Port Phillip Estate Single Vineyard Red Hill Pinot Noir 2022

The 2022 growing season on the Mornington Peninsula was milder than normal and the result was the kind of slow ripening that winemakers pray for, but don’t always receive. Yields were on the lower side, too, which is good for fruit concentration and quality. This is a long-winded introduction to PPE’s Red Hill Pinot Noir ’22 which fairly bristles with the kind of brightness of fruit and intensity of flavour that a top vintage can provide. You also appreciate the sub-regional Red Hill style which brings dark fruited weight and warmth. Brambly fruit, black cherry, cranberry, earth, red licorice scents entice. There are some soft, savoury, herbal influences to be enjoyed here in tandem with ripe, black and red fruits. You sense it keenly on the palate which, while generous, exists along a tight line and length of fine-knit tannin. A dry, long finish completes this attractive vinous picture. This is one medium bodied, fruit-focused Pinot with lively herbal interplay and delicious fruit from a top vintage, and the best part? It’s ready to go right now

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

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.

Wine writer and critic