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This is Pinot the way connoisseurs the world over just love the stuff. It is Burgundian through and through and, in my mind, this wine style will always be the apogee of this seductive variety. Rich varietal aroma, pristine ripe fruit, silky yet weighty texture, complex lingering fruit and earth-fused finish…not to mention an irresistible desire to pour another glass! The nose has hints of cedar and leather laced with ripe strawberry, mulberry and subtle smoky, toasted oak. A tantalising palate is refined and offers up opulent red currant, cherry, mushroom, spicy oak and a tell-tale lingering finish loaded with character. There is wonderful balance and weight throughout this mouth-filling wine. Structure is tight with nicely controlled tannins, ensuring reliable medium-term cellar life. This vintage saw the Pannells take their renowned Pemberton Pinots to new levels of excellence. And believe me: the following vintages continue a fabulous ascension. A wine superbly matched with duck or spring lamb. |
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This Pinot is top class and on par with the marvellous 2005 vintage and expresses the very best of the Picardy terroir. The style is light to medium-bodied with a ruby red colour. Rich aromas of strawberry, cherry and vanilla oak are interlaced with the tell-tale leather and earthiness of this seductive Burgundian icon. On the palate there is pronounced red berry fruit, mineral, earth, leather, sap and a touch of spicy oak. Light, fine, dry tannins and fresh clean acidity dominate the flavour. The wine has perfect balance and weight and finishes dry and spicy with excellent length. This tastes a lot like top end Burgundy and would have to be one of the best value premier Pinots in Australia. Really alluring stuff that is almost too easy to drink! With each passing season Bill and Dan Pannell get ever closer to the perfect WA Pinot.This wine now contains 15% of the clone 777 which Bill and Dan feel is having an impressive impact on the wine. |
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Prior to the 2005 vintage, Bill and Sandra went to Burgundy and learnt a new technique which has further improved the texture and structure of the Picardy Pinots. Bill and Dan believe that this is by far the best vintage for Pinot Noir at Picardy to date.The 2005 is a rich full bodied Pinot reminiscent of the 2003 vintage with the structure of the 1999. The nose has enticing cedar, strawberry and mulberry aromas with a hint of new leather and toasted oak. The palate is refined with red currant, cherry, mushroom nuances and a tell-tale lingering savoury finish. This wine is silky smooth while the structure is tight with nicely balanced tannins, ensuring a long cellar life. This would be a fine accompaniment to lamb, veal, poultry or even salmon. This wine has been selected by Qantas for service in Business Class. |
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2004 Picardy I found this is a more delicate Pinot than the previous few vintages, but it has distinctive varietal characteristics in a light fresh package. The nose has enticing cedar, strawberry and mulberry aromas with a hint of new leather and smoky, toasted oak. The palate is refined with red current, cherry, mushroom nuances and a tell-tale lingering savoury finish. Structure is tight with nicely balanced tannins, ensuring good cellar life. This would be a fine accompaniment with poultry or even salmon.
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I had to keep sampling this one, it was that good.Whereas most of the wineries in the state have struggled to consistently produce good Pinot Noir (mainly due to warmth, the wrong terrain and ignorance), the Pannells have hit their straps in attaining a wine of great character and quality. This wine is a sly wink to Burgundy, the home of the world’s greatest Pinots.“Every time I go back to Burgundy I pick up a new technique to try on our wines here,” said Bill. “The Pinot Noir especially has benefited from our visits to France.”That is one serious understatement. With the Picardy vines aging gracefully, the Pannells are well on their way to creating benchmark Australian Pinot. The wine already has the critics’ nod of approval and is now generally accepted as WA’s best, year in year out.This consistency has been primarily due to Bill’s determination to prove that great Pinot can be grown and made in WA. You just need the right conditions, location and secrets. All are personified in this Pinot.The wine is bursting with fleshy varietal fruit flavour, interlaced with earthy and woody nuances. There’s also a touch of leather and the plethora of wonderful aromas that make Pinot just as pleasurable to sip with the nose as the lips! It really is like its top end French counterparts.“Good Pinot is a wine to sit down with, linger over and really appreciate,” said Dan. “It offers the very essence of great wine characters and is multi-faceted. These are the styles we are aiming to produce.” |
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Prior to the 2002 vintage, Bill and Dan Pannell returned from a pre-vintage research trip to Burgundy with a few new tricks in the kit bag. They discovered some Burgundian vinification techniques which they felt would suit the Picardy Pinot Noir fruit. The end result of the careful application of these fruit handling techniques is a wine of greater colour, complexity and weight than has been produced previously. The wine still retains all of its typical elegance however, and has a little more silkiness than before. Aromas of maraschino cherry and raspberry show on the nose, along with a delightful earthy, truffle character (resulting from the clone 114). The palate is finely structured, though fleshy and silky, with hints of sour cherry underpinned by sweet plum and red currant. The palate is long, the finish fine and dry, with outstanding persistence. Oak presence, as always, is supportive, not dominant. This is a stunning wine, which has been described by Pinot Noir enthusiast, Greg Munyard as “clearly the best non Tete de Cuvee Pinot Noir released by Picardy to date, having the complexity of the ’99, optimally ripe fruit and great balance like the 2000 and the weight and suppleness of the 2001. An iconic wine that will be a benchmark for Australian Pinot Noir for years to come.” Drink now to 2013 |
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