Dexter Pinot Noir 2023

Tod Dexter purchased a vineyard site at Tuerong on the Mornington Peninsula in 1987 and planted Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. He became winemaker at Stonier and then Yabby Lake and during that period the Dexter Vineyard provided Stonier with reserve-grade fruit. Almost 20 years later, and with a wealth of experience behind him, he started his own label. What he strives for in his Pinot Noir is what he looks for in any wine he drinks - aromatics, prettiness, texture, elegance, line and length.

"There’s a fruit party going on here with loads of wild strawberries, red cherries and cranberries, spicy, too with snips of fresh basil and menthol plus heady florals mainly roses. The palate is mid-weighted, and a fruit succulence comes through so, too, layers of tannins with the sweet oak adding a hint of bitter green walnut on the finish. In its youth, there’s a prettiness as complexity will come with age."  Jane Faulkner

"This was another year of low crops and small bunches. In the glass this results in intensely concentrated fruit flavours and fine velvet tannins for the 2023 Pinot Noir. Dark cherry, blueberry and black berry flavours dominate, backed up by savoury herbal characters. Fine grain tannins and well defined structure carry the fruit sweetness well with great length and support the vintage. Matured in French Oak puncheons (21% new, 14% second use, 21% third use and 43% older) for 10 months. Clones: MV6, D5V12, Pommard, 777."  Dexter Wines

Expert reviews

"There’s a fruit party going on here with loads of wild strawberries, red cherries and cranberries, spicy, too with snips of fresh basil and menthol plus heady florals mainly roses. The palate is mid-weighted, and a fruit succulence comes through so, too, layers of tannins with the sweet oak adding a hint of bitter green walnut on the finish. In its youth, there’s a prettiness as complexity will come with age. Drink by 2033."  Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion - 95 points

"I pretty much never drink any samples, because it’s not a good habit to get into, though maybe a few swallows might make a summer while I’m actually tasting, but hey, that’s what I call the FCE (Full Consumer Experience). Anyway, I had a few glasses of this last night while watching the documentary about Ennio Morricone which is currently streaming on Stan. Very good too, and this, in a way, while not Italian, seemed a suitable style of wine for that show. Fine, kind of stony, perfumed, cherry and red fruit, gentle spiced oak, something a little earthy/autumnal too. It’s light to medium-bodied, pleasantly sappy, with a good crunch to acidity, really pleasing pumice stone tannin, and a offers a juicy/savoury finish of excellent length, with a little blood orange bite. Very nice. Drink : 2024 - 2033+."  Gary Walsh, The Wine Front - 94 points

About the winery

Tod Dexter, the man behind the Dexter label, grew up with wine. A childhood friendship with one of Melbourne's premium wine merchants, the Crittenden family, introduced him to the vast world of wine. It was then no surprise that in 1974 after working a ski season in the US, Tod ended up in the Napa Valley where he spent a seven-year apprenticeship with one of California's premium family wineries, Cakebread Cellars. During that period he met his wife Debbie, and the two of them started to toy with the idea of setting up in Australia. Back-to-back vintages at Brown Brothers in the King Valley in 1985 and '86 served as a trial.

Tod moved home to Australia in January 1987 and purchased a vineyard site at Tuerong on the Mornington Peninsula. Later that year, he planted 1.6 hectares of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. To keep the wolves from the door he became winemaker at Stonier and over the next ten years, he and Brian Stonier grew the company to become one of Australia's premium producers of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. During this decade Tod leased his vineyard to Stonier and the Dexter vineyard provided them with reserve-grade fruit.

Dexter left Stonier in 2003 to take the reins at Yabby Lake, whose vineyards are a stone's throw from his own. In 2006 he turned 50. A friend told him if he didn't do his own thing now, it'd never happen. So almost 20 years after the first vines in the Dexter vineyard were planted, and with a wealth of experience behind him, Dexter Wines was born. His vineyard is planted to 4 hectares of Pinot Noir and 3.1 hectares of Chardonnay and he makes roughly the same quantity of each.