Anti-Hero Pinot Meunier 2025

The colour gets there first: watermelon flesh, somewhere between rosato and very light  red, a little bit of frivolity. Then comes rose, cherry, raspberry and softened red berries,  some of the fruit carrying that slightly stewed quality Meunier can wear very well when it is  kept in check. This is not Heroes vineyard fruit. It comes from Cobboboonee in Henty, a cool site planted  over limestone with duplex sandy clay-loam, and it is conventionally farmed. James buys  the fruit rather than controlling the viticulture, an important distinction within a range  where the Heroes name increasingly signals farming authorship. The fruit was picked on 28  February 2025; two-thirds were destemmed while one-third underwent carbonic  maceration, then everything spent six months in old French oak. 

The carbonic component gives the wine playfulness without making it smell like technique.  Fruit remains the attraction, but the palate has enough soft-to-moderate tannin to move it  beyond simple party wine if you stop serving it too chilled. There is a tiny Negroni-like bitter  sweetness around the edges, bitter citrus pushing against riper red fruit, then dried thyme,  bay leaf, tea and restrained baking spice begin accumulating underneath. 

It is a thirst-quencher, certainly, but not an empty one. At 12.2% alcohol the wine feels  agile and extremely versatile, just as happy without food as beside it, and the finish hangs  around considerably longer than its colour prepares you for. 

Liinaa Berry

Liinaa Berry is a Melbourne-based wine critic and consultant with over a decade of experience as a sommelier and wine buyer across Australia and around the world where she has built award-winning wine programs and championed independent producers with conviction. Now focused on reviewing and writing, Liinaa brings a floor-trained palate and commercial insight to her assessments. She is also the Melbourne Ambassador for Star Wine List and serves on the committee of Sommeliers Australia. An advocate for site-driven wines and thoughtful farming, Liinaa is particularly drawn to producers who articulate a clear sense of place. Her tasting philosophy centres on structure, balance and context — always asking not just how a wine tastes, but why it matters.