Tolpuddle Vineyard Pinot Noir 2021
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Winemaker Notes
This wine is true to the Tolpuddle Vineyard style. It has very intense red and dark berry fruit, as well as some wild fennel and rhubarb notes on the nose. On the palate, there is a lot of concentrated fruit, balanced by fresh acidity and some fine tannins. Cherry and raspberry notes through to darker blueberry and boysenberry give complexity to a palate that flows seamlessly, and some Chinese five spice characters give a hint of more savory notes to come with time.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Riffing off the same playbook as the excellent 2020 Pinot Noir, this 2021 Pinot Noir is fine, floral, mineral, structured and if possible, a little more structured and perfect than the 2020. It captures a ductile flow of tannin that shapes the fruit, capturing a glistening display of perfectly ripe, restrained fruit. Together, it makes for a polished, scintillating wine. Exceptional. Best After 2022. Rating: 96+
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James Suckling
I love the transparent, floral nose of this beautifully crafted and extremely fresh Tasmanian pinot noir. Fantastic interplay of mineral acidity with fresh black cherry and ripe strawberry fruit on the super-elegant palate. Long, silky and citrusy finish. From the Coal River Valley sub-region of Tasmania.
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Wine Spectator
Offers a memorable, aromatic core of fleshy black cherry, hints of clove and notes of five-spice, with accents of wintergreen, black licorice and cigar box. Reveals black tea, toasted herb and Mexican chocolate accents that linger on the long, satiny finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Burgundy-inspired, this renowned Tassie vineyard delivers a complex, classic and still quite young Pinot. Charred mushroom and olive notes mingle with ripe black cherry and blueberry fruit. Mint and chocolaty oak are tucked beneath. It’s dense and tightly wound when first opened but with air, it reveals layers of flavor, focus and harmony.
Other Vintages
2022-
Companion
Australian Wine - Decanter
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Suckling
James
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Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Spectator
Wine
- Decanter
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Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert -
Enthusiast
Wine
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Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert
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Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine -
Suckling
James
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Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert
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Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
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Parker
Robert
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Parker
Robert
Tolpuddle Vineyard was established in 1988 and it took its name from the Tolpuddle Martyrs: English convicts transported to Tasmania for forming an agricultural union. The leader of the Martyrs, George Loveless, served some of his sentence working on a property near Richmond, part of which is now Tolpuddle Vineyard.
The vineyard is planted with mature Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vines, facing north-east, and sloping gently up from Back Tea Tree Road. The soil is light silica over sandstone and of moderate vigour, ensuring well-balanced vines producing grapes of great flavour and intensity.
In 2006 Tolpuddle Vineyard won the inaugural Tasmanian Vineyard of the Year award, reflecting the performance of this unique and distinguished site.
Martin Shaw and Michael Hill Smith MW purchased the vineyard in 2011 and are fully committed to seeing Tolpuddle Vineyard recognised as one of Australia’s great single vineyards.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Directly south of the city of Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula wine region, the cool-climate island of Tasmania has earned an honorable reputation as the country’s finest producer of Sparkling Wine. Naturally the region also excels in top quality still wines from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Riesling, all distinguished because of a high natural acidity. Most of the Tasmania vineyards cluster around the eastern side of the island from north to south.