2023 Place of Changing Winds Between Two Mountains Pinot Noir
2023 Place of Changing Winds Between Two Mountains Pinot Noir
We have produced only one Pinot Noir from 2023. This was because when we sampled a blend of all our best parcels (including those that typically produce our Beyond the Forest cuvée), they simply worked best together. The result is a perfumed, complex, and structured Pinot that is also one of the most seductive Pinots we have produced.
There is a core of sweet fruit that belies the cool, late season and speaks more to our low yields, but there is also plenty of Asian spice characters on the nose and palate, crystalline red fruit, high-toned florals (violet and rose) and driven finish with plenty of fine structure for aging. It is a gorgeous drink now if you give it plenty of air in a decanter, but it will certainly cellar well. Bottled in January 2025, whole bunches made up almost a third of the ferments (bringing a lot of perfume and spice), and the wine spent 21 months maturing in a range of Stockinger casks (228, 500, 600 and 1,000 litres) and some Wineglobe (glass fermenters), with only around 5% new oak.
Alcohol: 12%. Closure: Diam. 6449 bottles and only 24 magnums produced.
“This is the only pinot noir from 2023 from POCW. About a third is whole bunch across all the clones and sites on the estate vineyard. The wine ends up in Stockinger barrels for 21 months. Serious approach. A very good wine. Very. Fine, tight, tense, succulent, dark cherry, sour cherry, fennel, blood orange, white pepper, game meat – a lot on, you could keep listing detail but the idea is this is complex, compelling, with everything woven beautifully together. Fruit feels bright and sweet yet just on the cusp, and so fresh, the persistence of all that superb – a touch overtly fruity for those who seek that. An elegance but with a kink of funk and interest. The x-factor we seek. And the personality of place. Stellar.” 95 points, Mike Bennie, The Wine Front
“The 2023 Between Two Mountains Pinot Noir leads with sandalwood and clary sage, cranberry, cigar box and graphite. In the mouth, the wine is loaded with dried herbs, cold tea and wet asphalt, and it lingers long on the palate through the finish. There are also notes of rose petals and cracked pistachios. Texturally, the wine is shaped by sandy tannins that feel both pliable and supportive to the fruit. All things point toward the clarity and focus of this wine being exacerbated by another day open, be sure to give it some air. It was made with around 30% whole bunches and matured for 21 months in a range of Stockinger casks (228, 500, 600 and 1,000 liters) and Wineglobe. 12% alcohol, sealed under Diam and wax.” 93 points, Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
“This is an utterly beautiful, elegant Pinot Noir with floral black cherry fruit and some very fine Asian spice and pepper notes in the background. In the mouth, initially this is light, supple and fruity with some wild strawberry and cherry, but then after a while some spicy structure emerges, with a bit of grip. But it’s all supple and weightless – the Pinot Noir equivalent of a Zalto wine glass! Hard to resist now, but I suspect this will age well over the mid-term. A really beautiful expression of Australian Pinot Noir.” 96 points, Jamie Goode, Wine Anorak