Tapanappa Foggy Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir 2023

At the highest point of the Fleurieu Peninsula, half-way between Victor Harbour and Cape Jervis, lies the Foggy Hill Vineyard. Its Pinot Noir is quite exceptional from year to year. Even in very cool years like 2023, the vineyard produces a Pinot of note. The ‘23 reflects the vintage in both its lifted florals, its delicacy and sinewy tannin structure. Bright cherry and raspberry scents with lifted rose petal, pomegranate and blood orange. Bright and flush in cranberry and cherry-berry fruit flavour, the cooler vintage shows through with a finely structured Pinot, gentle, firm in tannin presence and fine featured on the palate. It’s a wine to watch and wait and enjoy, with more time in the bottle recommended. The winemaker, Brian Croser, believes that distinguished vineyards like Foggy Hill are defined by the ability of their wines to age. He expects the ’23 to shine around six years and “beyond.” Good advice.

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