2025 Sidewood Estate Pinot Noir, Adelaide Hills

Trophy Best Pinot Noir 2026 Royal Adelaide Wine Show

Awarded best Pinot Noir at the 2026 Royal Adelaide Wine Awards, this first tier in Sidewood’s wider range of class Pinots is predominantly from Sidewood’s home base Mappinga Road vineyard in the Oakbank district of the central Adelaide Hills, where a select group of elite clones including Oberlin and Abel make a serious impact on this value-point wine, here for the first time also taking in further additions of new Burgundian selections. Serious business at this price point, and better still, immediately drinkable, fragrant and fruit forward, juicy red cherry with the faintest of mint and balsamic notes, all gently threaded and woven with a soft touch, a finishing pinch of peppery spice adding enough gastronomic edge to raise the bar in the genre of estate level and regional Pinot Noir wines. 

95 points Tony Love for Wine Pilot, October 2026

The fruit for this wine came from Sidewood’s Mappinga Road, Charleston and Ironstone Road vineyards. The fruit was chilled for 48 hours and the juice fermented with partial inclusion of whole berries and bunches. The pressed wine was matured for eight months in large format French oak barrels of which 20% were new.

Still a young wine, there’s potential here for some positive development in the bottle, but it is likely to be an earlier drinking style at large.

About this producer

Sidewood Estate is a family-owned Adelaide Hills winery established in 2004 by Owen and Cassandra Inglis.

Their substantial, 110 hectares of vineyards are spread across four sites in Oakbank, Charleston, Echunga and Nairne and allow the winemaking team led by Dylan Lee to make a wide range of wines with a now enviable track record of excellence, all characterised by balance and elegance.

The vineyards and operations at large are certified by Sustainable Winegrowing Australia, with ongoing practical measures in place to reduce carbon emissions and increase the recycling of resources on-site.