2024 Utzinger Black Label Pinot Noir, Tamar Valley

MV6, Pommard and some Abel clone from the Utzinger estate, 16% whole bunch. Dark plum, wild strawberry and raspberry fruit underscored with exotic spice, citrus blossom, leaf litter, Peking duck, crushed rock, sour cherry, pomegranate and vanillin oak. Bright and nicely poised with lovely pure fruits (thank you '24 vintage!), toothsome, silty tannins and a bright, lacy seam of acidity. Trails savoury on the finish.

95+ points Dave Brookes for Halliday Wine Companion, March 2026

The hand-harvested estate fruit was cold soaked with a 20% whole bunch inclusion ahead of fermentation with indigenous yeasts. The basket pressed wine was matured in French oak barrels of which 30% were new and bottled without fining or filtration.

About this producer

Utzinger Wines is the Tamar Valley label of Mattias and Lauren Utzinger, he a Swiss-born winemaker, she a Tasmanian girl he met while travelling. They’ve farmed their high-density certified organic vineyard near Legana on the western slopes of the Tamar River since 2018. The five-hectare site has a northeasterly aspect and is planted primarily to Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Shiraz, with wines sitting in brown dermosol soils rich in ironstone gravel over moisture holding clay subsoils.

The black label wines are made from fruit grown in their own vineyard, while the white labels blend also use fruit from vineyards leased and managed by Matthias and Lauren.