Every now and then we taste library stock of older vintages so we can share with you how the wines are developing.
JANUARY 2013
BELL HILL OLD WEKA PASS ROAD PINOT NOIR
2011
Spicy earthy aromas, whole bunch giving savoury tones and nice bite, lighter in colour, good texture, nice roundness with bright core of acidity and salivating finish.
2010
Cool blue fruit, slightly reductive, deep earthy, becoming quite perfumed, full palate flavour, fine grained tannins extending the palate, nice salivating juiciness and spicy lift to finish.
BELL HILL CHARDONNAY
2010
Lovely fine floral aromas, hints of flint and saline nuances, palate is fine, long and mineral with a tactile, chalky phenolic presence, very balanced and mineral, focused and tight.
2009
Gaining savoury complexity, nice elegant, very mineral, looked forward aromatically but tightened up, nice finesse, fine talcum-like tannins.
2008
Nice spicy complexity, bright fruit with lightness of being, fleshy but elegant palate, spicy, quite fine tannins.
BELL HILL PINOT NOIR
2011
Deeper, richer colour, more dark fruit and depth of aroma, palate coating richness with clear minerality and precise fruit tannins, long and elegant, well balanced.
2010
Deeper, similar cool blue fruit nose, more lifted spice aromas, earthy, big palate structure, generous mineral fruit held quite firmly by its tannins, needs time to open up and soften but shows windows of ample fruit and the mineral characters dominate and lengthen the palate.
2009
Deep, fresh red fruit, nice earthiness, spicy and lifted, quite full and luscious, fine grain tannins, juicy but not big, layered, very focused palate structure, giving more with time, balanced but full, starting to get comfortable with itself and showing the influence and finesse of a good growing season with normal yields and a stable autumn.
2008
Deeper colour, more fruit density, more wood aromas, deep spicy richness, lovely fruit balance and generosity, very available, nice balance, rose petal notes, lithe, elegant.
2007
Nice quiet reduction spicy complexity moving to perfume, rich fruit, nice fleshy balance, very uncious, spicy cherry, fruit tannins very available and tactile, very even palate flesh, still with bite, very shapely – can see the form of the wine, lovely even concentration of fruit.
2005
Deep aromatically driven wine, very spicy, hints of savoury but not yet moved into secondary development, dried herbs and a rich concentration of fruit, layered and complex, tasted over two days, more lifted on the second day but in no hurry.
2003
Nice savoury tones, advanced at first but going to florals, very balance palate, fine, elegant, silky tannins.
