Winery notes (2023 Vintage)
"The vivacious fruit and spices are present as always, but are perhaps lighter in tone and more exotic. The palate has a savoury tone, which sits surprisingly well with the usual Cornish Point indulgences: luxurious fruit and exotic woods like Sandalwood, even Lebanon Cedar. The tannins are beautifully balanced and integrated, ever present, but never interfering; just contributing to the overall stature.
Vinification The unique gravity flow winery enabled the grapes to be gently destemmed directly into open-top fermenters without pumping, with 20% retained as whole clusters. Traditional fermentation with a moderately long maceration on skins has extracted good colour and tannin with considerable depth of flavour. This wine was aged for 13 months in 25% new French oak barrels from artisan Burgundian coopers. In accordance with our non interventionalist approach to winemaking, this wine was fermented with indigenous yeast and malolactic, and was not fined or filtered."
Rated Outstanding & 96/100 Cameron Douglas MS, November 2024 (2023 Vintage)
"A fabulous bouquet of wild red flowers and ripe dark red berry fruits of raspberry and new season Otago cherries. There’s layers of earth and mineral from sand to white clay then spices from barrel and fruit. A complex an engaging wine on the palate with core flavours of spice and berries, forest flowers and a distinctive mineral earthy complexity. Fine and delicious, taut, and youthful with a fine squeeze and tension. A wine that will stand the test of time in your cellar, look after it. Best drinking from 2030 through 2040+."
94/100 Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, October 2024 (2023 Vintage)
"Strawberry, raspberry, some thyme and herbal perfume, also a bit of a stony/mineral thing, which is nice. It’s plump in red and blue fruit, thyme-laced and fragrant, with a graphite feel to tannin, lots of flavour and soft red fruits to close. It feels balanced and good. An excellent example of Pinot from a marginal region, and the mouthfeel is the best of the trio."
Reviews for previous vintages below…
5 Stars Michael Cooper (2022 Vintage)
"From the company-owned Cornish Point Vineyard at the eastern end of Bannockburn, 6 kilometres from the winery, this is always one of my favourite Felton Road reds. The youthful 2022 vintage was matured for 13 months in French oak barriques (25 per cent new), and bottled without fining or filtering. Deeply coloured, it is mouthfilling, with concentrated, ripe cherry, plum and spice flavours, seasoned with nutty oak, and good tannin backbone. A complex, savoury, very harmonious wine, it's well worth cellaring to 2026+."
5 Stars & 98/100 Bob Campbell MW, The Real Review, September 2022 (2021 Vintage)
"Off to a good start with an intense aroma that is a mix of floral/violet and blackcurrant compote. The palate is more complex and very intense with a peacock’s tail display of dark cherry, cassis, oriental spices and a whisper of nutty oak. A tangy undercurrent of ripe acidity helps drive a very lengthy finish revealing a wine with real power. Delicious now but will develop well with bottle age. Easy to appreciate."