Place of Changing Winds Mari Magno Pinot Noir 2022

Place of Changing Winds Mari Magno Pinot Noir 2022
$86, 13.5% alcohol, DIAM cork, Macedon Ranges.

While I accept that $86 is a lot to ask for a wine that, in the winery’s own words, is meant to be an “entry-level” release – and which is also grown on young vines – the truth is that in the bottle, or in the glass, this is a lovely wine. I couldn’t quite get into 94/100 territory but as I sat and sipped it I pretty much made it to 93.9/100. The reason I like it so much is that it is multi-layered, and exquisitely well balanced, and firm, and well extended. Indeed there is something essential about this wine, in a Pinot Noir sense; the flavours burst free from the heart of the variety. It’s undergrowth-y and olive-like and earthen and cherried, though the cherries here present as though they have bathed in cool light. There’s nothing hot or even warm here; if this wine were a person it would have milky white skin; this wine tastes as though it has lived its life under a parasol. There were only 819 bottles produced. It’s sealed with a DIAM 30, which means that the cork is rated for 30 years. That is, in the glass and by design, it’s not your average entry-level wine.