Deep purple with pink highlights, the 2021 Zinfandel Fanucchi-Wood Road Vineyard is
highly aromatic in its floral perfume of candied violets, pink peppercorn, and black and blue berries. Full-bodied, with a meatiness to its texture, ripe tannins, and a fleshly mouthfeel, the palate is full of notes of dark black cherry as well as a plummy black inkiness and a hint of dark soil. Drink 2025-2035.
The 2021 Chardonnay Stone Cote Vineyard is also a youthful golden hue, with aromas of fresh peach, flinty earth, and lemon rind. Full-bodied, it boasts a supple and soft texture,with round fruit up front and fresh lift on the finish. Offering up a luxurious feel on the palate, with well-managed notes of sweet baking spices, honeydew melon, and wet stone,it’s long on the palate and has a good finish. Drink 2024-2030.
A more opulent style with a richer golden hue, the 2021 Chardonnay Sevens Bench
Vineyard takes on more tropical ripe fruits in its notes of golden pineapple, baking spice, and orange zest. Full-bodied, with a rich yet clean, viscous texture, ripe peach,
honeysuckle, and citrus oil, it’s long on the palate and has nice balance. Drink it now or
over the next 6-8 years.
Expressive aromas lift from the glass of the medium gold-colored 2021 Chardonnay
Seascape Vineyard, with notes of fresh sea spray, melon rind, and fresh pear. Mediumbodied, with a supple texture and a rounded feel, it delivers ripe apple, fresh white flowers, and a bit of mouthwatering freshness on the finish and has good acidity without being austere. Drink it over the next few years.
Pouring a deep ruby, the 2021 Pinot Noir Muldune Trail is more extracted with kirsch,
polished leather, lavender, and pine. Full-bodied, this is the most powerful wine in this lineup, while having a luxurious feel, a velvety texture, and plushness throughout.
Offering notes of turned soil and wooded earth, with meaty berry fruit and black tea, it’s a substantial wine but is well-made. Drink 2025-2040.
Pure ruby in color, the 2021 Pinot Noir Truly Rita is spicy and expressive, with red cherry,
cinnamon, and cedar. Medium-bodied, the palate is ripe with notes of orange, dusty
earth, red berries, and a delicate salinity, with. Refreshing and clean, this is an attractive wine to drink over the next 6-8 years.
A more opulent style with a richer golden hue, the 2021 Chardonnay Sevens Bench
Vineyard takes on more tropical ripe fruits in its notes of golden pineapple, baking spice, and orange zest. Full-bodied, with a rich yet clean, viscous texture, ripe peach,
honeysuckle, and citrus oil, it’s long on the palate and has nice balance. Drink it now or
over the next 6-8 years.
An opaque purple, the 2017 Syrah Outer Limits is highly aromatic, with meaty, ripe, savory aromas of umami richness in its notes of soy spice, olive, blackberry, and plum. Fleshy and full-bodied, it has good lift
and a weightless feel, with black plum, fresh sweet soil, and pressed violets. Give it another couple of years and drink 2025-2035.
The 2021 Chardonnay DuPratt is more layered with ripe fruit and piney aromas, orange zest, chamomile, and yellow peach. The palate is medium to full-bodied, with pure, ripe fruit, a gorgeous mouthfeel, and a very long finish. Ripe and plentiful with saline and ripe golden fruits, it’s a showstopper, with great freshness and a mouthwatering finish. It is.
It's drinking well now and will drink well over the next 10 years
A darker hue with a purple highlight, the 2021 Pinot Noir Sealift is noted with black
raspberry preserve, violets, sweet cardamom, and delicate cedar. Harmonious on the palate, it has ultra-fine tannins, a silky texture, and medium to full body in its notes of ripe berries and wet stone. An attractive wine, it’s drinking well now with a little air, and it will be wonderful to drink over the next 6-8 years
A ripe ruby hue, the 2021 Pinot Noir Edmeades Vineyard is juicy with aromas of mixed berries, candied roses, and nutmeg, and on the palate, this medium-bodied red takes on a bit more richness and expansiveness of fruit, with grenadine, tea leaf, forest floor, and ripe tannins. It’s charming now and has the structure to drink over the next 6-8 years.
A stunning, velvety red, with hints of dried spearmint, resin, toasted tobacco and bay leaf, plus fresh earth accents to complement the spiced plum, kirsch and huckleberry notes. Long, expressive finish, where the tannins firm up pleasantly. Drink now. 1,127 cases made, 500 cases imported.
A suave, perfumed Pinot with 'jazz hands', says Melanie Chester. Sourced from the Nocton Vineyard in Tasmania's Coal River Valley on calcareous and Triassic sandstone, this Pinot (planted to clones MV6, D5V12 and G8V3) hails from a long growing season. It is weightier, with plush cherry, blue and black berry fruit, balanced acidity and seamlessly ripe supporting tannins. Lavender and Chinese five spice make for a buoyant, expressive wine. Harvested on 22 April.
Tight, fresh and saline with a citrus-driven nose and an attractively pithy palate alongside intriguing orange spritz and old-fashioned lemonade flavours. Cut with lively acidity, it has good intensity and drive. Leased for 20 years, the Chardonnay (predominantly clone P58) was planted in 1988 on cooler south- and east-facing slopes on grey clay loam. Harvested 25 February, 28 February and 6 March with the east-facing slopes the last-picked.
From a vineyard at 1500-2000 feet in the south of the valley above Boonville. Four different clones. Sandstone soils. Foot tread in macrobin, press oxidatively, then in barrel without stirring lees. Lovely weight here: pear, peach and some fine spicy notes. There’s just a hint of flint in the background, with lovely depth and weight. There’s real finesse here.
50% new French oak, 777 clone leads (it’s the last to ripen and presents the black fruit character). This is the big one: lots of power and structure here with black cherry and blackberry fruit supported by some spicy oak that frames the ripe fruit nicely. This is bold and delicious.
Mostly 667 with some 777 and a bit of Wadenswil. 30% new oak, 30% whole cluster. This has beautiful black cherry, strawberry and plum fruit with a nice savoury twist. It’s really textural and pretty, but there’s some structure here. Has some generosity and an ease to it, with nice elegance.
Lime and citrus, with nice intensity and notes of pineapple and pear adding richness. This has crystalline fruit with good acidity, and fine precision and focus, showing layers of flavour. Powerful and intense.
Vibrant and handsomely structured, this red offers expressive raspberry and cherry flavors, highlighted by roasted sage and cracked pepper as this builds richness toward fine-grained tannins.
Sleek and racy, with briary wild berry, licorice and brown baking spice flavors that build richness and structure toward polished tannins.
A stunning, velvety red, with hints of dried spearmint, resin, toasted tobacco and bay leaf, plus fresh earth accents to complement the spiced plum, kirsch and huckleberry notes. Long, expressive finish, where the tannins firm up pleasantly. Drink now.
Hand-picked and basket pressed, partially to French puncheons (30% new), where it underwent spontaneous fermentation following controlled oxidative handling. Just starting to compete with the top cuvees, however it is a bit more understated in terms of its make-up, if not a little more effusive of its pithy, gingery stone fruit and rooibos exclamations. As reliant on its chewy phenolics as it is on its obvious freshness, this is very good and strongly suggestive of great southern Rhone expressions. Drink or hold. Screw cap.
This has a long, steady, caressing wave of mulled pomegranate, blood orange and raspberry coulis notes rolling through, showing nice detail and focus as savory, singed wood spice and rooibos tea accents all thread up the mouthwatering finish, where a piercing sanguine echo lingers. Drink now through 2030
Offers alluring raspberry and mulberry coulis flavors that stretch out in a lengthy fashion, with a zip of blood orange running underneath and ample spice, rooibos tea and incense notes in the background. The long, silky finish lets the fruit play out, while maintaining an elegant feel. Drink now through 2030.
“Discreet and a little more subdued than its siblings. The highest vineyard in the Yarra. Despite being gently mid-weighted with lower alcohol, this feels softer and looser at the seams, while still typically intense. Bitter almond, lemon zest, nectarine and pistachio accents roll across a skein of tangerine freshness and cinnamon oak. Oatmeal lees at the core. The finish is exceptionally long and effusive of energy. Drinkable now, but best from 2025.”