96+ Points - The Wine Front
What is left to say about Timo Mayer, aside, he keeps on making outstanding, fascinating, wonderful wines. There’s the howling at moon, baying at the wind, shirt tearing and pant splitting stuff, of course, and his incredible, unique site, but we know all that. This, of all the ‘Mayer’ wines, is only half whole bunch, the rest destemmed, where typically Mayer wines are 100% whole bunch. One thing you could reason, is that Timo’s wines are usually even better in worse years, but 2017, as great a season as it was for Yarra Valley, makes a hash of that rule.
Whiffs of smoke, gravelly-earthy note, dark cherry, mushroomy funk, undergrowth; where the wild things are. Love this fog of scent. Fine boned in the palate, draped in silky-sweet cherry and herbal flavours, rolls on a sheet of glossy acidity, finishes fine, perky, tight and squeaky. It’s a superb pinot noir, detailed, complex, layered and yet compact. Watch this unfurl.