Log in for prices and ordering

Place of Changing Winds

“Quite Brilliant”: The new ’23 Between Two Mountains Pinot Noir
Place of Changing Winds

There’s just a single Pinot Noir released from Place of Changing Winds from the 2023 vintage, and it’s one of the most seductive this vineyard has yet produced. As Rob explains, the cool, late season meant the style and personality of the vineyard’s Beyond the Forest and High Density parcels fell a whisker short of receiving their own label. Instead, he and Rémi opted to create the best blend from the best ferments produced across the three-hectare POCW vineyard (and declassified whatever didn’t make the cut). “We only started flowering on Christmas Eve and didn’t begin harvesting until the third week of April,” says Rob. “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 POCW 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.


If you are reading this offer, there’s a good chance you are familiar with Rob’s goal to produce the greatest, most intense wines of place he can from POCW’s small, three-hectare vineyard. To achieve this aim, his team follow a system of agronomy that requires a crazy level of manual labour. To cut a long story short, the boundary-pushing level of practice here remains unique in Australia. This aromatic and intense Pinot represents another exciting chapter in this young project’s fascinating story.

The Wine

Place of Changing Winds Between Two Mountains Pinot Noir 2023

Place of Changing Winds Between Two Mountains Pinot Noir 2023

Place of Changing Winds has produced only one Pinot Noir from 2023. As Rob explains it, the cool, late season meant the style and personality of the Beyond the Forest and High Density parcels fell a whisker short of receiving their own label, so he and Rémi simply created the best blend from the best ferments produced across the three-hectare POCW vineyard (and declassified whatever didn’t make the cut). This strict selection results in a wonderfully perfumed, complex, finely structured Pinot—one of the most seductive this vineyard has produced. There is a core of sweet fruit that belies the cool, late season and speaks more to the low yields, but there is also plenty of Asian spice on the nose and palate, crystalline red fruit, high-toned florals (violet and rose) and a driven finish with plenty of fine structure for aging.

It is a gorgeous drink now if you give it plenty of air in a decanter, but it will certainly cellar well. Bottled in January 2025, whole bunches made up almost a third of the blend (bringing a lot of perfume and spice), and the wine spent 21 months maturing in a range of Stockinger casks (228, 500, 600 and 1,000 litres) and some Wineglobe glass fermenters, with only around 5% new oak.

“This is the only pinot noir from 2023 from POCW. About a third is whole bunch across all the clones and sites on the estate vineyard. The wine ends up in Stockinger barrels for 21 months. Serious approach. A very good wine. Very. Fine, tight, tense, succulent, dark cherry, sour cherry, fennel, blood orange, white pepper, game meat – a lot on, you could keep listing detail but the idea is this is complex, compelling, with everything woven beautifully together. Fruit feels bright and sweet yet just on the cusp, and so fresh, the persistence of all that superb – a touch overtly fruity for those who seek that. An elegance but with a kink of funk and interest. The x-factor we seek. And the personality of place. Stellar.”
95 points, Mike Bennie, The Wine Front
“Quite brilliant… It’s beautifully aromatic. It’s so floral, it’s fresh. Black cherries, wild strawberries. Really, kind of a little bit of grainy detail as well. Some Asian spices. The mouth feel is beautiful. It’s elegant, it’s fresh, it’s purposeful. There’s a nice sort of linear quality to the fruit but it’s not at all heavy, it’s super elegant. And under that silky, elegant, refined fruit, there’s a bit of substance. There’s some spicy detail. There’s a bit of tannin. There’s good acidity. And this will, I think, age quite well, although it’s so delicious now it’s very hard to resist. Really beautiful wine.”
Jamie Goode (@drjamiegoode)
“The 2023 Between Two Mountains Pinot Noir leads with sandalwood and clary sage, cranberry, cigar box and graphite. In the mouth, the wine is loaded with dried herbs, cold tea and wet asphalt, and it lingers long on the palate through the finish. There are also notes of rose petals and cracked pistachios. Texturally, the wine is shaped by sandy tannins that feel both pliable and supportive to the fruit. All things point toward the clarity and focus of this wine being exacerbated by another day open, be sure to give it some air. It was made with around 30% whole bunches and matured for 21 months in a range of Stockinger casks (228, 500, 600 and 1,000 liters) and Wineglobe. 12% alcohol, sealed under Diam and wax.”
93 points, Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
Place of Changing Winds Between Two Mountains Pinot Noir 2023

“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

“Rob’s passion project in the cool of the Macedon Ranges was conceived to make the best chardonnay and pinot noir he possibly could… Place of Changing Winds, not long out of its first decade, is already changing the narrative about what is possible; given another decade, who knows what riches it will reveal.”
Halliday Wine Companion, Top 100 Wineries

Other Recent Releases

  • Murdoch Hill
    Murdoch Hill
    For any and all who love brightness and tension in their glass, Michael Downer’s 2023 r...
    For any and all who love brightness and tension in their glass, Michael Downer’s 2023 releases hit the bullseye. Twenty-twenty-three was, of course...

    Read more

  • Clos de Tart
    Clos de Tart
    “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time,” said Tolstoy. This offer marks ...
    “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time,” said Tolstoy. This offer marks our 18th year representing this historic monopole Grand Cru ...

    Read more

  • Thomas Wines
    Thomas Wines
    Whisper it: the Hunter's ‘once in a lifetime’ white-wine vintage of 2013 may have compe...
    Whisper it: the Hunter's ‘once in a lifetime’ white-wine vintage of 2013 may have competition. That's Andrew Thomas's tentative assessment. Tentati...

    Read more

  • Mayacamas Vineyards
    Mayacamas Vineyards
    Where to start with Mayacamas Vineyards? How about with the words of Eric Asimov: “A le...
    Where to start with Mayacamas Vineyards? How about with the words of Eric Asimov: “A legendary purveyor of classically structured, ageworthy Napa V...

    Read more

  • Noble Rot - Issue 38
    Noble Rot - Issue 38
    “One of the few irksome things about fine wine culture–apart from its pretence, and its...
    “One of the few irksome things about fine wine culture–apart from its pretence, and its propensity for snobbery–is the sheer cost of getting throug...

    Read more

  • Garagiste
    Garagiste
    Would someone please give Barney Flanders a break? As if it’s not enough that the weath...
    Would someone please give Barney Flanders a break? As if it’s not enough that the weather has played havoc with Garagiste’s yields, Barney and Cam’...

    Read more

  • Domaine Gérard Boulay
    Domaine Gérard Boulay
    In the hands of the best growers—and there are not that many in this sparsely populated...
    In the hands of the best growers—and there are not that many in this sparsely populated but fêted Loire village—a Sancerre from Chavignol can, to p...

    Read more

  • Meadowbank
    Meadowbank
    When Gerald Ellis started planting vines on his sheep farm in 1976, conventional wisdom...
    When Gerald Ellis started planting vines on his sheep farm in 1976, conventional wisdom said you couldn’t grow grapes in the cold wilderness of sou...

    Read more

View All Offers

More Content

Read more about this producer