Description
Pinot Noir can be a tricky grape in the Adelaide Hills, but Gareth’s 2023 Pinots demonstrate a rare delicacy and aromatic complexity. These are wines built on nuance rather than power, with fine tannins and lifted floral notes.
The Scary Gully Pinot Noir is a perfect example, offering ethereal red berry fruit and a savoury, mineral finish that speaks to the coolness of the vintage. The Monomeith Pinot Noir brings a touch more structure and depth, showing off the east-west vineyard’s unique microclimate. And though yields were low at Little Creek, the limited Pinot that emerged is a triumph—aromatic, powerful, and deeply expressive.
- 2023 Gentle Folk Scary Gully Pinot Noir
- 2023 Gentle Folk Monomeith Pinot Noir
- 2023 Gentle Folk Little Creek Pinot Noir
2023 Gentle Folk Scary Gully Pinot Noir
The 2023 Scary Gully Pinot Noir is all about capturing the rugged beauty of one of the highest vineyards in the Adelaide Hills. Planted back in 1984, Scary Gully sits at 620 metres and is known for producing Pinot with a wild, earthy edge. The cool, slow-growing conditions of the 2023 vintage added a bit more depth and tension to this wine, making it one of Gareth Belton’s most striking releases to date.
This Pinot is fresh and vibrant, with notes of dark berries and a subtle forest floor earthiness. The cool season has given it a fine structure and lifted perfume, while the 20% whole bunch fermentation adds a touch of complexity. Aged for 10 months in French oak (just enough new oak to add texture without overpowering the fruit), it’s a wine that balances vibrancy with just the right amount of intrigue.
With 2,454 bottles made, this is a beautiful snapshot of what Scary Gully can offer—a Pinot Noir that’s pure, fresh, and speaks to the unique character of this high-altitude vineyard. Perfect for sharing, but also worth holding onto if you can resist!
95 Points
"Peppery, herbal, lifted and grippy. A good combo of things when it strolls through a sluice of tart cherry juice and cranberry tang. Tightly coiled too, a vigorous and streamlined pinot noir, albeit it has expressive nature, a distinct personality and flair. Refreshing all up too. Detailed in its way, showing fruit, spice, savoury elements harmoniously married, though you could say the snips of whole bunch make a mark. Very good."
- Mike Bennie (The Wine Front)
2023 Gentle Folk Monomeith Pinot Noir
The 2023 Monomeith Pinot Noir comes from one of the most distinctive sites in the Adelaide Hills, tucked into its own cool valley on the top ridge of Ashton. This organically farmed vineyard, cared for by Patrick and Vienna O’Sullivan, benefits from an east-west orientation, with the vines catching the best of both the morning and afternoon sun.
With 25-year-old vines at its core, this wine is all about elegance. Expect a heady mix of violet and lilac on the nose, along with the cool minerality that’s becoming a hallmark of this part of the Hills. The wine was fermented with wild yeasts in open-top vessels, using a combination of de-stemmed berries and whole clusters to bring out the varietal’s purest expression.
Aged for 10 months in oak (20% new), it’s got the structure to develop further in the bottle, but it’s equally compelling right now.
With 2,354 bottles produced, the 2023 Monomeith Pinot Noir is a beautifully crafted, expressive wine from one of the coolest and most exciting sites in the Adelaide Hills.
95 Points
"It’s cool, it’s succulent, it’s got some slurp to it too. Purple fruits, mulberry, dark cherry, sour and tart pops of pomegranate jewels and a wash of alpine herbs and light white pepper over it all. It goes the distance, it feels svelte and coils serpent-like through the palate. A savoury undertow of brambles and earth also there. It does many, many things, and just feels right and righteous overall. Oh boy.."
- Mike Bennie (The Wine Front)
2023 Gentle Folk Little Creek Pinot Noir
The 2023 Little Creek Pinot Noir is a true survivor’s wine. Grown on a vineyard that’s notoriously tricky to manage in wet conditions, the 2023 vintage was hit hard by mildew due to the cold, damp weather. But despite the challenges, what came out of the Little Creek site is nothing short of remarkable. Only two barrels were produced, making this wine as rare as it is exceptional.
The Little Creek vineyard sits at 505 metres in Norton Summit, with vines that are now over 30 years old. The northeast and southwest-facing slopes, combined with soils rich in quartz and siltstone, give this Pinot a more delicate, perfumed edge compared to its bolder siblings. Aromatically, it’s ethereal—light, floral, and almost pixie-like—yet beneath that elegance is a subtle earthiness and savoury finish that keeps things grounded.
Fermented with 100% destemmed fruit and aged for 10 months in neutral French oak, the winemaking here is all about letting the vineyard shine. At 12.2% ABV, it’s lighter in body but rich in character, with just 921 bottles produced, making it an exclusive snapshot of the site and the season.
For lovers of refined, perfumed Pinot Noir, the 2023 Little Creek offers an enchanting, limited-time taste of a very special vineyard and a challenging year.
94 Points
"Spicy, slurpy, soft and hazy textured number at just shy of medium weight. Dark cherries, a touch of cola, cranberry, dried Italian herbs, a squish of pomegranate juice too. Red berried but with some smoky spice, earthiness and brambly characters. A sweetness builds here, it’s nicely countered by tart, blood orange acidity with a very distinct peppery overlay, a kind of clash, but in the best sense. Almost a brittle tannin profile, lively in its way. It’s good. It’s expressive and character-filled."
- Mike Bennie (The Wine Front)
Gentle Folk
Gareth Belton in one of his vineyards - Basket Range, Adelaide Hills, SA Gentle Folk
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