2025 Anim Pinot Blanc $35

Pinot Blanc – like Pinot Gris – is a white mutation of genetically unstable Pinot Noir.

The variety appears to have had a long association with Tasmania. As far back as 1857 and 1865, it appeared in Hobart's Royal Society Garden catalogues as 'Pinear Blanc/Pinot Blanc.'

'Pinear Blanc' was probably an inaccurate transcription of 'Pineau Blanc.'

The variety may have been an early settler here, but it has not moved far from home over the past 150 years. Only a handful of Tasmanian vineyards include plantings of Pinot Blanc. There are barely 30 sites nationwide, according to Vinodiversity's Darby Higgs.

Winemaker Max Marriott and his wife Siobhan moved to the State in 2017 and formed their own Tasmanian wine company the following year. The couple's connection to Pinot Blanc stems from Marriott's management of Clarence House Estate, owned by former cardiologist, Professor David Kilpatrick.

The vineyard overlooks Pass Road in the Coal River Valley and is situated within the foothills of Mt Rumney and the Meehan Range. The site is being managed organically and has been home to Pinot Blanc since the vineyard was first planted in the late 1990s.

Marriott is a talented and innovative winemaker who was named a Young Gun of Wine finalist in 2021 and 2022. His approach to making Pinot Blanc follows that used for making Chardonnay. It includes barrel-fermentation – in old, large format oak – and extended time on yeast lees. The goal is to build shape and texture in the finished wine.

The winery wiz has achieved all that and more in his 2025 Anim Pinot Blanc.

It's remarkably expressive, too. The wine's bright pale gold-green hues draw the eyes then the nose, with a veritable fruit salad array of subtle characters revealing themselves with every swirl of the glass. Red apples, red berry fruits, jam melon and citrus head the list.

That melange of flavours is very attractive indeed, gliding ever-so-gently across the palate. It doesn't have the voluptuous depth of well-made Pinot Gris. Marriott champions subtlety and finesse. That noted, there's a beguiling mix of ripe and savoury characters that's elegant and very well sustained. The finish is a good deal tighter and better controlled than might be expected for the variety and the winemaking applied here.

The words 'style and finesse' that describe much of Marriott's work are certainly appropriate to his latest release of Pinot Blanc. It's a lovely wine.

Source: Havilah Winemakers Spotlight, Anim x Mewstone/Hughes and Hughes, held 10 September 2026

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Last page update: 10 October 2026