Pinot noir

Overview

Our Pinot noir vines were sourced from Western Victoria in 1971. This material was acquired before individual clonal selections were considered, and as such, our older Pinot blocks are a mix of many clones. A visiting French ampelographer (vine expert) once told John Middleton (Founder) that there were in the order of 30+ clones in our original Pinot block. Subsequent plantings of Pinot on this site have been selections from the original block, and the clonal selection has been somewhat refined. There are also some newer blocks of Pinot noir planted (as of 2008) to American rootstocks and are of specific clonal material, namely MV6 and 777. In the winery the emphasis is on simplicity. By today’s standards, relatively short fermentations are employed, typically 8-10 days. This is followed by 16 months of barrel maturation consisting of 25% new oak barriques. Minimal, if any, fining and filtration is carried out prior to bottling.

Vertical tasting notes

2019 Pinot noir

Release Note

One of the most brilliant characteristics of Pinot noir as a variety is that it tends to mirror, reflect and express the season more clearly than any other variety. The 2019 Pinot noir shows some riper, more robust characters than are typical of Mount Mary Pinot noir, whilst still carrying our hallmark elegance and purity. On the nose there are stewed plums, quince, cherry liquor, sauté mushroom and spice. The palate is rich, decadent, silky and seamless. There are flavours of plum, stewed strawberry, cherries and fine grained toasty oak which will meld with the wine a little more with time in bottle. Currently, primary fruit characteristics feature more prominently in this wine over secondary characters of earth and undergrowth. Expect these savoury elements to become more obvious as the primary fruit subsides over the coming years.

Released in the

Tasting notes for past vintages are only available to the Members’ Table. Please to view.