Howard Park Great Southern Flint Rock Pinot Noir 2025
- 93
- $33
- Drink by: 2026-2034
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West Australian Pinot Noir continues to impress, far beyond anything imaginable just a decade or two ago. The fruit for this wine was sourced from cooler vineyards in the Mount Barker and Porongurup sub-regions from the Great Southern region. After hand sorting, selected batches were cold soaked with 15% whole bunches included. After fermentation, the wine was pressed into a mix of stainless-steel tanks, as well as barriques, hogsheads and 500-litre puncheons. Maturation was for seven months in 50% stainless steel tanks and 50% older French oak. Crimson/purple in colour, a beautifully fragrant Pinot Noir. We have notes of dried herbs, cherries, red fruits, a touch of florals, spices, kirsch and raspberries. A wonderfully impressive nose, the wine is of medium length with balance and drive. Enjoy this over the next six to eight years. A touch more length and the score would have been higher. That said, if this came with a big Pinot Noir name and a high price tag, I doubt anyone would blink.
Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.
