Hurley Vineyard 2018 Garamond Pinot Noir

A superb wine from a brilliant Mornington Peninsula vintage made by one of Australia's few genuine garagiste producers. Kevin Bell and partner Tricia Byrnes are busy legal eagles who devote much of their spare time to producing a range of four pinots that aim to reflect their micro-terroirs. I've been looking at their wines for a couple of decades and they have never been better, from the excellent $50 estate wine to this flagship from a three-acre vineyard planted in 1998 and hitting its peak. Cherry and berry notes and subtle savoury hints are to the fore in a wild yeast-fermented, basket-pressed wine of immense appeal and purity. Think length, laser-like precision and velvet mouthfeel. Better than many village Burgundies. Garamond, by the way, was a Renaissance French typographer whose font appears on Hurley Vineyard labels and stationary. Claude would be very proud. 98/100. $85. www.hurleyvineyard.com.au.