2025 Gentle Folk Monomeith Pinot Noir, Adelaide Hills

Deep, bold and bright purple red colour with a mix of spices, dark berry fruits anise and sousbois on the nose. The palate is rich and densely textured, fleshy and concentrated, a powerful and detailed pinot that is most impressive. Outstanding wine. Drink to 2037.

97 points Huon Hooke for The Real Review, November 2026

This wine comes to us from the Monomeith vineyard in the subregion of Ashton and owned by Patrick and Vienna O'Sullivan. The protected site is located at an elevation of 530 meters and faces east and west, with the 1996 planted MV6, 114, 777 and 115 clones of Pinot Noir vines standing in light soils with plentiful quartz rubble over sandstone, siltstone and clay.

The fruit was fermented as whole berries and whole bunches and matured for nine in French oak barrels of which 20% were new. The wine was then blended in stainless steel and allowed a three-month rest ahead of the bottling.

About this producer

Gentle Folk is a Basket Range, Adelaide Hills based wine producer established in 2013. Behind the name are Gareth and Rainbo Belton, who farm eight hectares of vines organically with biodynamic preparations across the region, the small, mostly leased blocks of land sitting at elevations ranging from 350 to 620 metres.

The vineyards are hand tended and all fruit is handpicked, and winemaking very much in the minimal intervention fold with endemic vineyard yeasts, gravity fed wine movements, avoidance of fining and filtration and minimal, homeopathic doses of sulphur at bottling.