Reviews

“A blend of Upper Yarra Pinot sites in Gladysdale and Macclesfield. All natural ferments with 25% whole bunch plus an average of 15-20 days on skins. Aged for 10 months in French oak Barrique’s and Puncheons (10% new). Bottled un-fined and unfiltered.” I’ll update the bottle image when I get the chance.

If you like Upper Yarra Pinot Noir and its lighter, more ethereal persona then you will love this wine. It’s an absolute beauty, and worth every cent. Cranberries, red cherries, assorted herb and spice notes, florals – all the characters you would expect, but with such firmness, and insistence, and quality of sheeted, fine-grained tannin. I kept coming back to this wine and every time I thought: wow this is good.

Campbell Mattinson, Winefront
95 Points

Shaun Crinion has landed a couple of major blows with his 2019 Appellation releases. Excellent. Simply excellent. It’s varietal but it has depth, gravitas, an array of flavour, a firmness and an excellent finish. It’s smoky, stewy in a good way, spicy and shows plenty of forest berry and undergrowth, but mostly it presents as itself. It looks left and right and then just goes its own way. It’s a wine of chains, connections and decisions that turned out to be correct. Load up on this while you can still get it at $30. It’s the goods.

Campbell Mattinson, Winefront
95 Points

Dappled has been one of the discoveries of the past handful of years.

I’m wary of 2018. Over time I’ve come to like the wines of this season less and less, though I’m principally talking southern Victorian reds when I say this. With exceptions, of course. This release from Dappled falls into the latter camp. It’s not an outstanding wine but it’s been beautifully made and grown. It’s provides considerable pleasure. It’s well spiced, sensibly oaked, fragrant, nutty, varietal and boasts both tang and flesh. Herbs, smoke, strawberries and sawdust. It is in short a delight.

Campbell Mattinson, Winefront
93 Points

From an incredibly steep vineyard in the Warramate Hills. MV6, hand-picked, sorted and chilled, 5 days cold soak, 30% whole bunch, matured in very old large-format oak. Takes a moment to engage gears, powering along the palate, flashes of spicy/savoury red fruits flying in every direction when it does.

James Halliday
95 Points

$30 is the new $20 in pinot noir land, you could argue. You’d be hard pressed to find a better quality pinot noir at this price level, with maybe one or two exceptions.

It’s taut, reductive, smoky and spicy. It has a lot going on but the fruit is ripe, the inflections autumnal and the texture has some velvet to it. The carry on the finish is impressive too. It’s light-ish in colour, it has that Upper Yarra look about it, and both acidity and tannin put in more than their two cents’ worth. I can’t fault it.  It should mature and evolve deliciously.

Campbell Mattinson, Winefront
93+ Points

From the Upper (mainly) and Lower Yarra Valley. Winemaking involves minimal intervention, cold soak, wild yeast open fermentation with 30% whole bunches, 15% new oak, 10 months on lees, no additions other than SO2. A pretty pinot still evolving to take texture and structure on board.

James Halliday
95 Points

I think sold out, oh well, but for the legacy, designations says ‘Upper Yarra’ in my notes. Should be around a few canny retailers.

Spicy, red cherry, raspberry notes, floral elements, white flowers, apricot, and unusually, gingery spice. Flesh and texture is superb, light minerally notes of mixed powdered rock and more sparkling things, red cherry juice chimes in, cool acidity lifts, fine tannins corkscrew. So much detail here, well built in character, this is a ripper.

Mike Bennie, Winefront
95 Points

From a 20yo MV6 vineyard. Foot-stomped, wild-fermented with 30% whole bunches, matured in French oak (25% new) plus further time in tank on lees. Distinctly different from its ’17 sibling, with some plum and forest joining red fruits. A complex pinot well made. Screwcap. 13% alc. Rating 95 To 2030

James Halliday
95 Points

Upper Yarra Pinot Noir. Unfined and unfiltered. Pure. Exquisitely well packaged, as a bonus. Everything in alignment.

Tense is the word. Taut as well. Cool, nervy, spice-ridden, cranberried, autumnal pinot noir with just enough fruit and just enough strut to get you excited. I like/love the Upper Yarra style and so one sip and I was hooked; regardless this has quality stamped all over it. Undergrowth, strawberry, woodsmoke and all those gorgeous leaf-scattered spices. Fantastic drinking/buying. A steal at $29. Don’t mind if I do.

Campbell Mattinson, Winefront
93+ Points

From several Upper Yarra Valley vineyards, largely MV6 clone, some D5V12. Wild yeast-open fermented with 30% whole bunches, foot-plunged. Matured in French oak (15% new) for 10 months on lees. A fragrant red fruit cornucopia bouquet and finely honed palate. Fresh and Lively. Screwcap. 13% alc. Rating 94 To 2027

James Halliday
94 Points

Rabbit out of a hat territory. This is an excellent pinot noir from 2016. Textured and well-flavoured with ample length and, importantly, flesh. It’s light in colour, it has that “Upper Yarra” look and feel, but it has both presence and immediate drinkability. It will mature well too. Smoky overtones, sweet-sour fruit characters, fragrant herbs, even florals. Lovely wine.

Campbell Mattison, Winefront
93 points

This is a sinewy pinot noir with ample stalk influence and long, twisting chains of tannin. It’s a structuralist’s wine. There are dark chicory-and-cherry flavours and a note of unsweetened chocolate/cocoa. Spice and meat notes are almost a given. For $27 you get a whole lot of interest and a whole lot of goodness; you get a trick-free wine that feels genuine. If you’re buying/drinking now, give it a quick decant.

Campbell Mattinson, Winefront
92+ points
 

Deep pinot colour, an exotic and expressive bouquet has spice, dark berry and charcuterie aromas; the supple palate, with damson plum and black cherry is utterly delicious. If more is needed, the tannins are akin to a spider web at dawn in the vineyard with shiny droplets of water on its interstices. 

James Halliday
96 points