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PINOT NOIR2008 WILLIAM DOWNIE MORNINGTON PENINSULA PINOT NOIR !! $56.95
REGION: MORNINGTON PENINSULA , VICTORIA
Unfortunately there are only very small quantities available of the latest releases from Bill Downie, the winner of the Best Young Winemaker award at the 2006 Gourmet Traveller Wine Winemaker of the Year Awards. Downie has three pinots noirs from 2008 – a Yarra Valley version, one from the Mornington Peninsula and a new Gippsland release from eighteen year old vines. Downie started his career in South Gippsland, spending two years on the vineyard and winery at Bass Phillip, developing a taste for excellent Burgundy after drinking lots of it over lunch. Since then he has been on a mission – to make a Pinot Noir with all the hallmarks of a great Burgundy. He then joined the De Bortoli team at the Yarra Valley and has spent the past six years travelling between the Yarra and Gevrey-Chambertin.
"While we need to wait a year or so for the release of wines made with the full Downie, to adjust the vernacular, the forthcoming 2008 releases give plenty of indication as to what lies ahead. Frankly, these wines are nothing short of astonishing. The Yarra Valley wine is rather more closed, but beautifully composed and savoury; the Gippsland wine is a heady, luscious celebration of pinot richness and depth, while the Mornington Peninsula wine brings an extra level of balance and sophistication to the table.
Take the trouble to find and taste Bill Downie’s wines, but don’t do so expecting the popular full-frontal fruit-bomb expression of pinot noir. These are wines for grown-ups, not for kids, but pinot being what it is, not all grown-ups are going to like them. If, however, your taste in red wine is for the surprising and the subtle, for the textured and the savoury, and for wines that take time to fully reveal themselves in the glass and in the cellar, you might just have a new name for your little black book.
2008 Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir: Deeply perfumed and alluring, this exceptionally fine and tightly crafted pinot marries ethereal scents of flowers, undergrowth, black and red cherries, exotic spices and a light dusting of dried herb notes with tight-grained French oak and earthy, smoked meat undertones. It�s long, translucent palate reveals layers of pristine pinot flavour underpinned by the tightest of powdery tannins, finishing quite dry and savoury with surprising intensity and a lingering presence of licorice and five-spice. A beautiful artisan pinot. Drink 2016-2020+." Jeremy Oliver - 97 points
"This Mornington Peninsula version of William Downie pinot is a wine to be proud of. It's full of long, fine tannin though it never overwhelms the wine, and for all its juicy, succulent, cherry-plummed fruit flavour it's a wine characterised by its minerally, smoky, meaty length more than it is by its 'fruitiness'. It's a perfectly balanced wine. And a charming one. So that it drinks beautifully now, even though it has been built to cellar. It has exquisite oak integration. It's a highly detailed wine. It's a pearler. Drink: 2010 - 2016." Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front - 95 points
"Good colour; a lively and supple wine from start to finish, yet with tangy elements in the fruit flavour spectrum; silky mouthfeel and finish. Diam. 13.5% alc. Drink Now – 2016." James Halliday - 94 points
"Without doubt our best Mornington wine to date. Loads of red fruit, almost like a summer pudding. There’s also pomegranate and juniper on the nose. Floral notes include bergamot and lily of the valley. The palate brings a rush of red fruit with a little porcini mushroom and black tea. The palate is complex and long with real intensity. A wine for the long haul. Drink 2010-2025." Bill Downie, Winemaker
Drink Now to 2022.
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