Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
This wine’s power comes in the form of tension rather than concentration or weight. Its fruit is as light as a raspberry gelée, with scents of roses and sweet spice. Underneath, there’s gravitas from the soil, a long, salty finish that feels like the mineral compression of rock. Peter Caldwell made this wine from a vineyard farmed by Frogmore Creek Winery in Cambridge; future vintages will be from Dalrymple’s estate vineyard in the Coal River Valley.
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.”
Directly south of the city of Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula wine region, the cool-climate island of Tasmania has earned an honorable reputation as the country’s finest producer of Sparkling Wine. Naturally the region also excels in top quality still wines from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Riesling, all distinguished because of a high natural acidity. Most of the Tasmania vineyards cluster around the eastern side of the island from north to south.