Chatto Bird Pinot Noir 2022

Jim Chatto has been making wine for over 25 years and judging on the wine show circuit for nearly as long. He is an outstanding winemaker. At one stage he was Chief Winemaker at both McWilliam’s in the Hunter Valley and Kreglinger in northern Tasmania, overseeing both groups' entire portfolios. Chatto's passion is Tasmanian Pinot Noir and in 2007 he found a site in the Huon Valley looking out over Glaziers Bay. He began planting the 1.5 hectare Isle Vineyard, one of the most southerly vineyards in Australia, and released the first vintage in 2013. Chatto also releases several single vineyard pinots from other parts of Tasmania, including the Bird Pinot Noir from the Pipers River region in northeast Tasmania.

"Bright and shiny; smoked charcuterie aromas, complex and savoury, raspberry/red fruits and floral notes later. The wine is elegant and medium weighted, with ample fine tannins and good persistence. A fragrant, perfumed wine. Really lovely."  Huon Hooke

"Planted by Tasmanian pioneer Dr Andrew Pirie in 1998, Bird vineyard is in the Pipers River region in the north east of Tasmania. Thanks to the generosity of the team at Pipers Brook, we are lucky to get a lovely parcel of clone 114 Pinot from the Bird Vineyard. Red fruit with spicy aromatics. Bird is the most elegant and ethereal of our line up. The 'gateway Pinot' as we fondly call it."  Chatto

Expert reviews

"Medium-light red-purple colour, bright and shiny; smoked charcuterie aromas, complex and savoury, raspberry/red fruits and floral notes later. The reduction is present but controlled, and dissipates quickly. Lots of dried-herb aromas too. The wine is elegant and medium weighted, with ample fine tannins and good persistence. A fragrant, perfumed wine. Really lovely. Drink 2023-2036."  Huon Hooke, The Real Review - 96 points

"While my first impression is one of a subtle dill, mezcal and whole-bunch smokiness, it is not obtuse. The palate, mid-weighted and refined, boasts enough stuffing to absorb it. Yet this almost makes it sound like this is a rich wine. It is definitively not. Rather, a wine of rose petal, delicate red fruit delivery, tamarind and chiffon-like meandering tannins, spiced with clove and pepper grind. Embryonic, perhaps. This promises much. Gorgeous. Cooler climatic Piper's River sourcing. Chambolle-like. An ethereal, haunting and beautiful wine. My favorite wine of the range. I'd like to see it again in five-years. Drinkable now, but best from 2026. Screw cap."  Ned Goodwin MW, JamesSuckling.com - 95 points

Jim Chatto

Jim Chatto has been making wine for over 25 years and judging on the wine show circuit for nearly as long. He is recognised as having one of the very best palates in Australia and is an outstanding winemaker. He's also one of the busiest. Keeping up with him and his wife Daisy and their moves between the Hunter Valley, Tasmania and Burgundy isn’t easy.

The story begins when Jim was studying winemaking and tasted a 1984 Mount Pleasant Semillon. He was so blown away by it that he applied to work at Mount Pleasant. It didn’t work out, so he tried again in 1993 when he and his dad were travelling through the Hunter Valley and looking for work during harvest season. The second time around it still wasn’t meant to be, but Jim got a job with Greg Silkman at Tamburlaine winery instead. Tamburlaine was Australia’s largest producer of organic wines and helped to shape Jim’s 'less is more' winemaking philosophy. Silkman sold his share in Tamburlaine in 1996 and started up a contract wine business, First Creek Wines. Chatto joined him as assistant winemaker.

In 1998, Chatto moved from the Hunter Valley to Tasmania to become Chief Winemaker at the newly constructed Rosevears Winery in the Tamar Valley. The stint only lasted a year and a half but in that time he fell in love with Tasmanian Pinot Noir and a girl called Daisy.

In 2000, Jim and Daisy left Tasmania for the Hunter Valley when Chatto returned to First Creek Wines as Chief Winemaker at their new facility. He also began the Chatto label and quietly began looking for the perfect vineyard site in Tasmania to make Pinot Noir. In 2007 he found a site in the Huon Valley looking out over Glaziers Bay. He began planting the 1.5 hectare Isle Vineyard with 8 clones of Pinot Noir at a spacing of 5000 vines/ha and the first vintage (made in the Hunter Valley) was released in 2013. The vineyard is one of the most southerly vineyards in Australia and a site that Chatto has described as being right on the edge of viticultural possibility. 

None of this stopped Chatto from simultaneously pursuing a dynamic career in the Hunter Valley. He finished up at First Creek Wines after seven years to become Chief Winemaker at Pepper Tree Wines in 2007. His celebrated six-year stint at Pepper Tree saw Chatto direct winemaking in the Hunter Valley, Orange, Coonawarra and Wrattonbully. 

But his fascination with Mount Pleasant hadn’t gone away and he was known to jump the fence a few times to get a peek at their vineyards. In 2013, with twenty Hunter Valley vintages under his belt, a dream opportunity arose; the job of Chief Winemaker at McWilliam’s Wines, makers of Mount Pleasant Wines. In an unprecedented move, Chatto was also offered the job of Chief Winemaker at Kreglinger Wine Estates. Chatto said the modern thinking and flexibility at both McWilliam’s and Kreglinger, which saw him overseeing both groups' entire portfolios, would allow him to "do what I do best".

As only the fourth head winemaker at Mount Pleasant since it was founded by Maurice O’Shea in 1921, Jim was responsible for upholding the heritage of this iconic winery and preserving its great vineyard sites. "There is such a strong sense of history at Mount Pleasant," he says. "It’s like there is something in the air, something almost tangible. It’s inescapable for anyone that has worked there." 

About the winery

In 1998, Jim Chatto moved to Tasmania as the inaugural winemaker for Rosevears Estate in the Tamar Valley. Prior to that he had worked five vintages in the Hunter Valley, firstly at Tamburlaine Winery and then at First Creek Wines.

He fell in love with Tasmanian Pinot Noir, and a girl called Daisy. In 2000, Jim and Daisy returned to the Hunter Valley to become Chief Winemaker at First Creek Wine's new facility. However, he began the Chatto label and quietly began looking for the perfect vineyard site in Tasmania to make Pinot Noir. In 2007 he found a site in the Huon Valley looking out over Glaziers Bay. He began planting a 1.5 hectare vineyard with 8 clones of Pinot Noir at a spacing of 5000 vines/ha and the first vintage (made in the Hunter Valley) was released in 2013. The Isle vineyard is one of the most southerly vineyards in Australia and a site that Chatto has described as being right on the edge of viticultural possibility.

The first Chatto Pinot Noir (2012) was released in 2013 while the family was living in the Hunter Valley. The fruit was shipped up to the Hunter and the wine made there.

In 2013, in an unprecedented move, Chatto was also offered the job of Chief Winemaker at both McWilliam’s Wines in the Hunter Valley and Kreglinger Wine Estates in northern Tasmania. Chatto said the modern thinking and flexibility at both McWilliam’s and Kreglinger, which saw him overseeing both groups' entire portfolios, would allow him to "do what I do best".

Jim's trips to Tasmania for Kreglinger allowed him to devote time to his own estate in the Huon Valley. In 2014 the fruit quality from pockets of the vineyard saw the introduction of the single vineyard Isle label. Only two wines, Isle and Intrigue, were being made from the vineyard in relatively small quantities and both sold out well before the next release.

Jim and Daisy finally returned to live full-time at Isle Vineyard in January 2017 and made the Chatto wines for the first time on site.

Fruit from a tiny neighbouring vineyard owned by Sue and Max Kitchell had been part of the Chatto stable since 2014. The Seven Inch vineyard had been planted in 2007 to a combination of 4 clones - 115, G5V15, D5V12 and 8104. In 2018, Chatto released the first stand alone wine from this vineyard under the Seven Inch label.

The Huon Valley was unable to harvest fruit in 2019 due to smoke taint from bushfires. However, Chatto received some parcels of fruit from vineyards in the North of Tasmania from friends at Marion's and Pipers Brook vineyards. Jim blended his first Tasmanian regional wine from these parcels under the Tasmania label. It has subsequently been renamed Lutruwita,  the palawa kani name for the island state. Today, Lutruwita is a complex blend of at least 5 clones (114, 115, MV6, D5V12, G5V15) and 4 vineyard sites in the north, south and east of Tasmania.

After the bushfires, Jim and his family travelled to Burgundy for the winter and got to meet and work with Jane Eyre, an Australian winemaker who has lived and worked in Burgundy since 2004. With her help, Chatto was able to secure a tiny two barrels of premier cru Burgundy from Savigny-lès-Beaune and, at Daisy’s behest, made a 2019 Burgundy. He made a Savigny-lès-Beaune the following year in 2020 and two wines in 2022.

In 2020, Chatto harvested wine from his Isle vineyard in the Huon Valley and also took fruit from Bird (Pipers River), Marion's (Tamar Valley), Glengarry (Tamar Valley) and Seven Inch (Huon Valley). In total, Chatto released six single vineyard Pinots as well as the regional blend, Lutruwita.

Chatto has just completed an early, long and excellent 2024 harvest at Isle Vineyard. The future is bright!