2023 Levantine Hill Estate Pinot Noir, Yarra Valley

All estate fruit with a mix of clones and vine age. Predominantly destemmed with, according to winemaker Paul Bridgeman, a measured amount of stalks! A bright, deep-ish crimson red. Immediately appealing with its aromas of red and black fruits, rose petals and spice. There's good volume to the medium-bodied, gently textured palate while the tannins are velvety and long. And, as good as it is now, it will continue to evolve over the next 5–7 years at least. Drink to 2030.

96 points Philip Rich for Halliday Wine Companion, April 2026

Piercing red fruits with red cherry, raspberry, hibiscus, rose petal and lead pencil. The palate is mid-weighted with firm tannins, bright acidity and a salivating, tense finish. Finely constructed with plenty of mineral character and taut red fruits. Drink or hold.

94 points Ryan Montgomery for James Suckling, September 2026

Bright medium deep red, still with a tinge of purple at the meniscus. The bouquet has developed some tertiary complexities of roasting meats, dried porcini mushrooms and smoked charcuterie, with a touch of funk. The palate is medium bodied and tensioned with a little firmness from tannin. This is evolving into a more mellow and complex wine. A wine of character! Drink to 2033.

93 points Huon Hooke for The Real Review, May 2026

The 2023 Levantine Hill Estate Pinot Noir is a 94/6 blend of Pinot clones MV6 and D2V5, the latter from the original 1994 plantings. The fruit was handpicked across ten parcels in the Maroondah Highway vineyard over eleven days from the 11th of March.

Each parcel was vinified separately, and the fruit hand sorted at the winery before it was destemmed, or crushed, to small open vats, with stalks added back to select parcels for complexity. The ferments started with a mix of indigenous and cultivated yeasts, with ferments lasting from one to three weeks hand plunged or pumped-over a maximum of once per day for gentle extraction and integration of tannins.

The pressed wine was matured for nine months in a combination of French oak barriques, hogsheads and puncheons of which 7% were new, and the final blend bottled in the last week of February 2024 with a small addition of sulphur dioxide.

About this producer

Levantine Hill was established in 2009 by the Jreissati family who remain its current owners. Based in the Coldstream subregion of Yarra Valley, their holdings encompass two vineyard sites, the lower Maroondah Highway site planted between 1995 and 2016, and the steep Hill Road site planted from 2009 to 2015.

Chief winemaker Paul Bridgeman is a well-regarded Yarra local who managed Yarra Yering following the passing of Dr. Bailey Carrodus. He has been guiding Levantine Hill’s wines since 2013 and today works closely with winemaker Peter Shore.