Curly Flat Pinot Noir 2021

The 2021 Curly Flat Pinot Noir is the fourth vintage with winemaker Matt Harrop in charge. The wine is a blend from the Central and Western blocks, planted from 1992 to 2000 and made up of clones 114, 115 and MV6 – the famous Mothervine 6 that is said to have reached Australia in the 1830s from Burgundy. The blend consists of 9% whole bunches and was matured for 14 months in 24% new oak. 

"The 2021s are just delightful. What’s interesting about this 2021 vintage release of the Pinot Noir wines is how much higher the standard Curly Flat Pinot Noir 2021 flies. It’s more complete, with fewer holes, fewer rough edges, and more joy than either of the single-block wines. What a joyous wine. Expressive, perfectly ripe – and I mean perfect, you don’t see sharp edges here – with this sort of purpleness and gloss that ultimately makes it even more seductive. Medium-bodied, fine tannins, the style more about fruit than structure (especially compared to the other two) with an extra sense of effortless perfection as a result. Man, what a wine. Would I buy it? In a heartbeat."  Andrew Graham

Expert reviews

"A stunning release from one of the Macedon Ranges stars. The 2021 vintage has been one of the best in the last decade and in the hands of Matt Harrop and Ben Kimmorley they have crafted a wine that has fruit and concentration, yet layers of spice and earthen influence that will evolve over the next decade. In terms of winemaking there were 9% whole bunches in the wild yeast ferment and between 12 - 17 days on skins. The wine was aged in 26% new oak and 32% second fill and the remainder in third fill French Oak for 16 months elevage.

A nose of black cherry, rhubarb, a dusting of brown spice with feigned earthen notes. Impressive concentration on the palate, but not at the expense of elegance; black cherry joins undergrowth and cardamom like spice. Tannins and acidity are well proportioned and give a framework for driving black cherry and rhubarb to finish. Well worth every cent. Drink: 2023-2035."  Patrick Eckel, Wine Reviewer – 97 points

"The 2021s are just delightful. What’s interesting about this 2021 vintage release of the Pinot Noir wines is how much higher the standard Curly Flat Pinot Noir 2021 flies. It’s more complete, with fewer holes, fewer rough edges, and more joy than either of the single-block wines. That isn’t how it normally pans out when the naked terroir expression of the single-block wines tends to dominate. This year, the Western & Central releases feel like the blending components that they are, with character and quality, yet lacking the x-factor of the near-perfect 'standard' Pinot Noir.

From vines 20-29 years old. 9% whole bunches. 26% new oak, the rest two and three-year-old wood. 16 months in oak. What a joyous wine. The dense raspberry/plum with a little mint nose feels like essence-of-Pinot stuff. A serenade of Pinosity, with that vague mint/tomato juice Macedon label. Expressive, perfectly ripe – and I mean perfect, you don’t see sharp edges here – with this sort of purpleness and gloss that ultimately makes it even more seductive. Medium-bodied, fine tannins, the style more about fruit than structure (especially compared to the other two) with an extra sense of effortless perfection as a result. Man, what a wine. Best drinking: now, but no hurry. Would I buy it? In a heartbeat."  Andrew Graham, Australian Wine Review – 96 points

"Impressively deep, bright and concentrated colour; very attractive and complex bouquet of spices, dark fruits and a background hint of forest-floor. Very ripe and rich but not overdone, the varietal fruit shines through beautifully. There is abundant powdery tannin and a long, long aftertaste. Drink: 2023-2033."  Huon Hooke, The Real Review - 96 points

"This is very much the sum of its parts with fruit cherry-picked across various estate blocks. And now that the word cherry has popped up, plenty in this, red and morello in particular. It has some whole-bunch punch both aromatically and on the palate, zesty and tangy with perky acidity a feature of this vintage. Plenty of tannins work across the medium-bodied palate and there's a lipsmacking, moreish finish. Drink by 2035."  Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion - 95 points

"Most of the better Macedon Ranges pinot noirs are ever-so surly in their youth. This one too. The fruit here is backward, in a good way. It tastes of red cherry and plum with an earthen, sweet-sour edge, though bunches of twig, juniper and general herb notes are at play too, if in an integrated way. Complexity, it certainly has covered. There’s excellent tannin here, a solid-if-fine-grained frame, though it’s not delivered at the expense of flow. This moves along in a brooding, thoughtful way, as if concerned about its future, not that it needs to be. Everything, for this wine, in time, will be just fine. Drink: 2026 - 2033+."  Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front - 94+ points 

Matt Harrop

The text below is taken from an article by Huon Hooke that appeared in The Real Review

I met with owner Jenifer Kolkka soon after Matt Harrop (ex-Shadowfax) had taken the reins at Curly Flat, and she could not disguise her excitement. Speaking again last week, her enthusiasm for the future of Curly Flat was undiminished.

"Matt is so hands-on, both in the vineyard and the winery," she enthused.

"He even tops the barrels up with Ben (Kimmorley, assistant winemaker). Every barrel gets that individual attention. We used to always give the pinot noir 20 months in oak, but when Matt took over the 2017 pinot was in barrel, and it was a big vintage so there were a lot of new barrels, and he went through all the barrels and took a lot of the wines out of the new oak and put them in older, neutral oak because it’s a delicate year and he didn’t want the new oak to crush the delicate fruit."

She says Harrop gets out in the vineyard and prunes with the rest of the crew, and gets the team in at least four times a year to show them how the wines are progressing, and show them how different pinot noir can be from different parts of the vineyard.

Another Harrop change has been frost control. Curly Flat has a great supply of water, from a massive 20-megalitre dam (which covers four acres), as well as a bore supplying high-quality water.

Until Harrop arrived, frost was controlled with a sprinkler system, but he discovered that too much water was going into the soil, so he installed frost fans and turned the water off. Then he found that due to soil variation, some parts of the vineyard weren’t getting enough water, so he installed soil moisture probes. Now irrigation is managed specifically for each part of the vineyard.

Another change is with the second label, Williams Crossing.

"No more Williams Crossing," says Jeni Kolkka.

"We used to treat all of the fruit the same as it came out of the vineyard. The best wine went into Curly Flat, the rest went into Williams Crossing. Matt decided that if it doesn’t make it into Curly Flat it goes into White Pinot (a rosé style), which sells like hot-cakes. No oak. It sells in the year of making so it’s quick turnover and good for cash-flow."

And the wine is delicious, incidentally.

Harrop, who also owns a vineyard in the Macedon area with his wife Tamara Grischy (head of Langton’s Fine Wine Auctions), started at Curly Flat in October 2017. He finished the 2017 vintage wines and oversaw the bottling of the 2016 pinots, but 2018 was his first complete vintage.

Harrop was asked in April 2024: "Is there one thing that you wouldn’t have done, if you could go again?

"Oh God, there’s about 5000 things. I would have spent more time in the Northern Hemisphere sucking up a little bit of what they’re doing there. I haven’t done enough of that. Not a flying winemaker job. Just going in and talking to people – like you’re doing here today. We’ve got access to a lot of wine over here now, but things were different twenty years ago.

From a winemaking point of view – maybe wouldn’t have farmed in Heathcote for ten years, like I did at Shadowfax. I’m glad I’ve got regrets about what I have done, rather than what I haven’t done.

With regards to Curly Flat, one thing we will do is slowly converting things over to VSP. Whether we top-work stuff like we’ve done in the past and re-trellis. It is a ten-year project. 

Stepping back and looking at wines from 2020… one of the things we love about the ‘20s is that they talk a little bit more about the earth rather than the sky. One of the massive limiting factors in this part of the world is that big orange ball in the sky. It’s a strong influence. If there’s one thing that can obscure where a grape is from, it is too much sun. The 2020 is savoury tannins,  more earthy and quite reserved. We think there is a Curly Flat theme. One of the things that shits me about the Aussie industry is that our 'most important producers', the Penfolds of the world, are actively working to persuade people that vintage variation doesn’t exist. The rest of us think it’s really important to say to people that wine is not the same every single time. That’s part of the pleasure of it."

About the winery

Curly Flat, a small privately owned vineyard and winery in the Macedon Ranges, was founded in 1989 by Phillip Moraghan and Jenifer Kolkka. The Macedon Ranges is the coolest viticultural area on mainland Australia and the Curly Flat Vineyard has proved to be ideal for growing the early ripening varieties of pinot noir and chardonnay. 

The first vines were planted in 1991 but problems with clonal identification and quality of planting material resulted in these vines being removed. The hard work of planting was repeated in 1992. Subsequent plantings (1993 to 2000) have seen the vineyard grow to 14.5 hectares. The majority of the area is planted to Pinot Noir (72%), with smaller plantings of Chardonnay (23%) and Pinot Gris (5%). 

The Curly Flat Vineyard is acknowledged as the greatest influence on wine quality. This unique viticultural site owes much to the combination of altitude (540 metres), latitude (south of The Great Dividing Range), and distance from the mitigating influence of the ocean. A diversity of aspect and clone provide multifaceted winemaking opportunities. The climate is ideal for growing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay - warm summer days, then crisp, cool evenings which slow ripening and produce fruit of high natural acidity and intense flavour. The red volcanic basalt soils have structure and depth allowing the roots to descend many metres, increasing the soil volume able to be exploited by the vines.

In 2006 Curly Flat ceased using herbicides and have seen a marked improvement in soil microfauna. The resulting increase in organic matter has been staggering and bodes well for the future health of the vines.

Curly Flat wines are naturally fermented; the use of ambient yeast (those that are native to the vineyard and winery) leads to improved texture, mouthfeel and more varietal flavour components in the wines.

In 2017, Jenifer accepted Phillip's offer to take over sole ownership of Curly Flat. Under her leadership, the winery's reputation for high-quality winemaking continues. Jenifer and her team, led by new winemaker Matt Harrop, are fully committed to producing the best possible wines from their carefully nurtured site. 

The Vineyard