Kooyong Meres Pinot Noir 2019
- 95
- $75
- Drink by: 2023 - 2032
Share
These days, it seems that any winery releasing their flagship wines for under three figures simply isn’t trying. And yet Kooyong puts out an array such as these for just $75. $60 for the Chardies. Hardly seems fair. Grapes for this wine are sourced from a single block of just 0.57 hectares within the Meres Vineyard. This is their most exposed vineyard, leading to low yields. The soils are a mix of loamy topsoil, not as loamy as the Haven and other pinot vineyards, but having more clay. This all tends to provide a more red-fruited style, and so it is. Fermented in large-format concrete tanks, there is a portion of whole bunches. Native yeasts are used and the ferment lasted 16 days. The wine was then pressed into French oak barriques (23% new), followed by malo. Maturation was over 14 months, before bottling without any fining or filtration.
A lovely pale crimson colour here. Red fruits are immediately apparent, as to be expected from this vineyard. This is finely structured. There are florals and sour cherry notes which move to cherry pip characters. Early complexity is evident, as is plenty of bright acidity. This is a fresh, vibrant and elegant pinot, which has impressive length and maintains its intensity and the flavours for the entire length of the journey. Should age and improve for five to ten years.
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.
