It is ironic that this year Pooley were awarded Australia’s best winery in the 2023 James Halliday Wine Companion, an award that may need to be followed up in 2024 as the (yet to be reviewed) 2021 wines are some of the best yet!
All great vintages express an element of size, scale and power. The 2021s are immense, possessing brightness, sizzling energy, rich and vivid flavours, Cadillac shape, complex textural profiles, ripe tannins in the reds and vineyard definition. Never before have the differences between Cooinda and Butchers been so marked and beautifully so. Long ageing doesn’t seem so important these days, but great wines last, radiating pleasure for many years. These wines will see out the decade, and for those lucky enough to have a dozen or two, twenty years at least.
Tasmania’s 2021 vintage is a watershed moment in Australian wine. Good yields, record grape prices at over four times the national average, and one of the highest quality vintages on record. Tasting a fair few Tasmanian wines in recent months, I am convinced that the state’s best ever wines will come from 2021. For the first time, Tasmanian wines will flex their vinous muscles and establish themselves at the forefront of Australian wine.
Beyond the vagaries of vintages, winemakers are striving to make the best of their fruit, rather than concoct or copy established wine styles from the mainland and beyond. There is greater talk of regional and vineyard expression (and less comparisons with Burgundy) and less talk of wine styles. In other words, wine producers, after so much trial and error. have begun to figure out their vineyards and how to make the best wine from them.
One of Tasmania’s best and quite different from traditional Clare or Eden Valley styles. Aromatic and soaring with grapefruit, lemon, lime preserve, jasmine and tonic herbs. Super elegant, expansive and with focused energy. Extremely complex, with fruit, textural and structural components interwoven. Dramatic even, as the palate is at once soft, yet with a squeeze of phenolics and mineral chalk. Hints of smoke, mushroom compost and cream, filling out any gaps in what is a truly definitive Tasmanian Riesling.
Extra dimension Riesling, with a richness and density that is rare in Australia. Gin botanicals, juniper, lavender, mint and rosemary, and the palate has a textural squeeze reminiscent of a gin and tonic. Preserved lemon, grapefruit, lime, green apple, seaspray and preserved vine leaves. Medium to full bodied, smokey too, acidity swept up, framing, not defining. A new “classic” style?
Pooley Cooinda Vale 2021 Chardonnay
Like the Pinots, the Chardonnays from Pooley’s two respective vineyards – Butchers and Cooinda Vale – show marked differences, particularly for the 2021 vintage. Stunning aromatics immediately draw you in. Citrus, nectarine, white peach, grapefruit, cashew, flinty notes and star jasmine. Immensely powerful, with incredible fruit concentration and textural chew. A real mouthful, as it were, with rich exotic yellow fruits, interwoven with green apple and citrus. So many elements in play, the oak imparting a little squeeze, smoke and cream, the acidity invigorating and driving the carry. Slight textural grip from the oak and phenolics, blurring to saline freshness. Dramatic, unbelievable Chardonnay.
Pooley Butchers Hill Chardonnay 2021
As expected, richer in profile, with a greater aromatic presence of fruit and slightly less influence of wood. Lime preserve, yellow peach, apricots, cream and a touch of lemon zest. More mouth-filling than the Cooinda Vale – for richer, saucier dishes and, though I hate to say it, reminiscent of Meursault from the early 2000’s. Curvy, with a more subtle cut and chisel than the Cooinda. Clotted cream and salted Queensland nuts, are added to the mix of luxurious yellow fruits, ripe citrus and invigorating grapefruit. Cuddly chardonnay, but never tipping over into heaviness.
Deep core and brightness to match, defining the wine we are about to taste. Briary notes, red cherry, violets, a lick of aniseed, redcurrant and pomegranate. Round and smooth, that Cadillac shape, yet cut with sizzling freshness and sensuous velvet. Black and red fruits, savoury spice, cut flowers, sandalwood and fine boned tannins. Presence and flavour, a really powerful Pinot Noir, with exotic touches and a lightness of touch that zeroes in the palate to fine, almost strict tannins. Light and shade, high tones and low, a stunning and captivating wine.
Pooley Cooinda Vale Pinot Noir 2021
Lighter and more ethereal than Butchers. Very pretty aromatics of Asian spices, raspberry, aniseed, plum and cherry. Compact, certainly less round than the other Pinots, sleeker and slightly coiled. Complex web of red and black fruits, woodland notes, autumn leaves, and cigar box. Terrific energy, high pitched to match the high tones of flavour. Width in the mouth, hinting at some whole bunch inclusion – I’m guessing 20 per cent. Tannins are present throughout the course of the entire wine, slippery upon entry, firming up to velvet along the finish. Incredible Australian Pinot Noir, a real statement of style and intent from Pooley. One of the best.
Pooley Butchers Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir 2021
A richer, fuller style, formidable in stature and certainly the finest Butchers ever made. Still a little closed upon opening, but with some coaxing it’s hard not to be won over by this sensuous, brooding beauty. Round in shape, that Pooley signature of Cadillac curves, cut through with ripe acids and deep, sweet tannins. Black cherry, mulberry, blackberry, cassis, blood plum and sweet raspberry. Medium to full bodied, bristling with invigorating freshness, effortlessly absorbing. Absolutely no hint of heaviness or weight, but loads of texture, florals, minerals, smoke and earthy notes. I love the firm squeeze of tannin, tobacco laden, all skin and stem, with very subtle wood notes just flecking. Extremely complex and one of Australia’s greatest pinot noirs. Terrific value, make no mistake.
Extremely complex, with briary fruit, fennel, aniseed, cassis, raspberry and blood plum. Long plane of flavour, with terrific width. Summer berry fruit compote, a bloody ferrous quality, Middle Eastern spice, gliding palate that is dusted all the way with flowers, earthy and spice notes. Ripeness without sweetness, savoury, sleek and firm. Loads of detail, layered with complexity. Utterly absorbing and unlike anything from the mainland.
