This is a clever wine, in a lot of ways. It's pretty hard to find great pinot noir at the moment. The last few vintages have been tough, and getting maximum flavour with a minimal pricetag is a near impossible task. One clever way to build texture and complexity in pinot noir is to partially ferment the whole berry clusters. The producer of this wine employed this method with 30% of the fruit before letting the wine age in 50% new French oak. What’s in the bottle is elegant, yet concentrated. Fruit is expressed as cherries, plums and strawberries and there are secondary notes of spice and earth. You’ll feel semi-serious drinking this lovely pinot, even if it is a Tuesday night in your PJs.

Blueberries and raspberries at the fore, layered over vanilla pastry and sweet, seedy blackberry. Some rocky mineral complexity mid palate leads into a full finish that’s brimming with fruit. Certainly nothing wussy or thin here, this is pinot packing a punch (and a dense fruit core, too).

The Twin Valleys pinot noir grabs all that Alpine and King Valley freshness and bottles it up for us to enjoy elsewhere. The lightness and the cool, bright acid line that cuts through this wine brings a satisfying bit of energy to whoever’s lucky enough to have it in their cup (me, in this instance). Winter strawberry and under ripe raspberry on the palate immediately, but there is a bit of darker, richer fruit tucked in behind it. Mulberry and bramble, and a bit of vanillin oak presence, too. A bit of whole bunch lends a slippery, suppleness to the mouthfeel and ties the wine together beautifully. A fine boned, prickly finish that lasts and lasts.