2023 Tolpuddle Vineyard Pinot Noir

Wines Visit Allocation Story

Tolpuddle Vineyard
2023 Pinot Noir

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Our coolest season on record. Intensely aromatic, a darker fruit spectrum and complex savoury spice is interwoven seamlessly with firm, structural tannin.

Next release September 2025

The 2023 vintage is currently fully allocated and sold out.
To be on the list for future vintages, please join our Waitlist.

"This is an exceptionally enjoyable and characterful wine, highlighting a classic vineyard site and cracking good winemaking."

97 Points. Andrew Calliard MW, The Vintage Journal

Coal River Valley

Located approximately 20 minutes drive from Hobart, in Tasmania's south-east, the Coal River Valley has established a reputation for growing exceptional quality grapes. With a climate that is at the cool extremes for viticulture in Australia, it is no surprise that Chardonnay and Pinot Noir perform so splendidly.

An anomaly for such a cool climate is that the rainfall is significantly lower than many of Australia's other cool climate regions, with an average of approximately 500mm of rain per year. This cool but relatively dry climate allows the grapes to ripen slowly in autumn, without disease pressure that heavy rainfall can bring.

Tolpuddle Vineyard

Tolpuddle Vineyard was established in 1988 and it took its name from the Tolpuddle Martyrs: English convicts transported to Tasmania for forming an agricultural union. The leader of the Martyrs, George Loveless, served some of his sentence working on a property near Richmond, part of which is now Tolpuddle Vineyard.

The vineyard is planted with mature Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vines, facing northeast, and sloping gently up from Back Tea Tree Road. The soil is light silica over sandstone and of moderate vigour, ensuring well-balanced vines producing grapes of great flavour and intensity.

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ANDREW CAILLARD MW
THE VINTAGE JOURNAL
97 POINTS

Medium deep. Lovely pure dark cherry, negroni, herb garden, star anise aromas with hints of marzipan. Sweet supple dark cherry pastille, strawberry fruits, loose knit lacy/al dente textures, lovely mid palate volume and underlying marzipan roasted chestnut/ herb garden notes. Sappy notes build up to the finish. This is an exceptionally enjoyable and characterful wine, highlighting a classic vineyard site and cracking good winemaking.

HUON HOOKE
THE REAL REVIEW
97 POINTS

Deep red-purple, bright and clear colour; superb rich ripe black cherry fragrance with a kiss of smoky oak, the palate remarkably full and rich, smooth and fleshy with excellent texture and immediate drinking appeal, although it has the legs to age well too. Serious structure, but also succulent, sweet and plush—almost too much of a good thing. Outstanding pinot noir.

DAVE BROOKES
HALLIDAY WINE COMPANION
96 POINTS

A cooler vintage for Tolpuddle with some hen and chicken and lighter bunches due to a wetter-than-normal spring, before excellent ripening conditions for the remainder of the growing season. When compared to the ‘22 release there is a little more concentration on display. Vibrant, magenta-splashed ruby in the glass with aromas of dark cherry, plum and blackberry fruits with hints of crushed herbs, softly spoken vanillin oak, raspberry coulis, charcuterie board, purple flowers, bay leaf and stone. Rich and flowy with spice, herbal and floral tendrils weaving through the pure base layers of dark fruits. Textural and harmonious with finely crushed riverstone tannins and mineral line providing support and cadence. Another cracking release from Tolpuddle.

SHANTEH WALE
WINE PILOT
95 POINTS

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 witches brew of jarred and dried aromatica. Blackberries, dark cherries, juniper and sloe berries. A bouquet of garrigue herbs, pine and poppy seeds. There is a harmony between the dark fruit and ripe herbal notes. Its 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 a luxurious almost syrupy in its richness on the palate. Serious stuff. This would be ideal with pink lamb and chermoula.

CAMPBELL MATTINSON
THE WINE FRONT
94 POINTS

There’s something that feels essentially pinot about this wine. It’s the inlay of mineral and graphite amid the undergrowth and spice notes, all of which are part of the general wash of black cherry. It’s a silken release, of medium intensity, with fine-grained tannin and an impressive push of complex flavour through the finish. This wine’s earthen/undergrowth aspect is both well played, and a key feature. There’s no real x-factor to this release but everything does feel in excellent order.

WINSOR DOBBIN
GOURMET ON THE ROAD

(T)he 2023 Pinot Noir walks a tightrope of fruit and savoury characters and finishes with delicacy and elegance. (I)ntense, complex fruit flavours, vibrancy and minerality.

2023 VINTAGE

Our coolest season on record. Slightly unsettled flowering thanks to a wetter than average spring resulted in mild ‘Hen and Chicken’, giving a combination of small and normal sized berries, and much lighter bunches than normal.
Low yields benefitted from drier conditions for the remainder of the ripening period, ensuring fruit was harvested in pristine condition.

PALATE

Intensely aromatic, a darker fruit spectrum and complex savoury spice is interwoven seamlessly with firm, structural tannin. Fruit density and depth of flavour reflect the cool season. This wine is not without the bright, aromatic freshness we expect from cool climate Pinot Noir.

WINEMAKING

All hand-picked fruit is fermented as a combination of whole berries and whole bunches, in open wooden and stainless fermenters, with gentle plunging. Aged for 10 months in French oak, of which about one third was new.

SERVING

Ideal serving temperature: 16–18°C

CELLARING

Will repay careful cellaring for up to 12 years.

ANDREW CAILLARD MW
THE VINTAGE JOURNAL
97 POINTS

HUON HOOKE
THE REAL REVIEW
97 POINTS

DAVE BROOKES
HALLIDAY WINE COMPANION
96 POINTS

SHANTEH WALE
WINE PILOT
95 POINTS

CAMPBELL MATTINSON
THE WINE FRONT
94 POINTS

WINSOR DOBBIN
GOURMET ON THE ROAD

(T)he 2023 Pinot Noir walks a tightrope of fruit and savoury characters and finishes with delicacy and elegance. (I)ntense, complex fruit flavours, vibrancy and minerality.

ANDREW CAILLARD MW
THE VINTAGE JOURNAL
97 POINTS

HUON HOOKE
THE REAL REVIEW
97 POINTS

DAVE BROOKES
HALLIDAY WINE COMPANION
96 POINTS

SHANTEH WALE
WINE PILOT
95 POINTS

CAMPBELL MATTINSON
THE WINE FRONT
94 POINTS

WINSOR DOBBIN
GOURMET ON THE ROAD

(T)he 2023 Pinot Noir walks a tightrope of fruit and savoury characters and finishes with delicacy and elegance. (I)ntense, complex fruit flavours, vibrancy and minerality.

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