Description
Ashton Hills has the oldest pinot vineyard in the Adelaide Hills. Stephen George wears two winemakers’ hats … one for his Ashton Hills wines coming from his estate vineyard high in the Adelaide Hills, the other for the iconic Wendouree wines in Clare. He refers to his dry grown Piccadilly Valley vineyard planted back in 1982 as the “Burgundy of the Adelaide Hills”. Stephen is one of Australia’s most highly respected winemaking viticulturalists and a pioneer of Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir. In 1982 he planted his dry-grown 3 hectare vineyard (which he refers to as his garden!) and has experimented much with trellising and planting 21 different pinot clones and settled on the best performing 5 clones. To give you an idea of the attention to detail of this craftsman, sometimes they go through 4 times hand picking the same row to ensure optimum ripeness! The result is sublime pinot noir.. unfortunately in minuscule quantities!
For this wine, Stephen George has long sourced small parcels of Pinot fruit from friends’ vineyards within the tiny Piccadilly Valley area. The 2018 includes some fruit from Ashton Hills blended with parcels from nearby vineyards, principally the Cemetery Block, Whisson Lake and Deanery Vineyard. George believes this is the finest set of source vineyards he’s had the luxury of working with in the Piccadilly.
All of the grapes were hand-picked, keeping individual clones separate in small open fermenters, with some whole-bunch additions for enhanced aromatics and structure. All ferments were with indigenous yeasts. Each clonal parcel was basket-pressed and went to seasoned French oak barrels with full solids. Just prior to bottling, the wine was racked and blended and only a small amount of sulphur was employed. The result is a quintessential Piccadilly Pinot: a fleshy middleweight with mulberry, eucalypt and undergrowth notes on both the nose and palate, some gingerbready mid-palate richness and a spicy, sappy close.
93 points, Nick Stock, www.JamesSuckling.com “A very fragrant, perfumed array of roses and bright red cherries ascend from the wine immediately with a refreshing, strawberry kick. The palate is pure and silky, fruit-focused style with smooth, ribbon-like tannins and a fresh, strawberry and raspberry kick at the finish. Drink in the next five years.”
Dave Brookes, The Adelaide Review, Sept 2019 “For the lover of pinot noir, it ticks a lot of boxes… it is a detailed, beautifully fragrant and perfumed wine with fruit notes of red cherry, raspberry and macerated strawberries. There is a dusting of Asian spice, rose petals, porcini mushrooms, amaro herbs and some gamey notes to keep the fussiest of pinotphiles happy. The wine’s bright energetic line, fine curtain of tannin and mouthfeel that evokes a sense of space and delicacy brings the whole package together. The 2018 release is a wine that is superb drinking straight off the shelf but will continue to improve over the next five years or so.”
RRP $41 **HOT 6 PACK BUY … Only $33.99 when you buy 6 of this wine** LIMITED TIME.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.