JancisRobinson.com on Ten Minutes by Tractor: Tamlyn Currin's Highlights

Following her recent visit to Victoria, JancisRobinson.com writer Tamlyn Currin has shared her impressions of over 250 wines from across the state—including many of our 2022 and 2023 releases.

We’re proud to share that several of our wines were among the highest rated. Describing our 2023 Coolart Road F Block Pinot Noir as "spine-tingling… liquid Maria Callas" and the 2022 Trahere Pinot Noir as "exquisitely fine... a wine of haunting crescendo and descant", Tamlyn captures the spirit and precision we strive for in every vintage.

A number of wines received 17.5 points or higher—an exceptional result on the 20-point scale—highlighting the depth, vibrancy and age-worthiness of these releases. You’ll find a selection of Tamlyn’s notes below, along with a link to explore the wines further. 

The Reviews

2022 TRAHERE PINOT NOIR | 17.5 PTS

Exquisitely fine detail and complexity bringing a kind of iridescent, transcendent concentration. Red cherry and roses and hibiscus. Pomegranate. Plum-skin spices. The tannins seem to sough through the fruit, whispering, almost keening. A wine of haunting crescendo and descant. Long and impossible to leave.

2022 TRAHERE CHARDONNAY | 17+ PTS

Tingling with lively life but a bit more spicy than the 2021. Roasted polenta, mealy depth, white peach. Edgy texture and voltage running through the fruit. Feels as though it needs time to settle its nerves.

2023 COOLART ROAD 'F BLOCK' PINOT NOIR | 18 PTS

So peppery and so floral – almost floating above the glass when you smell it and yet stunning intensity on the palate. Membrillo, strawberry leather, Sichuan pepper and five spice. A whisper of petrichor – the scent of rain on the wind. Ballet-slipper tannins. Strength and grace. Both grounded and soaring. The soprano of the Coolart Road Block wines. Spine-tingling. Liquid Maria Callas.

2023 COOLART ROAD 'E BLOCK' PINOT NOIR | 17.5 PTS

So much sweeter by contrast with the F Block that this wine, the E Block, is almost a shock. Cherry chocolate, quince paste with damson vibrato. The richly fragrant density of ras el hanout, and then, cheekily, strawberry chipotle jam (if such a thing exists!). Very, very slightly more grip on the tannins than F Block. But the tannins are still mellifluous. If F Block is soprano, E Block is cello. If F Block is leggiero, E Block is legato.

2023 COOLART ROAD 'D BLOCK' PINOT NOIR | 17.5 PTS

Just a few rows down and yet so much more graphite tension and shadow. Chiaroscuro. Truffle and mushroom compost. Earth and geosmin. The acidity has that still, silent vibration that you only find leaning with your ear and whole body against the trunk of an ancient tree in the stillness of dawn. The fruit and tannins carry shadow and earth, dark sweetness of a different kind. Black cherry. The largo, the bass of the Coolart blocks.

2022 COOLART ROAD PINOT NOIR | 17.5 PTS

Richer and deeper than the McCutcheon and Wallis 2022 Pinots. Spicy plumcot, ripe damson, violet. The fruit comes forward, showing much more concentration, more graphite, a little fiercer, more confident. More calligraphy. More mouth-watering, more shimmering concentration. A show of restrained magnificence.

2023 ESTATE CHARDONNAY | 17 PTS

Yuzu, pomelo, bergamot, Mirabelle plums. Fine line of sweet lime. Has roundness, lemon-curd richness and surprising concentration for such a cool year, but I love the glittering acidity that seems to define and vibrate through the wine in more ways than one. You can feel the glitter.