Clarence House Estate Reserve Pinot Noir / 2024 / 1.5L

Description:

The Clarence House Estate Reserve Pinot Noir 2024 from Cambridge in southern Tasmania is a perfumed, medium-bodied Pinot Noir built on lift and fine detail rather than power, and this magnum makes a case for buying it for the table rather than the shelf. A small portion of whole bunches, around 15 per cent, sits behind the wine's spice and florals, with the reserve drawn from a barrel selection made for structure and purity.

Aromatics arrive first: violets, red cherry and raspberry, a twist of white pepper and something faintly savoury underneath, like sappy stems and forest floor. The palate follows in the same register, dark cherry and cranberry through the middle, then a spiced, almost tea-leaf character on the back half.

Structure is the point of the Reserve. Tannins are ripe but finely drawn, closer to fine emery than grip, and Tasmanian acidity keeps the whole thing taut without going lean. The finish is long, cool and gently savoury, and a decant does it real favours.

Pour it with duck breast, roast quail, mushroom risotto, or a slow-cooked shoulder of lamb with thyme. In magnum, it is a wine for a long lunch or a table of eight, where a 750mL bottle would run out mid-conversation.

Drinking well from 2026 and holding through to around 2036. The 1.5L format ages more slowly than a standard bottle, so a magnum of this Cambridge Pinot Noir will still be finding new things to say at the far end of that window.