August 2022 Releases: Eddystone Point 2020 Pinot Noir $36 & Moorilla Muse 2017 Pinot Noir $56

Eddystone Point 2020 Pinot Noir $36

Eddystone Point was first released in 2013 and realises the winemaking
team’s vision to create wines that are drinkable, affordable and
represent the undisputed quality of Tasmanian fresh produce.
Eddystone Point, situated in windswept North East Tasmania features
some of the most uniquely layered terrains on the planet. Our wines
embody Tasmania's diverse and distinctive landscape revealing
characters that showcase the untouched natural beauty of this faraway place.

Winemakers Notes
2020 in Tasmania was a very challenging year for viticulture. A very dry but cool lead up to December combined with constant windy conditions led to slow growth, extended flowering and poor set, resulting in low yields and significant variation in ripening within bunches. Disease pressure was high throughout the majority of the growing season, and significant rain from January right through to harvest encouraged berry split and Botrytis, keeping anxiety levels
for both growers and winemakers alike on a constant high. The extended, late season and variation in bunches saw high retention of malic acid across most regions, and vineyards losing leaves earlier than we would have liked.

Colour: Bright, vibrant red
Bouquet: Lifted, fresh cut strawberry and
Morello cherries gives way to subtle and
complex spice from whole bunch inclusion
and quality French oak
Palate: The entry is gently sweet, then,
aided by balanced natural acidity,
strawberry seed tannin carries the palate to
a point. Structure is light, yet with interest,
cherries and spice are on feature. Its
delicate shape, and carefully considered use
of whole bunches and French oak revolve
around purity of fruit. It is poised and
balanced, true to style.

Alcohol: 12.8%
Residual Sugar: 0.2 g/l
Acidity: 5.7 g/L
pH: 3.6
Winemaker: Stewart Byrne
Region: Tasmania - Coal River Valley, Derwent Valley, East Coast & Tamar Valley.
Grape Variety: Pinot Noir
Fermentation: Open top, stainless steel, temperature controlled fermenters
Maturation: French Barriques
Cellaring: Drink now or cellar for up to 3-5 years
Harvesting: 100% hand picked

Moorilla Muse 2017 Pinot Noir $56
David Walsh writes about Moorilla: Moorilla was one of the first wineries in Tasmania—it already had a thirty-five-year history when I acquired it in 1995. In the early days I did my best to undermine that history with some very poor choices—we tried the French style no-irrigation vineyards for a couple of years. But Tassie does not have seasonal rainfall, so we ended up with grapevines on death row. We gave them a pardon and a few years later appointed Conor van der Reest as winemaker, and he put Moorilla back on track.

Moorilla was set up by Claudio Alcorso, an Italian immigrant who, during WWII, had been incarcerated by Australian government as an enemy alien. Despite our initial poor treatment of Claudio he came to love us, and he did his best to keep the bits that he loved the most, intact—he was one of the earliest Australians to put himself between bulldozers and trees. When Moorilla went broke I bought it off the bank, but Claudio and his wife Lesley stayed on in the wonderful Round House, a Roy Grounds design that he commissioned for his parents in the late 1950s. It is now Mona’s library.

I bought Moorilla on a whim, but that whim has come to define me. I did not buy it for the wine, I was more interested in the Roy Grounds house that is now the Mona entrance—I was seeking an art warehouse. I later found that in a big way, but early on I became enamoured of the wine making (actually wine consuming) lifestyle. Buying Moorilla was one of the best decisions I have ever made, and I think that would be true even if Mona had not arisen there. I was raised just up the road from Moorilla, and as child I would walk past often. I knew it was open to the public but, despite my curiosity about the rich folk within, I never passed through its portal, for this tree-lined haven, this paradise of boundless verdancy, this temple to modernist architecture, this beacon was beckoning others, not one such as me.

Style and winemaking:
Due to the complexity of the Moorilla vineyard (and its location) we tend to have
fruit that lends itself to a heavier and more robust style of pinot noir. My aim is
to work with this, but to try to bring levity to the finished wine. By picking over
many different days and working with the variability in the vineyard, we can make
many wines and then work with that natural complexity in the winery to build
a balance between fruit and oak derived aromas and flavours. By using stems in
some fermentations, we can get a great depth of tannin as well. The result is a
wine displaying a great deal of complexity—powerful yet balanced and showing the
subtlety I look for. It will benefit from bottle maturation.

Viticulture:
The fruit was sourced from the Moorilla vineyard located on the west bank of
timtumili minanya / River Derwent. The fruit was left on the vine until flavour
profiles showed an increase in fruit and berry characters, before it was hand-picked.
Effort was made—in picking within blocks—to obtain separate fruit batches for
fermentation. 2017 was more typical of Tasmanian weather: cool and dry with the
normal warm / humid and cold / dry fluctuations. It was also the longest vintage of
my tenure, as overall it was a quite cool year, so fruit intensity and acid profiles are
distinctive. Compared with the hot 2016 vintage we harvested later than normal.
Winemaking:
Winemaker: Conor Van Der Reest
Abv: 13.0%
Bottled: 2017
Closure: Stelvin
Cases Produced: 757

Tasting notes: A rich, stewed nose of rhubarb, plums and cinnamon brings a caramelised tart to mind, before a silken fruit-bomb of a palate unfurls, awash with strawberries, raspberries and milk chocolate. Structure is velvety, with some light white-pepper suggestions of oak throughout. Another exemplary Muse pinot.