2024 Marchand & Burch Mt Barrow Pinot Noir, Mt Barker

The best release of this bottling to date, with flashy reduction, salty citrus, struck match, flint and oyster shells. Beautifully balanced with a pure line of acidity, phenolic structure and a textural midpalate leading to a mouthwatering finish. Tightly wound yet already delicious, with excellent drive and length. Drink or hold.

96 points Ryan Montgomery for James Suckling, October 2026

A wine that has both depth and generosity, albeit delivered with a fine, elegant, medium-weight structure. The colour is bright and brilliant. The aromas release an engaging combination of red cherry, raspberry, and a note of strawberry, already showing complexity. The palate has a smooth, satin-like textural feel with fine chalky tannins in support and just the right touch of oak, with that 25 percent new portion an important contributor. A crisp acidity drives a very long finish. Drink to 2036.

96 points Ray Jordan for Wine Pilot, April 2026

The 2024 Mount Barrow Pinot Noir leads with red apple and redcurrant, cherry seed, pomegranate, cedar and shaved fennel. The palate has some tannin—expected for the conditions of the year—but this structure only balances the inherent fruitiness of this year's effort, making for balanced and impressive drinking. This is very good. Drink to 2034.

94 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, June 2026

Compared to its Village sibling, this is more savoury and a little denser on the palate, partly from the new oak. Cherries and pips with a strong root vegetable flavour, especially beetroot and daikon. Ripe tannins, fleshy and juicy across the palate, with plenty of refreshing acidity. It’s a lovely drink and best in the short term. Drink to 2030.

94 points Jane Faulkner for Halliday Wine Companion, September 2025

Mount Barrow is a vineyard planted from 2005 in the Mount Barker subregion of WA’s Great Southern. It is a gentle southeast facing slope of shallow, light soils rising to 380 metre elevation and planted primarily to a diverse selection of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay clones, with smaller blocks of Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Pinot Meunier.

The fruit for this Pinot comes from the oldest blocks on top of the vineyard which greet the morning sun. The fruit was handpicked and further sorted at the winery, before the mostly destemmed fruit was placed in small open fermenters with a minor inclusion of whole bunches, the ferments plunged throughout the fermentation. A puncheon worth of juice from each fermenter was run off at midway through to complete fermentation in oak, while the rest was basket pressed into barrels of the same size (that timing ranging from immediately after fermentation to several days of post-ferment skin maceration). Roughly a quarter of the barrels were new for the season, and the parcels matured six to nine months in oak before blending, with the final wine minimally fined but not filtered in preparation for bottling.

Drinking well on release, this is a lovely fresh style likely to be at its best within 5-6 years from vintage.

About this producer

Marchand & Burch is a collaborative label established in 2007 by Burch family of Howard Park in Margaret River and French-Canadian winemaker Pascal Marchand whose illustrious CV can namedrop Burgundian names like Domaine Comte Armand and Clos de la Vougeraie. The wines presented are sourced from grapes grown in Western Australian and Burgundian vineyards.