Reviews
Current Reviews
Halliday Wine Companion
Fruit off nine rows of the original plantings, nearly 40 years old now; hand picked of course, whole-bunch pressed to French oak puncheons, wild fermentation, regular lees stirring and mlf. It’s developed into its own style over the years. This is brimming with stone fruit and citrus, creamy, luscious and nutty lees, some lemon tart, too. Yet the palate is led by acidity, refreshing and invigorating, tempering the rich winemaking inputs. Rating 95 By Jane Faulkner
Estate Pinot Noir 2021
Not a shy and retiring wine, but by golly this is good. Full of forest floor and menthol aromas, flavours of dark cherries, rhubarb, chinotto and blood orange with lots of refreshing acidity but also plenty of tannins. Fuller bodied, firm and forceful yet the fruit is sweetly flavoured across the palate. There’s a lot going on in this wine. Rating 95 By Jane FaulknerRobinson Pinot Noir 2021
Wonderful aromatics with this vintage across the board, but especially off the Robinson vineyard. Swooning stuff with rosehip, cherries, baking spices, blood orange and glacé citrus too; complex and detailed with forest floor and general autumnal aromas. The just shy of full-bodied palate is still settling with the tannins and acidity jostling for pole position. Give this breathing space or more time in bottle. Rating 95 By Jane FaulknerThe Paringa Pinot Noir 2021
The Paringa has a reputation for being a powerful expression of pinot noir, no doubt about it, but sometimes, a vintage offers up this wine with comparatively more restraint and vibrancy thanks to acidity. Don’t think for a minute this is a wallflower, it’s rich and detailed, full of dark cherries, blood orange, amaro and a smoky, twiggy character. Full bodied with densely packed tannins a little raspy but detailed and juicy. I suspect this is going to cellar very well. Rating 96 By Jane Faulkner
The Wine Front
Estate Chardonnay 2024
This will live and mature – well – for yonks. It’s a direct, linear, complex chardonnay with length to burn. It tastes of grapefruit and grilled peach, flint and steel, cedar and fresh, juicy pears, and while it sits slightly on the lean side at this early stage, it will blossom given time. Rating 94 By Campbell MattinsonThe Paringa Chardonnay 2023
This puts its foot down in flavour terms but it has its hands firmly at the wheel, and feels in complete control at all times. Grilled peaches, woodsmoke and cedarwood characters are the main drivers of flavour though there are grapefruit, apple and pear nuances if you look. There’s texture here, and there’s excellent thrust through the finish. Rating 94 By Campbell MattinsonEstate Pinot Noir 2021
Quite some perfume here, dried roses, aniseed and mint, spiced strawberry and red cherry. It’s medium-bodied (and only just), has plenty of red fruit, but also a pleasing blood orange and amaro tang, tannin is fine with a pumice stone feel, there’s a quiet succulence, but also a firm acid line, which carries on to a sappy and white peppery finish of excellent length. It’s bony and brisk, but absolutely delicious and individual. I like it a whole lot. Rating 95 By Gary Walsh
The Paringa Pinot Noir 2021
Cherry and strawberry, cedar and mint, spicy too, with an iron and tea leaf top note. Medium-bodied, all the spice and strawberry, quite firm and ‘mineral’, good depth of flavour, fine graphite tannin grip, a lovely cool feel, bancha twig tea, orange zest, and a long and firm finish of precision and dusty spicy tannin. I’m all about this. Superb wine of uncompromising character and verve. Rating 96 By Gary Walsh
The Real Review
Estate Chardonnay 2024
Straw yellow shines through the glass. Ripe peach, roasting nuts and flinty mineral aromatics. Bright, powerful and well defined across the palate with peach fruits, lemon zest and a creamy nougat centre. Great length, acidity is well integrated, working to drive it without poking out as it runs very long and finely detailed at the finish.” Rating 95 By Stuart KnoxThe Paringa Chardonnay 2023
Pale straw yellow colour. Grapefruit, baking sourdough and a hint of cashew aromatics. There's density and focus here, still showing primary characteristics but the harmony between citrus, apple and cashew is pitch-perfect. Wonderful length and precision, everything is fine tuned and not a hair out of place while it travels the long road to the finish. Rating 95 By Stuart Knox
The Paringa Pinot Noir 2022
Medium ruby with a lifted nose of mixed cherries and cola spices. Full of concentration and intensity, black and red cherries are in full volume, matched to supple cola and dark spices with hints of a deeper meaty layer. Tannins are fine and in perfect harmony to the generosity of the fruit. This is a silky wine but don’t be fooled, there’s serious intent here and it shows in its prodigious length. Enjoy it now but try and hide some away as well Rating 97 By Stuart Knox
Tyson Stelzer
The Paringa Chardonnay 2023
Sourced from just nine rows of almost 40-year-old vines, this cool, late-ripening and low-yielding vintage has produced a spectacularly refined and enduring result that proves that the magnificent 2022 was no one-off. Racy lemon, grapefruit and tangy white peach present a mesmerising contrast of concentration and tension of grand cru proportions, set off with crystalline acidity and perfectly harmonious French oak. Stunning! Rating 97 By Tyson Stelzer
Jancis Robinson
Estate Chardonnay 2024
Touch of praline on the nose and then into lemon-candy acidity – bright and young and sweet and parallel. Lemon sherbet and lemon curd. Pistachio; candied almond; stollen. Fresh, summer-morning, bright-yellow character with sassy acidity. Rating 16/20 By Tamlyn CurrinThe Paringa Chardonnay 2023
Smoky nose, deep nectarine sweetness, crystalline acidity, bitter lemon. Pomelo. Richer and more intentional than their Peninsula Chardonnay. Smoke threading in and out of dramatic lemon (and lemon-zested-curd) fruit. Sliced arcs of acidity. Focused to the marble-hard, long edges Rating 16.5/20 By Tamlyn CurrinEstate Pinot Noir 2022
Beautiful leafiness, red fruit seeping through layers and layers of sweet herbs: fresh oregano and bay leaf, peppermint. Spicy! Really vibrant red fruit and well-delineated by the gentle rasp of the tannins. Springs out the glass. So lively. Rating 16.5/20 By Tamlyn Currin
The Paringa Pinot Noir 2022
Hawthorn berry, coffee-bean notes, coffee-bean savouriness but it also has red-bauble shininess and brightness of fruit. Coruscatingly juicy and bright but well within the context and restraint of elegant structure and very fine, long tannins. Rating 17/20 By Tamlyn Currin
LJM Pinot Noir 2022
Absolutely singing with electric energy – a line of energy running from the back to the front, vibrating with energy. But it's a pretty serious wine, clenched with white-knuckle tension, masses of minerality, chalk and chew. Dried tarragon and dill. Cherry sherbet and dried cranberries and vanilla-pod dust. Blood orange, pomegranate. Cherry stem and cherry stone bring layers of herbs and minerality. Complex, thrilling and with substantial length. Rating 17.5/20 By Tamlyn Currin
Wine Advocate
Estate Chardonnay 2024The 2024 Estate Chardonnay is concentrated and intense, full of salted nuts, flowers and saline acidity. There is plenty of wine here—i.e., it is full of flavor and long through the finish—and yet it manages restraint as well. This is a classy wine, very attractive. Rating 93 By Erin Larkin
The 2023 The Paringa Single Vineyard Chardonnay is highly aromatic, and the palate matches with an intense score of fruit, spice, saline acidity and fine phenolic structure. This lingers and curls across the palate and streaks out to the long finish. It has penetrating flavor and is really good—unreal, in fact. Rating 95 By Erin Larkin
Winepilot
Estate Chardonnay 2024
A free wheeling, generous Chardonnay in the Paringa style, but underneath the sunny exterior there is an underlying structural power. Brings the scent of the beach with saline, sea spray notes and ripe peach, pear, nectarine and citrus – very summery and bright. A balanced palate, delightfully citrus and upfront in stone fruits with background lightly spiced, vanillin oak, quince and a quince skin savouriness awaits. Brisk acidity nicely controls the obvious richness and delivers one smart, enticing wine. 94 Points, Jeni Port for WinepilotThe Paringa Chardonnay 2023
By any measure, a luxurious Chardonnay densely packed in summer stone fruits and lively citrus that speaks of its maritime, cool climate. Textural and spiced filled, it’s all about the quality of the fruit. Nectarine, peach, melon, lemon oil and zest with vanilla peach custard and mineral saline notes, it brings a quince tartness and white peppery spice to the finish. The delivery is clean and long across some super juicy, tangy acidity. Plenty to sink your teeth into and plenty left in the tank. 95 Points, Jeni Port for WinepilotEstate Pinot Noir 2022
A deep, vibrant crimson purple. Paringa Estate Pinot is never short on colour or flavour and from the outset, the ’22 is all business with scents that work both the earthy, herbal side of the grape and the pure fruited. Ripe, poised, balanced and long, it’s one serious Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir. Offers a generous but balanced mouthful, one that is texturally strong across the middle palate with a core of black cherry, red plum and loganberry fruits, tomato bush and leaf, vanilla and a touch of savoury intrigue against a background of fine, firm tannins. Can be enjoyed now or later – the best of both Pinot worlds. 95 Points, Jeni Port for Winepilot
The Paringa Pinot Noir 2022
Top of the Paringa Pinot tree and everything steps up a notch; structure, fruit concentration and tannins, adding to the wine’s overall ageing potential. Dusty beets, earth, dark chocolate, black cherry and cedary toasty oak light up the aroma. Solid, well-built and coiled, it does a slow reveal delivering layers of red and dark fruits, earth, dark roasted spices, savoury tapenade and roasting pan juices. Crushed herbs build on the middle palate and gain momentum closing with leafy green characters on the finish. Well positioned for a bright and long future. 95 Points, Jeni Port for Winepilot