Delamere Pinot Noir 2022

Aroma: Fragrant strawberries, fresh raspberries, and violets.

Palate: Earthy and savoury, with cedar, potpourri, aniseed, and delicate red currant fruits.

Finish: Long and precise, with mineral acidity, violets, dark chocolate, and chinotto.

The Pinot Noir was hand harvested from blocks on the Delamere vineyard aged from 23 and 42 years old. In 2023, we included roughly 30% whole bunches in all of the Delamere Pinot ferments. The fruit is fermented in open-top fermenters using hand plunging to extract colour and create the harmonious tannin structure. Each parcel commenced fermentation naturally, and was completed with a cultured yeast. The wine was pressed off after two to three weeks and filled to Burgundian coopered oak (30% new) to mature for 9 months before bottling.

Shane’s official foray into winemaking took place in 2001, although the seed was planted many years earlier when his family established their Adelaide Hills vineyard. A previous career path (marine biology and aquaculture) brought him to Tasmania where he took up a vintage cellarhand position to help pay the rent whilst undertaking post-graduate research.

Two weeks into harvest and he was hooked! From his new home base in Tasmania, Shane completed the Adelaide University post-graduate degree in winemaking and embarked on vintages in the Adelaide Hills, Yarra Valley and Oregon (USA). The passionate and dynamic winemaking community in Tasmania, and the enormous potential for discovery, lured him back.

Fran joined Shane in their Delamere Vineyard business in 2011. Relocating to Tasmania from her home state of Western Australia a decade earlier to pursue a passion for cool climate wines, Fran’s interest in Champagne style wines trace back to her days studying winemaking at Adelaide University. With many years of winemaking experience in top wine regions around the world, including Burgundy, Oregon, Yarra Valley and the Adelaide Hills, Fran chose to settle in Tasmania due to the unparalleled fruit quality. Who would have predicted a girl from Kalgoorlie would end up making cool climate wine in the apple isle? Not many! But certainly there is no place Fran would rather be.