2025 Flyleaf Pinot Noir $40

It's been 40 years since Delamere produced its first wines from the rich red earth and cool maritime climate of North East Tasmania's Pipers Brook district. Dr Richard Richardson and his wife – printmaker Dallas Richardson – were wine pioneers in this part of the world.

Their small, intensively-managed site on Bridport Road was established with advice and help from Pipers Brook Vineyard founder Dr Andrew Pirie.

Forty years is a long time in the life of a vineyard. Delamere is now owned and operated by the husband-and-wife team of Shane Holloway and Fran Austin. Family ownership of the property changed back in 2007.

Increasing vine age and the resulting natural balance between vegetative vine growth and premium grape production now bring the consistent reward of wines with great structure and harmony.

The downside is that vineyard yields decline while costs go up.

Delamere's Flyleaf collection was first created back in 2021 to offer well-priced table wines that can be enjoyed from the moment they are released. Fresh, vibrant, easily accessible Pinot Noir in particular.

This 2025 vintage delivers all that and more. It was produced from carefully selected parcels of Pinot Noir, handpicked from blocks of varying clonal selections and vine age. The result is a wine with gorgeous, ripe juicy fruit that finishes with a lot of pizazz given its no-fuss winemaking. (Around 30 percent whole-bunch and wild yeast fermentation is about the only fancy stuff.)

Those lively, upfront characters are really well sustained, with the lines between ripe red cherry and strawberry flavours becoming blurred by some subtle foresty/undergrowth notes in the aftertaste. The wine's smooth fine structure seems almost glossy.

The bountiful but warm 2025 vintage is among the best of recent years in the North East.

Source: Cellar door tasting

www.delamerevineyards.com.au

Last page update: 21 October 2026