2024 Bannockburn Olive Tree Hill Pinot Noir, Geelong

Made from own-rooted MV6 pinot noir planted in '76 and therefore the oldest pinot vines on the property. This is a superb wine with which to celebrate Bannockburn's 50th anniversary vintage. A bright ruby hue. With its core of mainly red fruits, rose petal and subtle spice scents, there is a palpable energy that's hard to resist. There's also an old-vine creaminess, together with the silkiest of tannins, making this a joy to drink even now. Having said that, this will still be looking good a decade from now. Drink 2025 to 2035.

96+ points Philip Rich for Halliday Wine Companion, November 2025

A floral and herbal edge underlies wet earth and dried flowers. The palate is refined and pure, with a lovely blue-fruited tone and fresh plushness carried by fine tannins and bright acidity. This will evolve and open nicely in the bottle. Delicious. Drink or hold.

96 points James Suckling, August 2025

The 2024 Olive Tree Hill Pinot Noir is made from the oldest Pinot Noir vines on the estate: own-rooted MV6 clone planted in 1976. This is fine and lacy in context with the other Bannockburn Pinots from the 2024 release, and it shows tapenade, freshly grated nutmeg, clove, rose petals, cocoa and new leather. It's so pretty! There remains a meaty character woven through the back of the wine, but it is a subtle element that emphasizes some of the prettier aspects of the experience. This is lovely. It is still brambly and exotic but restrained and focused, too. This is very good. Drink 2025 to 2039.

95 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, December 2025

A garnet/cherry red in the glass. Funky, earthy, complex and wild aromas of sap, Campari, red fruits, rhubarb, Asian spice and pot-pourri. Crunchy, savoury and with a pure and precise drive of wild red fruits, textured tannins, earth and spice. Long and sophisticated. Drink 2025 to 2035.

95 points Aaron Brasher for The Real Review, November 2025

There’s polish to this wine, and a meatiness, and savoury inputs aplenty, and a long confident push through the finish. It’s Bannockburn pinot noir to a tee. Red cherry, tonic water, rhubarb, undergrowth and woodsmoke characters run into rust, steel, earth and cedar. There’s a umami aspect to this wine; indeed it runs right through it. Courtesy of this wine’s balance – and long, even flow through the finish – you could easily drink this now. But it will be a more complex delight with some years under its belt.

95 points Campbell Mattinson for The Wine Front

Stuart Hooper planted the first vines at Bannockburn in 1974 with a clear ambition: to produce wines that could stand alongside the great estates of Burgundy. Fifty years on, the estate has made good on that ambition. The 26 blocks of estate vines, some of the oldest in the Geelong region, include the Serré vineyard planted in 1984. Farming across the estate is organic, yields are tightly restricted, and the Moorabool Valley's low-fertility soils and continental climate do the rest. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are the foundation, but the range extends further, and every wine is made from estate fruit alone.

Olive Tree Hill was planted in 1976 and is the oldest Pinot Noir block on the Bannockburn property, now approaching its 50th vintage. The block is certified organic, its MV6 clone vines own-rooted, naturally low-yielding, and consistently the last to ripen on the estate, producing small, concentrated berries.

Fruit was completely destemmed, fermented on skins for 10 days, then pressed to French oak hogsheads (40% new). Left undisturbed, with malolactic fermentation completing in spring before blending and bottling in February 2025.

Winemaker Matt Holmes describes this as the darkest and most structured of the Bannockburn Pinots. The 2024 is a Pinot Noir of genuine old-vine power and composure — red and dark cherry, rose petal, tapenade and clove on the nose with a forest floor depth, woodsmoke and a quietly running umami quality that gives the wine its particular character. The palate is full and rounded with fine tannins, fresh acidity and a long, settled finish. Brambly and exotic in youth, this will open into something more complex with time.

A wine that rewards slow cooking and earthy flavours: a duck confit with lentils and a red wine reduction, or a wild mushroom and truffle risotto with aged parmesan. The depth and structure here handles richness without effort.

Drink now through 2039.