Curly Flat Central Pinot Noir 2018
- 95
- $53
- Drink by: Now - 2028
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Into the dark woods we go, surrounded by the scent of undergrowth, hummus, dark berries and dried herbs. There’s some serious intent delivered here in the glass.
A top vintage, old vines (planted in 1992 and the vineyard’s oldest block) and power to burn all play a role. For the wine nuts, the Central block plantings are the most elevated on the property, 540 metres, and the popular pinot clone in Victoria, MV6, makes the biggest contribution.
Colour is deepest crimson. Black cherry, blackberry and black tea – there is a theme happening here –they all rise from the glass together with the scent of earth and undergrowth. Where the flagship 2018 pinot noir from Curly Flat was sweet-fruited, this is savoury and brooding. The tannins are complicit in the savouriness. Central is one of three pinots made from the 2018 vintage, very individual and, to my mind, the most striking with an almost haunting finish.
Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.
