Dalrymple Bicheno Pinot Noir 2013
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Wine Spectator
Intriguing, with notes of red bell pepper and black cherry that are plush and velvety, mingling with accents of baking spices and tobacco that show plenty of torque on the finish. Drink now through 2023.
Dalrymple Vineyards was established by Bertel and Anne Sundstrup in 1987. They were visionaries, travelling to France for inspiration and guidance. Situated in the heart of the highly acclaimed Pipers River region of northeast Tasmania, almost equidistant from Launceston, Scottsdale and George Town, the Sundstrups planted their vines on sloping hills that overlook Bass Strait – the wild sea separating Tasmania from the mainland. Pipers River, Tamar Valley, where the good stuff grows. Imagine – bald, windswept hills, ancient gums leaning at angles, roaring north west gales and sideways rain, fluttering wildflowers, wheeling eagles. This is wild country. A place of vivid greens, basalt browns, daffodil yellow and cornflower blues. A place where we co-exist with nature and the land. When it comes to Dalrymple Vineyards, there are four stories to be told. Our vineyards. Lean natural acidity matches with intense flavors from root to grape, soil to sunshine. Our growers. Our team of hardworking men and women, who grow and tend to our grapes with precision and care. Our vigneron. Peter Caldwell and his passion for Pinot Noir, which he carefully crushes, ferments and separates into various distinct barrels to produce wines of elegance and expression. Our wines. Complex characters, weight, texture, and flavor come together before bottling and mature in our cellar; developing, growing, and creating a personality.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Directly south of the city of Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula wine region, the cool-climate island of Tasmania has earned an honorable reputation as the country’s finest producer of Sparkling Wine. Naturally the region also excels in top quality still wines from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Riesling, all distinguished because of a high natural acidity. Most of the Tasmania vineyards cluster around the eastern side of the island from north to south.