2025 The Mutant Block 750ml Bottle

At Willow Grove there are seven rows that were originally Pinot Noir, that the previous owners grafted over to Pinot Gris. The grafting wasn’t exactly textbook, and over time the block has turned into something of a genetic mash-up — vines carrying both varieties, and occasionally a single bunch containing a mix of Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris berries.
A mutant block.
 
Back in 2022 I made a wine from this fruit called Echo Red. It was popular, but I wasn’t really happy with it. in 2025 though, having learnt from that wine I was ready to make a single block wine from it again. 2025 was a warm, dry, low yielding season that produced small, dense bunches and has made expressive and powerful wines.
 
The fruit was hand harvested, left on skins overnight and then pressed to a single 225L barrique where it fermented naturally. It stayed there for eleven months, going through wild malolactic before being bottled unfined and unfiltered.
 
The resulting wine sits somewhere between a deep red rosé and dry red Pinot noir. Pale, bright red in colour with sweet red fruits, cranberry, strawberry, rose petal, blood orange and beautiful silky tannin. The wine is rich, juicy, expressive and just yum.
 
Only a single barrel was made
 
 
Profile
Variety: Pinot Noir - Pinot Gris
Region: Willow Grove, Gippsland, Victoria
Soils: Red Volcanic Ferrosols
Vintage: 2025
Fermentation: Indigenous yeast
Oak Regime: 1x seasoned French oak barrel, 11 months
Alcohol: 13.5%
Production: 264 bottles