Description
Paul Scorpo has been quietly crafting beautiful wines in Mornington Peninsula alongside Australia’s top shelf cool climate winegrowers.
One of Paul Scorpo’s first jobs in life was in the cellar at Penfolds Barossa Valley winery. Since then the wheel has turned full circle through teaching politics, designing championship golf courses and running a successful landscape architecture business back to following his green thumb and planting a family vineyard on the Mornington Peninsula.
After extensive research of site and soil characteristics on the Peninsula, he settled on an old apple orchard at Merricks North with ancient clay soils, protection from the harsh cold winds coming off the southern ocean, a gentle slope and dual aspects, which combine to provide the site with ideal ripening conditions for a range of varieties. Paul and his family and their connection to the land are uncompromising in his quest to produce the area’s finest wines with closer plantings, more clonal selections. Vines are planted on north east slope (a brilliant sun trap) on red clay soils derived from Eocene volcanics dating back 40 million years. He has championed Pinot Gris which is also planted on the southwest slope towards Port Phillip Bay. Fine wine is in the Scorpo blood across generations from Sicily, Sardinia and Australia. Paul sources small parcels of fruit from other vineyards he manages on the peninsula to use in the Aubaine and Noirien wines. Scorpo Wines have depth, refinement and texture. They are recognised as a leader among the quality-focused producers of the Mornington Peninsula.
Noirien was one of the nicknames for Pinot Noir in Burgundy that goes back as far as 1325.
About this wine from the winemaker: “The fruit for the 2024 Noirien Pinot Noir was grown on two north-facing slopes on a property that we manage adjacent to the Scorpo Estate Vineyard in Merricks North. The cooler than average 2024 season resulted in each block being picked slightly later than average, despite their tiny yields, which varied from 2.3 to 3.3 tonnes/hectare (equivalent to about 1 tonne/acre across all blocks). Divided up into 4 parcels, the fruit was picked over 2 weeks, between March 11th and March 26th; three parcels were cold-soaked for several days prior to fermentation in open fermenters, whilst one parcel was fermented as whole bunches. After pressing, followed by 7 months of maturation in mostly older French oak barriques (11% new), all barriques were racked and blended, prior to bottling without filtration in early December, 2023.
“Whilst some vintages tend to highlight either brighter red, or darker fruit characters, this 2023 release of Noirien seems to encapsulate both spectrums, creating a rather intriguing Pinot Noir. The influence of whole bunch is evident on the nose with lovely fruit lift, as well as on the palate, whilst underlying this there is some more brooding dark cherry, plum and olive fruit flavours. As a young wine, the tannins have a certain presence and add a savoury touch, but the fruit weight, especially once it starts to open up, is more than ample to carry them confidently.”
New vintage just arrived … reviews for 2023 … 92 points, Jane Faulkner for James Halliday Wine Companion “One of the excellent go-to pinots on the Peninsula thanks to its core of tangy, juicy fruit and fresh appeal. It’s a little savoury, spicy with tangy fruit and puckering acidity matched to the light pull of the tannins before finishing dry. Nice drinking here.”
92 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front “Dark cherry, earthy, quite some orange peel amaro type things happening too, along with some brown spice and fennel. It’s fleshy and juicy, offers some gustatory bitterness, ripe strawberry, chicory, a grainy grip to tannin, with a saline and savoury finish of good length. Distinctive wine. Different, but good.”
RRP $43 Our Special Price $35.99 when you buy 6 or more of this wine
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