Attractive mid-depth salmon-pink colour wth an orange tinge, the bouquet complex with quince-paste, honey, pomegranate juice and almond characters, the palate likewise complex, rich and yet light on its feet, with a delicious flavour profile and great harmony, the finish dry and appetising. This is a seriously tasty rosé. 21 JUN 2025
Eastern Peake 2023 Two Mile Hill Pinot Noir
96 points - Shanteh Wale - Wine pilot
Planted on weathered basalt and volcanic soils. Destemmed into a open top fermenter, indigenous yeasts and pump overs daily. Basket pressed to barriques with monthly top ups. With additional time in a stainless tank for settling. Raspberry and baked rhubarb take centre stage here with red pepper strands and a warm hug of mace. Some sweet cinnamon and baked rye bread as well. The coiled red fruit delivers its friendly nature in the middle palate with a slight jubey quality countered by woven acidity and powdery tannins. Very complete and refined, while each sip feels effortless and yet beguiling.
This is drinking well now and will continue to do so for another 8 -10 years
Perfect for a veal ragu with lots of glistening onions.
Eastern Peake 2023 Mount Block Pinot Noir
96 points - Shanteh Wale - Wine pilot
This block was established in 1994, all MV6 and sits at 430m in altitude. Only two other single bottlings have been created in the past, being 2012 and 2016. Typically this forms a large part of Intrinsic, with this vintage getting a little special attention from a few choice barrels. Destemmed to 3000L concrete fermenters, indigenous yeast, daily pump overs and basket pressed to French barriques (Siruge and Dominique Laurent) of which 30% was new. With additional time in stainless tank for settling. Crimson hues begin in violets and Wisteria and move into the Davidson plum and blackberry territory. There is power and muscle here with a cloak of very powdery tannins. A middle palate moment of pause, some plump mulberry and clove. Bitter dark chocolate and christmas spices. A fascinating first look at the Mount Block and a wine with plenty of intrigue and cellar potential. Choose tenderloin or scotch filet for this.
95 Points - Ryan Montgomery -
JamesSuckling.comBright, fresh and with just the right amount of funk to make this quite appealing. Aromas of red cherries, wild raspberries, blood oranges, flowers, graphite, cured meats, forest floor and spices. The palate is light- to medium-bodied with finely tuned tannins and a tightly wound mouthfeel that leads into a mineral-edged finish. Delicious.
94+ points - Mike Bennie - The Wine Front
From a block established 1994, and only twice (2012 and 2016) has it been released as a single block wine.A firm, tense and brightly lit wine. Set to red cherry, raspberry, cranberry with touches of bay leaf, lantana, dried mixed peel and pepper going on. Quite the chiseled, textural feel, appealing in that way and you’d say precise too. It feels quite vin de garde, a wine that is leaner and firmer than expected now, not without pleasure, but apt for long, longer term cellaring and getting the truffle, savoury, earthen aspects to coincide with drinking. An excellent wine for that, and great to see.
What a wine! Oxidative, nutty aromas of lemon confit, salted nuts, Comté cheese rind, oyster shells, flint and chalk. The palate is mid-weighted and textural, with a saline, mineral drive that brings a nervy, grapefruit-like tension underneath the expressive and rounded mouthfeel. This has all the hallmarks of the finest topped-style Jura chardonnays, with a touch of polish. Delicious.
94 points - Mike Bennie - The Wine Front
I noted in the text (huge detail, as always, laminated and stuck to bottles) from winemaker Owen Latta, a reference to rich, red volcanic soils, and the wine feels of mineral and generosity. Chalky succulence, sweet, stone fruit and appley characters, light manzanilla notes, toasty, salted cashew and faint, Japanese ginger tones with nougat dashed with cinnamon through the lot. It’s opulent in a way, broad and spreads well in the palate, a clatter of limey acidity lifts things, though you’d say the wine is a little lazy and ponderous if being lyrical. Then again, it sits well for me, lots of flavour and character on hand. I like these slower, sticky chardonnays.Tasted : JUN25, Alcohol : 12.6%, Closure : Diam, Drink : 2025 - 2031
95 points - Shanteh Wale - Wine pilot
Planted in red rich volcanic soils. Indigenous yeasts fermented in 300L hogsheads of French and Austrian oak on full solids. Full malo and additional time post ferment in stainless steel. This is full of bergamot, lemon zest and peach fuzz. Roast pumpkin seed, cornmeal and cracked terra cotta. Orchard fruit manages to provide an arch of fruit nectar whilst its stony pithy mid palate wipes the honey tones and shines a light on its nutrient dense earth inflections. Acidity is well folded into the body of this wine. There is great clarity of site here and a wine for drinking now with gruyere toasties or waiting patiently another 6-8 years
94 Points - Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate
The 2023 Two Mile Hill Chardonnay is a rich toasty wine, yet it is tethered to the rails of cool acidity. This is both taut and mineral while also displaying attractive amplitude and complexity as well. I like it so much. There are notes of salted yellow peaches, lemon flesh, chalk, green apples and cashews. The chalky texture that lingers after the wine is gone is a particularly attractive trait. Warmly recommended. 12.6% alcohol, sealed under Diam and wax.
This could be a love affair between Chablis and the Jura. Aromas of lemon peel, oyster shells, salted nuts, Asian pears, cheesecloth, slate and chalk. The palate is tightly wound with a mid-weighted mouthfeel that is brought together with mineral tension and a mouthwatering finish that persists. The balance of reduced-oyygen character with mineral focus makes this very intellectual and a journey to drink. Delicious. Tasted August 2025
97 Points - Shanteh Wale - Wine pilot
Grown in volcanic loam soils over weathered basalt at 430m of altitude. Indigenous yeasts fermented in 300L hogsheads of French and Austrian oak on full solids. Full malo and additional time post ferment in stainless steel. Like scooping handfuls of lava ash, grass seed and lemon cream up to your face. So is the mystic of Intrinsic, born and grown, this wine tells its story in careful hushed words, demanding you to lean forward and capture every breath. Honeycomb, pink salt flakes and bottle brush. It circles the palate with chiselled phenolics, melting moments of crumbly lemon shortbread. Acidity is so finite and graceful, I am in complete submission. A true bedazzling light in Australian chardonnay, it has my heart and always will. This wine can do no wrong on a table with shellfish, creamy pastas, spatchcock or salty aged cheeses. Drink now and buy a dozen for the cellar and drink in 5, 10, 15 years. Tasted September 2025
95 points - Mike Bennie - The Wine Front
Intrinsic to the excellence of Eastern Peake, no doubt. This is a richer, opulent expression, and I think through recent chardonnay tastings and know that its bandwidth and tempo will be skittled in line ups for those with more filigree, tension and pace. That being said, merit here for concentration of fruit flavour, softness and beautiful, gently palate-staining flow, the harmony of honey butter, hazy, green apple juice, peachy notes, nougat, briny minerality and light toffee characters. By no means developing beyond its years, just relaxed and beautifully, neatly old fashioned in its way. A dapper chardonnay.
The 'Peake' Chardonnay release, sourced from a 430m-altitude vineyard on volcanic grey loam over weathered basalt. Same winemaking approach as across the Chardonnay range: whole-bunch pressed, indigenous fermentation in 300L hogsheads, full solids, full malo. Opens with fine cedar spice, pear and Meyer lemon, followed by powdery yellow apple, yellow grapefruit and a flicker of flint. Chalk dust and riverstone minerality emerge with air, alongside honey butter and leesy dough notes. The palate mirrors the nose with weight, texture and precision. Spicy cedarsupports, riverstone freshness glides through, and firm chalky phenolics carry persistent lemon- drenched acidity to a long, powdery close. Opulent yet fresh, with brilliant texture and length. The release that confirms Eastern Peake's Chardonnay at its finest.
Eastern Peake 2023 Intrinsic Pinot Noir
97 points - Shanteh Wale - Wine pilot
Coined the pulse of Eastern Peake. Vine age ranges between 30-40 years in age on all three blocks. This is all MV6 grown on grey loam soils over weathered basalt at 430m in altitude. Destemmed to 3000L concrete fermenters, indigenous yeast, daily pump overs and basket pressed to French barriques (Siruge and Dominique Laurent) of which 30% was new. With additional time in stainless tank for settling. Rosella, goji and pomegranate seeds. A flirtation of raspberry, the density of fruit is undeniable. Cigar clippings, sweet maple leaf and rich brown earth. Melted chocolate and bay leaf. Satisfying, lively and with decades of life ahead of it. Yes, more than you will dare to risk. Intrinsic wines live beyond your imagination, there has been a mammoth effort made in the vineyard and it has been rewarded with a show stopper. The mind boggles with where this wine will go and what it will see. A stunner. Drink it with the evening sounds of birds and crickets for company, for that is all you will need.
96 points - Mike Bennie - The Wine Front
‘The pulse of Eastern Peake!’, cries the laminated (no longer contact papered) notes. Eastern Peake is growing up after forty years. From three blocks on the home vineyard, aged thirty to forty years. All the finery.Beautiful. Red berry fruitiness, game meat, truffle, dried leaves, undergrowth, brambles, pepper, blood orange, green olive. Magic. Harmonious and delicate, pure and lithe. A finery and gilt nature to the wine, a shine and lift, a tension and succulence. It feels fancy from first sniff and doesn’t let up. Offering pinot lovers access to fruit and savouriness, vineyard verity, seasonal characteristics of coolness and paler, delicate nature. Big swirls in a glass and more and more comes up, the information expanding as the wine continues. Magic.Tasted : JUN25, Alcohol : 12%, Drink : 2025 - 2035+
96 Points- Ryan Montgomery - JamesSuckling.comA very refined and pure expression of pinot noir, with a mineral line shining through the bright red fruits. Aromas of cranberries, pomegranates, graphite, wet earth, summer flowers and spice. The palate is mid-weighted with firmly framed, fine-grained tannins, a mouthwatering acidity and underlying complexity. A pinot lover's delight.
Eastern Peake 2023 Block Nineteen Eighty Nine Pinot Noir
99 Points - Huon Hooke, The Real Review - 29th Oct 2025
Deep, brooding red with a good rim of purple; the bouquet is complex and subtle, with underbrush/leaf-litter, toasty smoky oak and dry stalk aromas in attractive harmony with black-cherry fruit, the palate full and rich, generous and quite profound, with freshening acidity underpinning the concentrated flavour giving it life and energy. A very impressive wine with serious intent and the legs to agewell. Great wine.
96 Points - James Suckling, Ryan Montgomery, Associate Editor - Aug 06, 2025
There's a great balance of aromatic perfume and depth of flavour here, with an ethereal feel. Lifted aromas of red cherries, cranberries, blood oranges, pencil shavings, citrus peel, rose petals and crushed river stones. The palate is mid-weighted with fine-grained tannins and a textural, almost metallic mouthfeel, along with a long line of acidity leaving notes of blue, red and black fruits with a lovely savoury undertone. Delicious
Eastern Peake 2023 Original Block Pinot Noir
97 Points - Huon Hooke, The Real Review - 29th Oct 2025
Deep, brooding red-purple colour, with a seriously savoury, complex bouquet of dry stalks, smoky oak and savoury underbrush scents. Substantial oak input is evident. The wine is rich and full, with serious concentration and fleshy extract, the tannins well in evidence and the finish long and satisfying. Superb, and will be even better when the oak has had time to integrate fully. (1983 planted vines, 40 years old this vintage. Just one barrel produced.)
Eastern Peake 2022 Intrinsic Chardonnay
Shanteh Wale - Wine Pilot - 96 Points
There are not many Australian wines that draw a crowd of Sommeliers quite like the Intrinsic wines. These wines aged like a dream and have played an important role in my understanding of the utterly fascinating journey a wine goes through over time. Fruit source from the 1991 block of I10V5 chardonnay vines. Full malolactic and matured in French and Austrian oak Hogsheads. Jasmine and Frangipani blossom, wild white rose and freesia. Lemonade fruit, finger lime and white nectarine. A pineapple core of fruit surrounded by candied apples. There is an orange blossom honey note with pumice stone and quartz. The palate is dizzyingly alive with fruit weight, creamed butter and sesame. Thrilling acidity and almond praline. A lace of very fine oak tannins and dusty cinnamon. Impossible to put down. Drink now and will cellar well for 5-8 years. A sensational wine for lobster bisque.
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front - 94 Points
Distinct personality to this wine, vivid in its authority of the variety and happy in its own lane. Love that. A smaller block of chardonnay from the estate.
It’s kinda pudgy and cuddly in a way, but cute, and seriously fresh feeling despite that! Go figure. Softness and a little chew of powdery crunch to the wine, honey, toasty notes, lemon bright and tart in the mix, saline notes, cashew nuts. A wink in the direction of Jura, perhaps. Lots of flavour, lots of character, so much enjoyment. Let the good times roll.
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate - 94+ Points
The 2022 Intrinsic Chardonnay tends to give us a balanced view of both previous cuvées tasted today: the Two Mile Hill and the Griffins. This is concentrated and chalky like the Griffins and fine and floral like the Two Mile Hill. It's a juicy, modern style of Chardonnay with pronounced phenolics and long, lingering length. This is a pure wine, a very impressive wine, a powerful wine. It's awesome and refined. 13.2% alcohol, sealed under Diam and wax.
Owen Latta, the winemaker here, keeps his wines fresh, even as he serves them flavoursome. This is a fluid, juicy, sheeted-with-acidity white wine, and yet, it's also creamy and generous. It tastes of hay and lemon curd, stone fruit and apples, with nashi pear and nougat notes adding yet more. It feels harmonious now, but it feels in need of another year or two before it properly expands.
Eastern Peake 2022 ‘Original Block’ Pinot Noir
Huon Hooke - The Real Review - 96 points
Deep-ish red with a good tint of purple and a meaty/smoky/charcuterie and five-spice bouquet. The wine is full and firmly structured with abundant dark cherry flavours and impressive richness/fleshy extract, powering on long into an extended finish. This has gravitas. An excellent pinot which will reward cellar time. 2025–2038
Sourced from the estate's 1983 plantings, with only one barrel produced (a mere 22 dozen released to the public). The linger of flavour here is excellent. This pinot noir puts some runs on the board and then some. It's an earthen, spicy, cherry-and-strawberry-accented wine, with cedarwood oak, mint and sweetly extravagant herb notes pulsing throughout. A wine of poise and silk, the flourish of the finish the absolute confirmation of its quality. 2025–2032
Shanteh Wale - Wine Pilot - 95 Points
Sourced from the original 1989 plantings, all MV6 clone, formerly known as the OB terroir bottling. 22 dozen produced. All destemmed and 12 months in barriques. Deeply pigmented, black cherry, pomegranate molasses and prune plums. Mulberry and black fig. Cocoa nib, coffee bean and nigella seed. There is plenty of concentration and granite like immovability to the bass tones. Acidity swells and tannins are richly interwoven into the wine already, providing solid foundations. A hint of blood plum and cassis to finish. This wine will age beautifully and I think not yet quite drinking at its peak. Cellar for another 2-3 years to begin to see where it can go. Drink with sauteed mushrooms and black pudding on toast.
There's richness here, there's intensity, and there's also character. Everything is coiled up tight in this wine, and yet everything tastes the goods. Flavours include custard apple, grilled peach, chalk and honeyed cedar, with ginger and brine characters thereabouts. It's a fascinating drink. Textural and flavoursome in a distinctive way.
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front - 95 Points
The site was planted in 2017 with guidance then and ongoing from the Latta family of Eastern Peake and a mere seven kilometres down the road from the estate of EP. While younger vines, there’s intensity and interest here in spades.
The first thing that reveals itself is a distinct sense of balance, elegance, refinement. In that, scents of ripe apple, ginger, sea spray, almond, faint nougat and honeycomb. While this sounds richer and riper, it’s curiously crisp and chalky in the palate, exceptionally long, dense in flavour but with cut and thrust of acidity and minerality, in a general sense. Jura, a nod that way, once more from Eastern Peake, perhaps. Just so excellent to drink, overall.
Shanteh Wale - Wine Pilot - 95 Points
Fruit source from the Two Mile Hill site planted in 2017. Full malolactic and matured in French and Austrian oak Hogsheads. Sunflower, marigold and pollen florals. Yellow peach, Meyer lemon and mango skin. Kumquat oil, baked pears and nutmeg. Turmeric, hazelnut and nougat. Acidity flows like a running stream with raw and just toasted bread dough, shortbread and cashew cream. Some savoury tones of dried hay and Lion's mane mushroom powder to round out the finish. A meal of a wine full of pairing possibilities. Drink now and will cellar well for another 3-6 years. I’d go for an onion and leek tart with baked ghost cheese. 95 Points
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate - 94 Points
The 2022 Two Mile Hill Chardonnay is mineral and fleshy, with crushed oyster shell, brine, white peach, green apple skins, eucalyptus and open skies. The acidity is almost steely in the mouth and emphasizes the fine but firm phenolic structure. This is an exciting, racy sort of wine-subtly complex and nutty... super. It has crushed nuts, shaved fennel, matcha and a hint of salvia flower through the finish.
12.7% alcohol, sealed under Diam and wax.
Eastern Peake 2022 ‘Block 1989’ Pinot Noir
Shanteh Wale - Wine Pilot - 98 Points
Sourced from the original 1989 plantings and a mix of MV6 and Morillon clones. Destemmed into concrete fermenters, basket pressed to barriques, mix of coopers. Here is where we see the brilliance of these two clones and old vines make fireworks of magic. Wild hibiscus, rose petal and ruby grapefruit skin. Persimmon and rhubarb, quince and strawberry gum. Pulled stringy bark, pine mushroom and paprika spice. It resonates with red earth and Australian bush, intertwines natural languid acidity with silty tannins that slowly peter down the palate. There is a scattering of wild thyme and peppy leaf and black tea bitters on the finish. Its goosebumps and upstanding neck hairs, it's achingly delicious. It reminds once again why I am still baffled and in awe of this estate. Drink now and wil cellar well for another 8-10 years or more. Serve alongside Osso Bucco and risotto milanese.
This is made from Eastern Peake's original plantings; 22 dozen released. Toasty oak sifts through a deep, powerful, complex palate. We're straight into undergrowth, satsuma plum, glossy red cherry and assorted twig and spice notes here, the flavours building towards a final, heady push through the dryness of the finish. It's thoroughly convincing. 2024-2033
Huon Hooke - The Real Review - 94 points
Medium-deep ruby with a touch of purple in the bright rim; the bouquet is meaty. five-spiced, smoked charcuterie and the flavour is bright red cherry to raspberry with a tight, firm thread of tannin that provides an elegant backbone for the flavours, the aftertaste long-lasting and satisfying. 2024–2034
There's richness here, there's intensity, and there's also character. Everything is coiled up tight in this wine, and yet everything tastes the goods. Flavours include custard apple, grilled peach, chalk and honeyed cedar, with ginger and brine characters thereabouts. It's a fascinating drink. Textural and flavoursome in a distinctive way.
Ned Goodwin MW - 95 points
A meld of 2011 and ‘17 base years, this is superb domestic fizz, reminiscent of top grower Champagne. Maker Owen Latta is a master of controlled oxidative handling and this gorgeous wine demonstrates his expertise. Scents of fresh tatami, dried mango, cheese cloth and acacia blossom run the scales of leesy breadth & dutiful acidity. Seldom do I dive back in for a second glass of Aussie fizz, but I could drink the entire bottle of this with little effort
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front - 94 Points
Quite an extraordinary vision to get to this wine. Wines from 2011 and 2017 were set aside and matured on lees before being assembled together in 2019, then rested for a further four years on lees. Very mature, oxidative, lees/yeast focussed wine. It feels quite low atmosphere and very vinous.
A distinct, savoury, generous and compelling sparkling wine. Offers up scents and flavours of ripe apple, lemon curd, cinnamon-honey toast, amontillado sherry, truffle and sweet citrus with flickers of saline minerality through it all. Succulent texture, quite rich, if not distinctly so, crackling edges of briny tang amongst softer, hazy apple juice and honeyed elements. A frothy fizz through it all, and I liked it just the same when it was kind of losing bubbles. Pretty amazing drinking.
Eastern Peake 2022 Griffins Road Chardonnay
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate - 95 Points
The The 2022 Griffins Road Chardonnay is floral and mineral; it's an exciting wine because it nails both languid and concentrated. It is calm, long and harmonious. It has notes of white peach, mandarin oil, lemon juice, pith and sourdough crust. The phenolics are chalky and subtly waxy in the mouth and insist on chew and movement. The acidity also plays an important role, in that it is juicy and plump and gently salivating. Good wine here, very good wine. It will only get better in time. 13.2% alcohol, sealed under Diam and wax.
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front - 95 Points
A huge and complex history with this site, one that the Latta family oversees now, but basically there’s been longstanding vineyard and mixed agriculture here and proximate for a length of time that stretches back to the period of 1860-1880. Anyway, now a younger gen family owns this site and
Owen and co get involved in farming and winemaking. This, as per all Eastern Peake chardonnay, is whole bunch pressed, wild fermented, no filter/fining, minimal intervention to its path in glass.
It’s a success, and a wine of flavour, texture, concentration and vitality. Whiffs of green apple, sea spray, just-ripe pineapple a thing here in scent and flavour, fennel, marzipan, salted almonds, peanut brittle and bright lemon. The palate swishes with succulence and suppleness, a little crunch of acidity, brine is strong in the mineral department, ginger, apple, lime, more of that pineapple business, cashew to taste. Wonderful. Great all up, such an enjoyable drink and with such vim and vigour and interest. What ho!
Shanteh Wale - Wine Pilot - 94 Points
Fruit source from the 1995 planted vineyard by the late Pat Griffin, it’s lovely to see this vineyard back in Eastern Peake bottling repertoire. Full malolactic and matured in French and Austrian oak Hogsheads. A steely note to this wine followed by pomelo, winter melon and Bickfords lemon cordial. Raw candlenut, ginger and grated coconut. Hot sand and driftwood. There is plenty of energy and zing of acidity with a puckering note that lingers. A chew of freshly cut sugar cane and whipped meringue. I love the unique style of this wine, its racy but nutty, creamy but with a crunchy apple and citrus note. If you are not afraid of zippy acidity, this is a wild ride and one I am always up for! Drink now and will cellar for 3-5 years further. Drink alongside lemon sole fillets with Beurre Blanc.
This wine brings both silk and an engaging freshness to the table. It also brings cedar-sawdust characters, which play well with tangy red cherry and cranberry flavours. Tannin is fine-grained, but it's the joyousness of this wine that gets you well and truly over the line.
The Latta family have worked with the nearby Griffin Road vineyard since the mid-'90s and indeed were instrumental in its original planting. The vineyard has changed ownership over the years, but it's now on a long-term lease to the Latta family again and has been converted to organic and regenerative farming as a result. The wine is pure pinot noir, all forest and undergrowth, meat and herbs, with game and merited cherry notes threaded with firm, rusty tannin. In short, complexity lives here.
Eastern Peake 2022 Sans Soufre Pinot Noir
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front - 94 Points
From parcels of fruit that make up Intrinsic. Zero sulphur, which is the mode for making all the wines at Eastern Peake, until bottling, though some cuvees and in years where it’s right, no sulphur is added. Owen Latta explains it as ‘a good vineyard site, high natural acidity, good ripeness each season and cellar hygiene has always given us strong confidence to produce wines without sulphur”.
So fine boned and fresh, pure and lovely. Rosy and bright in its way, rose hip tea and cranberry tang, a lick of amaro-like tang too. It zips along nicely, hazy in texture, finishes cool and uplifting. A touch of game meat? Maybe. A touch of tomato juice? Kinda. It’s easy drinking but shows plenty of interest to the drinker. Very charming, very light on its feet in a way. Loveable stuff.
Eastern Peake 2022 Intrinsic Pinot Noir
Shanteh Wale - Wine Pilot - 97 Points
Vine material ranges from 30-40 years. All MV6 clone, grown on volcanic loam soils. 100% destemmed fruit to concrete fermenters, basket pressed to French barriques. I won’t lie in saying that I swore out loud on first impressions of this wine. A bouquet of raspberries, rooibos tea, goji and rosehip. Dried gum leaf, bush tomato and paprika. There are Morello cherries, Davidson plum and carob. Plum pit on the middle palate that is swept up in the carrying acidity. Tannins are svelte like and yet still chewy. This is a stonkingly good wine. Amaretto sour, cherry bitters on the finish. It gives and gives! Drink now and put down 12 bottles if you can for another 8-15 years, watch it change and alter form, as you no doubt, you will too.
Huon Hooke - The Real Review - 96 points
Medium-deep bright red-purple colour; red cherry, smoked charcuterie bouquet, the palate is intense and rich and fills the senses with a delicious fruit-sweet core, firm backbone, ample structure, line and length. Power and persistence here: an impressive pinot noir with delicious current drinkability and plenty of ageing potential. Superb pinot. 2024–2036.
This is a statement of a wine. It's tight and generally coiled, but the power of the fruit is clear. It tastes of smoked meat and boysenberry, fresh red roses, cherries, red and black, and an assortment of florals. It's sweet and savoury, pretty and muscular at once. In short, this is a pinot noir to be reckoned with. 2024-2034
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front - 94+ Points
Last November Eastern Peake did a celebration for forty years of growing grapes and winemaking, opening up a slew of back vintage things and generally celebrating the nexus of vineyard, Trevor Mast’s original inputs, Norman Latta’s halcyon days and Owen Latta’s future-proofing and taking releases to an even higher quality. Shame to miss it; what a thing. A proper legacy winery that contains all the good and serious intent. The vineyard is now farmed organically and regeneratively, the wines, as for so long, wild fermented in concrete vats, matured in French oak, bottled unfiltered and unfined.
First opened and the wine is quite strict and tight, tense and nervy, flashes of greenery and alpine herbal elements, green olive, briny minerality with a back drop of plush red plum and sweet-sour red cherry. A bit of time later and the wine flips, an inverse kind of feel to that description, red fruits to the fore, a back drop of pleasing brambly, herbal lily. There’s licks of woody, sweet-nutty seasoning to bolster things, the wine just so in its balance and sense of fruit first, the rest later. Nicely played there. Tannins in a fine, light, crushed rock sheath, gentle but giving boundaries. Overall, it’s moreish and delicious. Fab. 2024 - 2038+
Eastern Peake 2022 Taché (Pinot Noir Rosé)
Huon Hooke - The Real Review - 95 points
The colour is a medium-full rosé hue of smoked-salmon pink/onion-skin, and is slightly cloudy and evidently unfiltered. The bouquet is smoked-cherry/earthy/toasted-nutty and savoury rather than fruity, very complex and undeniably pinoty. Bouquet of dried flowers. The wine is intense and generously flavoured, fleshy and supple with tannins that softly grip and provide added intensity, drive and length. The balance is properly dry. This is a superior kind of rosé indeed. (One of the best-ever seasons at Eastern Peake. Wild fermented in stainless steel; extended ageing on lees) 08 OCT 2022
2022–2028
Eastern Peake 2021 Intrinsic Chardonnay
Ned Goodwin MW - James Suckling - 96 Points
This is an incredibly intense, mid-weighted chardonnay. Palate-staining, such is the density and uber ripe stone-fruit inflections, feeling as if they've come from grapes that have hung on the vine for some time. A great vintage, mind. Cool, dutifully warm when needed and very long. It's all come together here. This has that dried tatami and flaxen lanolin whiff, not dissimilar to great Jura. Chamomile, ginger crystals, mandarin skin, oatmeal and curry powder, in kind. A long linger, wafting through every crevice in the mouth. Beautiful stuff. A little looser and more concentrated than the Two Mile sibling. Drink or hold.
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front - 95 Points
Small crops in ye olde 2021, so consumers, act fast. Long, slow winemaking too. Lees for its life pre bottling. Cool wine.
It’s fine and fresh but has concentration and detail. Slick texture but cool restraint. Glossy! Lemon curd, flint, nougat, licks of oatmeal, touch of caramel, and green almond. Beautiful texture, let’s repeat that. Saline mineral charm in the mix. Fantastic wine here, lots of flavour, lots of character. Proper. Drink : 2023 - 2030
Huon Hooke - The Real Review - 96 points
Medium-full yellow; oak is the first aroma—smart and spicy oak—while the fruit favour fills in where it counts, on the palate. Toasty, roasty nutty aromas lead and there is superb fruit concentration beneath, the shape of the wine refined and tensioned, with intensity and focus, driving long into a sustained and satisfying finish. An outstanding chardonnay in which very good fruit has been augmented by a paintbox of complexing factors. (Wild fermentation and full malolactic in oak barriques and hogsheads) 26 MAR 2023
2023–2033
Eastern Peake 2021 Two Mile Hill Chardonnay
Ned Goodwin MW - James Suckling - 97 Points
This is exceptional, reminding me of Ganevat the way it rolls across the palate, ebbing with reductive tension, saline bite and a relaxed, mid-weighted, oxidative flow across the finish, the signature of a judicious, minimal sulfur regime. Chamomile, nougat, cheese cloth, roasted hazelnuts, nectarine and tatami straw. The underlying energy is compelling, whetting the appetite for the next glass and the next. Wonderful wine. Among the most exciting chardonnay tasted in the last 12 months. Drink or hold.
Eastern Peake 2021 Intrinsic Pinot Noir
Ned Goodwin MW - James Suckling - 96 Ponits
This is an excellent pinot noir from a sensitive hand and absolutely cracker of a vintage. The intensity of flavor almost belies the mid-weighted, svelte, pithy and incredibly vibrant and thrilling nature of it all. Fermented under the aegis of wild yeast and unusually, at least for the contemporary zeitgeist, fully de-stemmed. For the better. Others should take note. The tannins, a fine, gravelly weave. Griotte, damson, pimento, musk, orange peel and a faint carnal whiff of autumnal decay. This is a sumptuous, succulent wine that doesn't slip into excessive sweetness. Among the most delicious pinots tasted this year, putting a halt to my tasting regime of the evening so I can enjoy the rest of the bottle. Solo. Very difficult to put down. Drink or hold for a decade. It will only get better.
Huon Hooke - The Real Review - 95 points
Bright, medium-deep red-purple colour with aromas of raspberry, blackberry, mint and vanilla, the palate lean and highly tensioned, with refreshing acidity and impressive line. The tannins are taut and firm, impressing themselves on the long-lasting finish with vitality and purpose. A really impressive pinot noir with a future ahead of it. (2021 was a ""perfect season"". All destemmed fruit. Wild ferment, unfined, unfiltered.) 23 MAR 2023
2023–2033
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front - 94 Points
The intrinsic one, right? Gary tasted it and said ‘tastes like an Italian wine, nerello or something’ when I handed him my tasting glass. We’d been on a run of Italian and Portuguese wines and it feels kindred.
Has this mix of loose knit feel and tightly wound, very fine, powdery and crushed rock tannins, that sense of pebbly minerality in acidity and a good deal of dried sage leaf, paprika spice amongst the tart-ish, sour cherry fruit characters. Softness and brightness in the same sip too. A very moreish wine, very good indeed. Drink : 2023 - 2035+
Eastern Peake 2021 ‘Block 1989’ Pinot Noir
Huon Hooke - The Real Review - 97 points
The colour is deep and bright with a strong purple rim and the bouquet is quite marked by char-oak and dark-berry/dark-cherry fruit aromas, bold and bright. The oak gives a distinct smoky, fivespice note throughout the wine, which has a lovely silky mouth-feel and a very long, sustained and seamless carry. Marvellous focus and precision in the mouth. Impressive depth and concentration. It just needs more time for the oak to mellow into the wine. So impressive! (MV6 & Morillon clones. Just 22 dozen made from one barrel from the original vines planted in 1989.
From the 1989 plantings, of course. One barrel only. There’s a bar in Newtown, Sydney, called 1989, which features old school arcade games and drinks to go alongside. Never been in, but it seems to be busy. I’d be playing Wonder Boy first, then Double Dragon, then play with Balrog or M.Bison on Street Fighter, which would be an unpopular thing, but that’s the characters I liked.
Elegance and grace. Poised and precise. Very good red wine from every angle, with fragrance, mineral qualities, judicious sense of seasoning of the fruit and mid-weight concentration that draws out long and spicy with each sip. Dark cherry, old spice cupboard, graphite, dried herbs, brambly berries. Delicious. And a sense of refreshment factor.
What a beauty.
Eastern Peake 2020 Walsh Block Syrah
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front - 94 Points
From the block over the back fence at Eastern Peake, the neighbours grow a patch that results in three to four tonnes. Lovely to meet the humans who own the vines too; and to taste the wine in their and the Latta family’s company.
Red cherry, smoky paprika characters, Chinese five spice, some minty notes. An almost pinosity to the texture and weight but for darker fruit characters, black olive, more liquorice and alpine herb notes and a lengthy, gently chewy finish with blood orange freshness closing, long. Has this gulpability and yet plenty of detail. Very good. Drink : 2020 - 2030
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