Pinot Palooza Top 10

The Bindi Dixon Pinot Noir is based upon declassified grapes from the Original Vineyard planted in 1988 and grapes from the new Block K, planted in 2001. The ideal of this wine is to produce a delicious, perfumed, spicy harmonious, textured wine that is not as intense, complex nor ageworthy as our individual vineyard wines. Even when the outstanding Block K vines are older we will continue to declassify sections or barrels from each vineyard and produce this wine. The wine is fermented the same way as our other Pinot Noirs in that it is ostensibly 100% de-stemmed and gently worked in small open vats. The wine spends 11 months in French...

Vineyard:  Settlement Vineyard Subregion:  Omaka Valley | Southern Valleys Region:  Marlborough  Vintage:  2020 Soil Type:  Shallow layer of wind-blown loess over low vigour clay loams. Clone:  Dijon clone 777 Viticulture:  BioGro certified organic and Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand Certified (SWNZ). Growers:  Sutherland, Healy and Beattie families  Viticulturist:  Nigel Sowman  Appellation Marlborough Wine (AMW) Certified Winemaker's Notes:  This is our second release of the impressive Settlement Vineyard Pinot Noir. Located in the Omaka Valley in the...

Sit back and take in the aromas from a glass of this pinot as you think about sitting at the top of the vineyard surrounded by cows, water, grass and all things Western District. Sweat and sour cherries, earth, spice and a lovely elegant structure. The vineyard was planted by the Calvert family in 2001 to a mixture of clones on own roots. It is predominantly pinot noir with 6 acres and accompanied by 2 acres of chardonnay.   The vineyard sits at the top of the slope facing large water reserves ‘Salt Lake’ and the ‘Calvert Lough’ to the north. It is a site that shows great fruit expression with a deceptively long...

Robert Parker  - 2016: 92 p., 2017: 92 p.,  Vinous  - 2017: 90 p., I Vini di Veronelli  - 2017: 90 p., Winecritic  - 2017: 93 p., Falstaff  - 2017: 90 p., 2018: 90 p. James Suckling  - 2018: 93 p., 2019: 92 p., TASTING NOTES – brilliant ruby red – expressive bouquet of cherries, violets and marzipan – an abundance of cherry fruit on the palate, smooth with fine, elegant tannins.   #ALTO

Michael Cooper 98 points:   "Deeply coloured, it is mouthfilling, with concentrated plummy, spicy flavours, youthful and complex, and a finely textured, lasting finish. Set for a long life, it’s well worth cellaring."  Michael Cooper    5 stars - Winestate. Winery Note: Our estate grown Pinot Noir with generous richness & flavour concentration. Layers of ripe fruit, floral and spice unfold on the palate with a delicate tannin line. Unfined and bottled on site. Over 60% of our vines are Pinot Noir and the whole reason we exist on these limestone slopes is to make great Pinot. These calcareous clay soils...

MELBOURNE ROYAL WINE AWARDS 2023 Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy for Most Outstanding Young Red James Halliday Trophy for Best Pinot Noir   ROYAL ADELAIDE WINE SHOW 2023 Best Pinot Noir of Show Trophy   AUSTRALIAN PINOT NOIR CHALLENGE 2023 Best Pinot Noir   HALLIDAY WINE COMPANION 2025, 98 POINTS. Boom! You'll probably have to scurry around to secure some bottles of this, as it won the coveted Jimmy Watson Trophy at the 2023 Melbourne Royal Wine Awards, but it is worth the hunt. It's a beautiful wine with a brilliant ruby hue in the glass and aromas of ripe dark cherry, dried cranberry and raspberry coulis...

97 points, Vinodabere Magazine, Best Pinots of Italy, 2024. "Truly a great Pinot Nero, aristocratic like its origins, a study in power and complexirty....."     Made with Pinot Noir grapes, aged in oak barrels for up to 14 months Pinot Noir is a relatively uncommon grape variety in Piedmont, but it is very important for our family's winemaking tradition. In fact, we gave this wine the name of our ancestor Leopoldo Incisa della Rocchetta, among the first ampelography and wine scientist, who lived in the 1800s. Leopoldo Incisa created at the time a vast collection of vines from other regions, experimenting with the...

This wine has been handled with kid gloves: hand picked and destemmed, 10% retained as whole bunches. Held in cold soak for three days, open fermented with thrice daily plunging; eight days on skins, then matured in French puncheons for eight months. The colour is excellent, and the abundant red fruits and superfine tannins are as good as they come. A new Hunter Valley style that challenges the idea that the Hunter is too hot for pinot noir. 95 points. James Halliday Published 14 February 2023. This rare wine is produced from the original pinot noir vines brought to Australia by James Busby.in 1833. 

Gold Medal, Yarra Valley Wine Show 2024. Radiant crimson red with ruby hues. Deep aromas of mulberry and boysenberry present immediate charm together with an assortment of baking spices including cinnamon and five spice. Blueberry pancakes make an appearance, as do the aromas of a forest floor on a crisp Autumn morning. Complexity is key here. On the palate, a soft entry incorporating generous blue and black fruit flavours suggests a wine of power, yet paradoxically the wine delivers on a medium bodied frame of perfect weight. Flavours of maraschino cherry and blueberry pie come to mind, all delivered with satin-like texture that drives the...

  GOLD MEDAL, SYDNEY ROYAL WINE AWARDS 2024 GOLD MEDAL, ROYAL QUEENSLAND WINE AWARDS 2024   KEN GARGETT, WINE PILOT 2024, 94 points. "There is something rather nifty about looking at a wine, making assessments and doing the review, only then to discover that the price is way below what you would have assumed for the wine. This is very much one of those wines. Absolutely cracking value. I really did have to check twice to make sure I had it right. Pale garnet in colour, there are spices, florals, violets, cherries and cranberries all evident on the nose. A silky texture throughout, this is a most...