The pompously named Mondial du Pinot Noir, like all wine contests, isn’t really a world championship, of course - but still, it’s not a village fair… It’s been held for the past 10 years in coincidence with Vinea, Switzerland’s main wine fair, in Valais. In addition to pinot noir, all other members of the pinot family, i.e. mainly pinot blanc and pinot gris, can also compete now. In this year’s edition, 1,144 wines were entered, including some notable names like Richebourg 2007 A. F. Gros, Corton 1978 (!) Belin-Rapet, Grands Echezeaux 2007 Henri de Villamont, Yarra Valley Reserve Release 2007 De Bortoli… Yet at the end of the day the only Grand Gold Medal given to a pinot noir (there was another one, to a sweet pinot gris from Valais) went to a wine from Spain!
This is big news for us pinot noir fans in Spain, because very little pinot noir is grown here and because, with some exceptions such as Miguel Torres’ commendable Mas Borràs, not much of it shows any distinction. We simply lack the climate (we do have all the limestone needed in the soil) for this delicate, northerly cultivar. Yet suddenly we have a Mondial winner, not just from Spain, but from the unlikeliest of places - the southern limit of Europe’s vineyard land, a stone’s throw from Morocco. (There was a second Spanish wine entered, from the almost-as-unlikely Utiel-Requena DO, Bassus Pinot Noir 2007 Bodegas Hispano-Suizas, and it won a silver medal, so the overall showing was pretty impressive.)
The winning wine, whose aromatics were much lauded by the jury, is one I have never tasted because it hasn’t been released yet, the Cortijo Los Aguilares Pinot Noir 2008, DO Sierras de Málaga. The estate was created from scratch a decade ago by José Antonio Itarte at Ronda in the Málaga mountains, and it immediately produced pretty good wines. But it seems that it was the arrival of Andalusian winemaker Bibi García which prompted a step up in quality and finesse. She has really gotten the best out of these vineyards planted at an altitude of 900 meters (3,000 feet), which obviously is a decisive factor in their success and, with Hispano-Suizas’ medal as an added factor, may encourage other growers who have been working with high-altitude pinot in Spain to keep at it.