Lunch with the Tolpuddles

Lunch with the Tolpuddles

Very delicate nose – lean and just slightly nutty with a real Shaw & Smith house style to the lees. Long and lean palate moves between being too lean and a little oaky when cold, and then a story of acid-driven freshness and balance as it warms up. Is it too lean? Maybe just a little, but you’d expect that to improve with more time in bottle, and the palate feels perfectly ripe, even and long otherwise. Classy stuff. 18.5/20, 94/100

Tolpuddle Vineyard Pinot Noir 2012  (Coal River Valley, Tas) $75 RRP
‘The problem with so many Australian Pinots is that either they are too stemmy or too dry-reddish. We don’t want either.’ says Michael Hill Smith. Again handpicked, the grapes transported to Bay of Fires where they where fermented in barrique and then transported in barrel to Shaw & Smith. 25% whole bunches utilised, open fermented and hand plunged. 30% new oak. TA 6.1, pH 3.42, 13% alc.
This has lovely redcurrant and just a little spearmint on the nose, with quite a round and generous palate, almost soupy in its red fruit thickness, and a little light to finish. Vital, if not profound, this is very primary in it’s fruit ripeness and quite round through the middle, the style just needing a little more detail to be sublime. Still delicious, juicy and seriously tasty.  18.3/20, 93/100