Zagreb, Croatia to Hong Kong. After two flights, totaling 13 hours in the air, what’s a guy to do?

We landed in Hong Kong, and I made a beeline for our apartment to take a quick shower then headed into town for Pinot Palooza. It’s a multi-city, multi-country event that showcases great Pinot Noirs from Australia, New Zealand, and other parts of the world. This year in Hong Kong, it was held under the observation wheel, facing the beautiful Victoria Harbour.

We spent a considerable amount of time in the USA and Europe over 2018. So I was looking forward to tasting some of the best that the countries down under can offer. Thankfully there was no shortage of choice. There were over 80 producers pouring over 120 examples of Australian Pinot Noir and New Zealand Pinot Noir at Pinot Palooza. There were also wines from Austria, Argentina, Chile, France, and the USA.  On a sunny ‘winter’ afternoon in Hong Kong, I managed to taste through all of the wines.

Australian Pinot Noir Versus New Zealand Pinot Noir

Pinot Palooza is a consumer event, but I used it as an opportunity to learn more about the different Pinot Noir-growing regions of Australia and New Zealand. The Australian Pinot Noir-growing regions represented included Adelaide Hills, Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula, Macedon Ranges, Tasmania, and Pemberton. New Zealand Pinot Noir-growing regions on hand were Canterbury, Central Otago, Hawke’s Bay, Marlborough, and Martinborough. Here are a few of my observations.

The Good

• Diversity was on display although there were definitely similarities among a few regions.
• Ripe fruit flavors were emphasized in nearly all the examples I tasted.
• Despite the high alcohol levels (>14%), the wines showed balance.
• The immediate drinkability of nearly all of the wines was very high.
• It was fascinating to try so many different regions from both Australia and New Zealand in one tasting.
• There were plenty of single-vineyard and reserve bottlings on offer.

The Not-So-Good 

• Many of the Pinot Noirs from regions in Victoria, Australia, like the Macedon Ranges and Mornington Peninsula, had this mint and pine notes that I found off-putting (some may love them).
• While fruit and drinkability were highlighted, I found myself wanting more structure in many of the wines.
• Nearly all the wines were very high in quality, but I didn’t taste one that completely blew me away.

Exotic Wine Travel’s Picks:

New Zealand Pinot Noir

• Seresin, Rachel Pinot Noir 2013 – Marlborough

Find or buy on Wine-Searcher.

Named after the owner’s mother, the Seresin Rachel Pinot Noir 2013 is a blend of three vineyards. The vineyard yields are very low. This is rich and luxurious on the palate, for people who like bigger Pinot Noir. Full of fall leaves, strawberry, raspberry, and rhubarb flavors. The wine is silky on the palate with tight tannins.  92/100

• Schubert, Marion’s Vineyard Pinot Noir 2015 – Martinborough

Find or buy on Wine-Searcher.

The Schubert Marion’s Vineyard Pinot 2015 is a single-vineyard wine that contains eight clones of Pinot Noir. It’s made in a full-bodied and concentrated style (alcohol is 14%). There are notes of red fruit, mint, crushed rock, and green herbs. It’s super silky on the palate with controlled yet firm tannins. A bigger Pinot Noir that can go with red meat.  92/100

• Valli, Pinot Noir Gibbston 2016 – Central Otago

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The Valli Pinot Noir Gibbston 2016 is a single-vineyard wine. The winemaker told me that Gibbston is one of the coolest grape-growing parts of Otago. It’s a ripe wine with generous fruit. The wine has raspberry, vanilla, mineral, and crushed rock flavor flavors. It’s round on the palate with chewy tannins. This is a firm and age-worthy wine.  92/100

• Craggy Range, Aroha 2016 – Martinborough

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The Craggy Range Aroha 2016 is one of the top wines in the winery’s portfolio. It’s a single-vineyard wine from the Te Muna Road Vineyard. This is a dark and savory Pinot Noir. Full of plum, black raspberry, and forest floor notes laced with minerals. It’s rich and concentrated with chewy tannins. Built to age and gain complexity. In my opinion, it was the most serious Pinot Noir from the New Zealand/Australian offerings at the Pinot Palooza Hong Kong.  93/100

• Pyramid Valley Vineyards, Earth Smoke Pinot Noir 2015 – Canterbury

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The Pyramid Valley Vineyards Earth Smoke Pinot Noir 2015 is a single-vineyard wine. The winery farms biodynamically and is Demeter certified. This smells like a refined Pinot Noir from Sonoma, California. It’s full of red fruit, vanilla, and forest berry flavors. The wine is medium bodied and round mouthfeel. The palate is silky and there are multiple levels of flavor and texture here with fine tannins.  91/100

• Mt. Difficulty, Bannockburn Pinot Noir 2016 – Central Otago

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The fruit for the Mt. Difficulty Bannockburn Pinot Noir 2016 is sourced from several vineyards in Bannockburn. There are notes of bright red fruit, perfume, and rose petal. Round on the palate and the sweet fruit really comes through here. Vibrant acidity helps the drinkability. This is serious stuff and Pinot Noir to a tee.  91/100

• Carrick, Bannockburn Pinot Noir 2013 – Central Otago

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The Carrick Bannockburn Pinot Noir is another brand with pedigree and the wine is again made with fruit from Bannockburn. It’s a well-crafted Pinot Noir that tastes younger than the age suggests. Ripe raspberry, red cherry, and strawberry notes are accompanied by fall leaves. Chewy texture with developed tannins, it’s a pleasure to drink now.  92/100

Australian Pinot Noir

• Kooyong, Massale Pinot Noir 2016 – Mornington Peninsula

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All of the wines from Kooyong are produced at Port Phillip Estate, including this Massale Pinot Noir 2016. This is delicious and approachable for an entry-level Pinot Noir. There are notes of mint, red berry, and earth. The linear palate with a tight and precise mouthfeel should be welcomed by all types of palates.  90/100

• Josef Chromy, Pinot Noir Zdar 2012 – Tasmania

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The Josef Chromy Pinot Noir Zdar is made from selected parcels at the estate. The Zdar line is the top lineup in the Josef Chromy portfolio. The aged notes are coming out already in this wine. Flavors include forest floor, raspberry, mushroom, and earth notes. It’s round and silky on the palate with developed tannins and tight structure.  90/100

• Lethbridge, Mieta Pinot Noir 2010 – Geelong

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The Lethbridge Mieta Pinot Noir is a single-vineyard offering that sees extended time in the cellar. It is savory, rich, and dense. This is concentrated and aging well. Full of mushroom, leather, cherry, and rhubarb notes. It’s a full-bodied Pinot Noir with developed tannins.  91/100

• Lost Lake, Pinot Noir 2014 – Pemberton

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We’ve enjoyed the wines from Pemberton, Western Australia in the past and it was great to see a producer from the region at the event. The Lost Lake Pinot Noir 2014 is super ripe with dried strawberry, raspberry, rhubarb, and green herb flavors. It’s full-bodied bodied on the palate. The alcohol is high at 14.8% but you don’t feel it. The wine has a fun and friendly approach but it never gets boring on the palate.  89/100

• William Downie, Gippsland Pinot Noir 2016 – Gippsland

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The William Downie Gippsland Pinot Noir is made with fruit sourced the region of Gippsland. This is a hardcore minimal-intervention wine, and for this style, it’s beautiful. Notes of caramel and clay accompany the red fruit notes. Lot’s of chewy texture on the palate with a pleasant sourness on the finish. You have to like this style of wine, otherwise, you may get turned off.  92/100

Wild Card Pinot Noir From Chile

• Villard, Le Pinot Noir Grand Vin 2016 – Casablanca, Chile 

Find or buy on Wine-Searcher.

The Villard Le Pinot Noir Grand Vin is a wine that left a deep impression on me. It’s more on the dark fruit spectrum with blackberry and plum notes that are accompanied by forest brush. It’s full-bodied with big-time tannins. This wine can be put away for some time.  92/100

The opinions expressed are our own and have not been paid for in any way. We do not sell editorial content as that would destroy the legitimacy of our reviews and the trust between Exotic Wine Travel and its readers. On occasion, we extend the option of purchasing the wines we review or/and the products we spotlight. Some of these product links are set up through affiliate programs, which means Exotic Wine Travel gets referral credits if you choose to purchase these items via the links we provide.

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Recently, we were fortunate to take part in a rare vertical tasting of what is widely considered to be Serbia’s finest red wine. We were elated by the opportunity as it isn’t every day that one gets to taste all the vintages of this wine side by side. This wine isn’t a stranger to our regular readers: the Matalj Kremen Kamen appeared in our Top 16 Wines of 2016 and in our article about the amazing terroir of east Serbia. The Kremen Kamen wine is the premium line of Matalj Vinarija with a limited production of 3,000 bottles per year in selected vintages. To date, there are only three vintages produced: 2011, 2012, and 2013.

Matalj Kremen Kamen is a single-vineyard wine. The berries are sourced from the Kremen vineyard. After vinification, the wine is divided and aged in American, French, Hungarian, and Serbian oak barrels of 225-litre capacity for around 19 months. After the period of aging in different oaks, the wines are taken from all the barrels and blended to give the best and most holistic expression of the Kremen vineyard.

Matalj Winery

Matalj is owned by Nikola Mladenovic “Matalj”, who makes wine with the assistance of superstar Serbian wine consultant Mladan Drogojlevic. The first vintage of Maltalj Vinarija was released in 2008.

The winery is located in Negotin, in the far eastern reaches of Serbia and near the Danube river. From Matalj’s vineyards, you can see both Romania and Bulgaria across the river. In the recent years, Negotin has gone through commercial neglect and financial hardship. Nikola had returned from Belgrade to his hometown with the hope of restoring the spark of Negotin, which was once dubbed “the cultural center”. We too hope that with the success of Matalj winery, more attention will be given to this beautiful part of Serbia. You can take a peek at Negotin and Matalj’s vineyards in the video below.

Note: Video is in the Serbian language.

Matalj produces 60,000 bottles every year. The current portfolio includes two whites, a Sauvignon Blanc and a Chardonnay; one rosé, a blend of Merlot-Cabernet Sauvignon-Gamay; two reds, a Cabernet Sauvignon called Kremen and another called Kremen Kamen; and a dessert wine, made of Black Tamjanika grapes. There are plans for expansion in site capacity, production size, and portfolio. A new building for the winery is slated for completion by 2017. New vineyards have also been planted. “If you’re not growing, you’re dying,” Nikola told us during our visit to his property.

The Moment of Truth

After our first meeting last year, Nikola soon became a good friend of ours. Since we were back in Belgrade, Serbia, we wanted to have a proper catch-up with Nikola over lunch and of course, taste his wines again. Wait a minute, taste? No, drink! It’s always hard to taste and spit the Matalj wines, even at trade shows. Nikola was exceedingly generous to offer samples of all three vintages of his magnum opus. The 2011 and 2012 vintages are completely sold out and Nikola has only a few bottles left for his personal collection. Since the tasting was something of a rarity, we decided to make the best use of it and have Igor Lukovic, the editor-in-chief of Serbian magazine Vino & Fino join us for the afternoon.

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This wasn’t the NBA versus amateurs; all of the wines belong in the big leagues.

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Our contribution to the session was one of Chile’s greatest red wines: Concha y Toro, Don Melchor, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007. This wine has been listed eight times on the Wine Spectator’s Top 100 list, and the 2007 vintage scored 95+ points from The Wine Advocate by Robert Parker. We were anxious to see how the Matalj Kremen Kamen would perform next to the Chilean heavyweight.

We love Matalj wines, and we love Kremen Kamen. So much so that we are always talking about it. But are we biased? Is the Serbian red wine ready for the world stage? How is the Kremen Kamen going to show up next to a Robert Parker-approved wine?

Those were the questions we had as we headed to lunch.

Before the tasting commenced, all the wines were decanted for one and a half hours. We took our time to chat about the Matalj estate and also gathered Igor’s insights into the Serbian wine industry. Then the meat-fueled appetizers started pouring in, and the show was on.

None of the wines held back from showing the very best. The 2012 Kremen Kamen came out swinging. The 2011 vintage was shy at first but opened up and came close to 2012 in terms of quality during the course of the evening. The newest vintage 2013 was noticeably fruitier and expressed a high level of drinkability. All three vintages were great Cabernet Sauvignons with medium body and vibrant acidity. They were packed with thoughtful subtleties that were led out by precise structures. All of them also showed the ability to go the distance and certainly backed up the reputation of being one of Serbia’s finest red wines.

And how did Kremen Kamen stack up to a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon that has a long pedigree? The winner of the session was the Don Melchor. Bear in mind though that it wasn’t a fair comparison since the wines were of different vintages and ages. However, the perfect balance between aged characteristics and fruit notes, the intense bouquet and flavors, and the fine-grained tannins of Don Melchor 2007 were a thing of dreams for the wine geeks. 

Not all was lost for Matalj. The Kremen Kamen put up a stunning performance. This wasn’t the NBA versus amateurs; all of the wines belong in the big leagues.

The Wines

Matalj wines available for puchase at wineandmore.com

• Matalj Kremen Kamen 2011

Powerful and elegant. Did we mention power? As it breathes, the bouquet constantly changes. Aromas of black fruit, plum, violet, tobacco, leather, sweet basil, and white pepper. Mineral-laced ripe fruit on the front palate, a spike of intensity on the mid-palate, and then the flavors goes down the esophagus with a huge presence. This isn’t a big bodied Cab but the end palate packs power and the tannins are round and soft. A damn good wine that can compete anywhere in the world. Note that this is reticent at first and requires hours of decanting before showing its potential. 4.5/5

• Matalj Kremen Kamen 2012

This is the most heralded wine of all the vintages. It was the overall winner at The Balkan International Wine Competition 2015 for the red wine category.

A wine that exudes depth and subtlety. A luxurious bouquet of ripe plum, black cherry, cassis, leather, black pepper, and tobacco. The beauty resides in how it spreads its wings on the palate, exhibiting broadness and length. The flavors are mouth-filling and held by a delineated structure. Amazingly long end palate put forth by purity of fruit. This wine is still in embryonic form and has plenty of underlying structure and tannins to ensure many years of fine drinking. 4.6/5

• Matalj Kremen Kamen 2013

The fruit attack is more vigorous in the 2013 than the other vintages. Bouquet of citrus, red fruit, blueberry, violet, eucalyptus, cedar, and vanilla. The tertiary aroma of leather is beginning to show up. Medium weight on the palate dominated by flavors of berries and green herbs. It has a lively mid-palate spike and grippy tannins that reinforce the good structure of this wine. Because of the decidedly mid-weight style by Cabernet Sauvignon standards, some people may overlook this wine. But the true grace lies in its preciseness and purity of fruit, perked up by beams of tannin and a minerally energy that shapes the spine. There is a lot going on underneath this friendly, young Cabernet Sauvignon. At such a tender age, it exhibits surprisingly high drinkability. 4.3/5

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If we have to describe Matalj Kremen Kamen in one sentence, we would say that it’s an alluring Cabernet Sauvignon with sternness in its structure and subtlety in its power.

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• Concha y Toro, Don Melchor, Cabernet Sauvignon 2007

A luxurious bouquet with intense old calfskin characteristic, plus some dried herbs, violet, roasted coffee beans, and earthy notes. The primary fruit aromas are still very much alive. On the palate emerge plum, blackcurrant, cumin, bay leaf, sage, dried tobacco leaf, and red jalapeno. The tannins are round and fine-grained. Precise, trilateral structure—big attack on the front palate and a gentle, persistent finish. The Don Melchor 2007 is currently exhibiting the perfect balance between primary and tertiary notes; the peak period has begun. 4.8/5

Last Word

If we have to describe Matalj Kremen Kamen in one sentence, we would say that it’s an alluring Cabernet Sauvignon with sternness in its structure and subtlety in its power. Our final message to Nikola was: we hope that he can make the same impact on Serbian wine as what Don Melchor has made on Chilean wine.

Our friend Igor Luković also wrote about his tasting experience of Kremen Kamen vertical on his website Vino & Fino (article in Serbian).

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Disclaimer: The ideas expressed in this article are personal opinions and are not associated with any sponsors or business promotions. The distinctions for our scoring system can be found on the START HERE page. 

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