2024 Bannockburn Olive Tree Hill Pinot Noir

Bannockburn Vineyards was founded in 1974 by Stuart Hooper, who envisioned producing Australian wines to rival the world’s best. Situated in the Moorabool Valley near Geelong, the estate spans 26 vineyard blocks across diverse soils of volcanic debris, ancient seabeds, and limestone. Now among the oldest plantings in the region, Bannockburn is celebrated for its close-planted Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and other varieties, grown with organic principles and crafted with minimal intervention to reflect purity of site. Remaining family-owned, the estate continues to balance heritage, sustainability, and innovation, producing wines of depth, character, and enduring quality.

The 2024 Olive Tree Hill Pinot Noir is sourced from Bannockburn’s oldest Pinot Noir vines, own-rooted MV6 planted in 1976. Over nearly five decades, this block has become renowned for producing low yields of small, concentrated berries that translate into wines of depth, structure, and distinctive old-vine power.
Hand-picked fruit was fully destemmed and fermented on skins for 10 days before pressing to French oak hogsheads, 40% new. The wine underwent natural malolactic fermentation in spring and matured undisturbed before blending and bottling in February. The result is a Pinot Noir of intensity and presence, balancing dark-fruited concentration with fine structure and nuanced oak.
Alc. 13.5%

Other Reviews....
It’s grown on vines planted in 1976, which means that it’s grown on Bannockburn’s oldest vines. 1976 is effectively ancient in Australian pinot noir terms.
There’s polish to this wine, and a meatiness, and savoury inputs aplenty, and a long confident push through the finish. It’s Bannockburn pinot noir to a tee. Red cherry, tonic water, rhubarb, undergrowth and woodsmoke characters run into rust, steel, earth and cedar. There’s a umami aspect to this wine; indeed it runs right through it. Courtesy of this wine’s balance – and long, even flow through the finish – you could easily drink this now. But it will be a more complex delight with some years under its belt. Drink 2027 - 2034+
95 Points
Campbell Mattinson - The Wine Front