There are very few Australian Pinot releases where you crack a bottle open and think, ‘This needs six years’. It just doesn’t happen. Bindi, maybe, some of the structured Yarra Pinot releases (Mount Mary sometimes), Bannockburn, By Farr, Domaine A. It’s a small collection. (I had a stab at a cellarworthy Pinot list many moons ago. It still stands).
But I should add the Tapanappa Definitus to that list.
Three years ago, I commented that this Tapanappa Definitus Foggy Hill Pinot Noir 2018 was a Bordeaux-drinker’s Pinot Noir – not dismissively, but more as a remark about the power and weight. Now it has been re-released, and it is even more drinkable.
A special bottling from a select few rows on Brian Croser’s Foggy Hill Vineyard, this Pinot is maturing in a welcome way. Coppery-coloured, it smells of mulch and spiced cherries, with a cherry clove autumnal vibe that feels developed but also has fruit and power. There’s something of the drying, windswept dried berry concentration that you see in Martinborough Pinot tbh, which makes sense from a climate perspective, but something that I’ve never noticed in this wine before. Interesting. It’s secondary, complex and just good drinking. I’m a fan.
Best drinking: good now, no hurry. 18.5/20, 94/100. 14%, $125. Would I buy it? Let’s share a bottle.
