2025 Howard Park Flint Rock Pinot Noir, Great Southern

A lighter, leaner expression with just-ripe red berry fruitiness, dashes of pepper, sweet spice, dried herbs and some twiggy, woody elements. It has good shape, a sleek tannin line and a frisky finish. A dash too much woodiness perhaps distracting and drying, but generally this wine feels good in structure, balance and drinkability. Drink to 2031.

93 points Special Value Mike Bennie for Halliday Wine Companion, June 2026

West Australian Pinot Noir continues to impress, far beyond anything imaginable just a decade or two ago. The fruit for this wine was sourced from cooler vineyards in the Mount Barker and Porongurup sub-regions from the Great Southern region. After hand sorting, selected batches were cold soaked with 15% whole bunches included. After fermentation, the wine was pressed into a mix of stainless-steel tanks, as well as barriques, hogsheads and 500-litre puncheons. Maturation was for seven months in 50% stainless steel tanks and 50% older French oak. Crimson/purple in colour, a beautifully fragrant Pinot Noir. We have notes of dried herbs, cherries, red fruits, a touch of florals, spices, kirsch and raspberries. A wonderfully impressive nose, the wine is of medium length with balance and drive. Enjoy this over the next six to eight years. A touch more length and the score would have been higher. That said, if this came with a big Pinot Noir name and a high price tag, I doubt anyone would blink. Drink to 2034.

93 points Ken Gargett for Wine Pilot, June 2026

Howard Park Flint Rock Pinot Noir comes from one of Western Australia’s most exciting and underappreciated cool climate regions, the Great Southern, where long, slow growing seasons and ancient soils create wines of remarkable detail and perfume. The Flint Rock vineyard sits on gravelly loam scattered with ironstone and quartz, a site that naturally limits vine vigour and delivers small, intensely flavoured berries. These are conditions that Pinot Noir loves, allowing it to express both purity of fruit and a savoury, earthy depth that reflects the land it comes from. Howard Park has worked these Great Southern sites for decades, quietly building a reputation for crafting wines that speak of place rather than winemaking fashion.

In the glass the wine shows a luminous ruby red, with aromas of wild strawberry, sour cherry, rose petal and subtle spice layered over a distinctive flinty, mineral note that gives the vineyard its name. The palate is silky and refined, offering red berry fruit, gentle savoury tones and fine, powdery tannins that glide across the tongue, finishing with freshness and quiet persistence. It is superb with duck, roast chicken, mushroom dishes and charcuterie, and it also rewards time in the cellar, developing more forest floor, truffle and spice over five to ten years. This is a Pinot Noir that captures the elegance and quiet power of the Great Southern, delivering complexity, restraint and a beautiful sense of terroir.