Summary: The wine regions of the great state of Victoria are some of Australia’s most picturesque and historical. Today we can expect to see exciting wines and evocative wine styles as common fare. Hare & Tortoise represents the steady pursuit of fine, individual, regional wines of great drinkability & interest through patience, knowledge and a hands-off approach to winemaking.   

Vineyard: Sourced from a combination of upper and lower Yarra Vineyards, but primarily from vineyards within the Coldstream sub-region.

Winemaking: Mostly machine harvested with select hand picking of individual blocks.  De-stemmed and fully fermented in open top fermenters with a small addition of whole bunches for complexity.  The wine was blended when fermentation complete and transferred to stainless steel for maturation with 25% moving to 2-year-old French oak for 6 months. The wine was then bottled with minimal fining and filtration and had minimal sulphur additions. 

2018 Vintage: To follow such a tremendous vintage as 2017 will always be difficult but asides from some warmth and humidity throughout early summer the season was quite unremarkable. Excellent and even ripening conditions followed for the remainder of the season and into April delivering fully ripe fruit flavours and phenolics delivering brightness and fullness in the resultant wines. 

Tasting Note: Bright cherry and purple with red brick hues. Pinot Noir fragrance exemplified with plum, spice, strawberry and autumn leaves. The palate is light to medium weighted but with mouth-staining flavour. 
Similar notes of lifted red and purple fruits with the subtle complexing of undergrowth, minerals and twig. A beautiful Pinot Noir from a very fine vintage that is drinking superbly now but will also reward short term cellaring.