2024 Bicknell FC Applecross Pinot Noir

Complex and powerful with a supple flow and long, moreish finish.

This Pinot is a blend from three blocks hand picked on the 1st of March and sorted with 20% whole bunches added to 80% whole berries for fermentation. After two weeks fermenting on skins it was pressed to a mixture of 500 Lt puncheons, 300L Lt hogsheads and 225 Lt barriques where it completed malo and rested on fine lees for 11 months prior to blending and bottling in late February 2025.

Semi translucent bright red core with dark red toned edges and a light red hue. Displaying admirable complexity and intensity, nosing offers up scents of red cherry, violet, strawberry, clove, forest floor, brambly cedar and spice. Delicious red to dark cherry and strawberry fruits are delivered with great power as they supplely flow across the palate. Lending further sophistication across the back half are notions of clove, rhubarb, brambly cedar, forest floor and spicy dried herbs. Fresh with velvety yet structured tannins, it concludes very long and moreish.
Drink over the next 6-8 years.
Alc. 13.4%

Other Reviews…..
From the old Lance's vineyard, planted from 1976–1998 (with a selection massale from Mount Mary) and in 2003. 80% whole berry and 20% whole bunch. Bright crimson. Perfumed with wild strawberries, first of the summer cherries, subtle rose bush and spice. The more you swirl the glass, the more fragrant it becomes. On the palate, there is a tender plushness, making it feel quite different to the previous Bicknell FC pinots from the Upper Yarra. Fine tannins and bright acidity round out a beautifully crafted and graceful wine. Drink by 2032.
96+ points
Philip Rich – James Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion

The 2024 Applecross Pinot Noir is from a massal selection of clonal material planted between 1976 and 1998 at St. Andrews in the Yarra Valley. It was fermented with whole berries/whole bunches, and the élevage was in French oak barrels. This wine, a few months ahead of its market release currently, is so bright and perfumed. Rose, pistachio, graphite/petrichor, dry spice and tapenade coalesce on the palate in a rush. Pure, tightly wound and eminently focused, this is a gorgeous wine. The whole-bunch character rides high in the wine, but far from finding it distracting, I find myself attracted to it. This is super good and comes warmly recommended. 13.4% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. Drink 2025-2039.
95+ points
Erin Larkin – Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate