: the cabernet family. Pinot noir is the single grape variety more sensitive to site of origin and environmental conditions than any other.

What is holding back the quality of Australian pinot noir?

If you are outside the established path of viticultural research, you’re way outside. Issues like very close planting, no irrigation and low cropping are not acceptable – they’re not adequately discussed in teaching institutions and are not commonly applied in new vineyard areas where pinot noir and chardonnay have been widely planted. This is slowing down innovation and development with these styles. If you compare the range of styles or quality or any criteria you want of Burgundy with those of New World pinots, we are still a long way from achieving greatness from these regions. There’s no need to duplicate Burgundy, but a great bottle of ’78 La Tache blows the top half out of your brain. No Australian wine does the equivalent. Why? There’s insufficient innovation over here.

I am tired of tasting New World pinot noirs rich in fruit and structure and screaming with added acid. Our wines lack the wholeness of great Burgundy – we are unable to achieve naturally the confluence of cropping level, flavour development, sugars and acids in the vineyard, so we have to fiddle it. We could be the best if we hone our viticulture down to the right level.

The important things for so many people starting pinot vineyards are issues like the acquisition of the right clones and developing the trellising system to provide an appropriate return on investment. These are secondary issues. People who have been through the hard yards like Nat White Main Ridge Estate have had to fight their way through different methods and gradually work towards a set of parameters they’re comfortable with – very different from those he was initially recommended.

Is there anything else holding back the evolution of Australian pinot noir?

We believe the winemakers’ hands are important; they are of much reduced importance. This is the view of the naturalist vs the control freak: in both viticulture and winemaking in Australasia we want to control the result too strongly. Just show me one great pinot noir from a Scott Henry trellis! And those making pinot like shiraz or cabernet have come to grief – there is a different set of winemaking principles required – follow those and that’s it; don’t try to force the issue.

I don’t think we should copy the Burgundians and it’s not a priority for me to have my wine classified as ‘Burgundian’, but there’s a great deal we can learn from them; such as more than 500 years worth. Despite the belief in this country that we’re more viticulturally advanced than the French, which is total nonsense, we really must admire the fact that the Burgundians have set up a system which respects low cropping levels, no irrigation and vine age. We respect these simple parameters with shiraz, but astonishingly ignore the bloody lot with pinot noir in this country. The industry has taken pinot noir by the scruff of the neck and pushed it the wrong way.

These factors need to be a very strong background driving force in our attitude, for producing quality wine from pinot is not just a process, it’s an attitude thing. It’s a philosophical thing. This needs to be emphasised a little more strongly with people in the pinot game today because there’s not much evidence that these matters are driving forces.

Those of us trying to make pinot just have to be patient. We will use up half of our lifetimes getting there – that’s life. The old cliche is true: if you want to make pinot noir to make money, you’re better off buying a football team. It would cost as much and you’d lose a little less. Please login to post comment