Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine is pretty and autumnal, a fragrant concoction of cherries, plums, sumac, wild herbs and flowers, dried leaves and damp earth after a soft rain. This softness carries through to the palate, but there’s also a laser-like line of acidity lifting the fruit into tart, crunchy territory. Tannins are fine grained, supporting and not overwhelming. A phenolic bitter note rears up at the finish, but overall this is a textural, food-friendly wine to drink now or until 2026.
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James Suckling
A crisp and focused young pinot with crushed-strawberry and subtle orange-peel character. Creamy texture. Medium body. Vivid fruit at the finish. Tight and reserved. Better in a year or two. Drink or hold. Screw cap.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Elegant strands of raspberry and pomegranate entwine earthy notes of roasted parsnip in the 2016 Pinot Noir. A blend selected from three vineyards, this medium-bodied, silky-textured effort is delicious now, and it should continue to drink well through at least 2023.
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.