DML Vin Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir 2021

D’Anna Middleton Lewis (DML VIN) is a partnership between the D’Anna family, Sam Middleton and Jordan Lewis. It focuses on single site regional Pinot Noir with the first vintage being released in June 2019.

The 2022 vintage was fascinating as much is it was challenging. November was incredibly wet, cool and windy leading to terrible flowering and fruit set for Pinot noir and Chardonnay in particular. These conditions, along with an already low bunch count, led to an extremely small crop, the smallest we have seen since 2014. The weather that followed in January and February was nothing short of spectacular. The small crops combined with fairly dry and warm conditions led to some exceptional wines across the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula. Intense, concentrated, complex wines that are delicious drinking now but will undoubtedly improve for those with patience.

This wine is a blend from two vineyards on the Peninsula, one situated in Balnarring and the other in Merricks. The Merricks vineyard we lease and manage ourselves providing complete autonomy over how we wish to grow the fruit. Of the pair of DML wines we make, this remains the slightly darker fruited, more dense and savoury edged wines of the two.

This wine, in true fashion, is the more brooding, darker fruited, denser of the two wines we make. Pinot noir from the Mornington Peninsula is often so distinctive and it’s our job as winemakers to ensure those unique characteristics shine through in our wines. Plums, sour cherries and a hint of oak are all present on the nose. There are some slightly reductive notes here adding a meaty complexity and earthy tones to the fruit profile. The palate is still tightly wound and taut at present but exhibits impressive intensity and length of flavour that will continue to build with time. Expect this wine to benefit from extended cellaring over the next 5-10 years.