Description
Vaughn Dell and Linda Morice purchased the tiny 2 hectare Golders Vineyard in Pipers River in 2005 and re-named it Sinapius Vineyard. At the ripe old age of 24, Vaughn and Linda knew that their home state of Tasmania would provide Australia’s finest cool climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in the future. Originally planted 20 years ago to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir they have added two new sections with updated clones of both varieties, plus a little Grüner Veltliner to play around with. Both sections are ultra-close planted at 7700 and 10250 vines/ha respectively. The aim here is low bunch weights and yields per vine, like Burgundy, rather than tonnes per acre. Only perfectly ripe fruit is harvested with great care taken in the vineyard right down to removing the ‘ears’ from Pinot Noir bunches to ensure even ripeness.
Vaughn is a vigneron in the true sense doing all the work from pruning through to bottling with fanatical attention to detail. Production will not go beyond 1000 dozen, even with the sourcing of small parcels from other local vineyards that Vaughn leases and works himself.
Pipers River has a long reputation of outstanding Pinot Noir and the wines Vaughn sensitively crafts are as akin to fine Burgundy as they are Tasmanian Pinot Noir.
We were wowed by this delicious new release.. the concentration, structure and balance is a salute to grand Cru Burgundy if ever there was one in Tassie’s Pipers River .. this stunning Pinot will blossom with bottle age.
Notes from winery… “100% Estate Grown exclusively from one of our high density Pinot Noir blocks. The wine gets its name from the meaning – Enclave: a unique place enclosed within another territory. This particular vineyard block is positioned in the prized North-East facing mid-slope of our property, at a high-density of 7700-10250 vines, with 12 different clones of Pinot Noir. This is a much higher density and clonal mix than any other vineyard in the Pipers River region, and possibly Tasmania.
The close spacing results in smaller bunches and berries, with a greater concentration of flavour, structure and minerality. It takes two vines to create just one 750ml bottle of wine!
Low yields (<0.5kg per vine – 30hl/ha) Handpicked at 12.4 Baumè, sorted in the vineyard and again in the winery, 100% whole bunch wild yeast fermentation for 21-24 days. Matured in French Oak barriques and hogsheads (40% new) for 10 months, and bottled without fining or filtration in March 2016. 1518 bottles produced. Alc 13.5%. Cellar to 2025+ .Our first release of this wine is very promising, with great structure, balance and purity already evident in such a young wine, proving the hard work of high density planting really does pay off. “
Closed tightly wound on opening…. guarding its secrets for the patient or for those with large glasses.. delicate sweet red fruits, shrouded in spice, earth, minerality and sous bois. The palate is medium weighted and long, highlighted by purity and crunchy red berry fruits, cured meats, oriental spices, interwoven with intense fine boned structure with an abundance of super-fine Pinot tannins; silky but structural.
If the 2015 ‘Home Vineyard’ Pinot Noir reminds us of good Gevrey then this is ‘Grand Cru’, one of the Chambertins … Do not hesitate here if you are a burgundy or pinot collector
97 points James Halliday and included in Top Rated Pinots for 2018 in his 2018 Australian Wine Companion “Planted to tightly spaced vines evocative of Burgundy at 10 250 vines per ha, the idea is to draw upon the competitive nature of the vines’ root systems, resulting in greater concentration and purity of fruit. Indeed, this a more compact, tightly wound wine than the Home Vineyard, drawing upon a core of damson plum, sour cherry, bonbon and forest floor notes. The plume of flavour is given crunchy energy by sinuous tannins, livewire acidity and a mineral tang. Well handled oak and some whole cluster briar round out the package.”
RRP $88 Our Price $78.99
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