Country: Australia
Region: Yarra Valley
Vintage: 2024
Variety: Pinot Noir
Alcohol volume: 13.5%
Closure: Screwcap

Palate
The Pinot Noir produced from Sexton has a lovely texture, with dark cherries and plums, sweet spice notes and youthful tannins.

Region notes
Located on the steep slopes of the Warramate Ranges, the Sexton Vineyard is in one of the most revered pockets of the Valley. Being well up the Range’s north-facing slopes, topsoil is thin and root systems have established themselves in shallow gravelly loams above a tough, rocky clay base. Bunch yields set naturally low in this environment, resulting in intensely flavoured fruit with high skin to juice ratio. The clonal selection of Pinot Noir off this site includes the G5V15 clone, which responds well to the warmer conditions and sunlight exposure to produce juicy and plush wines.

Cellaring potential
Now-8 years.

Vintage notes
The 2024 vintage was a more classic Yarra season. A cool start to Spring and ideal flowering conditions led to good fruit set and moderate yields. December was cool and mild, with significant rainfall at New Years and during the first week of January, giving the vines a good drink leading into the heat of February. Mid to late February was drier and warmer than is common in the Yarra, leading to great ripening conditions with no disease pressure and quite a fast vintage. In 2024, all of our Pinot and Chardonnay was ready in quick succession, leading to a compressed harvest - with the whole valley picked in the space of 3 weeks (where it normally spreads across 6 weeks). An exciting ride for our team, but ultimately giving us wines with great flavour, bright acidity and balance.

Vinification
Handpicked, fermented in a combination of small oak fermenters and stainless-steel open vats. The MV6 parcels were fermented as whole bunches, while the remaining clones were destemmed to whole berries and cold soaked for four days before fermentation started. The resulting blend is 20% whole bunch fermented.

Maturation
All parcels were matured in French oak – 25% new, 75% seasoned – for 10 months in 225L barriques predominately Taransaud and Dargaud & Jaeglé. The wine was not moved and kept in contact with its lees before blending in December. Bottled by gravity. No fining. No filtration.

Philip Rich
96 Points
From the Sexton vineyard in Gruyere planted in the late '90s. 100% destemmed. A deep crimson ruby. Aromas of ripe dark raspberries, blackcurrant pastilles (these were always my favourite) and even a little kirsch. A touch of rose bush. The palate is juicy and fleshy and the wine's ripe, plush tannins make this, along with the Primavera, the richest, meatiest and most immediate of the four single-vineyard pinots in '24. Having said this, you'd be happy if you found some laying around the cellar in eight or so years.

Campbell Mattinson
94 Points
Red fruit, aspects of saucy oak, figs and graphite, smoke. Chester described this wine as “grenache adjacent” and that’s as apt a call as you’ll hear. It has that cloves-tucked-into-raspberry-into-smoke-into-iron persona. It feels compact, it tastes delicious, and it has good weight and length, the latter featuring a keen smoked peppercorn aspect. Love the feel and the profile of this. 94+