Bindi Dixon Pinot Noir (Organic) 2023 ~ Macedon Ranges, Australia

96/100 James Suckling
91/100 Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion
91/100 Vinous
95/100 Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion (2022 vintage)
96/100 Huon Hooke, The Real Review (2021 vintage)
96/100 Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion (2021 vintage)
94100 The Wine Front (2021 vintage)
16.5/20 Jancis Robinson (2021 vintage)
95/100 Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion (2020 vintage)

5 Stars Winery - Halliday Wine Companion

Halliday's Wine Companion - Winemaker of the Year 2022

Organic

James Suckling "Vibrant aromas of cherries, wild raspberries, graphite and orange peel. The palate is medium-bodied with finely integrated tannins and bright acidity, giving notes of Damson plums, wet bark, terra cotta and potpourri. Fresh and pure with a savory undertone."

Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion "So reserved that it took a while to coax more from Dixon. It did reveal intriguing aromatics – more an expression of the cool vintage with florals, twigs, ironstone, cherry pips, unripe strawberries and Italian bitter herbs. A touch of Campari on the mid-weighted palate with morello and pink cherries, root vegetables and rhubarb. Puckering acidity and sinewy, green-edged, stalky tannins means this needs food as a friend."

Vinous "The expressive and open-knit 2023 Pinot Noir Dixon jumps out of the glass with its red cherry, bacon fat and dried spice aromas that demand attention. It is fleshy with juicy acidity, a delicious mix of sweet cherry and savory, meaty spice, with succulent tannins to finish."

Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion "There’s a clear DNA link to the pinots from Bindi – from the aromas to how they feel on the palate. Wines of place. This is fine and pure, with cherry essence, lightly spiced sweet oak, some Middle Eastern spices too. Lots of heady aromatics folding onto the lighter-framed palate. Some chinotto comes through, blood orange and fresh herbs, as the lacy tannins caress and the acidity ensures length." (2022 vintage)

Huon Hooke, The Real Review "Good depth of red-purple colour, with a beautifully perfumed bouquet of red and darker cherries, subtle notes of spice and dried flowers, the palate full and round with refined texture and fleshy extract, the flow seamless and long-lingering. Multi-dimensional and tremendously long in the mouth, with effortless power. Simply, a terrific pinot noir. " (2021 vintage)

Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion "If you had to choose which pinot to drink today, the Dixon is it. Everything in its place and harmoniously so: the plump black cherries, the dabs of woodsy spices, the sumac and beetroot juice. The fuller-bodied palate seamless with ripe, velvety tannins, an evenness throughout and the juicy acidity closing the deal a long time later." (2021 vintage)

Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion "A gentle and supple Dixon offering charm as it opens up to red roses and rosehips, a whisper of spiced cherries and blood orange. Plenty of sweet fruit, bitter herbs and chinotto mingling on the just-mid-weighted palate, with bright acidity and furry, if fine, tannins in tow. " (2020 vintage)

Described by James Halliday as “one of the icons of Macedon” whose ”Pinot Noir as remarkable”, Bindi are a family wine producer in the Macedon Ranges, one of the coldest wine-producing regions of Australia.

Winemaker Michael Dhillon is the 2022 winner of the prestigious Winemaker of the Year award from Wine Companion. According to Tyson Stelzer and Jane Faulkner “his wines speak of Macedon and of Bindi, never overworked but with effortless purity and distinctive refinement.”

The Macedon Ranges pans a relatively small area (vineyards here cover just over 200 hectares / 500 acres) around Mount Macedon itself, a part of the Great Dividing range. It is around 50 kilometres northwest of Melbourne, Victoria.

Pinot Noir is the dominant red wine grape of Burgundy, now produced in wine regions all over the world, including western Germany, northern Italy, Chile, South Africa, Australia and, perhaps most notably, California, Oregon and New Zealand.

The essence of Pinot Noir wine is its aroma of strawberry and cherry (fresh red cherries in lighter wines and stewed black cherries in weightier examples), underpinned in the most complex examples by hints of forest floor. Well-built Pinot Noirs, particularly from warmer harvests, also exhibit notes of leather and violets, sometimes approaching the flavor spectrum of Syrah.