Winemaker Notes
The cool Spring delivered very low yields across the winery's Pinot Noir blocks, primarily driven by tighter, smaller bunches – the consequence of which is naturally high acidity and fresh flavors.
Professional Ratings
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Australian Wine Companion
This is superbly composed and for a young pinot, it’s drinking beautifully now. Heady with florals, dark cherries and lots of earthy characters. Fuller bodied, with supple and shapely tannins, while the juicy acidity keeps this rather buoyant. Of course, if you can wait, this will also reward with extra cellar time.
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine pops with fleshy red fruit, white pepper and woodsy, sap characters. The palate is round and primary-fruit driven, but it hints at depth and complexity yet to come. The juicy berries are woven through with chalky, savory tannins and spicy and sap linger on the finish. Drink now–2030.
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.”
As the most important area of wine production in Victoria today, the Yarra Valley is most popular for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, which account for over half of vineyard acreage. A gentle, rolling and rural region alongside the Margaret River, the Yarra Valley has a cool maritime climate with a lengthy growing season, perfect for these cool-climate varieties.
Two styles of Pinot Noir are possible here. The warmer Lower Yarra Valley with sandy, loam soils, produces plush and fruity Pinot Noir while the cooler, higher-elevation Upper Yarra Valley with soils of young red basalt, produces more angular and mineral-driven Pinot Noir.
Yarra Valley Chardonnay is among the best in Australia. To preserve the floral aromatics and fresh citrus flavors for which this area’s Chardonnay is so appreciated, time in barrel is restrained (though barrel fermentation is common). The best Yarra Valley Chardonnays display brilliant acidity, leesy characteristics, citrus, stone fruit and flavors of ginger and spice.
Shiraz and Cabernet find success in parts of this region as well.