Otago

Or Central Otago, to be precise, but I was drawn by the O.

I like Pinot Noir and Central Otago, the world's most southerly vine-growing region, has a great reputation so I was happy to use this week's vote on the appealing combination of grape and place rather than grape alone.

Still being in the land down under, where women glow and men don't, I once more gave up on the idea of an extended bottle-o tour in search of anything made with Oseleta and went instead to the cellar department of David Jones; Sydney's equivalent to Selfridges or similar.

I was dithering by the wine wall so long that on two occasions I was asked if I needed help. It was rather reminiscent of my usual performance in restaurants when faced with a menu containing more than one good option as at such times I need a certain amount of time-pressure to force a choice from me. The problem this time was to decide how extravagant I could justify being. There were three, or perhaps four, Central Otago Pinot Noirs on offer, but the oldest was only a 2010. It was in a nice thick bottle with a deep punt (the indentation it its bottom) so it was reasonable to assume the producer was not the cost-cutting variety. However, it was $45 rather than $28.99 and a 50% increase over the low end didn't seem appropriate for an untried punt. No pun(t) intended.

This week's wine O (2013) is Rabbit Ranch Pinot Noir, Central Otago 2012.

It is a medium ruby with some purple hints, has red fruit and some other Pinot flavours that I love. It has enough acid to make it mouth-watering but not so much as to have you looking around for some chips to sprinkle it on.  It is 13.5% abv.

At this point in its life it could not be confused with its Burgundian cousins of a certain age, not having anything remotely vegetal about it, but it is a very drinkable and I shall prove that as the evening wears on.

It is packaged in typical tongue-in-check southern hemisphere style and described as 'a bright-eyed red with hints of briar and a whiff of gunsmoke', following a shaggy dog story about sheep and rabbits competing for the land on which the grapes are now grown by Mr McGregor.

It also claims that the wine has been fined (clarified) with Easter Eggs. This is a reference to the popular habit in Bordeaux, and other places, of cracking a couple of hens eggs into the top of a barrique of maturing Claret so that the bits and pieces that make wine cloudy, but are too small to be caught in a filter, can cling to the protein in the egg and fall to the bottom of the barrel.

I looked up Rabbit Ranch on the internet, as is my habit, to see if there is any interesting technical information that I could share. It seems that this wine producer is not the only operation to use the name. In the UK there is a Rabbit Ranch that provides boarding facilities for its customers' pet rodents, whilst in Illinois there is one which is a supplier of Christian children's music. Amy's Rabbit Ranch in the US breeds dwarf Hotots, in both black and chocolate banded varieties (I think they are rabbits), and in Texas there is a similar sounding Bunny Ranch, but I understand that is something completely different.