If you are interested in a future release, please do not hesitate to contact us, and we will notify you just before its release. Because of the limited supply of our products, we allocate our supplies of new releases to regular customers first, to people who pre-register their interest in specific wines second, and then on a first-come first-served basis.

2020 Pinot Noirs - Not Made

The entirety of the Canberra District Fruit production was tainted by smoke from the summer bushfires. No Wine Made.

2021 Pinot Noir

The rain that ended the fire season of 2019/20 continued through winter with a full-on La Nina weather pattern keeping things cool and moist. Budburst started around the first of October as per normal, and the vines developed well given the abundance of moisture. Regular rains, moderate temperatures, with a warm November gave us flowering towards the end of November. But it was clear the torrid 2019/2020 season had left its mark, with low numbers of flowers on an otherwise beautiful canopy. The mild weather and rains continued for the entirety of the year, with Veraison achieved around February 10th. We were very diligent with our spray regime throughout the year, and had almost no disease, which was just as well, because as the grapes ripened, and just before we were planning to pick, a 3 day rain event dumped a 105mm of rain onto the vines. We held our nerve, and waited 2 weeks through perfect weather, and picked on April 3rd. While we only picked 850kg of fruit, at least it was ripe and very very tasty.

Wines were initially very light in colour, but have filled out over time, and have a substantial palate. We bottled the wine after 22 months in barrel. The wines is reflective of the cool vintage, but is certainly not light or frail. Rather, it is very Burgundian, with a silky structure, middle weight palate, and very sophisticated. Only 692 Bottles made. No Amungula Creek Pinot Made, No Magnums made. 

2022 Pinot Noir

The cool and wet of the previous year continued into the spring of 2021. Our vines burst very early - September 16th, but then effectively stopped for 2 weeks as cool wet weather prevailed.  They started their growth apace around the 1st of October - the typical time for budburst. Substantive rain events continued through the entirety of spring, and this severely affected flowering and subsequent number of grapes on the vines. A large canopy help ripen the grapes in what turned out to be the coolest vintage for Canberra since 2000. It was consistently mild - but never hot. Maipenrai only had 2 days over 30C across the entire vintage year. Consistent rain throughout autumn made choosing the right day to pick, hard. We picked on April 3rd a very small, but very ripe crop.

Despite the cool vintage, the wine is nearly 14% Alc/Vol, and has a considerable palate and deep colour. Very good, but quite different than our normal style, with more fruit, body and alcohol than normal, and a bit less savouriness. It is none-the-less a very good wine and I look forward to seeing how it evolves this year in barrel. Only 2.5 barrels made. No Amungula Creek Made, No Magnums Made.  

We also made one barrel of Shiraz-Viognier, made with 60% of the fruit coming from Tim and Lara Kirk's vineyard in Murrumbateman, and the rest from a small set of plantings in our vineyard. With 15% Viognier in the mix and a very cool year, this wine has amazing cool climate spice. 

2023 Pinot Noir

The 3rd La Nina summer in a row produced the coolest on record, and one of the wettest vintages at Maipenrai.  Budburst was around October 1st, as per normal, and like the 2021/22 growing season substantive rain events continued through the entirety of spring. We did a bit better with flowering than the previous year, which didn't occur until mid December (latest ever), and the very large canopy kept things ticking along, even if the weather remained constistently cool. Veraison didn't start until the end of February, and we ended up picking the Pinot Noir on the 22nd of April - our latest vintage ever. Our Shiraz and Viognier was picked not fully ripened in the snow on the 7th of May - unfortunately it was not ripe enough to make wine. 

The wine did reach 13% Alc/Vol and has all the making of a classic Pinot.  6 barrels made.