2014 Pike & Joyce, Pinot Noir, Rapide, Adelaide Hills, Australia.
This South Australian Pinot is nicely mature and ruby/rust in color at this stage, have some tertiary dried leaf and earthy notes, but is absolutely lovely in the glass with bright strawberry, dried cherry, pomegranate and cranberry fruits on the silky medium bodied palate, along with subtle wood, wilted roses, minty herbs and tea spices. This was a happy surprise to taste, from a lingering bottle at a wine shop in Memphis, and a big thank you to Tristan Coole of 901 Wines, who though it would e fun to try an older Aussie Pinot. Made by tw of Australia’s famous wine families, the 100% Estate grown Rapide Pike & Joyce Pinot Noir from Lenswood, in the Adelaide Hills region, turned out to be a wonderful and delightful bottle hat might be hitting the peak of life. The winery says the Pinot saw loads of whole cluster, which is displayed well here and was done with 100% wild yeast, macerated and fermented in open fermenters and then matured for about 8 months in mostly well used French oak, with maybe 6% new and finished at 13.5% natural alcohol, making for a distinctive cool climate and balanced wine. The cooler Adelaide Hills terroir, which is noted for Chardonnay and Pinot, includes a mixture of sandy loams, loams and clay loams over clay subsoils, as well as combined with some shale and ironstone.
The winery’s mission was to create a special single vineyard Pinot that was instantly tasty and vibrant in style, which was achieved here and the Pike & Joyce Rapide Pinot Noir is remarkably affordable, especially considering the quality, effort and cost of growing their own Pinot grapes, as well as exchange rates. The foundations for the Pike & Joyce brand, the winery explains, were established in late 1997 with these two long time south Australian families joining forces with the purchase of 22 hectares of prime vineyard land at Lenswood in the Adelaide Hills. The planting commenced in 1998 and the first wines were subsequently released in the 2002 vintage, which I believe I remember reading about, but had never been able to try in their early days. Since then the Pike & Joyce range of wines have received numerous accolades and awards at home, plus winning trophies at wine shows both here and internationally. The opening of a brand new cellar door facility overlooking the vineyard at Lenswood underlines their commitment to the Adelaide Hills wine region and their vision to produce the best possible single vineyard wines that they can from this very special vineyard site. In recent years Aussie Pinot has made a good showing, with areas like Yarra, Adelaide Hills and Mornington Peninsula, as well as Tasmania putting out some delicious stuff!
($18 Est.) 91 Points, grapelive