Ashton Hills Vineyard, Estate Pinot Noir, Piccadilly Valley, 2016

Stephen George is one of Australia's most detail-driven winemakers, who also makes wines for cult winery Wendouree in the Clare Valley. His three hectare dry-farmed Ashton Hills 'garden' vineyard lies at a height of 570m in the Piccadilly Valley, and is home to Australia's oldest Pinot Noir vines, planted in 1982. Ashton Hills was bought by McLaren Vale's Wirra Wirra in 2015, but George still has a hand in both viticulture and winemaking. Not for nothing are his Pinots known as the 'Burgundies of the Adelaide Hills': this wine, from four clones, is basket pressed and wild-yeast fermented before spending time in 20% new oak barrels and neutral hogsheads. It has amazing purity of rich fruit, showing aromas and flavours of ripe cherry and strawberry, exotic spices and autumn leaves. It's savoury and silky with firm structure and bright acidity. Superb!