Winemaker Notes
The fruit for this wine comes from 1980 and 1987 Pinot Noir plantings in the Concongella Vineyards at Best’s Great Western and the Salvation Hills Vineyard at Rhymney, which has been in the Thomson family since 1996.
Pinot Noir was first planted in the Nursery Block at Best’s in the 1860s. It's believed the origin of these vines dates back to the James Busby collection, Australia’s first vines, of which the Pinot Noir was sourced from the finest vineyards in Burgundy.
The original Best’s plantings are now thought to be the oldest Pinot Noir vines in the world, and one of these clones is thought to exist nowhere else in the world. Another one of their Best Kept Secrets….
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Plenty of blue-fruited pinot noir on the nose with lots of crushed flowers. The palate is smooth, open-knitted and ripe with a fresh, light red-cherry finish. Drink now. Screw cap.
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.”
Nestled into the tip of its southeastern coastline, Victoria is Australia’s smallest mainland state, second most populous and third largest wine producer. Victoria includes the cool regions of Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula and Geelong, made famous mainly by impressive Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
The more inland Heathcote and Bendigo lead the way for complex and textured, full-bodied reds. Rutherglen’s fortified wines compete among the best on the planet.