Handpicked Wines is an Australian producer with vineyard holdings across several regions, its Mornington Peninsula winery serving as the company's home base. The Peninsula is a cool, maritime Pinot Noir region south-east of Melbourne, where sea breezes, moderate temperatures and red-brown clay-loam over ancient basalt and sandstone soils give perfumed, finely structured wines. Handpicked's vineyards are certified organic, with senior viticulturist Ben Bussell leading regenerative practices. The 2019 Mornington season was warm and dry, with lower yields concentrating flavour; the resulting fruit gave a juicy, tangy, energetic Pinot Noir with refreshing acidity and lithe tannins rather than heaviness.

The hand-picked fruit was destemmed, with a portion likely retained as whole bunches for spice and lift, then fermented in open vessels with gentle plunging to keep extraction measured. After fermentation and a period of maceration on skins the wine was pressed to French oak barriques for maturation, with restrained new-oak use so that bright red and black cherry fruit and savoury spice remained forward. Malolactic fermentation completed in barrel, softening acidity, and the wine was bottled to preserve its thirst-quenching, spice-driven, medium-bodied character with fine, lithe tannins.