2024 Provenance Golden Plains Pinot Noir, Victoria

Fresh-cut beets bring a vegetal tone to the opening before brown spice — nutmeg, clove — dark cherry, singed orange peel, mashed strawberry and a touch of woodsmoke. The palate has a lightness and grace, gliding through the mouth with beets, brown spice, mashed strawberry and dark cherry at the fore and some blood orange bite. A pleasingly firm line of chalky tannins frames it all to solid length. Elegant and fragrant with ample complexity given the price tag. Nicely done.

93 points Tom Kline for Wine Pilot, May 2026

Fruit is 60/30/10% Geelong/Henty/Ballarat. A medium, bright crimson red. Brightly fruited with its aromas of red and black fruits, some whole-bunch-derived green peppercorn notes and a little dried rose. Medium bodied, and like the other '24 Provenance pinots, this will need six months or so for the tannins to soften. A well-priced pinot to drink now and over the next three to four years.

93 points & Special Value Philip Rich for Halliday Wine Companion, April 2026

A sweet balsamic note weaves its way through an attractive palate of red and black cherry, sweet spice, earth and aromatic herbs. It’s lively, slightly meaty, interesting and enjoyable.

91 Points Campbell Mattinson for The Wine Front, March 2026

Provenance was established in the mid-1990s around a simple idea of showcasing cool-climate vineyard sites across western Victoria. Owner and winemaker Sam Vogel works mostly with select vineyards across Henty, Ballarat and Geelong. 

This is a six-vineyard blend showcasing south-western Victoria, with 60% grown across three sites in Geelong’s Moorabool Valley and the Bellarine Peninsula, 30% in Drumborg in the Henty region and finally 10% from two Ballarat vineyards at higher 500m elevation.  

The fruit was kept as whole berries and were fermented in small open-top tanks with 5% fermented separately as whole bunches. The ferments peaked at an average of 28 degrees and were pressed after 10-12 days on skins. The settled wine then spent ten months in a combination of French oak barriques and puncheons of which 18% were  new.