WINE > D.M.L Reserve Mornington Peninsula Noir 2021 (94/100 Points)

DML VIN is a relative newcomer to making Australian Pinot Noir with the first vintage released in 2019 but they are already creating some really special wine and it is no surprise that both critics and pinot fans are taking notice and buying.

The back story to DML VIN is that AF Premiership player Jordon Lewis new little about wine in 2014 but a chance visit to a winery in Tuscany opened his mind and palate to a new passion. He connected to Franco D’Anna at Hoddles Creek Estate and they explored the idea of making great wine from single vineyard fruit. The two of them decided to include Sam Middleton a third generation wine maker with experience at Coldstream Hills, Dominique Portet and at his families amazing winery Mount Mary where he is the Chief Wine Maker.

DML produced three wines in 2021 one from the Yarra Valley, one from Mornington Peninsula and this Reserve from the Mornington Peninsula.

Fruit was grown in a ‘prized Mornington Peninsula vineyard’ where DML were fortunate to have access to a small parcel of fruit. After 16 months of barrel maturation the three most outstanding barrels were selected and blended for the reserve release.

The 2021 vintage was a standout providing excellent conditions for cool climate varieties such as Pinot noir. The season began with a rather wet spring, providing abundant soil moisture, setting the vines up beautifully leading into the warmer part of the growing season. From December through to the start of April both regions experienced perfect ripening temperatures and well-timed rainfall, leading to one of the best vintages of the last two decades.

Grapes were handpicked and the crush was 100% de-stemmed, whole berries which spent fourteen days on the skins then hand plunged. A combination of wild and inoculated yeast was used for fermentation.

Tasting

This is a very elegant wine there are plums, strawberries and cranberries on the palate the nose has a hint of spice and the oak is present but nicely integrated. The intensity of the fruit does not overwhelm but there is complexity and a lovely velvety length.

It’s a complete wine. It’s so beautifully ripened that it’s difficult to see where the fruit ends and the savouriness begins, so easily does each flow into and through the other. Strawberries and herbs, cedarwood and undergrowth, with perhaps a slight dip into plum. There’s a minerally, smoky, graphite-like aspect to the tannin, which itself is both firm and sheeted, like a hotel bed, everything drilled precisely into place. This is an Australian Pinot Noir that will prove immensely age worthy; everything here speaks of excellence.”

Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)

The Vintage.

Reviews

• 96/100 points – Campbell Mattison, The Wine Front
• 94/100 points – Crispin Blackall, Almanak Magazine