Pinot Noir down under has arrived. Outside of France, only the top grower-producers of North America can rival Australian Pinot in terms of its seductive silken texture, allusive structure and authenticity of flavour.
As growers become more in-tune with their vineyards, adapting their viticultural techniques to get the best out of this notoriously unpredictable grape variety, quality in Australia continues to rise. The best producers have shown confidence with techniques like whole-bunch inclusion, and we have seen a marked reduction in reliance on new oak. This pack celebrates six producers at the cutting edge of Australia’s Pinot Revolution.
Quealy Seventeen Rows Pinot Noir 2019
Kathleen Quealy and Kevin McCarthy, founders of Quealy Winemakers, were pioneers of the Mornington Peninsula, part of the early wave of growers to plant Pinot Noir in the region and champions of the establishment of Pinot Gris/Grigio and other aromatic white varieties in the 1980s. The home vineyard at Balnarring (certified organic and the source of this wine) is one of the Peninsula’s oldest Pinot Noir sites (planted 1982). Nowadays, son Tom runs the winemaking side of things and coaxes the best and pure flavours from just 17 rows of MV6 Pinot Noir on this site, to produce Quealy’s most savoury and complex Pinot Noir.
Garagiste Terre De Feu Pinot Noir 2019
Anyone with a passing interest in cool-climate Australia will already know that Garagiste is one of Victoria’s brightest stars. Cropped from a specific half-acre of the Merricks Grove vineyard, Terre de Feu (the land of fire) takes its name from the vein of pure red ferrosol soils of this privileged Mornington Peninsula vineyard. Several years ago, Barney noticed that the vines in this little ironstone buttonhole produced slightly smaller bunches, yielding wines of greater depth and concentration than the surrounding vineyard. Thus, in 2013 the decision was taken to create this micro cuvée: it’s the most potent and structured Pinot that Garagiste produces.
Byrne Farm Pinot Noir 2019
Byrne Farm is a rising star in the Australian Pinot Noir, crafting true cool-climate, high-country Pinot Noir from a single block just outside Orange, New South Wales. Winemaker Jeff Byrne began his career in the Hunter Valley, but was blown away by the undeniable potential of Orange, so he made that region home. The style here is all about brightness, crunch and varietal purity, with Byrne using just the Abel clone (prized for its spice and punch), some whole-bunch for structure and some whole berries for bright flavour.
Murdoch Hill Artisan Series Phaeton Pinot Noir 2021
Michael Downer is a gun Adelaide Hills producer on a stratospheric rise. Michael cut his teeth at Shaw & Smith, Vietti in Barolo and Best’s Great Western before returning home to take over the everyday running of the family estate in 2012. He quickly burst onto the scene with his adventurous small-batch Artisan series, working with fruit from exceptional parcels in the Adelaide Hills. Downer’s Phaeton is a blend off two vineyards in the Piccadilly Valley, where the high altitude and light soils combine to produce a Pinot of delicate and pretty flavours and aromas, distinctive cool-climate freshness and irresistibly silky mouthfeel.
Mount Macleod Pinot Noir 2021
The Mount MacLeod Pinot Noir ranks among the best value Pinots we work with year-on-year. This is Gippsland class in a glass, sourced from an organic vineyard and made by winemaker-ecologist and all-around great guy Mark Matthews. Mount Macleod’s wines are no score junkies. These are not wines looking to make the headlines, win trophies, or the like. Instead, this producer crafts a set of great value, honest-to-goodness wines. This Pinot Noir is fleshy and textural with a heady mix of red fruit, spice and forest-floor savouriness. The value speaks for itself.
Toolangi Pauls Lane Pinot Noir 2020
In 2017 Helmut Konecsny, the owner of Rochford Wines purchased Toolangi Vineyards and immediately started ringing in the changes. Under this new, hands-on ownership and talented young winemaker Kaspar Hermann (ex-Mount Mary, Seville Estate and Coldstream Hills) at the helm, Toolangi has the wind in its sails. At the core of the new regime is a desire to bring the soul of the Toolangi vineyard and Hermann’s pure and elegant style to the heart of the estate’s wines, a set of goals beautifully rendered in this perfumed, juicy and complex Yarra Valley Pinot.