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
AU$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.

Campbell Mattinson

Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He founded The Winefront, is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion (and former editor of Halliday magazine), and is the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He is 100% independent, and tastes between 5,000 and 10,000 wines each year, blind and in comparative brackets as often as is practicable.

More about Campbell Mattinson

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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