2022 Southern Light Vineyards Ghostgum Vineyard Main Ridge Pinot Noir

Southern Light Vineyards is dedicated exclusively to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, drawn from four distinct vineyard sites across Victoria. Their first release comes from the Ghostgum Vineyard in Main Ridge, with future bottlings to follow from their other sites. The winery, located in Healesville in the Yarra Valley, is purpose-built for small-batch winemaking, where a no-compromise, holistic approach guides every step from vineyard to bottle. Backed by over 50 years of experience across three generations of Joval Wines, Southern Light represents the culmination of a lifelong pursuit of fine wine.
Sourced from low-yielding vines in Main Ridge (just 2.6t/ha), this Pinot reflects a cool, storm-affected vintage that delivered intensity and concentration. Around 60% whole bunch was used across four parcels, matured 10 months in French oak before bottling unfined and unfiltered. Vibrant, perfumed and finely structured, it’s a strikingly pure expression of Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir.
Alc. 13%

Other Reviews....
Pitiful yields in ’22 meant Anthony Fikkers made the wine he liked the best: fruit off four blocks, four clones, fermented as one with 10% whole bunches, which still packs a punch; 10 months in French hogsheads, 20% new. It’s such an intriguing wine. An austere style, which is totally legit, full of sichuan pepper, poached rhubarb, a little ashy and stemmy, plus an array of cherry accents. There’s also a strong chinotto flavour with salted, dried Chinese plums. Mid-weighted, a fineness to the tannins, the palate awash with sweet-ish fruit, which offsets the charred radicchio/bitter finish. It will only garner more complexity with age. Drink 2024-2030.
93 Points
Jane Faulkner - Halliday's Australian Wine Companion

These Ghostgum wines come from the Main Ridge area of the Mornington Peninsula. I prefer the chardonnay though there are things going on with this 2022 Pinot Noir that make you want to keep returning to it.
This wine is reductive and backward and, as a result, you need to sit with it for a bit. Its charms are not immediately apparent. It carries an iodine note, and the flesh of red cherries, and seaweed-like herbs, and sweet strawberry-wrapped-in-cedar. It’s firm and spicy, a little smoky, and definitely surly. It would be easy to pass this over, in its youth, but there’s something about this wine’s structure and depth that makes you think that it has something good in store for the future. Drink 2026-2032.
93+ Points
Campbell Mattinson - The Wine Front

From main Ridge in Mornington comes this thoroughly delightful Pinot Noir. Picked from four blocks with different clones used. The 115 and 777 were picked and fermented together with 10% whole bunch, the D2V5 was 100% whole bunch fermented and the MV6 was completely destemmed. Eventually pressed to French hogsheads and then bottled without fining or filtering. Engaging aromas of sweet raspberry and edgier dark cherry with a slightly iron filings cut to the mushroomy characters. Palate is sublimely integrated with a smooth satiny feel of almost lamb’s wool-like qualities. Lovely wine. Drink 2024-2034.
95 Points
Ray Jordan - WinePilot.com