Punt Road (Australia) Pinot Noir 2006
I visited this estate in February, to catch up with winemaker Kate Goodman, with whom I’ve judged wineshows in Australia a couple of times now. We tasted through her lovely range of wines, where she takes full advantage of the relatively cool conditions of Victoria’s Yarra Valley to achieve real elegance and complexity. The Pinot was de-stemmed but not crushed prior to fermentation, with hand plunging in open fermenters, and then pressed very gently before 10 months of ageing in French oak coopered in Burgundy, about 25% of it new. This delicately coloured wine is very fragrant, with beautiful floral and cedary notes and plenty of exotic spice and smokiness coming through. There’s a certain truffly, very Burgundian earthiness too. It has really lovely, quite sumptuous and textural fruit on the palate, with a savoury, fine tannin and acid structure giving it excellent length. A terrific Pinot this. £10.99, Majestic.