Wine of the week: an exciting, handmade pinot noir

published 27 July 2018

2017 Santolin, Cosa Nostra Pinot Noir, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia£16.50, Oddbins.com

Eighteen months ago I was approached by a chap called Adrian Santolin from the Yarra Valley in Victoria, Australia. He wanted to send me some of his wines to taste and, as I taste anything and everything, of course I agreed.

I loved the wines instantly: tiny production, great value, handmade, accurate and delicious all of the criteria I look for in exciting, modern wine. He had no representation in the UK though and so I couldn't write up the wines damn it! Fast forward to today and he has found a home at Oddbins. There were only 250 dozen of Cosa Nostra pinot made and it is epically pure and staggeringly sonorous.

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It is a smashing price and you will be certain to adore it, but I would advise that you move fast and clean out the shelves today. In addition, for those of you who want to graduate to Adrian's upmarket pinot, then try the 2016 Santolin Gladysdale pinot noir (£24), also a tiny 250 dozen production. It uses 15% whole bunches and 100% French oak, of which 30% is new this builds the nose and palate with intensity while maintaining its magical weight and thrilling perfume. There is a superb pinot gris and a couple of chardies in the Santolin family, too. Patience is a virtue in the wine business, but now that these wines have arrived, panic is, all of a sudden, a necessity.

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’. He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.