2023 Decades Pinot Noir

Thirty years ago, Steve Flamsteed and Brad Rogers were two Queensland mates at Roseworthy Wine School, sharing beers and a love of music, dreaming about the vineyard they’d one day own together. Fast forward to today, and that dream has become Decades Wines—a project three decades in the making. Their debut release is the realisation of everything they’ve been building toward, and one of the most exciting Australian wines we’ve seen in years.

Why the Coal River Valley? For Steve and Brad, it had to be Tasmania: cool-climate Pinot Noir country, where the long growing seasons, intense sunlight, and unique soils could produce a Pinot Noir they could be proud of. The vineyard they found is small but remarkable. Black cracking clay over limestone gives the vines stability and helps produce fruit with an unmistakable blue-fruited character—wild blueberries, mulberries, even a touch of campari in cooler years. Steve and Brad have loved the Pinots from their neighbours, names like Stargazer, Tolpuddle, and Pooley over the last 10 or so years and now they have their own entrant into that upper stratosphere of Tasmanian Pinot Noir.

"We both love Pinot Noir , it had to be cool climate and we worked out that you can’t go much further south in this country."
- Steve Flamsteed

Steve, one of Australia’s most accomplished winemakers and the mind behind Giant Steps’ benchmark Pinots for almost 20 years, has brought all his experience to bear here. His focus has always been on letting the vineyard shine, and that philosophy is at the heart of Decades. The wine was hand-picked, fermented with a mix of whole bunches and de-stemmed fruit, and aged in seasoned French oak to preserve its purity. The result is delicious, perfumed, and impossibly elegant—a true expression of this exceptional site.

With only 350 cartons made, the 2023 Decades Pinot Noir marks the start of what promises to be one of the most exciting new developments in Tasmanian wine. We're happy to share our small allocations with you while stocks last.

96 points
"This is a wine of whispered power, finely etched detail and sublimely supple texture. Black cherries and dried strawberries, a rippling seam of baking spices, a beguiling bass line of sweet earthiness. It’s the sinewy athleticism that really impresses here; the wine delivers plenty without ever getting paunchy. It’s alert, energetic and rolls across the palate with effortless momentum. This is not Joy Division, but Joy Multiplied."
- Nick Ryan (The Australian)