2022 Mount Mary Pinot Noir

The Mount Mary Pinot Noir blends fruit from the original 1971 block with newer plantings featuring modern clones such as MV6, 777, 667, 115, and Pommard on American rootstocks. Emphasizing simplicity in winemaking, the Pinot Noir undergoes fermentation with 100% whole berries, 10-14 days of skin contact, and matures in barrels for 16 months, incorporating 25% new oak barriques.

Other Reviews....
Destemmed and fermented with as many whole berries as possible. Left to soak for four days, pre-fermentation with one pump over per day, then plunged three times per day; 15 months in French barriques (25% new). In a slightly darker fruit spectrum to the 2021. Cherries, stewed quince and spiced raspberries. A little less floral and a little earthier. Great intensity on the suave, concentrated yet perfectly pitched and balanced palate. The tannins superfine and persistent. I'd love to have a few bottles of this in the cellar to open up over the next 10 to 12 years. Drink 2025 - 2035.
97 Points
Philip Rich - Halliday's Australian Wine Companion

The 2022 Pinot Noir leads with a bouquet drenched in cherry and flowers, milk chocolate, bramble, moss and forest floor. The fruit character is pure, but there is so much more going on here than just the usual cavalcade of red berries. In the mouth, the wine is silky, lush and textural, with cocoa powder, a hint of Ovaltine (one assumes an oak character), soft licorice, strawberries and scratched blood orange. The package is creamy and svelte. This is perhaps less weighty in the fruit department than last year, which means that, at this stage, the components that shape the wine have greater dominance over the experience than usual. Having said this, it remains a sophisticated, classy-as-hell expression of Australian Pinot Noir and one that comes thoroughly and heartily recommended. 13.3% alcohol, sealed under natural cork. Drink 2024 - 2042.
95 Points
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

“The diabolically low crops of 2022 and the warmer weather have led to this concentrated and intensely flavoured Pinot noir yet still embodies all the hallmarks of this exceptional grape when grown in our vineyards here at Mount Mary.”, says, I think, Sam Middleton of this wine. Mount Mary Pinot is a different expression to many from the Yarra Valley, not least in a warmer vintage, but gee, it has some character and personality.
Cherry, ripe strawberry, rhubarb, mocha, almost a liquorice richness here, mint too, baking spices and cedar. It’s a plush and deep expression of Pinot Noir with firm grainy tannin, fresh raspberry acidity, and a hazelnut finish of excellent length, with some blood orange tang to close. Plenty of oomph and impact. It’ll do well in the cellar and develop more perfume and finesse. Excellent. Drink 2026 - 2036+
95 Points
Gary Walsh - The Wine Front