2025 Gembrook Hill Estate Pinot Noir, Yarra Valley

100% destemmed, four weeks on skins, matured in hogsheads (20% new). Medium, bright crimson. An extremely perfumed and pure-fruited wine, redolent of freshly poached strawberry, rose petal and baking spices. Even better on the palate; richly flavoured yet light on its feet, with a medium-bodied frame and wonderfully silky and persistent tannins. Finishes long. One of those wines that is delicious straight from the gate but will age beautifully, too. Drink 2026 to 2034.

97 points Philip Rich for Halliday Wine Companion, May 2026

I’m still not quite sure what to make of the 2025 vintage in south-eastern Australia. Very good to excellent, but spasmodic, is my general impression. But in this case, it delivers the most positive endorsement possible. This is a terrific release. In fact this is a no-brainer. It has more fruit than usual, more depth through the mid palate, but it still features its trademark structured, insistent length and overall complexity is not in question. Black cherries – yes black – and blueberries meet strawberries, red cherries, undergrowth, sweet spice and cedar. There’s a smoked tobacco-like note here too, slightly rusty, slightly ferrous-like. This wine is fresh, racy and deep at once. It’s super young, of course, but you’re not wasting your money by hooking into it now; it already has a completeness.

96 points Campbell Mattinson for Winefront, May 2026

Gembrook Hill is one of the oldest vineyards in the Upper Yarra subregion, founded in 1983 by Ian and June Marks after a fine-combed search of Victoria's wine regions for the right place for what Ian had in mind: cool-climate wine in an old-world mould. The hilly amphitheatre they found in the Upper Yarra is on red volcanic loam soil and enjoys a north-easterly aspect. Ian passed away in 2017, and his work is now carried forward by June and son Andrew, who returned home after years of experiencing vintages across Burgundy, Languedoc, Spain and California. The low yielding vineyard is hand pruned and harvested.

2025 was a warm year that blessed Yarra Valley growers with generous fruit flavours, but the Gembrook Estate Pinot Noir remains light on its feet thanks to the vineyard being in a cooler corner of the region. The fruit was fully destemmed, spent four weeks on skins, and matured in French hogsheads with 20% new oak. Unfined and unfiltered.

Bright crimson in the glass, with an extremely perfumed nose of freshly poached strawberry, rose petal and baking spices. The palate is richly flavoured yet nimble and medium bodied, with wonderfully silky tannins that persist through a long finish. Delicious now, and with the structure to age beautifully.

Good company for duck confit with lentils or a classic beef bourguignon on a night worth the effort.