Mac Forbes Coldstream Pinot Noir 2023

From two vineyards on the valley floor. Made with 10–20% whole bunches, three to four weeks on skins before being pressed to seasoned barriques for 11 months. A very bright crimson. An excellent Coldstream with its scents of red and black fruits, menthol, rosebush and spice. It's very even on the palate, with good concentration and fine-grained tannins rounding out a wine to enjoy now and over the next decade. (96) PHILIP RICH, Halliday Wine Companion

This is a beautiful Coldstream pinot noir. It’s bright, it’s detailed, it’s fresh and it has flavour. Black and red cherries, purple flowers, inlays of spice and a gently reductive, smoky, meaty element. This feels both composed and complete. Integrity of tannin and persistence through the finish are highlights here. You get a bit of undergrowth but you also get brightness and lift. (95) CAMPBELL MATTINSON, The Wine Front

Mac Forbes has carved out a unique place in the Yarra Valley through an almost obsessive focus on site. Rather than working broadly across the region, his approach has been to break the valley down into its individual villages and sub-regions mapping differences in elevation, aspect and soil with Burgundian-like precision. This has led to a suite of wines that aim to express these micro-terroirs clearly, each bottling acting as a snapshot of a specific place within the wider Yarra.

Through his “Village” and “Single Vineyard” releases, Forbes has helped reframe how the Yarra Valley is understood, pushing the conversation beyond producer and variety towards site and detail.