2023 Dalrymple Single Site Ouse Pinot Noir

95 POINTS

Dave Brookes - Halliday Wine Companion

Ouse is a super interesting site. Look at a map. It's way up in the Central Highlands, up the top of the Derwent River past Meadowbank Lake. It's cool and remote up there and there is a wonderful focus and intensity to the fruit profile. Wild strawberries, red plum and raspberry with hints of exotic spice, dried meats, leaf litter, Chinese barbecue shop, shiitake, almond blossom, raspberry pip and amaro herbs. It's a lovely smelling wine and those aromas transpose neatly over onto the palate, which is pure, finely honed and shows great structure. Powdered riverstone tannins and a flourish of raspberry on the exit.

94 POINTS

Mike Bennie - The Wine Front

I was once driving through the Central Highlands of Tasmania with a winemaker admiring the undulating countryside, the bucolic farmlands, and asked ‘why not plant grapes here?’, and he quipped, ‘too fuckin’ cold’, and I said ‘but it looks like riesling country though’, and he repeated himself. This is from the Central Highlands and the town of Ouse. It’s a cool and skeletal pinot noir but it works well in its edgy, tightly wound way. Tart, just-ripe red berries, a bit of green olive, a lick of dark choc-mint, some gravelly notes, turned earth, dried leaves. I like the firmer tannin line and the almost peppery undertones that come with that. It’s acid-driven as a wine but feels quietly powerful and has an understated complexity. It should mature beautifully too. Structure is the key takeaway.

93 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2023 Ouse Single Site Pinot Noir leads with scratched orange peel, coffee grounds, black pepper and cherry seed. In the mouth, the wine is tart and yet soft, with poached strawberries and pomegranate molasses to close. The acidity and tannins intersect through the finish to create tension and shape, this lends the wine a leanness that is quite attractive, when accepted on balance with the inherent nature of the fruit. This has good length, and there are leather and forest floor nuances. 13% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.