The Indigo Vineyard Pinot Noir 2024 is a medium-bodied Beechworth pinot noir with more perfume than heft, leaning on bright red fruit and fine, savoury tannin. Beechworth's 2024 season began with full soil moisture after a wet winter and spring, then turned warm and dry without heat spikes, and that combination shows as ripe, clearly defined fruit with the acidity still intact.

Aromatics run to red cherry, cranberry and a little rhubarb, with dried thyme and something faintly smoky sitting behind the fruit. Give it twenty minutes in the glass and a rose-petal lift comes through.

The palate is supple rather than broad, carrying sour cherry and red plum over tannins that are fine-grained and gently grippy at the edges. Acidity keeps everything moving, and the finish is dry and a touch earthy, with the fruit trailing off slowly rather than dropping away.

Roast duck with cherries is the obvious call, though this Beechworth pinot noir handles mushroom risotto, char-grilled quail or a plate of jamón and soft cheese just as happily. Serve it lightly chilled, around 15 degrees, and it will show better again.

Drinking well now and through to about 2031, with the tannin and acid structure to reward a few years in the cellar for those who prefer the savoury, forest-floor side of pinot noir.