If only they bulk-billed.

APR MAY 2025 MEDICUS

Written by Rob Lethbridge

Given the quality of the articles I supply for this esteemed journal, it will come as no surprise that I get no payment whatsoever. So, as with most things in my life, I don't quite know why I do this, but one thing I'm certain of - without Pierro, I wouldn't be doing it.know why I do this, but one thing I'm certain of - without Pierro, I wouldn't be doing it.

I still have a crystal-clear memory of sitting in Frasers Restaurant a few years into medical school. Excited at a minor windfall, I took my few friends out to dinner, and the sommelier brought out a bottle of the Cabernet Sauvignon L.T.Cf - which he proudly announced stood for "Little Touch of Cab Franc". To my 20-something tastebuds, it was a revelation that kickstarted my love of wine.

And the L.T.Cf is still great, with lots of juicy black fruit and cassis. But the real icon of Pierro is their chardonnay. I've always thought of the Pierro Chardonnay as something for locals 'in the know', a slightly more bespoke version than produced by the big guys down Caves Road. That's pure sentimentality though, as Pierro has long been recognised amongst the great chardonnays of Australia. So, when Dr Mike Peterkin graciously took me around the facility, with my children in tow, it was genuinely a thrilling experience.

Inspired in part by the $5 bottles of Vasse Felix Riesling available at the old Cottesloe bottle shop, Dr Peterkin bought the Wilyabrup site in the mid-1980s from what was formerly a fairly ramshackle "group settlement".

After intermittently living in a house on the property and doing locum work in Perth during the off-season, he was eventually convinced by Dr Bill Pannell (then of Moss Wood, now Picardy) was formerly a fairly ramshackle "group settlement" After intermittently living in a house on the property and doing locum work in Perth during the off-season, he was eventually convinced by Dr Bill Pannell (then of Moss Wood, now of Picardy) to move down to Busselton where he worked until recently. I can still find him on Healthengine! He considers his role as a GP to have been

"a real privilege"; and though he still helps with the harvest, he doesn't prune as much as he once did.

The chardonnay vines he's pruning are predominantly from the Gingin clone (which we will talk about in another column), now nearly 30 years old and growing in rocky soil on a gentle slope. Close-planted and oriented to maximise exposure to sunlight, the grapes are all hand-picked, hand-sorted and gently pressed. The current release is from the 2023 vintage, which had a cold spring and a mild, dry summer with generally ideal growing conditions.

And it really is a stunning wine. The nose opens with intense citrus and white stone fruit, or maybe somethinglike an under-ripe nectarine. The wine goes through full malolactic fermentation giving a slightly buttery, creamy quality, and the lees (dead yeast that sits at the bottom of the barrel) are stirred occasionally giving a back note of toasted almonds. Aged in oak, there is a subtle vanilla-y butterscotch, but all neatly integrated with that powerful fruit. Delicious.

When I asked Dr Peterkin why 2023 was apparently so special, he was hilariously pragmatic; claiming to have no real idea why one vintage is better than another, since he always treated them the same. Still, he said, it was always a pleasure when it worked out.

I guess sometimes why we do things is less important than the fact that we're doing them at all, and it's much more pleasant to do almost everything with a great chardonnay in hand.