The 2025 Gentle Folk Monomeith Pinot Noir comes from a single vineyard on the top ridge at Ashton in the Adelaide Hills. Gareth and Rainbo Belton, marine scientists turned growers, farm it organically and make it with nothing added beyond a little sulphur at bottling. This is the darker, spicier of their three 2025 single-site Pinots.
Monomeith sits in its own small east–west valley at 530 metres, so half the rows see morning sun and half see afternoon sun. The vines were planted in 1996 to MV6, 777, 114 and 115 clones on light loamy clay over sandstone with quartz. The fruit was picked on 5 March 2025, fermented as whole berries and whole bunches, pressed to French oak (20% new) for nine months and rested two months in tank before bottling in March 2026. 3,899 bottles were made.
Plum and dark raspberry, earth, a rosy and minty lift, then fine dusty tannin and a long, faintly nutty finish with a flicker of blood orange. Medium-bodied, rich but fresh.
94 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front: a wine of distinct character and gustatory quality.
Ben’s Recommendation:
Of the three 2025 single-vineyard Pinots this is the one to pour with food that has some weight: roast duck, a mushroom-heavy pasta, lamb rump with rosemary. Lovely now with half an hour in a decanter; it will reward five to eight years in a cool cellar.
