Some may not like the comparison (or may love it?!), but this is so Burgundian. Can’t help it when, with the first sniff, the perfume of the wine unlocks a memory of a Pinot Noir from the Golden Slope. These vines from the ‘bottom of the hill’ aka Black Label, were planted in 1995.

The summer of 2023 in Adelaide Hills was cold and it can be felt in this wine as haunting tart red fruit perfume and wet forest. As a result, the wine is ethereal. The aromas are high-toned, scents of pure strawberry and mineral tension, red rose petals and gunflint notes. Tannins are very fine, not quite silky, more velvety or silty. The texture long carries the flavours that you long for in a Pinot–wild berries and sous bois, moss and alpine herbs. It’s an impressive Pinot Noir and very much Burgundian in its suit.

A very perky, higher-toned red of a frisky and somewhat eccentric nature. Touchstones of classic, high-quality pinot noir indeed, with red cherry, sous bois, turned earth, truffle and undergrowth meeting sweet spice and black pepper. The quibble, a zingy line of white balsamic tang that serves to elevate and lift perfume and flavours, but also distracts a little from the more harmonious elements of the wine. Perhaps more time is the answer, or a very long decant, which does mellow this somewhat. Good wine, regardless.