2019 Joshua Cooper Doug's Vineyard Pinot Noir

Described by wine commentator Mike Bennie as "one of Australia’s brightest young winemakers”, Joshua Cooper is steadily forging a reputation for thoughtful, elegant, and confident wines from grapes grown in Macedon and surrounds. Doug’s Vineyard is situated on the outskirts of the township of Romsey, in the Macedon Ranges. Owned by the Newnham family it was planted 20 years ago to predominantly MV6 and smaller amounts of 114 and 115 clone pinot noir. The wine sees one year in oak on lees, no stirring, and no racking, then transferred to stainless steel with all the fine lees for a further 4 months of elevage. Before racking and bottling, unfined and unfiltered. The only addition to the wine is a small dose of sulphur the week before bottling.

Other reviews...
It’s a pretty Australian thing calling a wine ‘Doug’s Vineyard’, no fancy domaine this or that or something aspiration. Just a piece of dirt with some vines in it that a bloke called Doug farms in Macedon Ranges, Victoria. This feels like it comes from a ‘Mac Forbes pick’, in that the wine is quite bony, reluctant and tight, lean and lower in alcohol, firm and unyielding in its youth. That being said, it feels like there’s lots of detail in the wine, and, importantly, it sure is vibrant. Scents of wet fern, fresh picked green herb, just ripe cranberries, cardamom and, curiously, Worcestershire sauce. The palate is more straight laced, red cherries, sour-ish though, more of that cardamon and some clove spice, blood orange acidity and something ferrous to close in the whisper of light, puckering tannins. It’s racy and strict, pale in its personality, you could say a little thin, but all the detail is there. Needs time, but is beautiful in its shy, quiet way.
94 Points
Mike Bennie - Wine Front