Mr Riggs Valerie Pinot Noir 2023

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Leaving his McLaren Vale home base to plug into the Adelaide Hills for a set of varietals more suited to that cooler region, Ben Riggs has double lucked it this 2023 vintage with even cooler weather than average, encouraging a delicate style, quite floral and spiced aromatically, a sense of Mediterranean scrub evaporating in the summer sun. This then folds into a brightness in the fruit, a dried cherry feel, a faint note of pomegranate, all quite buoyant as you taste – perhaps the result of a small percentage of whole bunch in the ferment – while a subtle woodiness adds depth, 20% new oak just enough to build savoury complexity into a moreish, juicy palate. Well balanced, neatly crafted, very drinkable.

Pilot
Date
September, 2025