2022 Tapanappa Definitus Pinot Noir, Fleurieu Peninsula

A beautiful release here; 15% whole bunch, nine months in French oak, 30% of which was new. Elements of struggle, the cooler-than-usual vintage and minute yields have contributed to a concise and certain wine. Prismatic red fruits cast light over the depth of spice and umami complexities, a little truffle, a little master stock, and just-ripe red plum. Pure harmony. Definitus has a reputation for assertive tannins, and again, they are complex, layered and riveting. More spice richness follows as black cherry and Cointreau notes endure through a captivating and persistent finish. Drink 2024-2034.

96 points Katrina Butler for Halliday Wine Companion, July 2025

The treasured north-western slope is in its 5th bottling. Destemmed berries in the cool season were fermented slowly with daily plunges and into one third new oak barriques for 8 months. The wine moves into its second skin of perfumed goji and persimmon, some red gum bark and rooibos leaves. Tannins and acidity interweave into what is an aching succulent wine, with sappy red fruit and some pink peppercorn spice. A wine that always makes me stop and rethink just how many Aussie Pinot Noirs I have consumed too early, here you are presented with a wine that has developed with wisdom and knowledge of itself. It’s settled and confident and would be ideal with pink lobes of roasted Quail flesh.

95 points Shanteh Wale for Wine Pilot, November 2025

Campfire, rosemary and black cherry aromas lead into a fine and flavoursome core that glides nicely across the palate. The tannins are fine and slinky, though by no means a pushover. Its flavours are more on the savoury side, offering a lovely play on earth, smoke, spice and tangy red berries. Drink 2025-2032.

92 points Gabrielle Poy for The Real Review, November 2025

The 2022 Definitus Pinot Noir Foggy Hill is light and lean, with sour cherry, white strawberry, red apple and star anise. The wine is tightly coiled and delicate, and the 15% whole-bunch component serves to add spice complexity and structural line to the wine. 2022 was a cooler vintage than the average, and this has produced a wine of restraint and poise. Drink 2024-2037

92 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, September 2025

The Foggy Hill Vineyard was planted in 2003 to Dijon clones. It is located at Parawa on the Fleurieu Peninsula, and at 350 metres is its the highest point. Within the vineyard, the Definitus block occupies the central slope where shallow ferricrete sandstone sits close to the surface, restricting the vines, limiting yields and concentrating flavour in a way the deeper soils nearby simply cannot. The block takes its name from the Latin for defined or precise — words that describe exactly what the shallow soils and restricted vines deliver into the glass.

The 2022 vintage was cool and low-yielding across the site. The fruit was destemmed, fermented for 16 days with five days of skin maceration, then pressed to French oak barriques with one third new, and matured for nine months before bottling.

Medium garnet, the nose is detailed and quietly complex — dark cherry, orange rind, rose petal and a savoury earth and mushroom undertone. The palate is silky and composed with fine, pervasive tannins, dark cherry and plum fruit, and a long finish of olive, thyme and sous-bois that gives the wine its particular sense of place. This is Pinot Noir that rewards attention and will reveal more with time in the bottle.

Roast duck, mushroom risotto, a slow-braised rabbit or aged hard cheese. The kind of bottle worth opening when the occasion deserves something genuinely special — and then letting it do the talking.

Drink now through 2033.