2021 Reserve Pinot Noir

This is a barrel selection of fruit sourced from four blocks, each bringing different and essential points of difference to the equation. It’s a wine of tremendous presence and poise with the deeply intense and firmish palate supported by firm chalky tannins and fine-grained oak. It’s silky smooth and thoroughly seamless with a palate that is both focussed and well-shaped.

Fresh cranberry juice, smooshed raspberries and pickled strawberries. Porcini mushroom powder, dried galangal and cigar leaf. The wine has elegant rose florals, black cherry skin but also the aromas of earthy terrain underfoot. Tannins are dry like the chew of dried goji berries and acidity is energetic and dances across the palate. An alluring wine with the architecture its true crowning glory. Sturdy shoulders, soft flesh and chisel angles. It’s got everything you want in Pinot Noir that goes the distance. I’d die a happy woman to see this wine in 5, 10 and 15 years. Drink with a wild mushroom tart.

This is compiled from a barrel selection, with the grapes originally coming from four different blocks and a range of clones including some whole bunch inclusion. Maturation in 500 litre French oak for nine months, with 15% new. An attractive pale crimson, there is a wonderfully alluring smoky, brambly note to open the nose. Dry herbs, truffles, leather, spices, animal hides and red fruits, this has elegance, length and balance. Very fine tannins, excellent persistence with intensity running the full journey. Red cherries also evident on the palate with so much to like here. Drink over the next four to eight years.

Medium depth, bright, red-purple colour; an out-front spicy/smoky/meaty bouquet invoking charcuterie, dried herbs and red fruits, a hint of Campari also. The wine is medium-full bodied and packs a punch, with abundant firm tannins and intense flavour, which just seems a trifle plain at this juncture but will surely build more complexity with a little age. Excellent concentration, long finish.

Brendan Hawker’s first beginning-to-end reserve pinot. A 70/30% split of MV6/Abel clones; 5% whole bunches and matured in 500L French puncheons (15% new). A bright, deep-ish crimson purple. Darkly fruited and immediately seductive with its aromas of black raspberries, dark cherry, spice and discreet oak. There's an old-vine creaminess on the palate and you barely notice the wine's firm, velvety and persistent tannins. It's great now and it'll be great in 10 years.

This is a fine regional pinot, brimming with red cherry, bergamot, peony and notes of crushed musk. The tannins, sinuous, shapely and pliant across the medium-bodied palate, meld effortlessly with a ping of cinnamon oak. A beautifully sculpted pinot, to be rewarded. Drink or hold.

Extremely pretty and stylish, attractive aromas of blue fruits, peony and sweet oak. Fine tannins, very precise on the palate.