10 of February 2024’s best Pinot Noir releases

Hot off the back of this week’s reference to a Pinot Noir popularity bump, today I bring you a small assortment of the better Pinots of February.

Let’s go.

Oakridge 864 Aqueduct Block Henk Vineyard Pinot Noir 2022

More wizardry from David Bicknell at Oakridge. But it’s not wizardry, really, it’s just great Yarra Valley fruit and wise winemaking. All MV6 fruit, and just 2.9t/ha. For reference, Grand Cru Burgundy yields are closer to 4.2-4.4t/ha (rough conversion from hl/ha to t/ha). Little berries, and few of them, in other words. 20% whole bunches in the mix for this Pinot, and spends ten months in barrel and a further six months in tank before bottling. Just lovely. Voluptuous Yarra Valley Pinot. It’s perfumed, but a just-picked plum perfume (if you get my drift), and tends more purple berries than something cherried. Perfectly poised, medium weight, silken, powerful and yet hardly heavyweight. It just flows and flows, and then your bottle is gone. Maybe you could ask for more tannin, but why deny the delicious, just-rightness? Excellent wine. Best drinking: good now, no hurry. 18.7/20, 95/100. 13.3%, $96. Would I buy it? Definitely.

Attwoods Garibaldi Farm Pinot Noir 2021

Sprightly lo-fi Ballarat Pinot from Troy Walsh. Such a contrast to the quite defined and classic Oakridge above, it smells left of centre, with sarsaparilla, cranberry, pomegranate and pan juices, with a slightly oxidative ferrous edge. There is so much going on here – the acidity is sprightly, the pomegranate flavours intriguing, and the tang noticeable and cleverly refreshing. It’s different, complex, in an almost non-Pinot way, but charisma in droves. Best drinking: good now, and I’d go younger. 18.5/20, 94/100. 13%, $90. Would I buy it? Yes.

Burton McMahon George’s Vineyard Pinot Noir 2022

The Burton McMahon terroir project delivers again. A simple premise – two Pinot Noir wines, with fruit treated identically, the only difference being that each release comes from a different Upper Yarra vineyard. I’ve liked this project from the start, and the 2022 wines are great. Just great. If anything, these releases have a bit more welcome volume to them, and this is the more effusive and approachable wine of the pair. Cranberry, plum, a vein of chocolate, cherry liqueur. It’s a light to medium-bodied Yarra Pinot (not bold) but with a mid-palate expanse to it. It’s lucid and crunchy underneath, with some whole bunch spice for complexity, and I half expected it to be a bit bony on the finish. A thinking person’s Pinot was my vibe, especially with that structure. But it holds together nicely and with real generosity, even if you’d not call it plush. Best drinking: now, but no hurry – it has some way to go. 18.5/20, 94/100. 13.4%, $50. Would I buy it? Yes.

Burton McMahon Syme on Yarra Vineyard Pinot Noir 2022

Syme is the leaner and more svelte wine, but there really isn’t much in it. I see the oak here, but the core is all sour cherry fruit, and the longer you look, the more spiced cherry kicks in, and the more greyhound racing Pinot it looks. Probably my favourite of the pair, but nothing in it. Best drinking: good now, good in five years. 18.5/20, 94/100. 13.4%, $50. Would I buy it? Yes.

Attwoods Glenlyon Estate Pinot Noir 2021

Glenlyon is the Macedon Ranges vineyard for Attwoods, and it’s a different shape to the Ballarat wine above but has the same offbeat character. Turkish delight, chocolate, such an interesting exotic nose. A little red cherry, pithy tannins, and a unique truffled red fruit palate. Unusual. It’s quite chocolatey palate, too, but it’s not just oak. It’s Guylian – almond praline. There is a little sweet and sourness here, but man, this has so much character to it. Best drinking: nowish. 18/20, 93/100. $70. Would I buy it? Let’s share a bottle.

Kuru Kuru Pinot Noir 2018

Ripe and fleshy Central Pinot in rude health. Still vibrant ruby, a plush raspberry nose with just a little leaf litter development at the edges, mirrored on the palate. Just a smidgen ferrous and bold, perhaps, but man the Pinosity is grand. High quality, even if I think I’d have preferred it as a younger wine. Best drinking: now. 18/20, 93/100. 14%, $50. Would I buy it? Yes.

Tarras The Canyon Pinot Noir 2019

The top dog Tarras wine and from The Canyon Vineyard in Bendigo (Bendigo NZ). Great vibrant colour for its age. Proper Pinosity – cherries, pithy red fruit with a little animale meaty complexity. The finish looks a little decayed, but 9/10ths of this feels like a definitive ripe and expressive Pinot. I would love to have seen it 12 months ago, but gee, I like the presence and power. Impressed. Best drinking: now. 18/20, 93/100. 13.5%, $80. Would I buy it? Worth sharing a bottle at least.

Colmar Estate Block 3 Pinot Noir 2022

Orange Pinot Noir that feels just a bit bony, but high interest. A sappy, rather high-acid style that has limited red raspberry flesh but always feels a bit lean and pointy, like a sparkling base. There is a proper mushroomy Pinosity to this, regardless, with a style and sapidity that feels very serious, complete with structural vanilla bean oak through the middle. Great to see how it matures. Best drinking: probably worth a year or two in bottle for interest. 17.7/20, 92/100+. 13.5%, $55. Would I buy it? A few glasses.

Tarras Pinot Noir 2020

Central Otago Pinot Noir. Has a certain meaty chunkiness to it. Ripe plum dusty fruit that is just a little advanced and warm, but gee, it has se thickness and grip. I want a bit more delicacy than the Shiraz-like form. But hello, presence! Best drinking now. Don’t wait. 17.7/20, 92/100. 14%, $60. Would I buy it? A glass or two.

Kellybrook Siwa Pinot Noir 2021

Plenty of interest in the Kellybrook range. This Pinot, from the ‘home vineyard’, gets a little ahead of the fruit, but there’s power there too. Quite a herbal, stalky nose to kick this off, and the sweet vanilla oak then clashes against the rosemary and oregano. There’s a nice sappy Yarra Pinot in them somewhere, but it’s just components trying to come together for now. Best drinking: come back in a year. 17.5/20, 91/100+. 13.5%, $45. Would I buy it? A glass.