2023 Portsea Estate Back Beach Pinot Noir, Mornington Peninsula

With fruit from growers across the peninsula, this is an appealing, drink-now option focusing on flavours of red cherries, blood orange and chinotto. It’s juicy and tangy thanks to the acidity, which takes centre stage, and a light feathering of tannins gives some shape to the barely mid-weighted palate. It’s a pretty wine, a little savoury, with refreshment guaranteed. Drink to 2031.

92 points Jane Faulkner for Halliday Wine Companion, June 2025

Portsea Estate was planted in 2000 to Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Tempranillo on a low elevation site of humus rich topsoils over calcareous sands. The estate also draws fruit from a second site in Main Ridge at an elevation of 172 metres planted in stages from 1997 to 2022 to Chardonnay as well as Pinots Gris and Noir. The two sites are farmed to principles of regenerative viticulture and are certified by Sustainable Winegrowing Australia.

The Back Beach wine are made from both estate and contract grown Mornington Peninsula fruit, with several sites across the region contributing fruit for this 2023 Pinot Noir. The fruit was fermented with a small 10% inclusion of whole bunches and matured in mainly well-seasoned French oak of which only 5% were new.

Very much a product of the cool 2023 growing season, the wine opens with lifted and spicy aromas. Medium-weighted, the palate is filled with crunchy red berries, with light spice and gentle tannins completing the package.

A refreshing drink-now style, serve this to a lighter charcuterie board, vegetable tarts and lighter preparations of white meat.