The finest collection of single vineyard pinot noirs in Australia is being produced by Eastern Peake. Old vine material, a long line of vintages and some of the best tendered organic vineyards are yielding astonishing results. With a longer history of pinot noir, Victoria is still the place to be.
2022 was a long and cool season, not without its difficulties. The wines exhibit excellent vineyard delineation and an Eastern Peake signature. Predominantly deep and penetrating sweet red fruits, savoury spices, long chalky tannins and driving acids. The variety bequeathed by the vineyards themselves has been a delight to taste; all the wines are quite different whether it be fruit flavours, weight, shape or texture. To mind my these are all classic examples of Victorian pinot noir expression.
The fruit is so richly flavoured and the wine exhibits a great presence in the mouth. And yet, they are utterly beautiful; elegant, supple, gentle and ethereal. Flavours and structures beautifully harmonised. The sweet and savoury combination will evolve with age, introducing earthy, compost and charcuterie notes. A great vintage for Eastern Peake, with at least 2-3 decades of grand drinking.
Eastern Peake Griffins Road Pinot Noir 2022
High toned aromatics of sweet and tangy red fruits, savoury spice and sandalwood. The intensity of fruit is mind boggling when you consider the wine’s prettiness and elegance. Pure and mineral, with Serrano and a Amaro/blood orange note on the back palate. Linear in shape, the fruit, tannin and acid finely woven together, harmonising beautifully with gentle tightness. Absolutely controlled and nothing out of place. A sense of effortlessness, the vineyard’s quality (and the winemaker’s) very much apparent. Very long, persistent and the sleeper of the range. Decades ahead of it.
In the early 90s my father Norman convinced two of our friends & close neighbours to plant vines for him. Frank Walsh & Pat Griffin both planted Pinot Noir in 1995 on their excellent sites in our little township of Coghills Creek. Pat also wanted to plant Chardonnay with his Pinot Noir, a very wise choice!
Pat Griffin’s vineyard is on Griffins Road next to Griffins Hill, one of the original farming families of the township. Another interesting fact is the vineyard was planted right near the original Myola vineyard which was planted back in 1862 by Mr John Hawkins a site that grew to 11 acres by 1880 narrowing it down to 3 varieties. He was a very passionate farmer who also had quite an extensive orchard. (He was also a correspondent for The Leader news paper in Melbourne retiring to Malvern in 1887. Died 1908 Buried in Coghills Creek.) The Griffins took on the vineyard, orchard & land & continued John’s legacy, nobody can remember what happened to the vineyard most likely the vines were pulled in the depression or it might have been possible that phylloxera made its way to the area.
So back to the return of Griffins Road Pinot Noir, last produced back in the early 2000s for Eastern Peake. Pat died from a heart attack in the early 2000s which saw a change of ownership for 15 years until recently a new young farming family purchased the site for the land & gave me a call about taking on the vineyard. We agreed to a long term lease which has given us the opportunity to take this site back under our wing. instantly converting the site over to organic & regenerative agriculture practices. Deep red volcanic loam soils moving to grey & chocolate over weathered basalt sit on the south west side of Griffins Hill at 440m altitude. The block of chardonnay was established in 1995 with Clone I10V5.
Produced the same way as always, Harvested 13/4/2022. All destemmed & fermented in open concrete, indigenous yeasts, pump overs once a day, basket pressed 21/04/2022, 12 months in barriques, sulphur added post malo in November, racked from barrels in late march 2023 no fining or filtering. Bottled on 9/11/23. A small amount of sulphur post malo & pre bottling, unfined, unfiltered & untinkered. I can’t express any louder how excited I am to be farming & producing wine from this site, now three vintages in under our custodianship this site has so much to give & the wine just being produced is something very special. Producer’s Notes
If anyone wanted to understand the power to weight ratio of pinot noir, any wine from this release will do, but the intrinsic encapsulates this best. Sweet red fruits from a long glorious English summer, sweet Middle Eastern spice, rose verbena and hedge fruit. Deep, penetrating and pure, the insistent intensity of fruit is astonishing. Weaved and flecked with savoury spices of fenugreek, cumin and paprika. The tension of elements yet ability to harmonise is breathtaking. Grace and power; the length a long tease of cashmere tannins.
Intrinsic Pinot Noir, the beating heart of Eastern Peake, our single vineyard wine we produce year on year representing exactly what we do capturing each season in a glass. Intrinsic is produced from Vine material now ranging from 30-40 years, MV6 clone grown on Volcanic grey loam soils over weathered basalt sitting at 430m alt. Thoughtfully farmed with strict organic practices & a mix of regenerative agriculture inputs such as rotating cover crops to help with keeping our soils in such pristine condition. Flowering was pretty good considering the weather. For season 2022, everything went to plan in the vineyard with our organic practice, the weather definitely kept us on our toes along the way! Much cooler than expected & with a long finish building amazing flavour profiles & structure.
Blocks harvested from mid April onwards, all destemmed into our original 3000L concrete fermenters. As always spontaneous fermentation via our indigenous yeasts, pump overs once a day, vats are basket pressed individually, transferred into 228L barriques of various French coopers (mostly Siruge & Dominique Laurent). Topped monthly, sulphur added post malo in November, racked from barrels in late march 2023 no fining or filtering, bottled in Oct 23. A small amount of sulphur post malo & pre bottling.
This wine is drinking exceptionally well right now but one that will definitely cellar for 20-30 years or more with ease! Last November we celebrated our 40th year of growing vines. A little gathering at our favourite wine bar in Melbourne ‘Gerald’s Bar’ we opened up back vintages with friends, family & beautiful long term supporters. It was an amazing day to see all the vintages open from current wines to the very 1st one back in 1988. Wines made by Trevor Mast, Norman & myself from one single site, geez it was so good to see how gracefully they’ve aged & how youthful the wines are. Producer’s Notes
Eastern Peake Walsh Block Pinot Noir 2022
If I had to drink one wine from the range today, this would be it. The fruit profile is a little sweeter and darker fruits of blackcurrant, blackberry and mulberry, more to the fore. Deep and rich, certainly the weightiest comparing the Griffins Rd and Intrinsic. A wine of terrific curve, shape and generosity, cut beautifully by melting acids. Fleshy mid palate, woollen, cuddly and satisfying; the tannins long and round. Perhaps you’d say this is an outlier in the range, if it weren’t of such purity, grace and effortlessness. Beautiful, gorgeous and sexy.
Grown by Long term friends Frank & Kerry Walsh, directly over the road on the same soil type as Eastern Peake weathered basalt on grey loam. First established with pinot noir in 1995 (MV6 clone) then a second 1 acre planting in 2003 of the famed Syrah. Another great crop from Frank, a high pressure growing season with great results, Cropping levels were good, a nice fruit set. this 5 acre block always produces year on year out. Harvested on the 4/4/22, All destemmed & fermented in open concrete, indigenous yeasts, pump overs once a day, basket pressed 16/04/2022, 12 months in barriques, sulphur added post malo in November, racked from barrels in late march 2023 no fining or filtering, bottled on 20/10/23. A small amount of sulphur post malo & pre bottling, unfined, unfiltered & untinkered. Producer’s Notes
Also in the range but not tasted. Just 22 dozen of each produced: