Dog Point Pinot Noir 2022

Dog Point Pinot Noir 2022

Comprising six different pinot noir clones from vines dating back to 1983. Vines are cropped at 5 tonnes/ha (35hl/ha), hand harvested and hand sorted, prior to de-stemming (25% whole bunch included). The fruit is fermented in small stainless open top fermenters without pumping. Fermentation is conducted by indigenous yeasts over a period of 2-3 weeks prior to pressing into French oak barrels (30% new) for 18 months. 

Arguably one of the best Dog Point Pinot's we've seen released in the last little while - this feels like a step back from some of the chunkier, macerated and overtly oaked bottlings of yesteryear. Don't get me wrong - there is plenty of wood, albeit polished and quality - all Francois Freres, and it helps build a framing that will take this wine on a long term journey. Aromatically, there's a lot more transparency to the fruit, a brooding dark cherry note, with hints of red jelly crystals sitting on top, plenty of baking and kitchen spice, and whilst these sound dense in framing there's a middle, tonal clarity. These flashes of darkness, swap between sweet fruit and more savoury black tea, meatier sous bois notes, but never get heavy, the framing of oak and tannin providing a pillow and external corridor of structure for the fruit to land gently on the finish. This needs air and a bit of patience but, with time you'll be generously rewarded.

The 2022 Pinot Noir leads with black cherry and star anise, strawberry top and a hint of pomegranate molasses. The wine is light and chalky, with attractive clarity in the glass and brilliant length through the finish. There is a dusting of cocoa and licorice at the edges of the aromas. It's a beautiful wine, one that ages slowly and gracefully over the decades. The tannins here are grippy and yet pulverized in structure; they serve to cup and cradle the fruit, never intrude but forever guiding. About 30% whole clusters were used in the ferment. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. 93+ Points - Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate