The 2024 Pinot Noir is the product of an excellent vintage in a cool region. Some producers have described the season as warm, while the Decades team (Brad Rogers and Steve Flamsteed) describe the season as mild and long. The nose leads with plush red fruit, blood plum and raspberry, cherry pip and tapenade. In the mouth, the tannins are silky and spacious; they create seamless flow across the palate and shape the way the fruit performs. The acidity, typically high in Tasmania, feels juicy and integrated. This is a very impressive second release and, perhaps more importantly, a very impressive Pinot Noir. I like it so much and look forward to seeing how this will evolve over the years ahead. The 40% whole-bunch aspect of this wine feels invisible until the very last; a lingering sense of chinotto, licorice and blood orange through the finish quietly encouraged me to check the production details. This is one of the few wines I have tasted in recent times that comprises a good proportion of whole bunches but doesn't appear to. And this is the best amount of whole bunches, if you ask me. It is, when used sensitively, a tool that opens up the palate, adds to textural and flavor complexity and brings a sense of capaciousness to the wine. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. Drink: 2026-2036
A supple and spiced pinot noir from Tea Tree in the Coal River Valley, on black cracking clay over a calcareous Triassic sandstone. Dark cherry, wild strawberry and dark plum mesh seamlessly with underlying hints of amaro herbs, medina spice, Campari, sandalwood, pomegranate, raspberry coulis and turned earth and leaves. There's a beautiful flow and presence to this wine, the ripe fruit travelling with grace and fine detail. A flair of powdery, silty tannins provides support and a bright, minerally cadence drives the wine forward. The dance between bunchy nuance and fruit purity is bang on here as the wine finishes complex, long and enduring.
