When a new Adelaide Hills name delivers – introducing Scanlon Wines

In between the endless spammy requests for sponsored posts (no thanks) and press releases (lots of Halliday news today) there is the occasional jewel that pops up in the Australian Wine and Drinks Review inbox.

Sometimes this nugget of fun is an invite to an epic tasting (who needs an excuse to drink back vintage wines? Not me). Sometimes, it’s kind words from the industry (thanks Vincent), and sometimes it’s the promise of great wines to come in the post.

The email from Harry Scanlon falls into the last column.

I hope Harry doesn’t mind, but I’m just going to copy and paste the whole intro from his email, because the yarn here is great. I was excited. I challenge anyone interested in Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir not to immediately say ‘I want to try this’ too:

“My name is Harry Scanlon and I am the winemaker, partner viticulturist and owner of Scanlon Wines in the Piccadilly Valley, Adelaide Hills. Our focus is on premium Pinot Noir, we live and work on the estate where we tend to the vines and make the wines ourselves.

I have worked at Ashton Hills under Stephen George and Liam Van Pelt for the last few years, and before that Taras Ochota of Ochota Barrels. We have also been growers over the years, with our fruit going into award-winning and sought-out wines, including Taras Ochotas “Impeccable Disorder” Pinot Noir ($95) of which our fruit makes up 100%. We are very inspired by Burgundy, having a higher density block, where we cut off bunches to reduce yields to 3/4 bunches a vine in areas.

Our new release 2022s are the culmination of many years of hard work, and after being sold out of our 2021s for many months, I am keen to share them. Would love to send you a sample to see what you think if possible!“

Unsurprisingly, I said yes.

What’s even more satisfying is that all that promise, all that contextual quality and effort shows up in the three Scanlon Wines below.

That’s important because so often, new producers have endless love for their newborn baby wine label and yet the wines just miss the mark on price, style or quality.

But not this Scanlon trio. There’s an expression, a detail, a blood-sweat-and-tears intensity here that I think marks Scanlon as a top dog Hills producer from day one. Even though I’ve been wobbling through with a weird gastro thing (nausea for a week, unfun) and then a head cold (I’m so tired of phlegm), I wanted to drink these wines when they were open.

Buy direct from Scanlon here.

Scanlon Estate JMS Pinot Noir 2022

Handpicked by Scanlon family members from the top of the high density block on the Scanlon Vineyard. Fruit is fully destemmed and sees just 14% new oak. Just 3 barrels produced. There’s a tomato bush and black pepper spice here thought this was stems, but it’s not – a vineyard character? Certainly charismatic. Mint, Mushroom, tomato juice, raspberry and blackberry. There is this luscious ripe red fruit and varietal punch, with that threatening-to-be-dry-red Adelaide Hills Pinot punch, that makes this feel big and powerful, yet not overdone. A Shiraz drinkers Pinot, yet varietal. Such excellent acidity and tannins too – it’s all so right, in a way that Ashton Hills Pinot made famous. Great stuff. Best drinking: good now and will hold together for a decade (but why wait?). 18.7/20, 95/100. 13.5% (14% in the notes), $75. Would I buy it? Yes.

Scanlon Estate Pinot Noir 2022

Sourced off both the top and the bottom blocks on the vineyard, with 10% whole bunches. Spends 11 months in French oak. Another winner too. Shares the tomato leaf and raspberry of its fancier brethren but it’s also more molten and plummy and ripe. Such a substantial Pinot, again. Light coloured but powerful. Raspberry and tomato juice, a big personality. Full, tannic, big. Not the bombastic perfection of the top wine in its volume (it’s a bit more round), but what a mouthful of convincing Pinosity. Best drinking: now and for probably five to eight years (though not as long as the JMS). 18.5/20, 94/100. 13.5%, $50. Would I buy it? Yes.

Scanlon Estate Fumé Blanc 2022

Probably the best barrel-influenced Australian Sauv I’ve had this year. Fermented and matured in aged French oak for 8 months. What a delight this is. That twist of dill and a perfectly mouthwatering palate of lemon and white pepper with judicious textural highlights. I can’t go past how well the acidity feels here – so perfectly right and tangy but with this palate of quite juicy stony lemony flavour. Spot on, in a top-end Sancerre mode. Best drinking: nowish and over the short term (but don’t wait). 18.5/20, 94/100. 12.5%, $29. Would I buy it? A bargain. Yes.