Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir: top wines to try

Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir - Ashton Hills — The rustic cellar door at Ashton Hills, with views over the Piccadilly Valley.

(Image credit: Ashton Hills)

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Individual analysis of the Adelaide Hills by grape variety:

Chardonnay | Sauvignon Blanc| Shiraz | Sparkling | Alternative varieties

Plus: Adelaide Hills value – the best wines to buy

Significant development in the sophistication and finesse of Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir is is causing great excitement.

For too long this fickle variety had been an awkward fledgling, planted with great enthusiasm across the Hills from the 1990s, but largely picked too ripe and handled clumsily.

Now, a critical mass of growers and producers are paying closer attention in the vineyard. Judicious pruning, restrained vine yields and more detailed picking regimes means the fruit arrives at the wineries in more pristine condition.

Scroll down for notes and scores of the top Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir

This results in wines of greater nuance, grace and beauty – showing pretty fruit without the overbearing influence of winery artifice. They are daring to frame a particular Adelaide Hills identity by reading terroir with accuracy and assurance.

It’s a complex picture, where picturesque, steep vineyards dot the undulating ridges and valleys through Lenswood, Basket Range, Ashton and Piccadilly. Curiously, many of the best sites are former cherry orchards lost to earlier bushfires. Carefully managed fresh plantings and smart clonal selections are resulting in superior wines.

To highlight this in the bottle, several winemakers now make a series of single-vineyard Pinot Noirs, most notably Gareth Belton’s Gentle Folk wines and Murdoch Hill.

Following serious research into clones, Sidewood has released three individual clonal expressions: Oberlin, 777 and Abel.

There is crowd of worthy contenders for the best Adelaide Hills Pinot Noirs, spanning several different styles and exhibiting a swathe of different personalities. It’s a clear sign that even better days lay ahead.

Top producers of Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir

BK Wines
Gentle Folk
Murdoch Hill
Michael Hall Wines
Shaw + Smith