A flagship Pinot Noir from a heritage Sunbury vineyard established during colonial times. The fortuitous confluence of elevated aspects and favourable terroirs, rejuvenating maritime climes and limited yields of hand picked grapes, translate into a profoundly structured Pinot wine of layered intensity and stately cool climate elegance. A small amount of this splendid effort is currently on offer, bottled in cleanskin and sealed under good old fashioned cork, for a third the price of its otherwise labelled siblings. Indulge.

The Messrs Buckle and Drummond source parcels from a neighbouring vineyard that's planted to warmer climes. Whinstone yields a Pinot of structure, clarity and length, it shares a remarkable kinship with its estate sibling's, brightly lit translucence of fruit.

The winemaking at Circe is all about excellence, about maintaining the healthiest vineyards, all things are done according to best practice, with an uncompromising respect for nature. As a Mornington grower, it's not easy to get your fruit selected for Circe, the Messrs Buckle and Drummond will only consider the most outstanding parcels and there are never any quotas. Assembled from the pick of Red Hill fruit and treated to the full regimen of Burgundian traditions, a dulcetly perfumed Pinot Noir of seamless complexity and textural whole bunch richness.

Dan Buckle and Aaron Drummond are Mornington born and bred. They work at the illustrious Mt Langi Ghiran but find time to share the husbandry on a precious three acre vineyard on an elevated northeast ridge at Red Hill South. The Messrs Drummond and Buckle take a decidedly Burgundian approach to processing their Pinot Noir, ferments of exclusively whole bunches are foot stomped over the course of a week before filling to small oak casks. Structured and eloquent, pastoral and intense, small batch, superior vineyard Mornington Pinot at its finest.

Circe is a metaphor for the challenges presented by Pinot Noir, a capricious grape to grow and often fickle as a wine. Very like the temptress of ancient myth, Pinot Noir remains irresistible to contemplative winemakers for its rare mutability, as no other grape can capture and articulate the uniqueness of provenance.

One of Australia's salient, small batch winemakers, Gary Farr has always aspired to formulate the ultimate Pinot wine. He may be very close. Gary Farr's style is traditional and essentially Burgundian, employing natural yeasts and whole bunch ferments, he insists on cork. A wine of exceptional balance and finesse, seamless from fragrance to finish, Farr was inspired after reading the Da Vinci Code, to annoint this superlative cuvee Sangreal. As the estate vineyards continue to mature, the holy grail of Gary Farr Pinot Noir comes within closer reach.

For many years, Gary Farr followed up every vintage at Bannockburn with a tour of duty at Burgundy's Domaine Dujac. He believed Australian technology to be superior but was greatly inspired by the traditional practices of French vignerons. Farr brought home the ancient technique of pigeage, throwing whole bunches into large, open vats and immersing his body into the wine to break up any hot spots. A weighty Pinot wine, Farrside combines density and precision with a capacity to endure and evolve.

The Brown Brothers Pretty in Pink is exclusively 100% Pinot Noir. This delicious mouth-watering wine makes the perfect partner to a wide range of dishes. It would be fabulous with a pasta dish or a pizza garnished with savoury elements such as anchovies, olives and capers. Equally suited as a delicious partner to smoked salmon, or as a wonderful accompaniment to a platter of goat's cheese – the slight tartness of the wine working fantastically with the bite of an acidic and flavoursome cheese style.

Attention to detail has always been at the centre of the Brokenwood ethos, in this case, an assemblage of three clones Pinot Noir, harvested off several individual blocks on the eminent Indigo Vineyard at Beechworth. Blessed by a confluence of oblique terrains, mineral soils and chilly climes, Beechworth represents the ideal home for the pastoral Pinot Noir. Structured, balanced and offering excellent weight of fruit, everything in the right place and in good order, splendid with the traditional accompaniement of duckling, steak tartare or salmon escalopes to suit.

Brokenwood release two editions of Pinot Noir each vintage from the eminent Indigo Vineyard at Beechworth. There are a number blocks and clones on the property, the pick of crop is reserved for a single site bottling behind the Indigo moniker. Established in the 1990s after an exhaustive, nation wide search for the next great vineyard, Indigo is a source of fruit for the most demanding winemakers and prestigious labels. An effusively perfumed Pinot of generous proportions and juicy black fruit flavours, perfect for pink duck or maghrebi spiced tartare.

It is the Bress way, that superior quality grapes should be treated gently and with minimal intervention, to be vinified in nothing but the finest new French oak. Low cropped viticulture is in large part, the raison d'être for such reverence, the wines of Bress are religiously handled in such a manner. The bucolic affability of Yarra Valley fruit, seamlessly coalesces with the more elegant and fragrant Macedon Pinot Noir, achieving a measured yet engaging and complex wine. A match to charcoal pork roast and marinated chicken grill.

An assemblage of clones MV6 Pinot Noir from the Mount Gisborne vineyard at Macedon, alongside Pinot clone D5V12 from Chanter’s Ridge at Woodend. A mix of whole bunches and gently destemmed fruit are treated to a traditional, wild indegenous yeast open top ferment, hand plunged thrice daily, befor pressing to French oak hogsheads for completion of malolactic and fourteen months maturation. An expansive Pinot style which continues to unravel as it evolves, caraway and sensen, spiced cherries and char, a floor of forest buds, enoke and fragrant sasafras oak.

Vinified from choice Pinot Noir grown to the Original 1988 Vineyard alongside a component from Bindi's newer Block K. Barely 500 to 700 dozen are made each year, a deliciously perfumed, spicy, harmonious and textured forward drinking wine that's true to the style of the estate flagships without being overly complex or intense. Highly pleasurable upon release, a well balanced, firm and long wine offering delicious combinations of flavour, silky textures and fine structure.

Amongst the many priceless bequeaths which are part of the Bests portfolio, are an 1868 planting of Pinot vines, probably established with a view to formulating luxury sparklings in the style of Champagne. A small parcel of Pinot Noir amongst the mostly Pinot Meuniere, later identified as a historically significant mix of Swiss and French clones, may very well be the oldest productive Pinot Noir vines in the world today. A pure bottling of these invaluable heirlooms, redolent of strawberries, powerful and intense, old vine Pinot of extraordinary elegance and finesse, silky of tannin and persistent in length.

Gippsland makes remarkable wines, the national flagship Pinot Noir hails from Leongatha, just a few minutes down the road from Bellvale. John Ellis chose his ground well, he established the first Cabernet vines in the prestigious New York Hamptons and worked vintages among the Grand Cru vineyards of Burgundy before settling amongst the dairy paddocks of Gippsland. Stony Block is Bellvale's finest parcel, a powerful yet elegant wine of intense pastoral gameyness, striking balance, exquisite length and captivating poise.

Good Pinot Noir requires a judicious measure of oak to frame the fruit and provide support, Quercas means oak, a reference to the essential influence of barrel age as it serves to coalesce all parts of the wine into a seamless, velvety experience. Pinot Noir also needs to articulate a sense of place, Bellvale's vines are trained to grow deep root systems, extracting the subtle locution of soil and infusing fruit with the unique expression of terroir. Quercas Vineyard makes a pastoral style, ripe with freshly picked cherry, savoury with barnyard and smoked, seasoned game.

Bellvale were established with a view to emulating the great growths of Burgundy, many vintages spent among the vines along Cote d'Or, inspired John Ellis with a consuming passion to make new world wine in the style of the timeless French classics. Terroir and clime are fundamental, identifying the perfect soils where an extended ripening will invigorate the vines and achieve a spectacular quality of fruit. Bellvale makes Pinot Noir in the old fashioned way, allowing the harvest to speak for itself, reminding us that great wine really is made in the vineyard.

Welcome to one of the highest elevation vineyards on Mornington Peninsula, a place of chilly nights and frosty mornings, followed by balmy days of ample sunshine, a confluence of climes which make the site ideal for slowly ripened, fully flavoured Pinot Noir. The finest picks off the best rows of vine are set aside each year for Reserve, redolent of autumnal forest floor, brimming with cherries and ripe red currant, the high altitudes and brisk climes infuse minerality and seamlessness of tannin. Silky and complex, an elegant elocution of a very special place.

Bellingham Estate's Main Ridge vineyards are dry grown and planted to mature, low yielding vines, a wonderful accord of auspicious microclimes and exacting viticulture which creates the most intensely flavoured Mornington Pinot Noir. Hand picked grapes are treated to a cold maceration and wild yeast ferments in open fermenters, followed by a term of age in a mix of seasoned and new French oak barrels. A delicate Pinot Noir of ripe red cherry and freshly milled spice, layered with fine savoury fruit characters and supported by a weave of seamless, velvet tannins.

Outstanding Langtons Classification. There are a number of fundamentals at Bass Phillip which define the excellence of the wines. Painfully low yields are non negotiable, rigorous cropping to produce half the fruit of a Grand Cru Burgundy vineyard is essential. A minmalist handling of the ferments to avoid tearing the wine is imperative for retaining textural integrity. A little over half a pound of grapes are selectively picked off the original estate plantings at Leongatha, now over thirty years of age, they are source of Australia's most superior vintages of Pinot Noir.

Phillip Jones was inspired by the great growths of La Belle France, to abondon his career as research scientist and plant Bordeaux varietal clones amongst the pasturelands of Gippsland. All good men of science are persuaded by the facts, a few fruitless vintages convinced Jones to apply his efforts to the noble grapes of Burgundy, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Gamay. Jones makes wine like a shaman, his standards of viticulture are at one with local flora and fauna, for the realization of vintages which are crafted through an analytic focus on the sanctity of the wine's texture.

Exclusively single vineyard Pinot Noir, drawing fruit from extremely low cropped, windswept vines, stimulated by chilly maritime breezes, not far from Phillip Island and Wilson's Promontary. Phillip Jones has been producing icon Australian Pinot Noir from the cool climes of Leongatha at Gippsland for over two decades. A biodynamic, fully organic viticulture is matched by old fashioned, highly artisanal standards of vinification. Much attention is paid to the handling of ferments and movement of the juices, retaining the refinement and textural integrity of the wine.

Distinguished Langtons Classification. One of Australia's finest Pinot Noir, from low yielding vineyards on the maritime influenced terroirs near Geelong, by a winemaker wholly committed to Burgundian vinification techniques. Aromatic with dark cherry and spicy vanilla oak, a velvety palate of pastoral and plum. A wine of concentration, power and structure, with unmistakable varietal charm, more muscular and rich than it's euro antecedants, exhibiting piquant stalkyness as well as a Bourgogne gameyness, rarely found in Australian Pinot.

Established 1982, Scotchmans Hill host a tally of the most superior blocks of vine on the Bellarine. A splendid single vineyard Pinot Noir, only ever made in extremely limited quantities, grapes are all hand picked and painstakingly destemmed into small three tonnes fermenters for several days of cold soak, as the wild indigenous yeasts begin to weave their magic. Batches are hand plunged over the course of a fortnight, followed by a gentle press into a high proportion of new Troncais French oak barriques for sixteen months maturation.

Samuel Dunn was an early Amherst resident, one of the first settlers to plant grapes in the Pyreness. His land was exploited for sheep grazing, until diggers found the locality alive with gold. The property was returned to viticulture in the 1990s and has since earned a reputation for limited releases of the finest Pyrenees wines. As with all vintages of Amherst, the amount of oak and alcohol are kept in check to ensure that the wine remains in perfect balance, the tannin structure is soft and very fine. An attractive prospect alongside well marbled beef and the finest haute cuisine.