A new era at Curly – Curly Flat Pinot Noir 2018
- 95
- $53
- Drink by: Now - 2028
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This is a first for Curly Flat. As in the ‘first’ vintage made by new winemaker, Matt Harrop, following the departure of the winery’s co-founder, Phillip Moraghan, in late 2017. Harrop is a young gun – still, in my book – formerly with Shadowfax, and chairs leading wine shows around the country, so he’s a winemaker who thinks about the macro as well as the micro.
This is the flagship pinot noir for the company, the one that defines the house and regional (Macedon Ranges) style. It’s from an excellent vintage, one according to Harrop that delivered a “near perfect expression” of site.
There’s whole bunch and skin contact at play here as well as wild yeasts but, really, it all adds up to a delightfully complex wine which is important to remember because this is a bare youngster.
Approachable now with the fragrance of crushed red berries, musk, potpourri. The wine glides across the tongue leaving an impression that is both sweet-fruited, studded with lively red cherries, and don’t you just love that touch of pepper to close. Cool climate pinot to the very end.
NOTE: The 2018 pinot noirs will be available to customers from May 1.
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.
