Kooyong Estate Ferrous Pinot Noir 2013
Style: Red Wine
Closure: Screwcap
Kooyong Estate Ferrous Pinot Noir 2013
Pick up
Burke Road
Camberwell VIC 3124
Australia
Producer: Kooyong Estate
Country: Australia
Region: Mornington Peninsula
Vintage: 2013
Critic Score: 96
Alcohol: 14.0%
Size: 750 ml
Drink by: 2028
Kooyong Estate, established in 1996, is a specialist Pinot Noir and Chardonnay producer located at Tuerong on the northern end of the Mornington Peninsula. The 40 ha vineyard is split into five blocks - Meres, Haven, Ferrous, Faultline and Farrago. The best selection of each block is reserved for the Kooyong single vineyard wines. The 2013 Ferrous Pinot Noir was sourced from 1.34 hectares of gently sloping 16-year-old vines in the Ferrous vineyard.
"Promises a big story from the outset, all showy oak and velvety fruit, but once the opening number has died down a web of finer details is revealed, and there the mesmerising begins. This needs a little time but it has tight sleeves and all the right cards tucked therein. Plums, cherries, steel, spice, polished cedarwood and subtle foresty elements. It's long, fine and more simply, fantastic to spend time with. Would be a welcome guest at dinner anytime." Campbell Mattinson
"The 2013 Ferrous shows complex and intriguing notes of raspberry, cherry and tarry earth. Focused and persistent, the cool, finely textured palate is typical of the block with blue fruit, blood orange and iron flavours. With a long, balanced, mineral finish, this, like all vintages of this wine, demands time in the cellar." Kooyong Estate
Expert reviews
"Promises a big story from the outset, all showy oak and velvety fruit, but once the opening number has died down a web of finer details is revealed, and there the mesmerising begins. This needs a little time but it has tight sleeves and all the right cards tucked therein. Plums, cherries, steel, spice, polished cedarwood and subtle foresty elements. It's long, fine and more simply, fantastic to spend time with. Would be a welcome guest at dinner anytime. Drink by 2023." Campbell Mattinson, Halliday Wine Companion - 96 points and Special Value Wine ★
"Beautifully poised black cherry and strawberry fruit of juicy, enticing allure, is impeccably framed in fine-grained, wellstructured tannins. It’s intricately crafted, capturing silky, seductive grace and deep, penetrating, enduring fruit depth, lingering with outstanding persistence. Benchmark." Tyson Stelzer - 96 points
"A lot of spice, and almost to a capsicum/mescal thing going on, aniseed, dried flowers and red fruits. Medium bodied, intense acidity, a sappy feel to it, layers of spice and herbal tossed through juicy red fruits. Tannin rumbles through th wine, and indeed, you'd have to say Ferrous by name, Ferrous by nature here. A riot of bunchy spice on a long finish. No shortage of charisma here. Drink: 2019-2030+." Gary Walsh, The Wine Front - 95 points
"A complete, complex cellaring pinot whose smoky but slightly closed bouquet of black and red cherries is lifted by alluring aromas of red and blue flowers. It’s long and supple, with a gentle but emphatic core of blue and red fruits extending long and stylish over a fine mineral and slatey spine towards a lingering and savoury finish of smoky oak, vibrant fruit, dried herbal notes and licorice." Jeremy Oliver, The Australian Wine Annual 2016 - 95 points
"Kooyong’s wines are all marked by serenity and calm. They have always possessed these qualities and this is thanks to their special terroir and also their exquisite confidence in their amazing raw materials. Ferrous is always my favourite of the single vineyard Pinots and in 2013 is a masterful creation. Long, lithe, allenveloping and immensely satisfying – it is the epitome of the Pinot Noir grape variety while never overstepping the mark as so many Kiwi, Californian and South African versions tend to do. Even Burgundy is guilty of pushing their grapes hard to perform, while Kooyong’s impressive portfolio seems effortless, centred and composed. While Ferrous looks stunning now, this is also a wine which will evolve over another five years, so don’t rush to finish your hoard because there is more evolution to come." Matthew Jukes, Wine Business Monthly (WBM)
Awards
Special Value Wine – Halliday Wine Companion ★
The vineyard blocks
The Kooyong vineyard is a 40-hectare site in the sub-region of Tuerong that lies at an altitude of 100-120 metres. The original Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vines were planted from 1996 to 1998 in five distinct blocks: Faultline, Farrago, Meres, Haven and Ferrous - refer to the vineyard map below.
Faultline Vineyard (Chardonnay)
The 10.0 hectare Faultline block, planted from 1996 to 1998, is the largest block at Kooyong. It is planted predominantly to Chardonnay in an area where the soils are characterised by a friable dark brown loamy clay.
Adjacent to the Farrago block to the West, the Faultline block is more gently sloping. The block is bounded by a geological fault that runs along the southwestern end, beyond which the soil becomes quite poorly drained. Before this fault, however, the soils are well drained and high in organic matter.
The Chardonnay from the Faultline block is rich and full, defined by a generosity of texture while still supported by Kooyong’s inherent minerality.
Farrago Vineyard (Chardonnay)
The 2.8 hectare Farrago block was planted in 1998 exclusively to Chardonnay. This small block is gently north-sloping with sediments ranging from those higher in sand to those higher in clay.
The best fruit within the block comes from the zone higher in clay where the soil has a mottled appearance due to high sandstone pebble content, hence the block’s name Farrago.
The Chardonnay from the Farrago block is defined by a precise linear character with strong silicaceous minerality. At its best, this is the premier white wine with the greatest ageing potential.
Meres Vineyard (Pinot Noir)
The 6.2 hectare Meres block was planted from 1996 to 1997. The block is planted entirely to Pinot Noir except for a tiny 0.1 hectare annexe planted to Pinot Gris. Located along the eastern boundary of Kooyong, the name Meres alludes to water bodies – the dams that flank the block on all sides.
This gently sloping block is the most exposed of all our Pinot Noir plantings, leading to low vigour and low yields. The combination of the soils, a less loamy topsoil and more clay subsoil than the other blocks, and low vigour produces highly aromatic and perfumed red-fruited Pinot Noir with a structure that, as the vines age, is becoming more robust.
Haven Vineyard (Pinot Noir)
The 6.9 hectare Haven block was planted in 1996 exclusively to Pinot Noir. The block is the most sheltered of the vineyard blocks. It is a relatively level site surrounded by thick tree belts which protect it from strong winds. The soils are classed as a duplex loam over clay, have a relatively higher percentage of loam and a moderate amount of sandstone pebbles interspersed through the soil profile.
The lack of exposure to strong winds allows the vines to keep a rich green canopy until comparatively late in the ripening period and the resulting Haven Pinot Noir possesses fruit in the more purplish spectrum with a certain richness and lushness yet a firm underlying tannic structure. Regal and poised, Haven shows excellent capacity for ageing.
Ferrous Vineyard (Pinot Noir)
The 5.1 hectare Ferrous block was planted in 1997 exclusively to Pinot Noir. The block lies to the East of and adjacent to the Haven block. It is a more sloping block than Haven, therefore more rapidly draining, and is also much less protected from winds – a little like Meres.
These vines naturally produce low yields due to a combination of unique orientation, free drainage and a lack of protection from the elements. Together with this, the soil of the Ferrous block has a far greater prevalence of ironstone pebbles than any other part of the vineyard and delivers wine with great concentration and savoury tannic presence.
Kooyong Estate Vineyard Map
About the winery
Kooyong Estate is a specialist Pinot Noir and Chardonnay producer located at Tuerong on the northern end of the Mornington Peninsula. The vineyard, in one of Australia's foremost cool climate maritime wine growing regions, was established by property developer Chris Aylward and his wife Gail in 1996.
The Aylwards purchased a weekender at nearby Shoreham that happened to include one hectare of Chardonnay vines. They employed a young genetics honours graduate, Sandro Mosele, to look after the vineyard. Mosele realised that the Red Hill vineyard was not ideal for viticulture, so he set out to find a warmer site capable of producing vines of low vigour to keep yields naturally low. This led to the Aylwards purchasing a 93 hectare property in Tuerong that had gentle north-facing slopes, moderate rainfall and relatively free-draining soils.
The 33 ha Kooyong vineyard was planted on the property between 1996 and 1998. Aside from tiny pockets of pinot gris and shiraz, the vineyard was exclusively devoted to the Burgundian varieties, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Only 4ha of the original vineyard remains unchanged, the other vines have been grafted, moved onto a different trellising system or discarded. The early plantings were largely established with Scott Henry and Geneva Double Curtain GDC trellises, however, Mosele changed to vertical shoot positioning, the canopy design most suited to the region. As Mosele said in 2002, "We made mistakes, but we fixed our mistakes".
Today, the vineyard has 21 ha of Pinot Noir, 11 ha of Chardonnay and a small plot of Pinot Gris. The vineyard is split into five individual blocks with a variety of clones (8 Pinot and 10 Chardonnay clones) and very different soils, and everything is done to enhance and express the natural characteristics of each block. The vineyard comprises three Pinot Noir blocks (Meres, Haven and Ferrous) and two Chardonnay blocks (Faultline and Farrago). The best selection of each block is reserved for the Kooyong single vineyard wines.
In 1998, plans for a large and modern winery were devised and construction began. State-of-the-art equipment was installed to give the winemaking team the best possible opportunity to produce top quality wines. Aiming high was always Kooyong's goal. In 2001, Kooyong released their first wines commercially with the 1999 vintage. Only a third of the vintage was sold under the Kooyong label to preserve quality and the annual production since then had been rigorously capped at around 10,000 cases in total. Sandro Moselle's wizardry with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay was behind Kooyong's early success and recognition as one of the Mornington Peninsula's top producers.
The Aylwards sold Kooyong to current owners Giorgio and Dianne Gjergja in 2004. The Gjergjas had purchased Port Phillip Estate 4 years earlier in 2000. The Gjergjas were rightly more than content with the quality and style of the wines; the main change was the move of Kooyong's cellar door and winery in 2009 to the grand and imposing multi-million complex at Port Phillip Estate.
Sandro Moselle stayed on as Chief Winemaker until July 2015, when he left to pursue other opportunities. He was replaced by Glen Hayley who had worked with Mosele for the previous six years. He continued and enhanced Mosele's work, with an enduring focus on exploring the nuances of sites within the vineyards. Glen stayed on at Kooyong and Port Phillip until 2023 when he ended a 13-year association (the last seven as Chief Winemaker) to pursue other interests overseas. Tim Perrin, who had worked as senior winemaker with Oakridge Wines in the Yarra Valley for the previous seven years, replaced Glen.
Victoria
Victoria is home to more than 800 wineries across 21 wine regions. The regions are Alpine Valley, Beechworth, Bendigo, Geelong, Gippsland, Glenrowan, Goulburn Valley, Grampians, Heathcote, Henty, King Valley, Macedon Ranges, Mornington Peninsula, Murray Darling, Pyrenees, Rutherglen, Strathbogie Ranges, Sunbury, Swan Hill, Upper Goulburn and Yarra Valley.
Victoria's first vines were planted at Yering in the Yarra Valley in 1838. By 1868 over 3,000 acres had been planted in Victoria, establishing Victoria as the premier wine State of the day. Today, the original vineyards planted at Best's Wines are among the oldest and rarest pre-phylloxera plantings in the world.
Victoria's climate varies from hot and dry in the north to cool in the south and each wine region specialises in different varietals. For example, Rutherglen in the north is famous for its opulent Muscats and Topaque and bold reds, while the many cooler climate regions near Melbourne produce world class Chardonnay and pinot Noir. Victoria is truly a wine lover's playground.