Helen's Hill Estate 'Range View' Reserve Pinot Noir / 2022 / 750mL

The Helen's Hill Estate 'Range View' Reserve Pinot Noir 2022 is a fine-boned, cool-climate red from the Yarra Valley in Victoria, built on perfume and clarity rather than weight. It carries the concentration that came with 2022's small crop, when a wet, windy spring hampered flowering across the valley before a warm, dry summer brought the fruit in clean.

Aromatically it leads with red cherry, cranberry and rosehip, with a savoury turn of dried thyme and forest floor underneath. Give it twenty minutes in the glass and a darker note of black cherry and warm spice comes through.

The palate is medium-bodied and taut, with sappy red fruit running the length of it and a fine, powdery tannin grip that tightens on the finish. Acidity is bright and well judged, and the wine finishes long and dry with a lingering trace of blood orange and stem spice — precise rather than plush.

Serve it lightly chilled with duck breast, mushroom risotto, roast quail or a plate of charcuterie. It also handles smoked salmon and soft washed-rind cheeses better than most reds.

Drinking well now with a decant, and the acid and tannin structure suggest it will hold and gain complexity through to around 2032.