Winemaker Notes
The 2021 Punt Road Pinot Noir shows the best nature of the 2021 vintage in that it is bright and crunchy with concentrated fruit and clean lines. Whilst the vintage was warm and clear, it never got too hot and cold nights ensured we maintained solid natural acidity. They are really pleased that in a warmer year, through attention to detail in the vineyard, we were able to maintain freshness and harvest their best blocks when they were ripe and still bright.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Punt Road 2021 Napoleone Vineyard Pinot Noir is juicy, bright and nimble, with layers of sour cherry, brine, cranberry, black tea and shavings of graphite. In the mouth, the wine has a buoyancy that I find most appealing, but it also lingers on the palate after the wine has gone (with some steel shavings in there, too). This is a lovely wine, one that is built for pleasure, not speed.
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.