Place of Changing Winds

“Really beautiful wine” [Jamie Goode]: The new ’23 Between Two Mountains Pinot Noir
Place of Changing Winds

Just a single Pinot was made from this standout domaine in 2023, but as Jamie Goode says, it’s a really beautiful one. Why only one? Because the best wine grown at Place of Changing Winds during this chilly, late season turned out to be a blend of the best parcels—simple as that. The aromatic, intense, beguilingly detailed Between Two Mountains Pinot Noir flies the flag with delicious aplomb.


The long, cold 2023 season was in some ways a replica of 2022, but it was even later. “We only started flowering on Christmas Eve and didn’t begin harvesting until the third week of April,” says POCW Founder Rob Walters. “Ultimately, it was a year that taught us that our place, our vines and our practice can produce wines of interest, even in a very cold year. Once again, the bunches were small, mostly between 30 and 70 grams, and we handpicked every parcel individually, as each plot arrived at maturity.” In the end, just over 10 tonnes of Pinot was harvested—with an average across the vineyard of just over 260 grams of fruit per vine. That’s around 25 hectolitres per hectare; for context, this is well below the permitted levels in Grand Cru Burgundy. The low yield of small bunches was precisely why the Estate was able to produce such a compelling Pinot in such a cold year.


Rob and his team, headed by manager Rémi Jacquemain, have a single aim: to produce the greatest, most intense wines of place they can from POCW’s small, three-hectare vineyard. In doing so, they follow a system of agronomy that requires a crazy level of manual labour. It is a system that has evolved over 13 years, inspired by the very best practice, adapted to this place and POCW’s high densities (roughly 45,000 vines in three hectares). This labour-intensive viticulture sees each vine visited 15-20 times per year for tending by hand. The ultimate goal is to produce tiny bunches of intensely flavoured fruit and low yields per vine. The level of practice here remains unique in Australia (as do the costs of production!). This new release represents another exciting chapter in this young project’s ongoing story.

“The x-factor we seek. And the personality of place. Stellar.” Mike Bennie, The Wine Front

“Place of Changing Winds – the place and the vineyard – may well be the most exciting ‘new’ development in Australian wine. It will jump straight on to elite lists of Australian wine producers. You could describe this endeavour in one word: uncompromised.” Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front

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