Sailor Seeks Horse Pinot Noir 2022

Variety:  Pinot Noir
Country, Region: Australia, Tasmania, Huon Valley

‘Wild ferments, gently plunged twice daily, then left on skins post ferment until the tannins aligned and pressed straight to barrel. 5% whole bunch. 10% new oak, mix of barriques, hogsheads and puncheons. 12 months in oak, 3 months in tank pre-bottling. Sulphured mid-summer. Un-fined Savoury, blue/red fruit, sappy, classic SSH nose, thyme, garrigue, flow.’ Gilli Lipscombe.

‘Huon Valley pinot noir, wild ferment, 5% whole bunch, 12 months' maturation in a mix of barriques, hogsheads and puncheons, 10% new. Mid-ruby with aromas of wild strawberry, red and dark cherry with hints of raspberry coulis, Chinese barbecue joint, sous bois, nori, souk spices, crushed stone and low-volume wood spice. Spacious and silken, with just a scattering of amaro herbs, a touch of brine to the acidity and sapidity and ease of drinking galore. Drink 2023-2035.’ 96 Points, Dave Brookes, Halliday Wine Companion, June 2024.

Vintage 2022

‘2022 can be summed up as 'wet then dry'. Maybe that's a touch simplistic but less is more as they say. Good canopies early in the season and then a relatively stress-free growing season meant bunches were a little fuller than 2021 and so yields came in at about our average which means a few more bottles this year than last.  

While it was dry at the end of summer and temperatures were fairly normal, it wasn't particularly sunny and as the fruit came in we had an inkling that it was a good Huldufólk Chardonnay year but we'd have to see whether we could find a Huldufólk Pinot. As it turned out, there were no single/double barrel Pinot combinations that were as complete as previous iterations and so we decided to see what a blend of all the Dijon clones (115, 114, 777) together would look like. As both fruit and wine they are often quite different to the 'older' clones and tend to be lower yielding and 'purer'. It's easy to reach for the term 'Burgundian' in this context and while it's a broad brush it gets you to the destination quicker than a bunch of flavour/texture descriptors. Perhaps. Either way, we loved the wine so we decided to bottle it!

2022 was a standout vintage for Chardonnay in the Huon Valley. Just the right combination of weather and yields to create wines of precision and balance. Our hallmark tends to be a slatey, briney, almost mineral-like palate weight which unites the two Chardonnays from 2022. 

The Huldufolk's whole-bunch pressing straight to oak gives it depth and palate weight while the Estate Chardonnay is all about cool-climate elegance.’ Gilli and Paul Lipscombe, Sailor Seeks Horse.

This tiny vineyard is one of Australia’s most southerly located in the Huon valley in southern Tasmania. Paul and Gilli Lipscombe own the vineyard and make the wines and both have considerable vineyard and winemaking experience behind them including winning the Jimmy Watson trophy for Home Hill where they have been the winemakers in recent years. From working together in the Languedoc to New Zealand, Oregon and Margaret River they spent a lot of time researching and considering the best possible vineyard site with the aim  to produce Australia’s best Pinot Noir and Chardonnay finally settling on this ideal north facing vineyard which is sheltered from the prevailing south-westerly winds. Best described as a warm site within a cool climate, the soil is free-draining quartz inflicted mudstone soil over clay. The vineyard is planted to a large variety of Dijon clones as well as numerous other clones planted by the previous owners and all vineyard work is done as organically as possible. In 2019 a new planting including some Trousseau has been made on the steep north-west facing slope beside the main vineyard block.