From one of the Yarra Valley’s most revered vineyards, the Hoddles Creek Estate 1er Pinot Noir 2024 captures the essence of elevation, patience, and precision. The fruit is drawn exclusively from the Top Paddock Vineyard, a west-facing slope that gently falls to the south—an orientation that encourages slow ripening and even tannin maturity.
Planted to 28 rows of Pinot Noir, this site was identified in 2005 as producing distinctively finer fruit compared to the rest of the estate. The vines are meticulously balanced, shoot-thinned around the crown, and cropped to 1.3kg per vine to ensure concentration and structure. The cooler, south-facing exposure allows for 25% whole cluster inclusion in fermentation, giving the wine its signature lift, aromatic spice, and refined tannin weave.
Franco D’Anna’s approach to red winemaking is rooted in texture and intuition rather than formula. Each ferment is assessed every six hours, allowing him to guide tannin extraction according to the natural rhythm of the wine. The fruit is gently plunged, spending 18 months in French oak casks before bottling unfined, unfiltered, and unstabilised—a testament to the purity of both site and craft.
Tasting Note
Complex and alive, the 2024 1er Pinot Noir brims with red and black cherry, forest floor, and fragrant herbs, layered with spice, cedar, and undergrowth. The palate is pure and satiny, framed by smoky, cedar-lined oak and a beautifully judged tannin structure—silky yet persistent. It’s already seductive in youth but built to evolve gracefully over the next decade.
Small-Batch Detail
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Region: Upper Yarra Valley, Victoria
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Vineyard: Top Paddock (south-facing slope, west orientation)
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Clones: Estate selections (original Hoddles Creek Pinot Noir vines)
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Whole Bunch: 25%
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Fermentation: Hand-plunged, intuitive tannin extraction
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Maturation: 18 months in French oak casks
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Bottling: Unfined, unfiltered, unstabilised
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Cellaring: 2025–2036
Expert Review
⭐ 95+ Points – Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
“Alive with twig, spice and herb notes but riven with pure, satiny red and black cherry flavours, and that undergrowth-forest-wood aspect so beguiling and characteristic of great Pinot. Cedar oak plays a positive, shaping role, and the tannin is a masterclass—threaded intricately, gently smoky. Already putting on a show, but built to last. A truly beautiful wine.”
Fine Pinot Note
A powerful yet graceful Pinot Noir that fuses site intensity with winemaking finesse. The 2024 Hoddles Creek 1er is earthy, aromatic, and textural—a benchmark example of high-elevation Yarra Pinot at its most refined. Perfect with duck confit, game birds, or truffle risotto.
Hoddles Creek Estate
Hoddles Creek Estate was established in 1997 when the D'Anna family decided to establish a vineyard on the property that has been in the family since 1960. The vineyard sits astride Gembrook road and adjacent Hoddles Creek. Its steeply sloping blocks prohibit mechanical harvesting, with both vineyards being hand pruned and harvested. All our wines, which are single vineyard, estate grown, are made in our 300 tonne winery, constructed for the 2003 vintage. The split-level winery has a barrel store located three meters underground. Hoddles Creek Estate is planted with 10ha of pinot noir (five clones), 6 ha of chardonnay, 1ha each of sauvignon blanc, merlot and cabernet sauvignon, and 1.5ha of pinot gris.
