2024 Mystery Fleurieu Pinot Noir Deal No. 6491

95 POINTS

Ken Gargett - Winepilot

2024 was a difficult vintage for Brian Croser and his team at the Foggy Hill vineyard. The conditions meant it would be one of the very smallest crops he has encountered in his long and illustrious career. Limited might be but the quality of the fruit certainly helped make up for the meagre yield. For this vintage, no whole fruit was included in the fermentation. Maturation was for eight months in barriques. Just 450 cases made. A gleaming pale crimson hue, there is a gorgeous nose here, slightly sappy and savoury but already exhibiting early complexity. We have notes of raspberries, truffles, leaf litter, maraschino cherries and spices. A silky texture through to the very fine tannins, the length is seriously impressive and there is excellent balance throughout. Expect this to drink beautifully for eight years plus. A cracking Pinot Noir.

94 POINTS

Shanteh Wale - Winepilot

In the very cool year, a minuscule amount of wine was made from the 777 clone. Destemmed berries went through a slow fermentation for 16 days, with a further 5 days of time on skins and pressed to one third new oak barriques, where they stayed for 8 months prior to bottling. Its aromas unfold, bayberries aerial in flight with rosehip and fresh wolf berries and wild strawberries. There is a scattered floor of dried gum leaf and white pepper and ash in the wind. A slight silver needle tea bitterness and circling back to those translucent red berries. It speaks of its coastal site and in a year when so little was made, it has been gently caressed and handled that you sip it with reverence. If pairing, go for subtly, river trout and pillows of gnocchi.

94 POINTS

Ray Jordan - Winepilot

This was a very cool growing season that produced very low crops, and yet the wine has triumphed. It’s a subtle medium-bodied Pinot with bright, vibrant colours of red and purple. On the nose it is a mix of strawberry conserve and spices. While the palate delivers a sweet, succulent core of fruit, it finishes with a dry savoury, slightly mushroomy character. The chalky tannins hold a fine line and the neatly integrated oak is perfectly weighted. It’s a wine of refreshing purity and vibrance with cellaring potential of up to 10 years.

94 POINTS

Katrina Butler - Halliday Wine Companion

A beautiful ruby hue with purple flecks throughout. A very cool year resulted in lower yields than usual, but this vintage is no less distinctive of Foggy Hill. It's firm in its youth but has a pleasing purity and sincerity of fruit – cranberry, crunchy red apple, some bramble, potpourri, clove and cedar notes, too. Something leafy and vegetal does thread its way through, but not obnoxiously so; instead, it adds another layer of interest.

93 POINTS

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

I have a weather station in my back yard. Last August there was 33.55 mm of rain for the whole month with an average temperature of 16.4c. In 2025, less than halfway through we are sitting at 294.38 mm of precipitation, with an average temperature of 13c. I just wanted to give you a little Brian Croser style data for the terroir of the Inner West of Sydney. Meanwhile, Pinot! This is all Bernard clone 777, which was the only clone to flower in this very low yielding vintage. The thing about Foggy Hill is that it always tastes like it comes from a specific place, which is, I guess, kind of the point with Pinot Noir, and indeed, perhaps all good wines of a certain price and intent. Dark cherry, bramble, some ozone and iron, pencil and cedar, dried rose and roast red capsicum. It’s a firm and kind of steely wine, acidity has a crisp feel, perhaps it’s a little herbal and tangy, but in a pleasing and assertive way. The finish is bright and long. It’s a tight wine, and quite reticent, though I think it will do very well with a few more years in bottle.

90 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2024 Pinot Noir Foggy Hill Vineyard leads with a dusty nose of dried flowers, pan-roasted spices, mahogany cupboard and aged leather. Cherry seeds also abound. In the mouth, the wine is lean and spicy, with a waxy splay of fine tannin through the finish. The wine is uncomplicated and red-fruited, with savory spices to close. 12.7% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.