Paul and Gilli Lipscombe are a remarkable winemaking team (and were finalists for Australia’s Winemakers of the Year last year). Paul is a Cambridge educated Brit (though you’d never know it). Gilli is a native of Brisbane. Among other places, they learned their craft at Beaux Freres – and say: “Mike Etzel from Beaux Frères is an incredibly thoughtful person and guided us in terms of hands-off Pinot Noir winemaking and the dedication to growing great wine.”
Jancis Robinson rates this not only the top Sailor Seeks Horse Pinot ever but equal to its celebrated $90 neighbor Tolpuddle, saying:
Generous fruit that feels riper than you might expect. Lovely acidic nerve and great persistence. Super-juicy style with impressive fruit clarity. Light structure, very fine, powdery tannins.
And WineFront echoes this:
I come for the fruit; I stay for the complexity. Pure, ripe, cherry-plum fruit, remarkable at 12% alcohol, comes littered with turned earth, sweet herb, cedarwood oak and undergrowth. There’s some sweet-sour action, some musk, a creaminess to the mouthfeel and ultra-fine-grained tannin.
Top rating ever from Halliday, too:
A Huon Valley–sourced wine displaying a sheen of amaro and spice courtesy of 5% whole bunches in the fermentation. There is a wild, perfumed edge akin to a siren's call pour moi. A complex whirling dervish of raspberry, bramble, game, roast chestnuts, souk-like spices, cherry clafoutis, turned earth and crushed stone with a vivid mineral cadence and a distinct voice of site and vision.
This is precisely the style (and quality) so many Sonoma Coast vintners strive to emulate. But rest assured, if they do, it won’t be at anywhere near $50! And in this cooler, more concentrated vintage (not yet reviewed, and not likely to be as there’s so little of it), the Lipscombe’s believe they’ve done even better.
For the Pinot Noir purist, this one is a must.
