2025 Pinot Noir
THE LATEST VINTAGE OF OUR AWARD WINNING PINOT NOIR
Say hello to the latest vintage of our pinnacle red wine, the 2025 Meadowbank Pinot Noir. It follows in the footsteps of its predecessor, the Jimmy Watson-winning 2024 Meadowbank Pinot Noir, and we cannot wait to see how both evolve over time.
Important Note: due to unprecedent demand for the 2024 Meadowbank Pinot Noir, it is no longer available for individual purhase. Last stores are available by joining The Defiance wine club.
Think flavour and finesse! This wine has everything you could want from a pinot. It's smooth, silky and elegant on the palate, with a mouth-watering hit of freshness that makes you thirsty for more. Vibrant strawberry and cherry aromas foreshadow the complex layers of flavour that continue to reveal themselves long after the first sip. All of this is beautifully balanced with an earthy minerality that speaks volumes about the growing conditions that make up our hidden valley.
Of course there is a lot to love about Tasmanian Pinot Noir, with our soils and climate so strongly suited to growing this delicious red grape variety. Gerald Ellis first planted Pinot Noir at Meadowbank in 1987 and our wine is still produced from these vines today. We hand-pick the grapes in two separate passes, over a two week harvest period. Gerald and daughter Mardi, alongside our winemaker Peter Dredge, base their picking decisions predominantly on taste of the grapes alone, as they look for different stages of peak ripening, which later express as unique flavour characteristics come winemaking time.
In the winery, Pete allows each individual parcel of fruit to ferment on skins for two weeks, before the delicious red juice is pressed off and placed into seasoned French oak barrels (just 10% new oak). These barrels are put to bed for 9 months, before they are carefully blended to create the wine that now awaits you in bottle.
Enjoy.
2024 PINOT NOIR REVIEWS:
The Jimmy Watson Trophy for Best Young Red Wine at the 2025 Royal Melbourne Wine Awards - 99pts
James Halliday Trophy for Best Pinot Noir at the 2025 Royal Melbourne Wine Awards - 99pts
2023 PINOT NOIR REVIEWS:
95 POINTS - "Complex aromas of cherry, dried herbs, spice, sap, underbrush, earth and bramble. There’s plenty of fleshy blue and red fruits here, along with some bunchy funk and lift. The fruit is vibrant, textured and layered and there’s lovely, firm, shapely tannins and snappy acidity." Aaron Brasher (The Real Review)
95 POINTS - "I’m thinking 2023 was a very good year for Tasmanian Pinot Noir. It fairly pops with red cherry and ripe strawberry, there’s also some spice, dried flowers and something a little bit earthy, like brown mushrooms, with a just a hint of smoky reduction. It’s juicy and succulent, with cool balanced acidity, and if you swish it around in your mouth, there’s fine emery board tannin that feels very nice, along with a pleasantly sappy edge. The finish is long, spicy and sweetly fruited. It’s lovely now, though likely better again with a couple more years under its belt." Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)
95 POINTS - "Another cracking Peter Dredge pinot noir from Gerald Ellis’ Meadowbank vineyard in the Derwent Valley. Light and bright in colour with fragrant aromas of red cherry, cranberry and raspberry fruits with a whiff of watermelon. Hints of exotic spice and twiggy complexity along with ginger cake, pressed wildflowers, dried meats, softly spoken oak and earth. Spacious with an inflow of amaro and dried citrus rind on the palate, finishing powdery in tannin with a slightly wild look in its eyes." Dave Brookes (Halliday Wine Companion)
AWARDS:
2022 Meadowbank Pinot Noir - TROPHY - 2023 Australian Pinot Noir Challenge
*Note: for those wondering, all our wines are vegan friendly.