Provenance Scotsburn Pinot Noir 2023

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Mattinson review of Provenance Scotsburn Pinot Noir 2023.

Provenance Scotsburn Pinot Noir 2023
$120, 13.4% alcohol, cork, Ballarat.

This is a single vineyard wine with a production of 25 dozen only, or one barrel. The Scotsburn vineyard is at the foot of Mount Buninyong near Ballarat and is, according to the people at Provenance, “our most dramatic vineyard. At 500 metres, with ancient basaltic gravel (“chocolate soil”), it’s a site that grows distinctive, brooding and savoury pinot noir.”

Provenance is an A Grade producer as a matter of course but this wine elevates its reputation further. This is a super bottle of Pinot Noir; it’s a pity that it’s in such limited supply. It’s complex, seamless and lengthy; it’s autumnal, cherried, smoky, spicy and so exquistely crafted, and sustained, through the finish. The tannin of this wine is like the length of a twig peeled and laid, strand by strand, in a dry, meticulous weave. This is how you grow and make Pinot Noir. This will age beautifully. 96 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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