Levantine Hill Estate Pinot Noir 2021

The 2021 Estate Pinot Noir from Levantine Hill is an elegant, slow-building expression of one of the Yarra Valley’s most exceptional vintages. With ultra-low yields, tiny berries, and abundant tannin, the vintage has produced a wine of precision, aromatic complexity, and structural grace.

Sourced entirely from Levantine Hill’s Maroondah Highway vineyard, this small-batch Pinot is composed of 92% MV6 and 8% D2V5 clones, hand-picked over a 20-day period and fermented in thirteen individual small lots. Each batch was gently handled—hand-sorted, destemmed or crushed into open-top vats, with select parcels having stalks returned for added structure. The wine matured for 9 months in 100% French oak (just 6% new) and was bottled unfined to retain purity.

The bouquet is a tapestry of red cherry, blood plum, and wild strawberry, deepening into sarsaparilla, myrtle-leaf orange, sandalwood, bay leaf, and shiitake mushroom. The palate unfolds with graceful confidence—Campari, pink peppercorn, pimentón, and rhubarb glide across a core of savoury red fruit, framed by fine-grained tannins and a lifted thread of natural acidity.

Small-Batch Detail

• Site: Maroondah Highway Vineyard, Yarra Valley

• Clones: 92% MV6, 8% D2V5 (planted 1994)

• Harvest: 20 February – 11 March 2021

• Fermentation: 13 separate batches, mix of natural and inoculated yeast

• Extraction: Gentle plunging/pump-overs, 1–3 weeks on skins

• Oak Maturation: 9 months in French oak (500L puncheons, 300L hogsheads, 228L barriques; 6% new)

• Bottled: 23 February 2022 | Unfined | Vegan friendly

• Alcohol: 12.5% | RS: <1.0 g/L

• Cellaring Potential: 10+ years

Critical Praise
⭐ 95 Points – Halliday Wine Companion
“Perfumed with purple flowers, alpine berries, souk spices and dried orange peel. A graceful Pinot with finely woven tannins, savoury undertones, and the steady thrum of mushroom, earth and white pepper.”

FinePinot Note
A deeply savoury and intellectual Yarra Pinot Noir. This is not showy fruit but a wine that invites you to slow down—exploring fine detail, length, and seamless integration. Cellar with confidence or decant gently for roast duck or mushroom cassoulet.

Levantine Hill Estate

Levantine Hill Estate is a Yarra Valley winery renowned for its high-quality wines, architectural design, and events. It's a family-owned estate with two vineyards, a striking cellar door and restaurant, and a state-of-the-art winery, all part of a larger vision for a total wine and entertainment experience.The estate combines an established vineyard producing grapes since the 1990s with a family-planted vineyard surrounding the homestead.