TOLPUDDLE PINOT NOIR 2018

Winery notes (2018 Vintage)
"This wine is true to the Tolpuddle Vineyard Pinot Noir style: intensely aromatic, balanced with savoury spice notes from whole bunch fermentation, along with purity of varietal expression, fresh acidity and firm tannins. The 2018 vintage is very perfumed, medium bodied and approachable."

97/100 Decanter (2018 Vintage)
"Planted in 1988, the Tolpuddle Vineyard is situated in Tasmania's Coal River Valley, and is composed of 20ha of north east facing Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vines. The vineyard was purchased by Martin Shaw and Michael Hill Smith MW in 2011, having identified the potential to produce exceptional cool-climate single vineyard wines. Hand picked grapes are fermented as a combination of whole bunches and whole berries in open fermenters, with gentle plunging. The wine spends nine months in around 30% new French oak."

97/100 Halliday's Wine Companion (2018 Vintage)
"Hand-picked, a combination of whole bunch and whole berry in open fermenters, matured in French oak (33% new) for 9 months. It is a portrait of top end Tasmanian pinot noir, intensely aromatic and achieves complexity and depth to its spice-laden berry aromas and flavours. Beautiful."

96/100 Huon Hooke (2018 Vintage)
"Impressively deep red/purple colour, both dark and youthful. The bouquet is youthful and a tad under-developed, showing concentrated dark cherry and dark plum fruit and a hint of toasty oak, without obvious incursion of stemminess. The palate is medium to full-bodied, weighty for an Aussie pinot, with abundant soft tannins and real gravitas. A very smart young pinot, which just needs more time to reveal its full potential."

94+/100 Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front, September 2019 (2018 Vintage)
"This Pinot Noir release is marked in its spice and general savouriness but the oak seems to have been dialled down slightly on previous releases. It may just be the season. We get beet and black cherry, plum and twiggy spice, with gentle infusions of clove and woodsmoke. If it was a photograph it would be vivid with earth-like tones. Acid runs refreshingly through, keeping it lively, but there’s excellent flavour here in volume terms and an impressive strike of grainy tannin. It’s another tip-top release, without question."