The mercurial 2023 Curly Flat Pinot Noir range

Challenging. That’s the word you see in vintage reports when a harvest was pretty tough. Usually, the ‘challenging’ reference is followed up with some sort of positive spin about how there are still plenty of great wines, or how every vigneron conquered the weather demons every time.

2023 in the Macedon Ranges was challenging. It’s not challenging like a wet year in the Hunter Valley, where half the red grapes don’t get ripe, but a series of frost and rain events throughout the cool 2023 Macedon Ranges growing season lobbed up plenty of, erm, challenges.

You can see the season writ large in the 2023 Curly Flat Pinot Noir trio too. Typically, the Curly site at Lancefield is the warmer end of the Ranges and produces what are often lush wines (for a chilly region). But these ’23s aren’t lush – there’s a herbal line through here that had me thinking of Alsace Pinot, with crunch and ferrous tannins, which is unsurprising given that 2023 was one of the wettest and coolest vintages (with over double the average growing season rainfall) since the Curly Flat vineyard was first planted in 1992.

That all sounds negative, but it’s important to point out that they’re not bad wines, but of a style that is very different to the usual Curly Flat norm.

Let’s have a look:

Curly Flat Pinot Noir 2023

The OG Pinot Noir, drawn from blocks across the property. Interestingly, despite the low alcohol, its pH is still 3.67, and its acidity is lowish at 5.3. It certainly smells less ripe, with a nose that is briary, brambly, and less expressive with lantana, tomato leaf and tight fruit. There’s a sappy raspberry and slightly bony tomato juice palate, with a frame that is a bit ungenerous and ferrous tannins. It’s a Pinot Noir of crunch and bite, but I can’t see the usual silken weight.

Best drinking: likely better next year and then drink over a decade (and probably more). 17.5/20, 91/100. 12.9%, $65. Would I buy it? I’d rather the Central Pinot.

Curly Flat Central Pinot Noir 2023

Drawn from the oldest vines on the property, this is often my fave wine of this lineup and on song here again. Every bit a cool climate Pinot – it could be Côteaux de Champenois with that ferrous edge. There’s more new oak here, which I think makes it a bit more approachable, FWIW. Beautiful bright red colours, redcurrant, acidity that fizzes and a limpid red fruit beauty. That acidity and the leafy edges are very cool,a little raw, and yet with a bit more of a high-toned beauty and detail to it. Interesting stuff.

Best drinking: worth a few years in bottle to resolve. 18/20, 93/100. 12.6%, $69. Would I buy it? Worth sharing a bottle.

Curly Flat Western Pinot Noir 2023

Western comes off the vineyard’s western blocks. Yet this plot is actually east-facing, and it’s often the most fragrant of the Curly Flat Pinot range. It’s certainly a very different Curly Pinot. Tomato juice, slightly raw metallic acidity and plenty of ferny undergrowth. A curious wine. Cool and spicy with great detail (hence the silver medal score), but you can’t miss the sense that the fruit never got 100% ripe.

Best drinking: worth a few years in bottle too for things to pull together. 17.5/20, 91/100. 12.8%, $69. Would I buy it? A glass or two.