Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
The 2015 vintage in Mornington yielded dark concentrated wines. This one is atypically (for the estate) full bodied and bold as a result, with plum and black-cherry fruit and hints of mint, sage and bay leaf. Long and a bit drying on the finish, it needs a couple of years to come into balance. Drink 2020–2030.
Cellar Selection -
Wine Spectator
Restrained notes of black tea, spice, rose petal and dried cherry are quiet but harmonious, with velvety tannins. Drink now through 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.”
Extending into the sea from just south of the city of Melbourne to form Port Philip Bay in the southern state of Victoria, the Mornington Peninsula grape growing region naturally has a cool, maritime climate. A wide range of soils and topographic variations support a large diversity of wine styles within the small headland.