Single Vineyard Ferrous Pinot Noir 2010
Tasting Notes
Vineyard
This is a single site wine produced from 1.69 hectares of the Ferrous vineyard.
Winemaking
The fruit is 100% destemmed and fermented in large oak foudre for 24 days without yeast inoculation. The malolactic conversion in barrel is also indigenous. The maturation period is 18 months in French oak (33% new). This wine is bottled without fining or filtration.
Vintage
The winter of 2009 was one of the warmest on record and budburst was early. Despite this, average to above average winter rainfalls adequately recharged vineyard soil profiles and from the outset, Kooyong was well placed with solid nutritional stores in permanent wood, after carrying such a small crop in 2009. The inflorescences that emerged were of a good size but the spring temperatures were about a degree above the average and there was an unusually warm spell in November following above average rainfall in October. This encouraged high vegetative vigour and went on to compromise flowering and fruit set somewhat. Overall, none of the blocks went on to require any green thinning at veraison and cropping levels were moderate. Although harvest began about a week earlier than normal, the period from February to April was the coolest in eight years and delivered slow ripening with no heat spikes. The fruit that presented in 2010 was clean, the flavours balanced, ripe yet savoury and the tannin spectrum was quite exciting..
Alcohol
13.5%
Tasting Note - July 2012
Dark blood-maroon colour. This wine is characteristically closed and brooding now, only reluctantly giving up aromas of crushed ironstone, pink grapefruit, fresh beetroot, wild/ sour cherries and a forest floor note. As in the best years, the beauty of this vintage of Ferrous lies in its capacity to express a density of fruit flavours but then an utterly pure, savoury line at the same time. Pert acidity and assertive tannin propel the palate to length. An excellent vintage of this wine.
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Single Vineyard Ferrous Pinot Noir 2010
Reviews
JAMES HALLIDAY AUSTRALIAN WINE COMPANION 2013
Deep garnet; dark and savoury and you cannot but help being struck by the strong sense of ironstone in the bouquet, coupled with dark fruits and sappy complexity; the palate is firm, taut and rugged, needing time to soften; the fine acidity, ample tannins and weighty fruit, not to mention the closure should see this evolve in to something special. Drink by 2022. 94 points
JAMES HALLIDAY
AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW, 22-24 March 2013
More butch and deeper: soused cherries, pomegranate, poached pear. Tongue-coating and silky before building large tannins. Sourdough raising mouth aromas. Brilliant. 96 hedonic (97 empiric) points
TIM WHITE
AUSTRALIAN GOURMET TRAVELLER WINE, Feb/ Mar 2013
Majestically composed Pinot filled with aromas of cherry, fresh bracken and herbs, some sweet complex spice and an alluring building perfume in the glass. The palate’s powerful and elegant, with admirable precision and long ripe cherry flavour.
GREAT WINE DRIVES - MORNINGTON PENINSULA
WINE WILL EAT ITSELF, 22 February 2013
Colour me a sceptic when it comes to the flavours of the earth making their way, unadulterated, into the flavours of the wine but there’s no doubting the ferruginous edge that is almost always exhibited in the Kooyong Ferrous Pinot – sourced from a single vineyard which has a prevalence of ironstone pebbles in its soil. Coincidence? I’m really not sure. This is the most forward of the three single vineyard Pinot Noir releases from Kooyong in 2010. There is strong and concentrated thread of raspberry which runs up against the earthen and ironstone characters. A strong savoury dimension for sure, with some beetroot as well, but there is also a sweet core of red fruit here which will please many drinkers. The acidity is brisk and, along with a lick of furry tannin, provides considerable architectural edifice. No doubting it will age but you can go at it now with a decant. 93 points
JEREMY PRINGLE
THE AGE EPICURE, 15 January 2013
The Pinot from the Ferrous vineyard is named for the sedimentary soils containing ironstone, a character that comes through in this wine. This vintage also offers gorgeous ripe black fruit, especially sweet cherries, plus orange zest and blood orange.
JANE FAULKNER
INDAILY ADELAIDE, 17th August 2012
The most obvious, and easiest to recognise, and therefore the one usually lauded most noisily, is the Ferrous. Its iron-rich ground gives it the aroma of rain on hot rusty galvo. Its fruits are raspberry, strawberry and maraschino cherry: obvious simple confectioneries with the texture of Medlar Gels. The wine is planar and predictable, and with that distinctive, natural glycerol smoothness that is common to many of Sandro’s wines. The finish is a long taper of aluminium-like acidity, wrapped in soft, furry tannins. Of the three, this is the easiest to like early in the piece. 93 points
PHILIP WHITE
WINEFRONT, 9th August 2012
This is a very strong release of Ferrous pinot noir. Grown on a patch of Kooyong vineyard and wild fermented in large oak. Iron and earth. A sense of calm, cold authority. Fruit is dark berried and grippy. Herbs and spices and no lack of them. Reductive through the finish. Feels ropey for the most part, with lots of grip, but it smooths out through the finish, a churning wave spearing onto the shore. Needs time but should be stellar once mature. Drink 2016 – 2022+. 95 points
CAMPBELL MATTINSON