Fragrant,

       earthy,

complex.

"Heat beat candies, Gala apple and hibiscus flowers. Musk strawberry and maple leaf earthiness. The cool vintage has unleashed the high tone perfumes into a wine replete with intensity and pulsing with life. Tannins assert themselves, speaking loudly of the possibility for a very long happy life."
– Shanteh Wale, Shaw + Smith Single Vineyard Annual

There is a savoury edge to this wine with forest floor notes (crushed hard herbs) and balanced with deep red fruits (cherry, blood orange). The tannins are softer compared to2022, which plays to the longer and cooler vintage that 2023 delivered.

Hand-picked and hand-sorted, then long slow ferments in wood and stainless steel vats, followed by 10 months in 500 litre puncheons, 30% new.
Will reward careful cellaring for up to 15 years.
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Bri Hammond923 Shawandsmith 0095 Highres

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2023

Shaw + Smith
Pinot Noir

2023

Shaw + Smith
Pinot Noir

Notes

Style

The 2023 vintage had low yields due to the cool and wet season which resulted in a delicate, lighter style.

There is a savoury edge to this wine with forest floor notes (crushed hard herbs) and balanced with deep red fruits (cherry, blood orange). The tannins are softer compared to 2022, which plays to the longer and cooler vintage that 2023 delivered.

Season

Our third La Niña influenced season in a row, 2023 was a late, cool, and wet season. The result was the latest vintage that we've experienced, with excellent acidity and lovely cool season flavours.

Vineyard

Our Lenswood Vineyard is planted mainly to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, at 455 – 500m elevation. Undulating with east and west facing aspects, the soils are brown loams over clay with broken shale on the ridges. The vineyard was planted in 1999 and is 20 hectares in total.

Vinification

Hand-picked and hand-sorted, then long slow ferments in wood and stainless steel vats, followed by 10 months in 500 litre puncheons, of which 30% were new.

Cellar

Will reward careful cellaring for up to 15 years.

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Reviews

If you have ever wondered about the meaning of ‘brooding’ used in a wine tasting note, here it is. It’s dark, it’s quixotic, it arrives in scents of dark rose, rosehip, wild blueberry, black cherry, dried leaves, undergrowth, earth and dark-roasted spices. In other words, it fills the senses with dark, elemental, atmospheric qualities. Comes together in a slow dance across the palate, nothing hurried, unwinding in dark fruits, spices with additional cranberry notes and blood orange peeking out from some well-laid and expensive French vanillin oak. The fruit is up to the task set by the oak, but some more time in the bottle would be advised in order to reach its optimum. Comes together well: tannins are fine and acidity shines. Everything is in readiness.

Jeni Port, Wine Pilot
95 Points

This is a dark and spicy wine, showing some walnut or mahogany, or more sensibly, it has sort of a Chesterfield in an old school club sort of vibe. There’s a little mint and baked plum and rhubarb, some orange peel, fine sooty tannin grip, with a nutty somewhat oaky finish of good length. It’s a good wine. It has style, though I reckon it needs a few more years to come together.

Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
93 Points

Past Vintages

2021

Exceptional year, cool conditions and healthy rains gave wines of excellent balance.

Drink now or cellar until 2036

Tasting note

2019

Sporadic heat waves with cool periods in between led to high quality but low yields, with fruit intensity a hallmark of the season.

Drink now or cellar until 2031

Tasting note

2018

Warm and dry throughout most of the growing season. Beautifully balanced fruit.