Murdoch Hill Apollo Pinot Noir 2023

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Mattinson review of Murdoch Hill Apollo Pinot Noir 2022.

Murdoch Hill Apollo Pinot Noir 2023
$93, 12-5% alcohol, screwcap, Adelaide Hills.

  • Grown on a single (10 hectare) vineyard at Lenswood in the Adelaide Hills.

  • Three blocks of pinot noir used, two planted in 1989 and the other in the early 2000s (the latter to Dijon clones 114 and 115).

  • 20% whole bunches, 40% new French oak.

  • 2023 was a cool vintage temperature-wise.

  • The style is more about structure and length than brute fruit intensity.

Flavoured acidity, long strings of tannin, cuts of mineral and herb notes rolled and crushed on the heal of your palm. This is the top tier Pinot Noir from Murdoch Hill but its quality is built more on length, style and finesse than it is on any overt step up in intensity. There a momentum to this wine; an irrepressibility. It’s juicy, dry, tannic and, ultimately, thrilling through the finish. 95 points.

Campbell Mattinson

This post was written by Campbell Mattinson. Mattinson is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion book, former editor of Halliday magazine, former editor of Australian Sommelier Magazine and founder of The Winefront business. He is the author of five books on wine – four of which were bestsellers (The Wine Hunter, the Big Red Wine Book 2008, the Big Red Wine Book 2009, and the Big Red Wine Book 2010).

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award; is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter; and is the author of the best-selling novel We Were Not Men. He’s also a winner of a St Kilda Film Festival Award (as writer-director) and is a former winner of the national Best Australian Sports Writing Award. In 2026 three of his photographs were short-listed for the World Food Photography Awards.

Campbell Mattinson, who is 100% independent, has tasted between 5000 and 10,000 wines each and every year for the past 25 years. He tastes blind, in comparative brackets, as often as is practicable.

Campbell Mattinson is a journalist, a photographer, a filmmaker and a wine critic. In all of these mediums his prime motive is to tell people's stories.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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