Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This delivers a very confident, concentrated and seamlessly structured pinot noir, which has a rich array of ripe red cherries, sappy undergrowth and nicely placed spicy oak. The palate opens up with expansive, bright and fleshy red and darker cherries. The tannins curl effortlessly around the long, expansive finish. A great vintage for Bindi pinots.
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Wine Spectator
The 2017 Dixon Pinot Noir is perfumed and floral, with notes of roses and cherries entwined on the nose and palate. It's light to medium-bodied, with silky tannins and a wonderfully delicate, ethereal texture that persists into a complex tea-like finish. I suspect it will gain additional complexity with a few years of cellaring, but there's no real need to defer gratification. The 20% new French oak is scarcely noticeable.
Rating:92+
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.