Yabby Lake Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2022 - Victoria, Australia

96/100 Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion
95/100 Stuart Knox, The Real Review
96/100 Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion (2021 vintage)
95/100 Huon Hooke, The Real Review (2021 vintage)
94/100 Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (2021 vintage)
16/20 Jancis Ronbinson (2021 vintage)
95/100 Stuart Knox, The Real Review (2019 vintage)
95/100 Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion (2019 vintage)
93/100 Falstraff (2019 vintage)

James Halliday 5 Star Winery
Top Wineries Australia - The Real Review 2024
James Halliday 2021 Award Winning Varietal - Pinot Noir of the Year (2018 vintage)

Silver - Royal Adelaide Wine Show (2021 vintage)
Silver - Australian Pinot Noir Challenge (2021 vintage)
Silver - Melbourne Royal Show (2021 vintage)
Bronze - Royal Adelaide Wine Show (2019 vintage)

Yabby Lake's Pinot Noir is the first pinot ever to win the Royal Melbourne Wine Awards’ coveted Jimmy Watson Trophy in the trophy’s 52-year existence. (2012 vintage)

Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion "Well, where to start with this beauty that took my breath away? Awash with dark cherries, blood orange and zest, Middle Eastern spices and sous bois aromas plus savoury oak. The palate is the clincher: smooth and polished with velvety tannins and fine acidity enticing it all to a long finish. Wow."

Stuart Knox, The Real Review "Vibrant ruby-red colour. Red cherry and Serrano ham aromatics. An enveloping palate, dark cherry, smoky and cured meat notes all glide with a suppleness that belies its intensity and power. Acid gently lifts it and tannins are so well integrated you have to go looking, but they definitely bring a focus and tension to the finish."

Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion "There’s such finesse with the ’21 pinots from Yabby Lake, yet this has structure, detail and beauty in equal measure. Heady aromatics all florals, spiced cherries with a whiff of cedary/smoky oak. There’s intensity but the medium-weighted palate is seductive with powdery tannins and lithe acidity laced throughout. It’s also moreish and utterly compelling." (2021 vintage)

Huon Hooke, The Real Review "Deep-ish red with a good purple tint, the bouquet spicy, smoky, rich and quite complex, with attractive input from stylish oak. The wine is rich and full in the mouth, ample and generously flavoured, with loads of ripe cherry pinot flavour laced with spices. Succulent fruit sweetness at its heart. A serious pinot with real depth and gravitas." (2021 vintage)

Robert Parker, Wine Advocate "What a classy wine this is. Concentrated, spicy, layered and very fine, this 2021 Single Vineyard Pinot Noir from Yabby Lake shows the purity and finesse of the 2021 vintage. In spades. It has notes of raspberry leaf tea, black cherry, hints of matcha, pink peppercorns and red apple skins. Through the finish, there emerges a distinctly spicy, almost exotic character: the thinking swings from chinotto to alpine herbs and back again. The acidity is saline and threads through the fruit with invisible stitches. A beautiful wine." (2021 vintage)

Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion "There's a richness and ripeness of flavour perfectly reflecting the warmer vintage, without going over the top. Fragrant and floral, dark cherries spiced to the max, dabs of licorice, herbs and a smidge of wood char, with the oak neatly tucked in. Tannins have some emery board grip and the acidity is bright enough that you can enjoy it now or hold for a while." (2019 vintage)

Stuart Knox, The Real Review "Bright cherry-red hue. Bramble, black cherries and prosciutto on the nose. Medium-weight yet very intense, dark cherries, some mushroom notes alongside a smoked-meat character. Fine acids give a sense of freshness whilst a fine powder of tannins sets the line and carries the wine long and lingering into the finish." (2019 vintage)

100% Pinot Noir

Australian Wine Companion "...continuing to blitz the Australian wine show circuit with Single Block Pinots."

Huon Hooke "One of [Yabby Creek's Winemaker] Carson’s biggest moments was winning the Jimmy Watson Trophy [Australia's most prestigious winemaker accolade] with his 2012 Block 1 Pinot Noir – the first pinot ever to win this coveted award."

Yabby Lake Vineyard was established by the Kirby family in 1998 and over the past decade, Yabby Lake has built a reputation for single-vineyard Mornington Peninsula Chardonnay and Pinot Noir of great purity and character.

James Halliday "This high-profile wine business was established by Robert and Mem Kirby (of Village Roadshow), who had been landowners in the Mornington Peninsula for decades. In 1998 they established Yabby Lake Vineyard, under the direction of vineyard manager Keith Harris; the vineyard is on a north-facing slope, capturing maximum sunshine while also receiving sea breezes. The main focus is the 25ha of pinot noir, 14ha of chardonnay and 8ha of pinot gris; 3h of shiraz, merlot and sauvignon blanc take a back seat. The arrival of the hugely talented Tom Carson as Group Winemaker has added lustre to the winery and its wines, making the first Jimmy Watson Trophy-winning Pinot Noir in 2014, and continuing to blitz the Australian wine show circuit with Single Block Pinots."

Led by Tom Carson "one of Australia's most lauded winemakers" so cites Huon Hooke of the Real Review. Under Carson's direction, Yabby Lake's philosophy is to craft wines representative of their site and their season in which they were grown. Yabby Lake believe it’s this attention and care in the vineyard that is most critical to allowing this expression.

Mornington Peninsula is one of Victoria's most important Australian wine regions, located an hour's drive south of Melbourne on the southern coast of Australia. It is one of Australia's coolest winegrowing regions and produces elegant Chardonnay and internationally award winning Pinot Noir wines, and gaining a reputation for its quality medium bodied, peppery shiraz.

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 the forest floor. Well-built Pinot Noirs, particularly from warmer harvests, also exhibits notes of leather and violets, sometimes approaching the flavor spectrum of Syrah.