Latest Wine Reviews:
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 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. 100% destemmed fruit. Unfined, unfiltered, wild fermented.) 23 MAR 2023
2024–2036
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front - 95 Points
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 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 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
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 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