Tolpuddle Pinot Noir 2023

This vintage strikes out again with surprise and intrigue, just when you think the S+S winemaking team have got the recipe right, the vineyard shows you another side entirely. Here it’s a witches brew of jarred and dried aromatics. Blackberries, dark cherries, juniper and sloe berries. A bouquet of garrigue herbs, pine and poppy seed. There is a harmony between the dark fruit and ripe herbal notes. It’s a different shape entirely than what’s come before it and I’m feelin’ it. Savoury oak tannins support the woodsy style of black fruit. It’s a very tailored wine and has found a nice balance in a very cool vintage. Striking harmony between spice, cassis and oak. A hint of medicinal, and luxurious almost syrupy in its richness on the palate. Serious stuff. This would be ideal with pink lamb and chermoula.

Shanteh Wale

Contributor at Wine Companion

Shanteh cut her teeth at Sydney’s Award-Winning Quay restaurant where she worked for over a decade and was Head Sommelier from 2018 till 2022. She has been nominated for the Good Food Guide Sommelier of the Year award on three occasions and claims that her experience as a Len Evans scholar as one of the highlights of her career. Shanteh hosts her own weekly podcast ‘Over A Glass’ with the Deep in the Weeds Network and spends her time writing for various publications and judging at numerous wine shows across the country.

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