Friday, February 4, 2011

YARRA BURN PINOT NOIR 2009

- Tasmania/Adelaide Hills, SA/Yarra Valley, VIC
- $24-$35
- Screwcap
- 13.0%alc

The Victorian bushfires of 2009 forced Yarra Burn to look further afield for their 2009 Pinot Noir, drawing in fruit from Tasmania and the Adelaide Hills to create an intriguing tri-state blend. Also lookout for a similar three region blend from the award winning Coldstream Hills 2009 Pinot Noir, which was sourced from Tasmania, the Mornington Peninsula and western Victoria's Henty region.

I can't recall drinking a tri-state pinot noir before, or at least one that was labelled as such, and well; the 2009 Yarra Burn smells a treat. It's rather elemental in its intensely lifted, fragrant and juvenile state, with a range of sweet, musky spices and herbs that literally own the airspace sitting above the wine's surface. Cherries, plums, toasty vanilla/cedar oak and perhaps even meats and stalk reside in the bouquet as well, all leading into a dark fruited (Tassie?), medium/medium-full bodied (Adelaide Hills?) and relatively savoury palate that takes a long spell in the decanter to fully show its best. It's quite lithe and travels with the keenly balanced extract of sour-edged acids and tannin that pinot drinkers seek, however, although it eventually shows a pleasing richness of flavour and a certain fragility, I do detect a slightly astringent hardness at the climax of its firm, dry finish, which barely passes with time.

ü+ For around $27 the 2009 Yarra Burn is a genuinely complex (could just be the unusual regional make-up), cellaring style pinot noir. I optimistically envision it getting much better with time, so give it some. There's a clear extra point for potential here. Drink 2014-2016.
92 points


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