2022 Taché (Pinot Noir Rosé)
Here it is, a wine that probably doesn’t need much of an introduction the Eastern Peake 2022 Taché, Pinot Noir Rosé, a wine we love producing year on year only produced in smaller quantities from select parcels of fruit from the vineyard. Each harvest is whole bunch pressed, indigenous yeasts, fermentation & élevage in stainless on full lees for about 16 months. No fining, filtering or tinkering. Thoughtfully produced to reflect on where it's grown. The Vintage of 2022 did have its challenges early on in the vineyard, a long cooler year meant the season ended up being more prolonged than usual which has produced a such a complex fine rosé for its 28th release.
2022 Taché
First produced back in 1995
100% Pinot Noir, from a selected parcels in the vineyard, whole bunch pressed, indigenous yeasts, extended lees contact, No fining, filtering or Tinkering. Thoughtfully produced to reflect on where its grown.
Gary Walsh - The Wine Front
2017 Pinot Taché
Posted on 21 February 2019.
One of the better rose wines made in this country.
Marches to the beat of its own drum, and that’s a good thing. It’s smoky, smells like Pinot Noir, but sotto voce, smoke, dried herbs and orange peel, redcurrant and white cherry. It’s tangy and slightly wild, has zest and spring, a lot of savoury work and chalky texture, cranberry acidity, and really zips through the finish with blood orange and amaro twang. Wonderful.
Rated : 95 Points
Tasted : FEB19
Alcohol : 12.5%
Price : $30
Closure : Screwcap
Drink : 2019 - 2022
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front
2016 Pinot Taché
Posted on 25 December 2017.
From the charming hand written sticker on the bottle, “21 years of production, 100% pinot noir rose, made with purpose, no cut corners. The last time it [the wine] was this colour was in 1999. I was 15 and had to step in after dad’s accident in vintage. How time flys (sic). No tricks, just terroir”. It’s one of Australian wine’s great stories of young Owen Latta taking the reigns during mornings, lunch breaks and afternoons while at school, but the Eastern Peake story, with its weave through Trevor Mast’s life, is also wonderful. Here’s one of Australia’s (anywhere?) best rose wines. It sees 16 months lees contact, which is almost unprecedented in Australia.
Ruddy, bronze-ruby colour. Glorious perfume of rose hip, cranberry, Campari, cherries. The palate is succulent, finishes crisp, lingers with just a faint lick of oiliness to texture, shows a fine pinch of tannin. It’s mouthwatering in clean cherry and pomegranate flavours, sees a dusting of spice, a touch of alpine herb character. Concentration yet freshness, power and grace, it drives with vitality and refreshment factor. It’s stunning rose.
Rated : 95 Points
Tasted : DEC17
Alcohol : 12.5%
Price : $32
Closure : Screwcap
Drink : 2017 - 2020
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front
Eastern Peake Pinot Tache 2015
Posted on 29 December 2016.
This wine spends 16 months on lees, which for a rose is almost unheard of these days. Serious rose. Seriously serious. Thank the stars! We need more high quality stuff out there, and then at the bucks, wow, this delivers… and then some. From biological farming and no addition winemaking and a family estate that really, really gives a shit.
It’s a winner. Stacks of flavour, slip to texture, briskness to acidity. There’s loads going on but even if you come to the wine uninitiated or blind you’ll still get whiplash looking back at your glass. Pale pink salmon hue. Pale strawberry flavours and scents. Pale vanilla whiffs. A dash of amaro, a splash of savoury nuttiness. Length is for ever. It’s high class all the way. Such fun, such goodness. Thanks.
Rated : 95 Points
Tasted : DEC16
Alcohol : 12.5%
Price : $30
Closure : Screwcap
Drink : 2016 - 2018
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front
Eastern Peake Pinot Tache Blanc du Noir 2014
Posted on 21 October 2015.
So often an urgency to get rose to market, but every now and then you see wines that have been nurtured and attended to beyond the norm. I think rose can be pretty serious as a wine, many don’t, I get it, but when done well, few wines disappear as quickly, and that’s often a measure of success. This pinot is barrel fermented and given thirteen months on lees after a small time on skins. This absolutely will be on my high rotation in summer; it’s one of the best rose wines I’ve seen, full stop.
There’s more than meets the eye. Smells of red berries, quince, vanilla, spice. Lean and racy in the palate with pitch-perfect meshed acidity set to gently oily texture then a crunch and twist of amaro through the close. Red berries, lick of herbs, subtly savoury and supreme refreshment factor. Touches so many pleasure zones in tasting. It’s nigh on perfect for rose.
Rated : 95 Points
Tasted : OCT15
Alcohol : 12.5%
Price : $28
Closure : Screwcap
Drink : 2015 - 2017
2022 Taché
In 1995 Noman Latta first started out to make his own wine from our own grapes grown at Eastern Peake. Dianne & Dad had been successfully growing pinot noir for Trevor Mast (Mt Langi Ghiran) since 1983. The decision was made to go out on their own to establish Eastern Peake as a iconic Pinot Noir & Chardonnay producer in Australia. Trevor mentioned that Norm should make a rosé from the Pinot Noir so he could have two wines to sell whilst the chardonnay was coming online (Planted 1991&1993). Legend has it he gave them a bottle of Domaine Tempier rosé & said make something like this.. (nothing new now due to its accessibility but at the time this was one of those moments we're you were going to be well ahead of the curve.. decades)
The first vintage of rosé in 1995 was a sanginee method (a small portion of Pinot Noir juice racked off one of the red fermenters straight after destemming) fermented in stainless steel left to rest on lees, bottled in november ready for the festive season. The Pinot Rosé was very well received because it was dry, savory and refreshing -very unusual for the time as there weren't many out there in this style. (Also one to remember that Pinot Noir in the early-mid 90s was like an alternative variety, not many people were growing it, let alone making rose from it.)
From 1996 onwards it has been directly pressed off from select parcels of fruit in the vineyard, a much better expression of rosé for us than the sanginee way (which robs the red wine of character) , the rosé has always been fermented in stainless steel, oak is never used to influence the wine. From 2008 onwards Owen has been leaving the wine longer on lees to gain more texture & complexity. some years it remains on its full lees for up to 16 months elevagé in stainless steel before going to bottle with minimal SO2. We've been running on organic principles now for 10years, now stepping it up to move towards a biodynamic practice. The vines are all cane pruned by us set up on a VSP trellis system with a East West orientation, we were dry grown for the past 18 years recently reinstalling the irrigation system due to the dramatic change in climate. Its just there if we need it for some security, straw mulch undervine keeps a lot of moisture in the ground over the summer months.
In Australia I guess you could say there are not many producers who have been making serious rosé from the same site from the same singular variety continuously for nearly 25 years... we've seen it all, trends come and go, sticking to our guns to always produce something that reflects the place & is complex & refreshing to drink. It seems now that rosé is now finally a staple in the Australian wine landscape.