Rating: 94
"Bright, clear crimson; an elegant, fine pinot that nonetheless has considerable underlying complexity to its black cherry, spice and forest notes, oak in restraint; the finish is long and persistent." - James Halliday

A warm low yielding vintage provided tiny Pinot Noir berries with intense concentration, evident in the glass. The nose has lifted aromatics; bursting with violets, cherries and rose petals, hallmarks of Pinot Noir grown in the Upper Yarra Valley and Lusatia Park Vineyard in particular. The fruit is supported by medium-toast spicy French oak. On the palate, the wine is medium bodied with pure dark cherries, extra spice, restrained oak and a lovely velveteen texture.

The wine is sourced from Lusatia Park Vineyard near Woori Yallock, in the cool, elevated, south western corner of the Yarra Valley. The Pinot Noir reserved for this wine is mostly grown on north facing slopes from mature MV-6 clones planted in 1985, at spacing of 3000 vines per ha. Vintage 2010 was the sixth consecutive extremely low yielding vintage, at approximately 1.5 tonnes per acre, affording remarkable fruit intensity and persistence.

After careful hand harvesting in mid March, the fruit was destemmed but not crushed to preserve intact berries. It then underwent a pre-fermentation cold soak for three days before being beginning fermentation with indigenous yeasts. The fermentation took place in small, open vessels at warm temperatures with the ferment very rarely manipulated to preserve fruit integrity as much as possible. Once fermentation neared completion the skins were gently plunged to ensure adequate flavour and colour extraction.

After 2 weeks, the wine was pressed to a range of new and old French oak barrels for malolactic fermentation followed by 10 months maturation. All of the wines remained in oak with a single racking until blending and bottling under screwcap in early 2010.