William Downie, Yarra Valley, Australia 2015

Recommended by Julien Boulard

Similar to Lammershoek of the South Africa, the William Downie winery also adopts minimum interference during winemaking, which they believe will better reflect the terroir. Such winemaking philosophy means that their wines are not filtered thus usually slightly hazy in the bottle. I remember the Chinese importer of this wine complaining to me about the haziness of the wine - because many distributors were convinced that the wine was ruined thus asked for a refund.

Indeed many may misjudge this wine if using the usual ‘quality standard’ of wines. But I love its rich aromas of smoke, violet, peonies, wild strawberry, waxberry, red cherries and small hawthorn berries; the body is bolder and tannins firmer than the Lammershoek red, with a long finish. A high-quality Australian Pinot Noir, though may be less approachable due to its style and its price.

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