Seppelt Drumborg Vineyard Pinot Noir 2021

From one of the most southerly vineyards in Victoria comes a pinot with “cool climate” written in big, bold letters all over it. You would love to get this wine in a Wine Options Game. Sinewy, fine and pure, it sings of its coastline location: of wild herbs, red cherry and undergrowth. Starts taut and then loosens right up, building, building as it goes. Cherry, cranberry, herbs, salt bush, a touch of smoky oak on the bouquet. A “proportion” of whole bunches was included in the winemaking, bringing a cut and thrust to the wine without being too over-powering. Some might think otherwise. A near-seamless palate awaits, mixing the softer aspects of the wine – stewed rhubarb and plum – held together with a sinewy tannin thread. The winemaker has matured the wine for 9 months in 23% new oak. It’s slurped it up, finishing with a light cigar-box-smokiness.

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