Dexter Pinot Noir 2023

There’s a fruit party going on here with loads of wild strawberries, red cherries and cranberries, spicy, too with snips of fresh basil and menthol plus heady florals mainly roses. The palate is mid-weighted, and a fruit succulence comes through so, too, layers of tannins with the sweet oak adding a hint of bitter green walnut on the finish. In its youth, there’s a prettiness as complexity will come with age. (95) JANE FAULKNER, Halliday Wine Companion

I pretty much never drink any samples, because it’s not a good habit to get into, though maybe a few swallows might make a summer while I’m actually tasting, but hey, that’s what I call the FCE (Full Consumer Experience). Anyway, I had a few glasses of this last night while watching the documentary about Ennio Morricone – “Ennio” – which is currently streaming on Stan. Very good too, and this, in a way, while not Italian, seemed a suitable style of wine for that show. I cooked my children some duck breast for tea, with jasmine rice, steamed greens and plum sauce, but I didn’t eat any of that, though this wine would have been most excellent with it. I had a piece of bread with some Laughing Cow cheese on it. Economies must be made.

Fine, kind of stony, perfumed, cherry and red fruit, gentle spiced oak, something a little earthy/autumnal too. It’s light to medium-bodied, pleasantly sappy, with a good crunch to acidity, really pleasing pumice stone tannin, and a offers a juicy/savoury finish of excellent length, with a little blood orange bite. Very nice. (94) GARY WALSH, The Wine Front

Pretty and lifted aromas of cherry, briar, sap, Asian spice, redcurrant, underbrush and a woodsy earthiness. Structured, fine, delicate, long and layered. There’s a supple drive of pure red fruits, subtle oak and textured tannins. Precise and pretty pinot. AARON BRASHER, The Real Review