Awards and Accolades

91 Points - Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
"There’s a very fine line between pleasure and pain, as they say in the classics, and the 2015 pinot noir releases of William Downie walk on its very edge. This Mornington version is deliciously sweet-sour and free-flowing, its fruit flavours tumbling headlong into earth and root vegetable areas; this is ripe but any sense of sweetness is fleeting at most. It feels so free, and so loose, that the threat of oxidation never seems too far off; melody staves off chaos, but only just. That’s the context, the picture. More specifically this is a fine-fingered wine, delicate even, complex by nature, brown bread and spring flower notes on backing vocals. It’s an experience. It’s incredible hard to rate; it doesn’t play by the established rules."

2013 Vintage: 95 Points - James Halliday, Wine Companion
"The excellent colour heralds a fragrant and expressive bouquet with exotic spices, roasted meat and dark berries; the powerful palate has considerable richness and drive to its panoply of richly juicy red and black fruits."

The Winery

William Downie established his own label in 2003 after several years living and working in Burgundy. His intention is to produce wines of purity and detail that reflect their place of origin. They are made in the most natural way possible, not pushed or shoved in any direction. They are not added to or subtracted from. Although each of the William Downie wines is made from Pinot Noir, the Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula and Gippsland are more different than they are similar. William was the Gourmet Traveller Wine Magazine Young Australian Winemaker of The Year for 2006.