Description
WINNER – Best Value Winery 2025 – Halliday’s Australiain Wine Companion
Mulline is the creation of two Ben’s, Mullen and Hine who set out to showcase exciting single site expressions from the Geelong region with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir at the centre of this. Ben Mullen heads up the winemaking and prior to setting up Mulline cut his teeth at the likes of Domaine Dujac, Yarra Yering, Oakridge, Leeuwin Estate, Torbreck & Craggy Range before returning to deep dive into the diversity of Geelong’s terroir whilst at Clyde Park. Geelong geographically is a large GI and has a lot of diversity in both soil and climate, evident in Mulline’s single vineyard wines. From the ‘by the sea’ Portarlington vineyard east of the Geelong CBD exposed to Port Phillip Bay to the warmer clay dominant Sutherland Creek vineyard North West towards Ballarat.
“Such excellence never springs out of nowhere, and that’s certainly the case with Mulline. Clearly there are some fantastic vineyard resources in play here but the person who makes the wine – Ben Mullen – could not come more highly credentialed.” Campbell Mattinson, Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion
About this wine: 100% Pinot Noir from the Strathmore Vineyard, Sutherlands Creek, Moorabool Valley. Between Geelong and Ballarat, Moorabool Valley’s terroir was produced by volcanic activity and mediterranean climate. The warmest and driest of the subregions.
Clone MV6 & Abel planted in 1998 & 2015 on Grey and Brown loams with Fragmented Granite. The fruit was handpicked with various amounts of whole bunch used in the fermenters. The wine was open fermented with wild yeasts, two pump overs per day and left on skins between 9 and 12 days before being pressed to oak for natural malolactic fermentation. The final wine is 20% whole bunches and 30% of the wine saw new French oak and the rest was matured in old French puncheons and barriques. The wine sat with no movement for 8 months before being blended. No fining and minimal filtration before being bottled on the 7th December 2023. 12% alc.
From the winemaker: “My favourite block of Pinot Noir that comes into the winery and there is nothing else like it in Geelong. Interplanted clones, and hard to determine exactly what they are as the owners don’t even know, but majority of MV6 from working with this site for 5 years now. I think this makes the most exciting Pinot in the range. Always higher acid, and really aromatic. I find 25-30% Whole Bunch on this block has worked the best and with looking at the fruit that comes off this site every year it seems to be where it always sits. The most delicate Pinot and showcases the site perfectly. Close planted and always has a very long ripening period, which gives such delicate and fine tannin, and great fruit complexity. Oak use is very much the spicy/savoury end and medium toast, and very tight grain” – Ben Mullen
97 points, Philip Rich, 2025 Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion “A single-vineyard wine from the Strathmore Vineyard, planted with MV6 and Abel clones in the late 1990s; 20% whole bunches. Matured in 30% new puncheons and barriques. A deepish crimson ruby. More darkly fruited and concentrated than last year’s version. Dark cherries, damson plums, peony and spice on the bouquet. Saturates the palate, which is concentrated, structured, fleshy and very long. It’s so good now but will get even better over the next six to eight years and probably longer. Another superb 2023 Geelong pinot from the two Bens.”
95+ points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front “It presents a bed of fruit-filled flavour, all macerated and strewn with herbs, and while it sings and impresses through the mainstay of the palate, it’s the finish that really moves the bar higher. This wine pushes flavour well beyond the point where it had every reason to stop. The winemaker probably won’t like me saying this, but it’s a Pinot Noir that feels very Australian, in a positive way. It’s varietal, but it feels “very MV6”. Its flavours nestle into the palate, rather than being over-eager to lift off and out. It has that feel of being settled, like a cat after it’s finished kneading your lap. And yet it has that finish, that extra soar. It’s pretty special.”
RRP $64 Our Intro Price $54.99
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