Payne’s Rise Brody’s Block Syrah/Pinot Noir 2023
- 94
- $39
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55% Syrah, 45% Pinot Noir, both grapes have been co-fermented in 50% new French oak barrique, 2-3 years old and 500 litre old barrels. Six months in total in a barrel. A deep purple colour is followed by a gamut of macerated violet, Morello cherries, mulberries, pomegranates, and blueberries. A little bit of a VA gives that aromatic lift and a blackcurrant juice note, followed by the spice’s conundrum of vanilla, cracked pepper, pink peppercorn, and star anise, helps to complete the picture. On the palate, it is surprisingly light and fresh, with incredibly fine-grained tannins, reserving the back of the palate to the fruit presence, with its noticeable weight, quintessentially Syrah. It’s a wine that shows the true essence of both worlds, with more density of fruit on the nose, while the palate tends to be more pinoesque, with its featheriness, elevated acidity, and the redder, crunchier fruited characters. A tale of two cities that converge into that grand finale.
Lisa Cardelli is an Italian-born wine professional who has been based in Melbourne since 2010. She worked as a sommelier in some of the city’s leading fine-dining restaurants for over ten years before leaving hospitality to become a wine sales representative. Lisa is now a journalist for Il Globo, the newspaper for Italians in Australia and around the world, where she also curates her own wine column. She continues to write about wine for both local and international publications and is on track to become one of the few prolific bilingual wine writers in Australia. A certified WSET Educator, she teaches at various venues across Melbourne. She also judges at local wine shows and for the prestigious Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards. Lisa was the recipient of the 2022 Wine Communicators of Australia award for Best Published Feature Article, a finalist for the same award in 2024, the recipient of the 2022 Sydney Royal Wine Professional Development Scholarship sponsored by the Len Evans Foundation, and one of twelve carefully selected Len Evans Scholars in 2024.
