Nothing tardy about the Slow Wine Co. Reserve Pinot Noir 2021

We’re starting the week off with bad wordplay and a quality Orange Pinot. This Slow Wine Co. Reserve Pinot Noir 2021 comes from the Johnson family’s vineyard planted in the 1990s, with Will Rickard-Bell making the wines. All promising so far. It’s a pretty robust wine for Orange, too, with its medium-bodied form driven along by sappy, almost syrupy raspberry coulis fruit. There’s a slight raw alcohol trade-off on the finish with this serious Pinot, but no disguising the mouthful of Pinot fruit here. Price is up there; that’s probably my only quibble, although, with only 2050 grapevines, the cost of production would be sky-high. Touch and go for higher points as well.

THE VERDICT

• Best drinking: nowish, no hurry
• Score (out of 20): 17.7
• Score (out of 100): 92
• Alcohol %: 14.2
• RRP (in $AUD): 65
• Winery website: https://slowwineco.com.au/
• Would I buy it?: a glass easy