Whisson Lake White Label Pinot Noir / 2024 / 750mL

The Whisson Lake White Label Pinot Noir 2024 is a light-to-medium bodied Adelaide Hills red that leans on perfume and detail rather than depth of colour or extract. Think crunchy red fruit, a savoury edge and enough acidity to keep the whole thing lively from first sip to last.

Aromatically it opens on morello cherry, cranberry and a little pink peppercorn, with a leafy, almost sappy note underneath that reads as high-altitude Pinot Noir. The palate carries strawberry and rhubarb through the middle, then turns drier and more savoury towards the back, picking up dried thyme and a faint whiff of woodsmoke. Tannins are fine and slightly grippy, closer to the skin of a cherry than to anything plush, and they frame the fruit without smothering it. Acidity does most of the structural work here, giving the wine a taut, almost translucent feel through the mid-palate before a clean, tapering finish that leaves the mouth watering.

Serve it at around 15 degrees, and give it twenty minutes in the glass or a short decant if you are opening it young. It suits duck breast, mushroom risotto, roast quail or a plate of charcuterie, and it will handle grilled salmon better than most reds. Drink from now through to about 2030.