2023 Dalrymple Single Site Estate Pinot Noir, Pipers River

Good depth of red colour laced with purple in the rim; the bouquet sappy and gently stemmy with beetroot and sour cherry characters. It's quite tense and lean in the mouth, with good depth of flavour if not a lot of richness or fruit-sweetness. Taut and savoury, with lively acidity, and balanced tannins tannins adding grip. 01 Jul 2025 Drink 2025–2033

92 points Huon Hooke therealreview.com

Dalrymple Single Site Estate Pinot Noir is a sophisticated and site-driven expression of Tasmania’s Pipers River region, a cool-climate stronghold renowned for producing some of Australia’s most finely detailed Pinot Noir. The estate vineyard sits just inland from Bass Strait on a windswept slope of ironstone and basalt-rich soils, surrounded by native bushland and blanketed by ocean-influenced breezes. It’s a place where Pinot ripens slowly and gracefully, developing nuance, complexity and natural acidity.

Dalrymple has long been a reference point for Pinot Noir in Tasmania. Chief winemaker Peter Caldwell, formerly of Te Kairanga and Yering Station, has been the quiet force behind Dalrymple’s evolution. With deep experience in both Tasmania and the Yarra Valley, he brings a deep understanding of cool-climate winemaking and vineyard nuance. For the Single Site Estate release, he draws exclusively from the Dalrymple home block, where each parcel is fermented separately using indigenous yeast and matured in a combination of new and older French oak to build texture while letting the site speak clearly.

In the glass, the wine opens with lifted aromatics of dark cherry, raspberry and redcurrant, woven with hints of Chinese five spice, rose petal, tilled earth and faint woodsmoke. It’s vibrant and layered, with a silken texture on the palate supported by fine-grained tannins and juicy natural acidity. There’s a savoury thread through the core of the wine—notes of truffle, black tea and forest floor—which adds depth and length to the bright red fruit. The balance between perfume and power is finely judged.

This is an elegant partner to pan-seared duck breast with cherry jus, mushroom and leek tart, grilled quail or miso-glazed eggplant. While expressive now, the wine has the structure and drive to age beautifully for eight to ten years, gradually revealing more earth, spice and silky richness.

Dalrymple’s Single Site wines consistently earn strong critical praise for their clarity of expression and restrained elegance. The Estate Pinot Noir captures all the hallmarks of Pipers River—fine fruit, savoury lift and cool-climate precision—in a wine that’s both cerebral and delicious.