Port Phillip Estate Pinot Noir 2010
Tasting Notes
Vineyard
Port Phillip Estate is located at Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula. The maritime climate and southerly latitude combined with the estate’s deep red loam soils are ideal for cool climate viticulture. The vineyard is set in a sheltered natural amphitheatre with north and north-east facing slopes providing excellent drainage and exposure to sunlight.
Vintage
The 2009 – 2010 growing season began with an earlyish budburst, despite the 2009 Winter being appropriately cool and giving good rains which fully recharged the soil profile. Most vineyards, having produced such a tiny crop in 2009, had restocked nutrition reserves in their permanent wood and expressed a moderate to slightly high crop potential early on. Rains came quite frequently through the Spring and early Summer, reminding growers of earlier seasons before the run of recent warmer vintages. An unseasonal warm spell in October/ November (before flowering) combined with the rains to induce high vegetative vigour in some blocks. These circumstances combined to pull back the yield potential slightly, through imperfect fruit set. Most blocks thus did not require thinning at veraison. Conditions from flowering and through the ripening period were a welcome moderate to cool and even though harvest was still early and in the pattern of the last four years, the 2010 vintage provided an exciting opportunity to make wines of beautifully balanced ripeness and excellent regional expression..
Viticulture
The Port Phillip Estate Pinot noir is a single vineyard wine produced from 5.08 hectares of estate fruit. The blocks were planted in 1988.
Winemaking
The fruit is 100% destemmed and fermented, without yeast inoculation, in open vats for 18 to 21 days. The malolactic conversion also is indigenous. The maturation period is 12 months in French oak (20% new).
Alcohol
13.5%
Tasting Note
Pretty cherry/ magenta colour. The nose shows bright, clean raspberry and strawberry red fruits, plus a reddish earthiness and base notes of tea leaf and dried pine needle. The palate is lively and robust with fresh acidity, a youthful tannin profile and plenty of varietal red fruits.
Cellaring
Will reward further bottle ageing.
Tasting Notes
2010 (PDF)
2009 (PDF)
2008 (PDF)
Port Phillip Estate Pinot Noir 2010
Reviews
GOURMET TRAVELLER WINE, April/May 2012
Slightly funky and meaty notes on the bouquet, with some forward development, and a fleshy but lively palate of good intensity and balance, even if it fades a little toward the finish. Savoury, mellowing, forward and tasty. 92 points
HUON HOOKE
CANBERRA TIMES, Panorama, 3rd December 2011
Mornington Peninsula has staked a pretty fair claim for making some f this country’s best pinot noir. So when a pinot made by Sandro Mosele, one of the great winemakers of the Peninsula arrives for a taste it doesn’t take long for the cap to come off at my place. It would be fair to say, chardonnay and pinot noir are Sandro’s specialities. This 2010 is a powerful wine, with the possibility of greater development over the next five to 10 years. If you don’t have time to wait you’re in luck because it also drinks superbly right now. Red cherry fruits dominate the aromas and palate. There’s more here too, a lovely dark tar and savoury character that separates this wine from a mere lolly water pinot. The palate is light to begin then you quickly become aware of its power. The finish is awash with fine grainy tannins. Its savoury elements should match well with the mushrooms and spinach. The ricotta and pastry of the tart will be the perfect foil to soften the grip from this wine’s firm fine finishing tannins.
FERGUS MCGHIE
THE AGE GOOD WINE GUIDE 2012
A vibrant and brightly fruited pinot noir that has ripe, upbeat strawberry, wild raspberry and light cherry fruit aromas, some sweet perfume and sappy, undergrowthy complexity. The palate’s lithe and juicy: fine tannins stretch in linear shape – quite svelte and even – and with plenty of strawberry and cherry flavour. A fun, easy going style, with good concentration and clarity. Rating: 93 points
NICK STOCK
WINE TASTE WEEKLY, Edition 41, 18th November 2011
A great vintage for Port Phillip Estate, with a calm confidence and an effortless seamlessness, supported by well-structured, fine tannins. Excellent definition of red and black cherries, cherry kernel and blackberry intensity flows into a sour cherry finish. Drink 2012-2018. Rating: 93 points
TYSON STELZER
WINEFRONT.COM.AU, 2nd November 2011
A ripper release from PPE. Cherry pip and red fruit, spice, florals, earth, sage and rosemary – aromatic complexity. It’s medium bodied with a strong core of minerally acidity, which happily, is not too domineering this vintage. Has terrific shape and focus – lightly chalky shaping tannin – and a crisp spicy finish. Sensitively made. An energetic and lively wine offering insanely good value, given its quality, ‘breeding’ and innate sense of sophistication. Drink: 2014 – 2020. Rating: 94+ points
GARY WALSH
THE WEEKLY REVIEW, 5th October 2011
Port Phillip Estate and its sibling, Kooyong, have been on fire lately, and this stylish wine continues the trend. Perfumed aromas of red and black cherries, plum, spice and rhubarb are given added complexity from sappy, smoky notes. There’s a vibrant core of cherry, strawberry and raspberry flavour that is as interesting as it is delicious and well balanced by tannins that offer good grip and bright acid. The wine finishes long with cherry and a sweet wave of strawberry flavour. Rating: 4 stars
BEN THOMAS
Download Reviews
2010 (PDF)
2009 (PDF)
2008 (PDF)