Howard Park Granite Ridge Great Southern Pinot Noir 2020

Pinot noir – like Chardonnay – responds well to putting down roots in granite soils. It tends to lead it into dark, brooding territory, in this instance at least. It’s a walk into the forest, always interesting, with scents of briar, forest floor, black cherry, woody spices, earth, dusty beets. Once again, we see a firmness of structure with a Granite Ridge wine, it’s becoming a recurring theme. Fine in texture, taut (another recurring descriptor with these wines), it opens into a wine of some poise, exploring cranberry, dark cherry, dried herbs, swept leaves, building slowly as it moves across even-handed tannins. Whole bunches have to play a role here somewhere with the streak of prevailing herbs and earth. Deceptive power here together with excellent balance.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

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.

Wine writer and critic