2025 Gembrook Hill Estate Pinot Noir

97 pts
A pitch-perfect example of Upper Yarra Pinot – one of our favourite wines in the whole region.

Price:
Sale price$68.00
Stock:
In stock, ready to ship
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Description

Gembrook Hill’s flagship Pinot is a permanent fixture in our personal cellars, and honestly, it’s one of those "buy on sight" wines for the team. Sourced from the estate’s original 1985 plantings, these dry-grown, own-rooted vines usually turn out something very fine-boned and feminine, but the 2025 season has given us something with a bit more meat on its bones.  

It’s a warmer, more generous year for the site, which actually makes it a lot of fun to drink right now. It’s got that velvety richness and depth of fruit that reminds us a lot of the stellar 2013 - if your memory goes back that far - where the ripeness is there, but the refinement of Gembrook remains perfectly intact.  

Andrew Marks has this wine down to a fine art - 100% destemmed for three weeks on skins, wild yeast, and 20% new French oak. Very simple but exactly what his home vineyard responds to. You still get that signature perfume of rose petals and bright cherry, but there’s an extra layer of autumn spice and forest floor that fills out the palate.

It’s a polished, complex Pinot that's ready to roll early, though it’ll still easily tick along for another five, ten or fifteen years if you can manage to keep your hands off it.

97+ points
"An extremely perfumed and pure-fruited wine, redolent of freshly poached strawberry, rose petal and baking spices... One of those wines that is delicious straight from the gate but will age beautifully, too."
- Philip Rich (Halliday Wine Companion)

96 points
"This is a terrific release. In fact this is a no-brainer. It has more fruit than usual, more depth through the mid palate, but it still features its trademark structured, insistent length and overall complexity is not in question... It’s super young, of course, but you’re not waisting your money by hooking into it now; it already has a completeness."
- Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)

97+ points - "100% destemmed, four weeks on skins, matured in hogsheads (20% new). Medium, bright crimson. An extremely perfumed and pure-fruited wine, redolent of freshly poached strawberry, rose petal and baking spices. Even better on the palate; richly flavoured yet light on its feet, with a medium-bodied frame and wonderfully silky and persistent tannins. Finishes long. One of those wines that is delicious straight from the gate but will age beautifully, too." - Philip Rich (Halliday Wine Companion)

96 points - "I’m still not quite sure what to make of the 2025 vintage in south-eastern Australia. Very good to excellent, but spasmodic, is my general impression. But in this case, it delivers the most positive endorsement possible.

This is a terrific release. In fact this is a no-brainer. It has more fruit than usual, more depth through the mid palate, but it still features its trademark structured, insistent length and overall complexity is not in question. Black cherries – yes black – and blueberries meet strawberries, red cherries, undergrowth, sweet spice and cedar. There’s a smoked tobacco-like note here too, slightly rusty, slightly ferrous-like. This wine is fresh, racy and deep at once. It’s super young, of course, but you’re not waisting your money by hooking into it now; it already has a completeness." - Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)

2025 was a warm generous year at Gembrook, bucking the trend of the last few seasons. The pinot reflects this generosity with velvety richness and complexity while still displaying the perfume, poise and balance from our inherently cool site.

100% destemmed. Three weeks on skins including a cold soak. All wild yeast. Elevage in 20% new french hogsheads the balance in old french hogsheads. Neither fined nor filtered. Estate bottled

Price Bracket $51 to $100
Type Red
Body Medium Bodied
Variety Pinot Noir
Country Australia
Region Yarra Valley
Australian State VIC
Feature Cult
High Score
Reviewed By The Wine Front
Halliday Wine Companion
Critic Score 97
Alcohol 13.5%
Size 750ml
Vintage 2025
Closure DIAM Cork

Gembrook Hill

Based in the cool upper reaches of the Yarra Valley, Gembrook Hill is one of the country's most loved producers of Pinot Noir.

Founded in 1983 by Ian and June Marks, Gembrook is one of the most picturesque vineyards in the region. As well as their stunning Pinot Noirs, they produce excellent examples of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and an elegant Blanc de Blanc in certain vintages.

Ian Marks sadly passed away in 2017. His son Andrew now tends the family vineyard and makes the wines, continuing the family legacy for producing outstanding examples of Upper Yarra wine.

Andrew Marks in his family's vineyard Gembrook Hill

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