Winemaker Notes
The idiosyncratic, biodynamic and greatly admired Bass Phillip Premium Pinot Noir, aged in French Allier barriques for 18 months, is a defining Victorian pinot noir. Uplifting and memorable, this multi-layered and nuanced wine reflects a superb obsession, based on a low-cropping, four-hectare vineyard site at Leongatha. Black cherry, floral and game aromas, supple viscosity and underlying toasty oak. This wine is long in flavor, powerful and complex. It can be cellared for many years.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
While this bottling does benefit from a brief stint in a decanter or even open in glass, it takes only perhaps 20 minutes before it relinquishes its gorgeous perfume of violets, raspberries, plums, baking spice and a mushroomy-umami nuance. The palate is dense and plump, but still has an elegance and lightness to it. Tannins are beautifully textured like a cat's tongue. A complete wine to drink now–2030.
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James Suckling
This has a very pure pink-grapefruit, pomegranate and red-cherry nose with a deeply spicy oak thread that sits well inside the fruit. Plenty of earth and some red flowers here, too. The palate has a very plush, energetic core of red-cherry, pinot noir fruit. A real statement of concentrated fruit. The tannins extrude smoothly and frame a long, juicy and fresh finish. Stunning pinot noir.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
South Australia is the historic heart of Australian wine, a great wine capital of the world, and home to some of the most famous regions. It produces more than 80% of Australia’s premium wine from some of the oldest vines in the world. There is an abundance of varieties and wide spectrum of styles to explore. From the rogue to refined, discover Australian wines that are far from ordinary.