Pinot Noir doesn’t need to taste like Burgundy to be good. This Tapanappa Definitus Pinot Noir 2018 is the example of this.
It’s a Pinot of rippling power. Of tannins and conviction. A Bordeaux drinkers Pinot Noir, if you’re still looking for a French connection, that arguably trades less in seduction and more in structure.
Stepping back a bit, this is Brian Croser’s Pinot Noir flagship – drawn from a select few rows of the Foggy Hill Vineyard that yield the best fruit. It’s a much more defined and convincing wine than the ‘standard’ FoggyPinot too.
Here, the fruit tips into plum, more dry red than classic elegant strawberry-fruited Pinot, complete with a sense of blackness. It’s almost Grenache! Proud density, a very nice viscosity and thickness. It’s not delicate, but impressive as a drink, the tannins twiggy and firm, the dark fruited finish even and long. I admire this wine, even if it doesn’t fit the Pinot mode (and it didn’t seduce me). It’s a Pinot wearing a double breasted suit, with shoulder pads, and maybe a pocket square. Such a step up from the normal Foggy too.
Tapanappa Definitus Pinot Noir 2018. Best drinking: now to ten years or more.
18.5/20, 94/100. 14%, $90. Tapanappa website. Would I buy it? A few glasses.
