This First Foot Forward Upper Yarra Pinot Noir 2023 feels like quite a departure from Martin Siebert’s usual wines. It’s bigger, grander, and thicker, and it needs a year or two to come together. Sourced from the Lone Star Creek Vineyard (which sounds like the town in a western). Milk chocolate oak with red fruit that dips into plum rather than bright raspberries. The oak is a bit sticky on top – it’s there and difficult to ignore. It’s definitely a mid-palate wine, though – chunky, with muscular fruit and roundness, with some bunchy spicy tannins for good measure. I like the impact here; the wine just needs a little laydown for all the elements to come together.

THE VERDICT

• Best drinking: at least another year.
• Score (out of 20): 18.7
• Score (out of 100): 92
• Alcohol %: 14
• RRP (in $AUD): 38
• Winery website: https://www.firstfootforward.com.au/
• Would I buy it?: a glass or two