This is the original vineyard, planted by Richard and Jill McIntyre on Derril Road in 1983, when the Mornington Peninsula was still an idea rather than a region. The site sits about eighty metres above sea level on a gentle north to north-westerly slope, and over four decades it has accumulated an unusually wide spread of Pinot Noir clones: MV6, 115, 114, 777, 667, Pommard and Abel. That last one is the cutting famously carried out of Burgundy and into New Zealand inside a rubber boot, and it is rare to find it on this side of the Tasman. Hand-picked, destemmed, fermented on wild yeast, nineteen to twenty-one days on skins, then French oak. Bottled unfined and unfiltered.
Four decades of root depth show up as structure. Dark cherry and red berry sit over herb, tilled earth and quiet spice, with sweet cedar and an iron-like minerality emerging as it opens. The palate is dry and finely shaped, fresh and cool in feel, with firm elegant tannin carrying a very long finish. Campbell Mattinson's words for it were dry, sinewy and herb-flecked. The 2023 vintage of this wine scored 95 points from Tom Kline of Inside Burgundy.
Ben's Recommendation:
At Wine More Cellars, this is the most serious of the three Moorooduc single vineyards and the estate's flagship Pinot Noir. Compared with the Robinson it is deeper and more structured; compared with the Garden it trades perfume for gravity and length. Give it an hour in a decanter and it is superb tonight, or leave it a decade and it will only gain. James Halliday has long listed Moorooduc among the best examples of its varieties in Australia, not merely on the Peninsula. Perfect with roast duck, lamb, quail and a serious mushroom dish.
