November 2024 Releases: Delamere Vineyard 2023 Estate Pinot Noir $70 & Dalrymple Vineyards 2022 Pinot Noir $42

Delamere 2023 Estate Pinot Noir $70

VINTAGE CONDITIONS Our wines from the 2023 vintage will show the great elegance and finesse that comes with a cooler season. Taut acidity balanced by a crescendo of lifted aromatic flavours will make these wines an essential addition to any serious wine cellar. The third year of a la Nina’ weather pattern brought high rainfall and lower temperatures throughout the 2022 spring. Thankfully the rare, deep, red-ferrosol soils on which the Delamere vineyard is planted provide excellent drainage, and we were able to get our equipment onto the vineyard between showers to give the growing vines all the attention they required. A change to warmer conditions through December and January helped the ripening process catch up, but wet conditions returned through February and March. Judicious canopy management and a lucky warm, dry break in early April, allowed us to ripen our fruit for the Delamere Estate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to perfection. WINEMAKING The Pinot Noir was hand harvested from blocks on the Delamere vineyard aged from 23 and 42 years old. In 2023, we included roughly 30% whole bunches in all of the Delamere Pinot ferments. The fruit is fermented in open-top fermenters using hand plunging to extract colour and create the harmonious tannin structure. Each parcel commenced fermentation naturally, and was completed with a cultured yeast. The wine was pressed off after two to three weeks and filled to Burgundian coopered oak (30% new) to mature for 9 months before bottling. TASTING NOTES This wine has a very lifted fragrant aroma of delicate strawberries, and fresh raspberries and just a hint of violets. Earthy, savory notes of cedar, potpourri and aniseed are present on a palate showing delicate red currant fruits, framed by fine cocoa-power-like tannins. The wine travels across the palate with precision and tension. Minerally acidity gives great length to the wine with a lingering impression of violets, dark chocolate and chinotto. This is a tightly-wound and delicate wine, which will bloom over the next few years to reveal a depth of flavour and complexity that pinot noir is renowned for.

Dalrymple Vineyards 2022 Pinot Noir $42

Since the first black cluster vines were available for purchase from Tasmania in 1827, Tasmania has been recognised as a producer of quality Pinot Noir. It was the sloping hills overlooking Bass Strait that made the site unique and inspired the Hill-Smith family to purchase the vineyard, along with distinct single sites around Tasmania in their pursuit to produce the perfect Pinot. Dalrymple Pinot Noir is a blend of parcels from our own vineyards at Pipers River and Coal River Valley, along with our grower at Ouse. Each site and block is unique with distinctive individual terroirs, building complexity into the final blend. V I N TA G E C O N D I T I O N S A cold, wet winter provided the vines with ample soil moisture. In the north of the state early spring was cool, while late spring was unusually warm, still and dry, leading to a good set of berries during flowering. The southern vineyards were influenced by cool southerly weather which delayed flowering and resulted in uneven berry set and lower yields. Summer and autumn were mild in the north and slightly cooler in the south of the state. T E R R O I R / P R O V E N A N C E / R E G I O N Small batches of Pinot Noir were selected from sites in our own vineyards at Pipers River and Coal River Valley, along with our grower at Ouse. Each site and block has different clones and terroir, adding their own strengths and complexity to the final blend. The cooler northern maritime location at Pipers River produces Pinot Noir that is focused and structured, while the Coal River Valley in the south adds texture and softness to the mid-palate. W I N E M A K I N G Each of the parcels were picked based on their merit. Fermentation started after two to three days and continued for four to five days, with five to twenty percent whole bunches, depending on site. The cap was plunged up to three times a day to extract colour and tannin from the skins. The wine was then pressed and settled before being placed into French oak barriques (20% new) for 9 months, where malolactic fermentation took place prior to filtration and bottling TA S T I N G N O T E S The aromas are quite refined; wild blackberries mingle with red summer fruits and herbal notes. Given ten minutes in the glass, these characters take on riper notes of blackberry and blackcurrant with edges of black tea and dried provincial herbs. The palate is firm and elegant with fine acidity. With time red cherry, cranberry and a hint of tamarillo build into the mid-palate. F O O D PA I R I N G Peppered barbeque pork chops with sautéed apples in a cream brandy sauce, served on a bed of celeriac mash. Cashew cheese, red onion and wild mushroom galette. Also delicious with well-buttered and toasted hot cross buns. W I N E M A K E R Peter Caldwell H A R V E S T E D March & April 2022 R E G I O N Tasmania T O TA L A C I D I T Y 5.7 g/L P H 3.63 S O 2 74 mg/L A L C O H O L 13.5% C E L L A R I N G With careful cellaring this wine will evolve gracefully for 3-5+ years. F I R S T V I N TA G E R E L E A S E 1991