Crittenden Estate Pinot Noir 2010, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia

Crittenden Estate Pinot Noir 2010, vineyards in Dromana on the  Mornington Peninsula, with a modern winery in Patterson Lakes, approximately 20 minutes north of the vineyards in Dromana which  has the capacity to process 200 tonnes of fruit ( which is at this stage larger than what is needed for Crittenden Estate ). This is a true family run business, Garry Crittenden and his son Rollo run the winery with  other family members involvement and the care taken with this wine comes through when you taste it.
There is an initial candied red fruit aroma which disappears once left for a few minutes, followed by fresh fruits layered with leather, spice and earthy aromas, all this follows through to the palate and this well structured wine has grippy, ripe sweet tannins, acidic backbone enrobed and supported by the well knitted alcohol (13.5%). The fruits include plum, rhubarb abd red cherry all wrapped up in warm sweet spices, the leather and earth nuances are attractive and coax you in for another taste. The length is long, graceful and expressive, earth spice darts in and out of the red fruits, a lovely wine and worth a try if you can get hold of any from Uncorked at a price of £17.95 - a steal!
Score : 86

The Mornington Peninsula wine region lies to the South East of Melbourne and is bounded by Port Phillip and Westernport Bays and so has a true maritime climate which modifies the temperature range and provides relatively high summer humidity hence vine stress is low, sunshine hours are abundant, and rainfall is plentiful during winter and spring, a great growing enviroment.

It also leads to late ripening, a prolonged gentle autumn leads to fully ripe grapes with outstanding fruit flavours, high natural acidity and fine tannins. This is perfect for Pinot Noir and also for Chardonnay, but over the last century many have tried to grow grapes here without little success as matching the variety to climate is never more important than here.