2025 Doug's Vineyard Pinot Noir

Doug’s Vineyard is situated on the outskirts of the township of Romsey in the Macedon Ranges. Owned by the Newnham family, it was planted 20 years ago to predominantly MV6 and smaller amounts of 114 and 115 clone pinot noir. A cool hamlet, the vines sit at around 500m altitude, atop a North and North East facing hillside on red rocky volcanic basalt soil, moderating vigour and providing amazing intensity to the fruit, ripening small, beautifully formed clusters at low sugar levels.
Once hand-harvested in the cool of morning, with careful sorting in the vineyard, grapes were transferred to open fermenter with 20% as whole bunches and the remainder de-stemmed. The must was then allowed to soak 4-5 days at its cool ambient temperature until fermentation commenced.
Thereafter the grapes were gently extracted by a combination of pumping over and pigeage by foot. The wine was then pressed after a total of three weeks on skins and transferred to two new (Laurent “Magic Cask” thick stave, blonde toast) seven young (2-4yo Laurent “Magic Cask”) and ten old (6-10yo) oak Burgundian piece for lees ageing for 12 months, followed by four months in stainless steel on fine lees before racking and bottling, unfined and unfiltered.

"These are wines of incredible detail and complexity. Everything this man does is detailed and complex.Joshua’s technical sheets for his wines are works of art..."

- Matthew Jukes,MatthewJukes.com (UK)

"Occasionally, a winemaker comes along who has the gift of presence and crafts compelling wines. JoshCooperis one … such a talent, he could choose anywhere to make wine, yet Macedon Ranges is home."

- Jane Faulkner, The Wine Companion​

"Gary Farr (By Farr), Joshua Cooper and Robert Walters (Place of Changing Winds) should be changing perceptions of Australian wine. These are in many cases delicate, elegant, refined wines that deliver classic varietal expression and defy old stereotypes."

- Joe Czerwinski, RobertParker.com (USA)

"Josh Cooper’s wines are classic, medium-weight expressions of elegance and purity, with an Old World self-confidence and a carefully measured degree of winemaking input."

- Jeremy Oliver, Oliver's Wines

"Josh has established his own reputation as not only one of the region’s emerging talents but one of the best young winemakers in the country."

- Ken Gargett, The World of Fine Wine (UK)

"There’s an authenticity to his wines, a command, and a life."

- Campbell Mattinson, Halliday Wine Companion

"Joshua Cooperis a compelling talent; his thoughtful, low-intervention approach is yielding some truly exceptional, terroir-driven wines."

- Huon Hooke, The Real Review

"...Using grapes bought in from carefully chosen, non-mainstream sources ... however difficult the bottles may be to get into, their contents are pretty impressive."

- Jancis Robinson (UK)

Halliday Wine Companion - Best New Winery of the Year (2024)