2020 Circe, Hillcrest Road Pinot Noir, Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Critics reviews
The 50% whole bunches in the ferment (no new oak) has given this a deep ruby hue and an added layer of complexity and flavour. It is an austere style, deceptively light, as cherries and pips, blood orange, stems and radicchio start to appear. Sinewy tannins are in the background as the acidity takes the lead, rending this refreshing and the finish long.
Drink 2023 - 2030
Jane Faulkner, The Australian Wine Companion (August 2022)
About this WINE
Circe Wines
Circe is a boutique label from Dan Buckle (of Domain Chandon) and Aaron Drummond (of Craggy Range). It is produced with fruit from the Hillcrest Road vineyard in Red Hill, Australia’s Mornington Peninsula. The vineyard grows Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes on deep red volcanic basalt soils.
With Port Phillip Bay to the west, Western Port Bay to the east, and Bass Strait to the south, it’s impossible to miss the predominant influence on viticulture in the Mornington Peninsula. As such, this cool location proves its worth for world-class Pinot Noir.
The Hillcrest Pinot Noir by Circe has rapidly stridden to the front and is now leading quality wine production in the area. It is sourced from a 1.2-hectare site about 2.5 miles from the coast. It was planted in 1993 in a cool, northeast-facing site.
Mornington Peninsula
Mornington Peninsula is one of Victoria's key wine regions, located to the South of the Melbourne metropolis and is the Eastern arm, along with the Bellarine Peninsula to the West, that creates Port Phillip Bay. On the Eastern side of the Peninsula you find another body of water, Western Port Bay, meaning that the vineyards of the peninsula are surrounded by water on three sides when you also consider Bass Straight to the South.
Since the latest wave of commercial wine production began in 1978, this cooler maritime environment has very quickly become an important wine-making area with a keen focus on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Aromatic varieties such as Pinot Gris, Riesling and Viognier are also planted here.
Soils vary from sands and alluvial clays though to volcanic soils on Red Hill these locations between 25 and 250 meters above sea level are generally well drained but hold enough of the 350mm of rain that falls during the growing season.
Now with over 60 producers the style of wines is now becoming recognisable. Chardonnays with purity and leanness not found on many other places in Victoria and Pinot Noirs with intense fruit character, spice and smoke, free of too much weight.
With the centre of Melbourne only an hour on the motorway, this region has long housed Melbournians in the second homes over long hot Summers, therefore offering some of the most expensive real estate in the state. No surprise then that typically Mornington Peninsula wines tend not to be inexpensive. That's not to say they don't offer value, with high standards of viticulture and very good growing conditions ensuring there is a lot of fascination to be discovered.
Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir is probably the most frustrating, and at times infuriating, wine grape in the world. However when it is successful, it can produce some of the most sublime wines known to man. This thin-skinned grape which grows in small, tight bunches performs well on well-drained, deepish limestone based subsoils as are found on Burgundy's Côte d'Or.
Pinot Noir is more susceptible than other varieties to over cropping - concentration and varietal character disappear rapidly if yields are excessive and yields as little as 25hl/ha are the norm for some climats of the Côte d`Or.
Because of the thinness of the skins, Pinot Noir wines are lighter in colour, body and tannins. However the best wines have grip, complexity and an intensity of fruit seldom found in wine from other grapes. Young Pinot Noir can smell almost sweet, redolent with freshly crushed raspberries, cherries and redcurrants. When mature, the best wines develop a sensuous, silky mouth feel with the fruit flavours deepening and gamey "sous-bois" nuances emerging.
The best examples are still found in Burgundy, although Pinot Noir`s key role in Champagne should not be forgotten. It is grown throughout the world with notable success in the Carneros and Russian River Valley districts of California, and the Martinborough and Central Otago regions of New Zealand.
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Description
The Hillcrest Road single vineyard always provides such a unique, terroir-driven, savoury expression of Pinot Noir, and it does so once again in 2020. The nose is full of macerated red cherries overlaid by a savoury complexity and notes of cured meat and autumn leaves. Ripe, sweet strawberries and raspberries coat the palate yet the wine is not heavy at all. By contrast this is refreshing and full of fascinating and complex earthy, savoury notes.
Nothing is overdone, with that ripe red fruit continuing effortlessly, combined with a umami twist on the long finish. Already quite savoury in style, drink this now or over the next four years to enjoy its fruit, or leave for longer if you want to enjoy the further development of those elegant, tertiary flavours.
Drink 2024 - 2030
Catriona Felstead MW, Senior Buyer, Berry Bros. & Rudd
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