O’Leary Walker Oakbank Pinot Noir 2020
- 91
- $35
- Drink by: 2021 - 2026
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O’Leary Walker is principally known as a Clare Valley-based wine producer. Its foray into pinot noir and the Adelaide Hills is a good indication of the depth of experience of David O’Leary and Nick Walker, who both started their careers working at big Australian wine companies based in South Australia, making wine from almost every region in the state.
The O’Leary pinot vineyard at Oakbank was planted in 1990, so this wine comes to the drinker off 31year-old vines, close to old vine status. However, in vintage terms, it’s a youngster with earlier rather than later drinking on its mind.
Youthful bright red in colour. The scent of dried flowers joins red cherry, cranberry and floral musk rising from the glass.
The alcohol level of 12% is modest by pinot noir standards and indicates an equally modest ripeness of fruit, not to mention a brisk step to the wine courtesy of some prominent acidity. Turned earth, red cherry, plum produce a gentle, fruit-led liveliness that combines with subtle smoky oak influence from new French oak barriques. An infusion of spice adds interest and depth.
Overall, there is a bright, crunchy appeal here, like biting into red cherries at the height of the season. Delicious.
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.
