Fall Release Finn Pinot Noir
2012

Winemaker’s Notes

Our thirteenth vintage of Finn and it’s a real beauty with all the pedigree we expect for this bottling. In many ways this release reminds me of the 2000 original bottling – full of tangy fruits, earthy complexity and building richness. That vintage continues to shine so I expect the 2012, from a far superior vintage, to provide compelling drinking for many years. It’s quite a meaty, soil-driven wine this year, full of truffle, mushroom and herbs. Yet the wine’s inherent brightness never plays second fiddle, it’s always mouthwatering, lively and supple. It stimulates the palate, not weighs it down. As usual, a few critical elements set this wine apart. It always contains a full spectrum of red to black fruits in a really dramatic and kaleidoscopic fashion. That’s rare for most wines. And secondly, the wine’s significant natural density is unmistakable and the product of thoughtful precise farming of pedigree vines, not a lucky result late picking the grapes. The wine’s natural structure emerges as it grows in the glass, so don’t be afraid to age this for a good few years – I will be.

Wide array of aromas and flavors, many different dimensions and fruit and earth notes. Bright cherry and cola with nettles, rose petals and cedar then darker tones. Plum, smoked meat and game with time in the glass. Plush entry, multi-faceted palate that is completely integrated and therefore hard to pinpoint individual flavors. Enveloping, generous and broad. Textured layers but always a spicy pepperiness and inner brightness. Cocoa powder and orange/clove on the long fruit-filled finish. Drink between 2016 and 2025.

Andy Smith